A Taste of My Students´ Oral Exams

Here is an example of the oral exam that Noé prepared when I suggested the topic for the third term - click here to read my suggestions

 

Noé, thanks for sharing the video

A Monologue About Yourself

Here´s one of the options for your oral exam for the third term: record a monologue about you; the video below, A Conversation With My 12-Year-Old Self,  may be useful to get some ideas.

You need to reflect on your life: your past, your present and your future:

• Past: memories (focus on the positive ones) and moments that were a turning point - or just special for you-  in your biography

• Present: your school life, your friends, hobbies, extracurricular activities

• Future: expectations: what do you think your life will be like in 10 years´time? what are your plans for your future?

Requirements: 

• the video must be 4-7 minutes long

• you must write the text (I will help you with grammar, vocabulary and expression) and make sure both pronunciation and intonation are OK. Thus, you may need/want  to use either a pronunciation tool or a text-to-speech tool (Voz Me is one of them but there are many others you may choose from the list in My Delicious Bookmarks) 

• when you record the video, you may read the text but you will need to rehearse quite a few times before the recording, reading it in front of a mirror so that it will sound and look natural

• send me the video when it is ready: dateline June 10th

Left- handers

Let´s learn a thing about left-handedness; common questions about left-handedness:

When you watch the following video, you will understand why it is hard to be a lefty - the world isn´t designed for lefties.

Ten curious facts about being a left-hander

Visual Vocabulary: To Crush

Dear 1º BAC students,

this morning we defined the verb "crush" in class; just in case you did not get its meaning, have a look at this video called "Crushed Car Prank": imagine someone asked you to watch his / her car for a few minutes and you witnessed it being crushed into a cube…

It turned out to be a hidden camera prank

Natural Disaster: Flash Flood

Dear 1º BAC students,

we talked about natural disasters in class last week. Click here  (Espresso English) to check the pronunciation and definition of some of the nouns we learnt

Here is a video of a "flash flood" (define this to yourselves before you watch the video - this will help you remember the vocabulary we used in our lessons). David Rankin filmed this on July 18th 2013.This is how he describes his video :

This flash flood is the result of close to 3″ of rain that fell approximately 40 miles North of the location in the video. This was filmed about 6+ hours after the heavy rainfall. So if you’ve ever wondered why it’s called a Flash Flood now you know

If you want to read a little bit more about natural disasters, go to Larry Ferlazzo´s blog: click here

Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

Test Schedule First Term 2013-14

TESTS FIRST TERM

1ºBAC, GROUPS “A” & “F”

	October	November	December
Grammar / Vocabulary / Writing / Reading Comprehension	Friday 25th	Friday 29th
Listening	Friday 18th		Friday 13th
Compulsory reading: Dancing with Strangers	Stories 1 & 2:  Monday 28th	Stories 3 &4:  Monday 18th WRITTEN TEST: Friday 22nd
Oral			Starting on 2nd  December

1ºBAC, GROUP “B”

	October	November	December
Grammar / Vocabulary / Writing / Reading Comprehension	Thursday 24th	Thursday 28th
Listening	Thursday 17th		Thursday 12th
Compulsory reading: Dancing with Strangers	Stories 1 & 2:  Tuesday 29th	Stories 3 & 4:  Tuesday 19th WRITTEN TEST: Thursday 21st
Oral			Starting  on 3rd  December

2º BAC, GROUPS "B" &"F"

	October	November	December
UEE	Tuesday 29th		Tuesday 3rd
Listening		Thursday 7th	Thursday 5th
Grammar & Vocabulary		Thursday 28th
Compulsory Reading: Speak (novel)	Tuesday 22nd: 1st Marking Period	Tuesday, 19th: 2nd Marking Period Thursday 21st: WRITTEN TEST
Oral		Starting on November  5th

                        

And, finally, a message for teachers and students from Kid President (turn captions on; he speaks too fast)

Moon Landing: A Hoax?

This post is for my 1ºBAC students, in relation to the reading text of unit 8 in their course book, Top Marks 1: The Great Moon Hoax 

S G Collins is a writer as well as the director of a creative company, Postwar Media. In this video, Collins attacks the moon landing hoax using very different arguments from those in our course book - based mainly on photographic evidence. S.G. Collins proves that faking the moon landing was technologically impossible in 1969 because right then we had the technology to send people to the moon and bring them back safely, but the technology to fake it didn´t exist. 

