Friday is fish!

Hello everyone and welcome to the Friday English lesson.

Something new and exciting for me is the "Read Theory" website.

I can follow all the students except Ida and Liam.

I want you to invite me to share your results today.

Please do one or two texts so that I can understand how it works.



Then as I said last time we will do a level test from the British Council.

There are 25 questions. Here is the link

Please give me your result... The % and the level

After that you have the WORDLIST and the exercise about THE RIVER to complete

Time to spare?
In the Happy Textbook check out the text
"Most interesting Pop Facts ever" on page 22-23
Write and mail me 10 questions about the text which I will answer

Otherwise,
Have a nice week-end

TREVLIG

All off to Dublin in the green

Now it is only 2 and a half weeks left before we leave for Ireland.  Today we start our lesson with a look at the updates for the Irish trip since last week.

I will give you a  document about what we are going to do on our day out (Wednesday 17th October)

Later today I will contact the school and find out how the preparations are going for us. 

I will remind the Head teacher about your contacts  etc.

After a short break we will listen to song and do some work on it

Here is the text and the exercises (you can have it on paper as well)

Here is a Youtube clip with the actual song



Remember that all the work we do is to build up your English.

By this Friday I should receive your THIRD wordlist. All of you should have done two lists.
Only half the class is there!!

The rest of the time today is to work with your words.

This Friday we will do  a level test which Ms. Walsh has recommended and you will have time to complete the Bruce Springsteen exercise and your wordlist as well as the exercises from Happy 9.

I want to be Happy!

Here is a happy clip to start off our lesson. Jazz became very popular in the 1920s and 1930s.
Ella Fitzgerald was one of the true "greats".
She lived until 1996.Her most famous song is "summertime"

You have chosen your text in Happy 9 (either B or C) and you should have read it by today.

As you have a wordlist to hand in every Friday, this must be your first priority. Get the wordlist done and share it with me.

If you chose text B "Two weeks with the Beatles" I want you to do exercises 3, 4 and 5 on pages 14 and 15 in the Workbook.

If you need more words and phrases why not read the text "Singing means everything -or does it?" on page 10 and 11 in the textbook

If you chose text C called "Watching Music"
I want you to do exercises 1-3 on page 17 in the workbook.
Time over? Try the crossword on page 18

Preliminary Planner

Until after our visit to Ireland we will spend half a lesson a week focussing on the details of the trip and the other lesson we will work on language from the Happy book.

The Wednesday lesson will concentrate on the Irish trip.




Here are some suggestions.

Tour with quiz- Centre of Dublin

Travel blog

Divided group activity in Dublin

Interviews with people

We need to check up on everything next Monday for the logistics in Dublin.

Rest of lesson

Grammar diagnosis
How did you do? The right answers!

The theme for this week's quiz is 
"Democracy and Human Rights!



The Friday lessons will concentrate on the Happy Book and language

I want you to decide today which of the texts 
B or C you are going to work on

B text- 2 weeks with the Beatles- a personal text of a boy who spent 2 weeks with the Beatles on the road

C text-Watching music- a documentary text on the birth of MTV

Read the text by Friday. Now you have a good source for this week's words!!!!

TGIF

Well, we've almost made it through week 37!
Phew!

Today we have 3 things on the agenda.

1. Wordlist
It's about time I got in some wordlists from you people.
One a week every week!
Until now I have only received a list from THREE people.

I really want you to use the digital version and share it with me. I will now explain WHY

Here is the colour coding system for correcting your list.

Spelling         Grammar               Swenglish               Excellent

If Fanny allows it we can show you what I mean

2. Diagnosis
Today we finish off testing your English skills. We have done some reading, writing, speaking, vocabulary, listening and now today we do
THE GRAMMAR

The numbers after each question refer to the topics on the last page of the diagnosis

3. Ireland
The school visit is finally shaping up.
1. A lesson in development studies
2. A double PE lesson (so have gym clothes)

3. One of the things they are planning is a
Ceili. (Ceilidh). Find out what that is!

4. They are making a special program for us.

I also need an email address that is ok to use so that you can get in contact with your school buddies.
They will be 24- so 2 each!!!


