Monday week 49

Almost Christmas and loads of work to do.

Today during lesson we listened to a talk about the Vietnam war which of course was interesting. Afterwards we talked a little about imagery in literature because that is what we studied in a speech by Barack Obama last week.

Todays lesson was visited by many of the studenst and some of them had catching up job to do so that was what they did the rest of the lesson.

We will not meet again until Thursday 10 December so I also handed out some homework for them to do until then. They are supposed to study two poems by John Donne.

And next time we meet there will be a little test for them, as well.

Thursday week 47

Obama Gives Back-To-School Pep Talk

As American schoolchildren filed back into classrooms for the start of the new year, they were met with a stern pep talk from their President. The future of the country depends on you, Barack Obama told them, in a video message shown across the nation.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/video/Obama-Gives-Back-To-School-Pep-Talk-Pupils-Classrooms-Across-US-Watch-Presidents-Education-Message/Video/200909215377505?lid=VIDEO_15377505_ObamaGivesBack-To-SchoolPepTalk:PupilsClassroomsAcrossUSWatchPresidentsEducationMessage&lpos=searchresults

During lesson Thursday morning you are all supposed to work with this talk. Classroom will be open but you may choose a place of your own.

1. Listen and fill in the missing words in the text (handed out during lesson).

2. Write a few sentences about your immediate thoughts around this talk. How does it correspond to American patriotism?

3. Would a similar speech by the Swedish Prime Minister be possible? Why? Why not?

4. Send your answers to this blog as a comment

5. You may also react to what your class mates are saying about the topic.

Week 46, Thursday

Many interesting presentations this lesson. Everybody did well and we really had a good discussion.

We started by listening to the News film by Alex, Mattias and Oliver. A very inventive and fun film I must say.

Then a group of students presented what they considered to be the most important American throughout history and the audience agreed with the boys presenting Abraham Lincoln. They all thought he was the most important American because he abolished slavery and united the country.

Abraham Lincoln was also presented as a hero along with Nelson Mandela but it was hard to decide who was most heroioc so the we decided they were both great heroes.

Finally we listened to a discussion about the necessity of the atomic bomb.

Next lesson, on Monday, there will be discussions about health care systems and patriotism.

Week 43 Thursday

To sum up last lesson I took part in lectures about ICT and different ways of communication on the Internet which was interesting and maybe useful as well. This resulted in me signing up on facebook and a group called Soltorgsgymnasiet. I havent found any friends yet, though.

Last lesson was also designed for the students to work on their own with the new assignment and the handout about word formation and formal language. But it turned out today that not everybody had done what they should have done, nevertheless I handed out the key to the tasks and the assignment has to be presented November 12.

And today we should have listened to the news but two of the news presenters did not come to lesson so there was no news today. The group has to present the news after their holidays instead.

I very much enjoyed listening to the boys talking about the novels they had read for today. They had all read and thought about them and I think they liked the books as well.

week 43 to 46

Week 43
Monday: No lesson, work with your new assignment + more phrasal verbs + word building
Thursday: News Spotlight (Alex, Oliver, Mattias), Seminar: (Per, Joakim, Anders, David, Jonas), project work

Week 44 No lessons

Week 45
Monday: Listen to Mattias Klum
Thursday: News Spotlight (Nick, Mohammad, Emil A), Project work

Week 46
Monday: Seminar (Maja, Emil, Mohammad), project work
Thursday: project presentation

Week 42 Thursday

A nice lesson today. Everybody worked hard!

We started off with some news from the English speaking world. And continued with a little group discussion or rather information about the articles the students read last lesson and everybody seemed to have read and understood the articles although some of the texts must have been difficult for them.

After a while I handed out a new exercise om word formation and phrasal verbs which everybody grabbed and started working with immediately. Good!

By the end of the lesson I informed them about their new assignment and handed out information about it. I think I will try to add that information to this message as well:

What is happening in The US today and why?
Very often people read to inform themselves, to see what is happening in a specific field or to learn about a special area. Maybe they are going to attend a conference or take part in a symposium. Those are times when you need both hard facts and a background.
This is what will happen to you on November 12th. You will then take part in a press conference, a panel discussion or an interview concerning US of today.
In order to be able to take part you need to get into your topic a bit deeper. First you should study pages 37-58 in your textbook. Then you can read articles, listen to news, go to the library, ( ask the librarian for help to find books). The Internet is, of course, a great source of information. Another way of finding information is to ask people e.g. your teachers (History and English) and parents.