Click here to read about Collin´s arguments to make this video

A Gathering of Bald Men

A Gathering of Bald Men, the short story you have been reading, tells us about Caleb and his plan to commit suicide - being bald is, to some extent, the reason why he wants to do it. 

Watch this video to understand why people - specially men - go bald; the video is called "The Science of Hair Loss" or "Balding" (click on CC to get its subtitles in English)

Child Soldiers

Here´s a video that will help you to understand the story Remember Atita better. In the documentary Out of the Shadow of War, three girls describe their traumatic experiences of being abducted by rebels and forced to be child soldiers in Liberia during the civil war.

The organization that helps these children is called "Plan International." It works with children and communities in fifty of the world´s poorest countries to help them realize their full potential. 

Tips for Your Oral Presentations

Dear 1st BAC students,

have a look at these presentations. I´m sure you will get some very useful ideas for your oral presentations in the last school term.

Great Presentations Are Like Ads by @slidecomet from Slide Comet

What Would Steve Do? 10 Lessons from the World's Most Captivating Presenters from HubSpot All-in-one Marketing Software

Palestine

Cristina G. F´s oral exam this morning was a description of a photograph taken in Palestine (click here to see it) : she showed us a map of the region and told us about the current war so I thought it would be a good occasion to learn about the conflicts in the area. I hope the following videos will help you to get an idea of what things are like over there.

The first video is called Middle East Peace, The Real Story, by Avaaz. It may be too difficult for you to follow, that´s why I recommend you to watch it in Spanish first (click here to get the link) and then watch the version in English for some listening practice

The second video is called This Land is Mine, it´s an animated story of Palestine. Its creator is animator Nina Paley - you should click here to understand who kills who in the video ( i.e. in the history of the country)

This Land Is Mine from Nina Paley on Vimeo

As for the third video, it is about a project called The Israeli Palestinian Blood Donation Project. Read about it first: 

In June 2010 creative minds from all over the world were invited to present ideas that would bring Israelis and Palestinians closer together. Saatchi & Saatchi Israel launched the ‘Impossible Brief,’ which led to Blood Relations - a joint Israeli-Palestinian blood donation in Tel Aviv. Israeli and Palestinian members of the Parents Circle Families Forum (PCFF), an organisation for parents from both sides of the conflict who had lost family members, came together to give blood as a symbolic act of healing. An Israeli Blood bank and an Islamic hospital agreed to accept both the Israeli and Palestinian blood donations.

The big question behind their project was this: Could you hurt someone with your blood running through their veins? 

Optional comment / opinion essay: What do you think about the project in general and the question above - and the idea behind the question, obviously?

Arranged Marriages

Dear 1º BAC students,

now that you have read the story "Ekaterina" and we have talked about arranged marriages in class, let me share with you a video that will certainly impact you - to say the least. It is called "Too Young to Wed;" two women, a writer and a photographer, speak about their experience while investigating arranged child marriages. It is a disturbing video because, as you will see, some of the girls are really young (one of them is 5 years old!). 

This is certainly food for thought.

A Viral Photo

Dear "1º BAC" students, 

since you will have to describe a photo to your classmates for the oral exam in the second term, let me show you this photograph which became viral the moment it was published in A Classic Pin-Up´s Facebook some days ago.

If this is the first time you see this photo, try to find out what it is and explain to yourself what you are actually seeing. The following vocabulary will help you:

* grab

* womb

* C-section = Caesarean section

* reach

And this is what it is (the explanation you can read in the Facebook page I mentioned above): 

This was 10 weeks ago when I was having my C-section and Dr. Sawyer broke my water and my daughter reached out of my stomach and grabbed the Dr.´s finger and my hubby (=affectionate way of referring to one´s "husband") caught this special moment.

Do you know the name of the baby? She is called "Nevaeh"(="heaven" backwards)

Why don´t you show the photo to your family and friends? I bet there will be lots of different comments, pay attention to the adjectives they use and make a mental list of them - you can share both the comments and the adjectives with all of us afterwards. 