OK. Have a nice week-end and make plenty of bucks on the Farmers' Market!!!!

Today's lesson- Reading and writing

Thank you for the feed-back about the term planner.

I will sit down with your suggestions and get back to you with the new planner next week.

Today and Friday I just want to continue to assess your ability in English

A great help with all your English is EngVid
Here is an example

We won't go through everything Emma says but I want you know that there is a lot of good material on EngVid

So today I want you to spend about 15 minutes writing.

You have been asked to write something for a youth magazine about the kind of music you like the best.
You need to say when and how your interest started. Did anyone influence you in your choice? Which groups or artists do you like and when and where you listen to your music?
Don't forget to always give a short INTRODUCTION and CONCLUSION to your writing.
Three KEY WORDS
Grammar    -    Spelling    -    Layout

Reading
When we use the "Happy" books we will all read the "A" Text. Then you get to choose between the 
"B" or "C" text depending on your level of ambition.
Today- Read the text "Just sixteen" on page 7-9.
Write up any new words on your "new word list" and put them in phrases/sentences.

The first list has to be sent in or shared with me this week by Friday

Which of the teachers has a music taste which you think is ok and which one do you not like?

Planning

What does a language consist of?

These are called the four language skills?

Which one are you best at and which one do you need to improve?

To understand and use a language you need three extra tools:

1. Grammar- tells us HOW to use words and what is their FUNCTION

Examples:

run 

dog

quickly

interesting

2. Syntax tells us WHERE to put the words

Example:

Hej, sade hon.
Hi, she said

3. Realia explains that a language is more than words. It is CUSTOMS, PEOPLE and SOCIETIES.

Today's lesson is all about planning.

10 questions

1. How much will we use the text book and for what?

2. You have 25 words each week. Where can you find new words.

3. Speaking- Should we have a speaking exercise every lesson or every week?

4. Listening- Check out Randall's ESL lab
What level are you at (East, medium, hard)

5. Reading- all of you must invite me to join Read theory
My address is michael.hegarty@exceleducation.se

6. Writing- Do you prefer shorter writing assignments OFTEN or longer writing assignments less often?

7. How much time do we need to spend on grammar and where do we get our sources (internet or textbook)?

8. How much time do we need to work on spelling etc?

9. How will we work with REALIA? (themes, projects etc). We need to do at least 2 projects per term.

10. How do we work with literature. We WILL read a book. But, which book and how?

Please send in your thoughts (tankar) on a document to me.

Based on what you have written I will plan  the course for HT-18

Words up!

Today we are going to start by distributing the textbooks and workbooks for Happy 9.
The textbook is one of our sources of words for this year. 
The texts are divided into themes and can help you to improve your vocabulary.
Make sure that the textbooks are covered by next week.

Write your names in the workbook. Make sure you ALWAYS have all your materials with you when you come to class.

 Every Wednesday you should send in or share a wordlist with me. 
The link to the document is on the right side of the blog.
Download the document and save it in your English folder.
Write the words for the week and either send them or EVEN BETTER share them with me.

The first theme is  "Let's talk pop"
As we are concentrating on words today here is a clip from a pop group called the Bee Gees. The title of the song is "Words"



Are there any new words in the song?
If there are then write them down and put them in a sentence or phrase.

Now let's talk a bit about music.
You will get 10 questions each to ask your neighbour. Write down any new words that turn up.

Finally let's look at the first text in the textbook.
We can listen to it and follow in the book.

Again write down any new words on your word list!

Finally today I want one of you to invite me in to join your read theory group. There should be a link at the top to "My teachers"- according to Ms Walsh.

HOMEWORK- Wordlist by next Wednesday