Caption Contest

Would you like to win a t-shirt? Make Use Of, the online technology magazine,  is giving away one to the writer of the best caption for this cartoon; here is what you have to do:

Got a caption? Give us what you’ve got! Submit your captions in the comments section — we’ll pick the best one and award a free t-shirt! How hard can it be?

Click here to be linked to the comment section so that you can write your caption.

You will let me know if you win, won´t you?

Student Contest: Write a Rap About the News of 2013

Every year Flocabulary :The Week in Rap partners with the New York Times Learning Network for the "Year in Rap" contest: students have a chance to write their own raps about major events in 2013. The deadline is January 7, 2014

The Contest Rules: Write Your Own ‘Year in Rap’:

1. The rap should be 12 to 16 lines long.

2. Students should choose at least four important New York Times stories from one of the news categories listed below.

It’s fine to focus on a smaller topic found within a section in The Times. For example, you can write a rap based on just the government shutdown rather than the whole range of national or political news this year. Or, you might focus on 2013 movies rather than covering other news from the Arts section. But you should also feel free to include as many, and as wide a range, of news stories from a particular section as you like. (More about narrowing your choices can be found in this section of the lesson plan.)

Here are the sections from which you can choose:

• World
• U.S.
• Business
• Technology
• Science
• Health
• Sports
• Arts
• Fashion
• Obituaries (from 2013 only)

3. The rap should be original and must follow Learning Network commenting standards, which means no profanity or vulgar language.

4. Submissions must be from students from 13 to 19 years old. (Update:Students can come from anywhere in the world.) No last names please, but an initial is fine, as is a school or class code of some type. (For example, “Ethan G. CHS112.”)

5. Submissions are allowed from partners and teams as well as from individuals — just remember to submit all of your names when you post your rhyme. (This year we’ll judge all entries the same.)

6. One submission per student, please. If you’re submitting as part of a team, you should not also submit as an individual.

7. Raps must be submitted as comments on this post by 5 p.m. Eastern time on Jan. 7. If you have questions about the contest, please feel free to post them in the comments section as well, and we’ll answer you there.

8. The top five raps, as judged by The Times and Flocabulary staff using this rubric, will be featured on both The Learning Network and Flocabulary.com.

Because of privacy rules that apply to students under 18, we are asking foronly your lyrics. While we love YouTube videos of young rappers as much as anyone, please don’t post links to them here.

9. Want inspiration? Here are the winners from 2012 and from 2011. Can you top them?

School Year 2013-13: Homework Assignment 2

This video is called"Girl Quits Job by  Making Dance Video At Work"; explicit title, isn´t it?

This is what you have to do:

1. Watch the video and make sure you understand the messages that pop up
2. Answer these questions (do it mentally; you needn´t write them down!) in relation to what you see and read in the video: who, where, when, what, why? If you can´t, watch the video again focusing on the answers you haven´t been able to answer yet
3. Imagine you are the girl in the video and I am a friend of yours: write an email to me. Include the following information:

• tell me what you have just done (include the details mentioned in the video)
• let me know how you felt after you posted the video on the internet
• explain how you feel now that your video has gone viral

Remember: use your own words, don´t copy the messages from the video




This assignment is due October, Friday 11th.

Good luck!

By the way, this is a video from the internet; we are used to watching videos that seem to be true and turn out to be fake...what is the truth about this one? (who knows?)

2nd part of this story: Click here

How to Write on Social Platforms

Do you use social networks? (or should I ask, Do you use social networks a lot?)

Here are some tips on how to write on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google +: do you do any of the suggestions mentioned here? why (not)? Are there any tips  you like and mean to follow in the future? why would you do so?

Social Media Perfect Posts Infographic is an infographic that was produced by mycleveragency

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.

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.

Spot the Differences

The duo called Rett and Link  (who call themselves "internetainers," guess why) have created this video for their song Sleep Tight : two apparently similar videos are shown side by side but there are a few differences between them. 

Here´s what you can do: 

• watch the video and find the differences
• write them down (writing exercise). Use this part of the exercise to learn and practise some vocabulary
• watch the second video and check your list of differences (listening exercise). Listen out for the vocabulary you have learnt and used in your writing.

What kind of differences should you look for? Here´s what they say about it:

WHAT COUNTS AS A DIFFERENCE?
A purposeful change in the SET (= representation consisting of the scenery and other properties used to identify the location of a dramatic production),  PROPS (= an object used in a play, movie, or performance) or WARDROBE. 

WHAT DOES NOT COUNT?
1. Any changes in CHOREOGRAPHY are NOT differences. 
Specifically, body positioning ("after he's knocked out, his legs/head/mouth etc. are different") or timing of body movements (she grabs the cane slightly later in one performance) do not count as differences. 

There are only TWO exceptions to this guideline, and here are some hints: (1) in one scene, one character is singing on one side but not singing at all on the other, and (2) a box opens during a performance on one side but not the other.

2. Also, A SLIGHT REPOSITIONING of the same item is NOT a difference. 
For example, the exact way a bedspread or curtain is positioned, or the exact orientation of the same toy truck, or the way the same jacket is lying on the floor-- these are not differences. If the same teddy bear slightly changes positions, that is not a difference. But, if the same teddy bear is wearing a shirt only on one side, that is a difference. A difference counts when you can discern a purposeful alteration. If a picture or object is slightly moved, that is not a difference. If a picture or object is discernibly rotated, that IS a difference.

Answer key:

What Things in Your Life Make You Happy?

"What Things in Your Life Make You Happy?" is the topic you can write about for practice of the UEE (=University Entrance Exam); it is part of the test from June 2010.

Watch this video first to get some ideas: it is about the pleasures of small things in everyday life. I am sure you will see or will be reminded of some things that make you happy. The video is called "The pleasure of;" make a mental list of the pleasures you see in the video which would mean pleasure and happiness for you too - remember to practise with the correct grammar construction: preposition + -ing (e.g., the pleasure of eating an ice-cream)

The pleasure of from Vitùc on Vimeo.

And if you have problems writing about yourself, you can always get in somebody´s shoes and let your imagination fly... think of this girl in the photo, what do you think makes her happy? why is there such a beautiful smile on her face?