TOPICS
1. The Vietnam war
The Vietnam war was the most important war for The US. Why? Why not?.
2. The atomic bomb
The atomic bomb was necessary to the US. Why? Why not?
3. Important Americans
The most important American through history according to you.
4. Heroes
American heroes throughout history. Find them and present the most heroic.
5. Patriotism
“And so, my fellow Americans. . .ask not what your country can do for you. . .ask what you can do for your country.” Said JFK in his Inaugural Address. Is patriotism in The US necessary? Why? Why not?
6. US and the world. Americas interference in world politics (Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Afghanistan etc..)
7. Social care
US is “No country for sick men” according to Newsweek. Do you agree or not?

Plan:

Week 43
Monday: No lesson, work with your new assignment + more phrasal verbs + word building
Thursday: News Spotlight (Alex, Oliver, Mattias), Seminar: (Per, Joakim, Anders, David, Jonas), project work

Week 44 No lessons

Week 45
Monday: Listen to Mattias Klum
Thursday: News Spotlight (Nick, Mohammad, Emil A), Project work

Week 46
Monday: Seminar (Maja, Emil, Mohammad), project work
Thursday: project presentation
GOOD LUCK!!

Asssignment week 42

What is happening in The US today and why?

Very often people read to inform themselves, to see what is happening in a specific field or to learn about a special area. Maybe they are going to attend a conference or take part in a symposium. Those are times when you need both hard facts and a background.

This is what will happen to you on November 12th. You will then take part in a press conference, a panel discussion or an interview concerning US of today.

In order to be able to take part you need to get into your topic a bit deeper. First you should study pages 37-58 in your textbook. Then you can read articles, listen to news, go to the library, ( ask the librarian for help to find books). The Internet is, of course, a great source of information. Another way of finding information is to ask people e.g. your teachers (History and English) and parents.


TOPICS

1. The Vietnam war
The Vietnam war was the most important war for The US. Why? Why not?.

2. The atomic bomb
The atomic bomb was necessary to the US. Why? Why not?

3. Important Americans
The most important American through history according to you.

4. Heroes
American heroes throughout history. Find them and present the most heroic.

5. Patriotism
“And so, my fellow Americans. . .ask not what your country can do for you. . .ask what you can do for your country.” Said JFK in his Inaugural Address. Is patriotism in The US necessary? Why? Why not?

6. US and the world. Americas interference in world politics (Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Afghanistan etc..)

7. Social care
US is “No country for sick men” according to Newsweek. Do you agree or not?

Week 42 Monday

Lesson 12

Some lessons have passed with no comments. But today was summing up of this unit in the textbook. Most of the students were done and ready to present their mini project on Thursday. I am excited to see what they have achieved.

Today I also gave out a reading task. They were all asked to read an article in Newsweek and be prepared to retell it om Thursday. I hope they understood that.

Then I listened to three students talking about the novels they have studied and that was very interesting. they were good at talking about literature.

Week 40 Thursday

Quite fun today with loads of discussions in groups.

First we listened to some interesting pieces of news of the week. We were told about, among other things, lack of discipline in English schools, cyber criminals, prisoners getting drunk on alco gel, tsunamis, train accidents and a Harry Potter Park.

Secondly the students had a discussion in smaller groups about offensive or shocking lifestyles which turned out to be an intersesting talking exercise. They are extremely good att expressing themselves!

Unfortunately, I forgot about the research project I want them to do so I had to inform them very quickly by the very end of the lesson. Anyway, we decided it was good to have the project presented on Thursday October 15, week 42. We also decided that the students could choose their own way of presentation, orally or in writing. The length of the written essay should be about 500 words and the spoken presentation should last for about three minutes.

Week 40 Monday

Good to see the group again.

Another test of words and everybody worked hard but it took some time: and I don´t think we can spend so much time during lessons to test words. Everybody ought to take their own responsibility for learning words.

Today was the start of a new chapter and we listened to the new etxt from Falling Leaves together. The novel is great and I hope the extract was enjoyable as well. Afterwards the students worked with the exercises to the etxt and on Thursday we are going to talk about it.

We had a good news presentation and the boys had really found some spectacular pieces of news which the rest of the group seemed to like. They speek good English as well!

Week 39 Thursday

No lesson!
I have to go to Gothenburg for further education at the book fair.

You ( students of my group) have to do your word work at home and I will test you on Monday week 40. Remember to bring your wordlists!

In addition you have to read some 30 pages in your novels.

Moreover, the news group will be asked to present the news of the week on Monday 28 instead of Thursday 24.

LESSON 8, Thursday week 38

Today we have been talking! And we had some news as well!

Unfortunately there was no time for working with the words as I promised last time, nevertheless I hope the students enjoyed the talking exercise.

