Evaluations for 2nd semester

50% = Final Exam = First Certificate Exam: Reading, Writing, Listening, Use of English

13% = Mid-term exam = Selected parts of the FCE - 30 September(oral) & 8 October(written)

12% = Reading & Vocabulary quizzes - 1) units 7,8,9 in mid September 2) units 10,11,12 end November

12% = Writing - 1) 4 best assignments end of September 2) 4 best assignments end November. Written assignments are due 7 days after they are assigned. Late assignments will not be considered.

13% = Speaking - 1) 5 minute presentation 2) oral final exam

Five Minute Presentations

September:


2 Francisco Gonzalez
3 Constanza Arellano

9 Bernardita Duque
10 Paulina Bergmann

23 Nelson Retamal
24 Gisselle Palacios

October:

1 Jeannette Ulloa & Fernanda Maturana

7 Melissa Rodriguez & Daniela Rocha

14 Myriam Pinto
15 Paula Monsalve

21 Soledadd Ulloa & Alicia Barrera
22 Carolina Vasquez

28 Alejandra Reyes
29 Paulina Figueroa

November:

4 Ayleen Hernandez
5 Natalia Martell

11 Carrie Valenzuela
12 Carolina Castananeda

18 Carolina Espinoza
19 Francisco Olmedo & Guillermo Ovalle

25 Pier Vasquez
26 Patricia Osses

Travel Stories

While we're on the topic of travel let's escape for a bit and have a look at some exciting places to visit around the world.

Read 1 story from the iexplore travel site and post 5 comprehension questions for that story on your blog. Then read your partner's story and answer the questions. Finally make comments on your blog comparing the two places and explain which place you would prefer to go to and why?

Enjoy your trip!

Some review of unit 7 and FCE practice

Last week we pretty much finished unit 7, so today we'll do some review. Here's an odd one out quiz with shopping vocabulary. Here's an exercise using present perfect simple or continuous.

Here is a multiple matching reading activity about 5 people who work in tourism, which is the topic of the next unit.

Here are some FCE practice exercises for Use of English and Reading. For more FCE practice have a look at my sidebar where I have a link to Flo-joe.

Writing assignment 2: The advantages and disadvantages of living in the city or countryside

Yesterday you read a couple versions of Aesop's Fables: city mouse and town mouse and then we listened to an interview of a couple people who live in the countryside. This morning in class you made your own list of advantages and disadvantages of either living in the city or countryside.

If you made comments on yesterday's lesson, you should develop your ideas into an essay. Here is a link for some instructions and advice: How to write an advantages and disadvantages essay

Unit 7 topic activities

Here are a couple links for some listening tasks Spending Money , shoppping for the day , ABC of money matters . Do at least one of them and then follow up with the exercises.

Go to britishcouncil.org, click on learning English Central, go to magazine and look up city vs country. Read the tale about Town or country mouse then scroll down to the modern version of the story. On your blog post your answer whether you prefer living in the city or country.

Writing assignment 1: Letter of Complaint

Today in lab class we are going to look at an FCE writing part 1 example. Part 1 of the writing paper consists of a compulsory transactional letter in which prompts are provided in the form of written input material such as a letter, an advertisement &/or notes.

Have a look at the instructions and prompts for an example task on page 87. After you have carefully read the instructions, look at an example letter on page 88 and answer the questions in exercise 2. Once we have discussed this you will read the instructions and prompts in exercise 3 and then write the letter.

Remember to check your spelling and grammar before you post it.

A day of quizzes

We are going to start today's class with a fun little quiz. When you are finished, let me know what you thought about it.

Monday's homework was to read an article (p.83/84) about shopaholics. Here's another quiz to find out if you actually are a shopaholic. Post some comments on your blog about what you think about the problem. Include some advice you would give someone who was a shopaholic.

Here's yet another quiz about phrasal verbs using the verb "come". Once you've done the quiz and looked at the exercises on page 86 post some sentences about yourself using phrasal verbs and collocations.

Spring Semester 2009

Welcome back!

I hope you are ready to get down to work, because we have a lot to do this semester!

In class yesterday we talked about our plans and expectations for this semester. We have 2 blocks in the classroom and 2 blocks in the laboratory this semester so we will be using the blogs not only for written work but also for some more interactive activities.

I will give you more detailed information about grading for this semester in a future post.

Yesterday we established that we would enforce the 15 minute rule. That is: if you are more than 15 minutes late you will not be allowed to enter the class, and therefore be marked absent.

We discussed having an English Only rule. Where a $10 peso fine will be enforced for those who speak Spanish during class time. We will discuss what to do with the collected money near the end of the semester.

Also, it was requested to have individual oral presentations. We agreed that one student will give a short presentation for each lab class on a topic of their choice. I will be sending round a sign up sheet this week and will post it here once it's been finalized. Let me know if you have any questions about this.

There was also a request to incorporate short story reading into the course. I have some ideas to do some reading activities in the lab class.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

I look forward to doing some fun activities this semester!

Ronda