Describing Yourself

Recently, we have been talking about describing people: the kind of things you should focus on and the type of language you should use.

Click here to see an original way of describing oneself; you can be this original when you are a designer, like Mr Will Vincent. 

If you need or want to practise the vocabulary or constructions to describe people (appearance, personality or interests), click here.

What Type of Learner Are You?

In our first lesson in 1º BAC this year we have been reading about Dr. Howard Gardner´s theory of 8 multiple intelligences; do you remember the intelligences he refers to?: 

• linguistic / verbal : good with words, with spoken and written language; it involves the ability to learn languages.

• logical / mathematical: good with math and logic; it involves being able to analyze problems logically, to carry out mathematical operations

• musical: good with rhythm; it involves skill in the performance, composition and appreciation of musical patterns

• bodily / kinesthetic: good with activities - using one´s whole body or parts of it to solve problems

• spatial: good with pictures - recognizing and using the patterns of open spaces and confined areas

• interpersonal: good with communication - understanding the desires, motivations and intentions of other people

• intrapersonal: good at analyzing things - understanding oneself, one´s fears, feelings and motivations

• naturalist: they enjoy interacting with nature

Do you know what intelligences are strongest for you? If you don´t, this quiz  or this one may help you. Remember Dr. Gardner thinks people use more than one type of intelligence 

Once you have found out the types of intelligences that work better for you, click here to see (and do) some activities classified according to the different types of intelligences.

Infographic: original source: OnlineCollege.org

What kind of jobs would you associate with the different types of intelligences? Continue the list: 

• linguistic: writers, lawyers, speakers...
• mathematical: scientists, computer programmers, chess players...
• musical: musicians, singers, conductors...
• spatial: artists, designers, architects...
• kinesthetic: athletes, actors, dancers, soldiers...
• intrapersonal: psychologists, counselors, philosophers...
• interpersonal: teachers, politicians, social workers...
• naturalist: farmers, naturalists...

A Speaking Activity

I got this idea from an excellent blog called Life Feast. This is its suggestion for the speaking activity that we did in class.

This video is 6 minutes long and the idea id to keep students engaged into speaking -and communicating so the listener needs to pay attention; this is how it goes:

• play the video with no sound
• students get into pairs or trios
• one/two students face the screen and the other one has his/her back to it
• The student(s) facing the screen describes what is happening with as many details as possible
• after 3 minutes the students swap places
• they do the same for the rest of the video
• at the end, we can play the video with sound to the class, if the students want to watch it.

This vocabulary is very useful:

You can practise alone at home doing exactly the same that we did in class: describe everything that happens as it happens, but remember to say it aloud, to actually "mouth" it, otherwise it is not good as a speaking activity (when we revise things in our minds, silently, in another language, we are all experts, everything comes out just fine)

Vocabulary Learning

Dear 1º BAC students, this video will bring you some memories of your trip to Italy last month and it will help you to learn some vocabulary:

• the name of the monument in the video - The Leaning Tower of Pisa
• the name of a popular greeting,"high five"
• the meaning of the word "troll" from the title of the video

 

Stereotypes

Since we have been talking about Africa ("Remember Atita") in our 1st BAC classes this week, I remembered a lovely video I posted some time ago called Alex Loves Action Films. It was done by an organization called Mama Hope, whose logo is "Stop the Pity. Unlock the Potential." Click on the link to get an idea of their work.

The video below, which is a reaction against Hollywood stereotypes of African men, is presented this way: 

After viewing Mama Hope's video, "Alex Presents Commando," Gabriel, Benard, Brian and Derrik (the Kenyan men in this video) told us they wanted to make one that pokes fun at the way African men are portrayed in Hollywood films. They said, "If people believed only what they saw in movies, they would think we are all warlords who love violence." They, like Mama Hope, are tired of the over-sensationalized, one-dimensional depictions of African men and the white savior messaging that permeates our media. They wanted to tell their own stories instead, so we handed them the mic and they made this video. 

The video is also a good opportunity to listen to English spoken with an African accent. I hope you will enjoy the video and get the irony of the message.