Monday is a day off for the students as the staff will get some further education. As the students seem to like hard work I asked everybody to finish the exercise, with words, at home so that I can ask them on the words on Thursday. They have to bring their own wordlists though.

Word work:
Pick 20-30 words (that you don´t already know) from one of the texts handed out last week:
1) Try to find synonyms to at least five of them
2) Try to find antonyms to at least five of them
3) Try to explain at least five of them in English
4) Try to put the rest of your words into sentences that you link together to make up a good story.

LESSON 7, Monday week 38

Today we started with some euphemisms about the words toilett and die. Then the students were presented with ten different euphemisms that they were supposed to find suitable words for ( on a handout). It was not as easy as I thought it was, but the class seemed to manage very well.

Secondly, on page 16 in our textbook there is a language exercise about phrasal words that we carried on with. Almost everybody finished that one during our lesson and once they were done they continued with the texts handed out last week. The students are supposed to read at least one of them and also answer the questions to the text. Some of them worked with both the texts.

Next task during our lesson was word work. Everybody was asked to pick 20-30 words (that they didn´t already know) from one of the texts and:
1) Try to find synonyms to at least five of them
2) Try to find antonyms to at least five of them
3) Try to explain at least five of them in English
4) Try to put the rest of your words into sentences that you link together to make up a good story.

It turned out to be a nice and cosy lesson and we decided to have a speaking exercise next time we meet. I also promised they would get some more time to work with the words.

LESSON 6, Thursday week 37

Again a terrific lesson!

We started with a linking words exercise, which proved to be more difficult than planned. Anyway the students were great!

Of course I had made a written wordtest for them. It took some time but the class worked hard and I could see that most of them had actually done their homework.

When that was done we corrected the handout about the swenglish expressions and then I gave them two different reading comprehensions, one from högskoleprovet and one from a CAE test. I also informed about the Cambridge certificates and in addition I handed out information from Folkuniversitetet about the tests. (Se länklistan Cambridgeexamina)

Unfortunately there was no news spotlight today as on of the group members were ill but the others promissed to give the news on Monday next week instead.

Exercise Linking words:

Make a story

Work in pairs and link the following sentences, in any order you like, in order to get a two or three sentence paragraph. Use the linking words from your handout!

• Now that you have practised linking words you should be able to use them in a text of your own. As we have not met before I would very much like to know who you are.
• Make a written presentation of yourself in two different ways.
• The first one should be more informal and written to someone your own age that you do not know yet.
• The other presentation should be written in a more formal style. You could imagine that it could be sent to your future employer or maybe to the president of the United States or the Queen of England.
• Remember to use as many of the linking words above as possible.
• You may use a computer, if you have one or you can use handwriting. But remember to make your presentations as attractive as possible.

LESSON 5, Monday week 37

Monday afternoon and English lesson.

First we listened to the first listening comprehension in our textbooks. To start with we tried to guess what it would be about as the heading didn´t say much. The students were very good att guessing and some of them actually got the right idea about it.

In order to get the correct answers to the questions in the book we also tried to guess the answer to them before listening. It is an exellent listening strategy since it makes you more curious of the text and furthermore you focus better.

By the end of the lesson I brought in some extra material that the students worked with. During that work others coul catch up with the course. They study contemporary novels at the moment and I handed out some guestions to answer while reading.

For next lesson there is homework with words. They may learn as many words as they want from the glossary to the text. On Thursday I will ask for some explanations, some synonyms and some translations.

LESSON 4, Thursday week 36

We listened to the text Bill Sprocket´s Land. It is a long but interesting text.

Talked about the correct answers to the handout ”linking words” . Hopefully everybody will use linking words from now on.

I presented a couple of contemporary novels which I find suitable for this course.

The class asked about the presentation of the novel and I have to remember to tell them on Monday. Furthermore I have to remember that they are supposed to sign list for the books they have borrowed

Moreover we need to talk about tests and more advanced tests as Högskoleprovet and the CAE certificate.

The Two minute Talk in groups (from the textbook pp 14, 15) was good and I could hear a lot of well-spoken English from the students. More short talks like this will is needed. We decided upon the project " News Spotlight" . The students formed groups for their presentation and we also made a schedule.

Lesson 3

•Finish the task on the handout ”Linking words”

•Read the text Bill Sprocket´s land in your textbook pp8-13

•Work with exercises A and B on p 14

•Learn a suitable number of words from the wordlist on page 200. Be able to explain some of them in English and find synonyms to some of them

•Next time we meet we will talk about the correct answers to the exercises and the handout