Whether / If

[Infographic provided by Grammar.net]

Sophie´s World, the Movie

Sophie´s World  is a book written by a Norwegian philosophy teacher called Jostein Gardner; it presents philosophical ideas and the history of philosophy in the form of a story, from ancient Greece, over the Roman empire, the Middle ages, the renaissance, the enlightenment, the big revolutions and up to today. 

I think this book is a must for all BAC students so here you are:

Sophie´s World, free pdf in English, click here

El mundo de Sofía, free pdf (in Spanish), click here

And here is the film - original version in Norwegian with subtitles in English. 

I would read the book first and watch the film afterwards, but that is just a suggestion...

Linking words

I hope this video lesson  - together with our classwork - will improve your knowledge about the use of connectors

Who vs. Whom

Let´s see if this infographic helps you  understand the difference between the relative pronouns who and whom

[Infographic provided by Grammar.net]

School Year 2013-14: Homework Assignment 5

You remember the difference between adjectives ending in -ing and adjectives ending in -ed, don´t you? Click here for a funny revision

Make Use Of is an online technology magazine with lots of great tips and ideas. Here is one that I have decided to use as homework for you; the idea is so well explained that I will just copy and paste it below (even the photo is theirs!)

This Week’s Question…

We want to know, What’s The Most Embarrassing Email or Text You’ve Ever Sent?  We want to hear all of the juicy details of a miscommunication that led to embarrassment for you.

The more detail you provide the better. We want to know:

• who you were sending the text, email, or update to
• what it was meant to say
• what it actually said 
• what their reaction was
• how you managed to explain away your error and apologize for it. 

For our part we promise not to judge too harshly, though we cannot promise not to laugh a little at your misfortune.

Feel free to send your comment to the magazine, if you want to, but make sure you send me a copy of the link so that you will get extra-credit for the homework. If you do send the comment to them, here is what they offer:

All comments will be digested to form conclusions in a follow-up post next week where we will detail the We Ask You Results. One reader will be chosen for the coveted Comment Of The Week, getting their name up in lights, the respect of other readers, and a T-shirt chosen from those available through MakeUseOf Rewards. What more motivation than that do you need to respond?

Good luck!

School Year 2013-14: Homework Assignment 1

Watch the video and answer the questions below.

 

Questions:

1. What is this video about?
2. Do you think such a phone is a good idea? Why? / Why not? (make a list of pros and cons before you write your answer)
3. Design a "phoneblok" for you: what parts would it have? (what do you mainly  use your phone for?)
4. What happens to old phones? What do you usually do them? (what have you done so far?)

We will talk about these issues in class, so be ready to have an answer to these questions.

Click here if you want to learn more about Phonebloks.

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)

Optional Homework: Essay

Do you have helicopter parents? The Learning Network of the New York Times  would like to know your opinion. Click on the link and have a look at what other teenagers have said about it; you can either send them your comment online  (do send me the link, if you do) or write an essay for me. Whatever you do, read the article and the comments first.

Conditional Practice

Choose one of the images below and either answer its question or explain its message; make sure you use the correct verb tenses.

Think of an original answer and make sure your explanation is long enough to be easily understood. Start your answer with the first part of the conditional sentence: If I .....

Linking Words

You all know the importance of linking words (= connectors) mainly for writing but, just in case, here´s a video to remind you of it

Click  here to be linked to a list of resources related to this topic

Formal-letter writing

Letter-writing practice is one of those topics most students do not like because they find it meaningless; they think they will never need to write a letter, especially a formal one, so why bother to learn how to do it?

Let me see if I can find some reasons why you should learn how to write a formal letter:

• Imagine you become the president of our country and you need to write to the president of a country where English is the official language, you want to do it correctly so as not to embarrass your fellow citizens, don´t you? You do not want to do what François Hollande, current President of France, did when he wrote to congratulate President Barack Obama: he signed off with "Friendly" but he should have finished with a more suitable phrase such as "Best wishes" or "Your friend" (from friend to friend) or a more formal one like "Sincerely" or "Yours faithfully," someone should have told him "Friendly" is never used to close a letter since it is an adjective

    

If you want to see some other letter closings or e-mail goodbyes, click here.

• formal letter writing is an ability native speakers of English learn at a very early age and they practise quite often: here is one example of one kid applying for a job: 

Here´s another example: a 3-year-old kid wrote to Sainbury´s , a famous store in the UK, suggesting a name change for a type of bread. He got this formal letter on the right for an answer.

• what if you become the president of the homeowner´s association in your building? Imagine there is a problem with one of your neighbors and you must let him know what you think; instead of a direct confrontation, writing a letter might help to make things clear -especially if that neighbour is someone important or popular, like Andy Warhol.

• formal-letter writing seems to be useful even to get dates, so you shouldn´t underestimate their importance...

For "serious" advice on how to write a formal letter, click here or here or watch the following video (IELTS =International English Language Testing System): 

For examples of all sorts of letters, have a look at Letters of Note; it is a kind of blog where they show "fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos," that´s how they describe the letters and I totally agree: some of them are just fascinating.

Funny commercial - Punctuation Practice

This is a commercial for a Norwegian bank and its message is: some people (a few) are lucky in life; for others (a lot), saving up is the smart thing to do.

In the commercial, a woman wakes up -after a wild night-  and finds out she is a newlywed whose husband turns out to be George Clooney. 

Here´s an activity to practise punctuation: 

Watch the video to see how much you understand, then play the video again while you read the transcript below. I have not included any punctuation marks, only capital letters at the beginning of the sentences to help you a little bit; your task is to include the missing punctuation signs - paying attention to the speaker´s intonation will help: 

George Clooney finally getting married He said hed never Well we just found a new video of the star and hes definitely getting hitched but only in Norway

How would you like to wake up from a wild night to find out you just married George Clooney In this commercial for a Norwegian bank this girls that lucky

The message in the ad some people are lucky in life for the rest of us saving up can be smart

And this is one smart ad too bad they don't have commercial like that in the US

This is my suggestion: 

George Clooney finally getting married? He said he´d never! Well, we just found a new video of the star, and he´s definitely getting hitched - but only in Norway.

How would you like to wake up from a wild night to find out you just married George Clooney? 

In this commercial for a Norwegian bank, this girl´s that lucky.

The message in the ad: some people are lucky in life; for the rest of us, saving up can be smart.

And that is one smart ad. Too bad they don´t have commercials like that in the US.