WE continue with Shakespeare Act I

Many students have not sent in the answers to their study questions for Act I. We will contine to analyse this today. By the end of today I hope everyone will have completed the assignment.

I am going to give you a piece of holiday work.  We are going to analyse about 30 lines of text each person our edition - going through the whole of Act II and Scene 1 of Act III.


The analysis will be based on the following document.
You will analyse as follows:
Anton Andersson               p. 57
Eric Andersson                  p. 58
Kalle Andersson                p. 59
Efecan Ayan                      p. 60
Daniel Bergfors                 p. 61
Marina Bjelica                   p. 62
Anna Dahlberg                  p. 63
Linnea Ekström                 p. 64
Emma Enoksson                p. 65
Simon Eriksson                  p.66
Hanna Ermesjö                  p.67
Yixuan Fu                          p.68
Jonathan Gravsjö               p.69
Henrik Jensen                    p.70
Simon Johansson               p.71
Erik Jonsson                      p.72
Martin Kaba                      p.73
Isak Karlsson                    p.74
Lukas Land                       p.75
Nathalie Lindqvist            p.76
Catrine Ljungström           p.77
Jonathan Lundberg          p.78
Linda Nalén  (25lines)     p.79
Johan Nilsson (2 l. p.79)+p. 80 
Hanna Pellegård              p.81
Emma Skörd                    p.82
Jonathan Stefansson        p.83
Astri Stikopers                 p.84
Jessika Svensson             p.85
Filip Westgårds                p.86

You are going to give a short presentation of your analysis on the first Friday lesson after the holiday.

Remember the document "Figurative language" ?

You need to use those terms when doing your analysis.
Today we can look at p. 39 in Act I as an example.

Finally a video from Spark Notes providing an excellent summary of the play


For those who missed out on the Cambridge Listening / Reading there will be an opportunity on Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m. (15.00) to get it done.
Otherwise you will have to wait until the first Wednesday in 2014.

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for this term and wish you a happy Christmas holiday. See you all in 2014!


 

No lesson today. Lucia celebrations

The traditional Lucia celebrations are this morning at 8 a.m. followed by a class gathering.

This means that today's lesson is cancelled and that we are even more behind in the planning!

So, on Monday's lesson we will continue with the Shakespeare- now Act II- and anyone who missed the Reading from the CAE will have a chance to do it.

By Monday all the marking should be completed and I will distribute a mark sheet  to each student.

Don't forget to mail me the answers to the qyestions for Act I!

Happy week-end!

Shakespeare Act 1- Questions

Please send in your answers to the  study questions for Act I by Friday!!!!

Romeo and Juliet Act I

Welcome back after the week-end.We are now in a winter landscape and the sense of  Christmas gets stronger.In the words of Irving Berlin's famous song;
"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas".
By the end of this week I will have completed all the marking of your work.
The gradeable pieces are:
Film Review
Translation
Formal English
Informal English
5 paragraph essay
Classic book talk
Cambridge Reading
Cambridge Listening
Oral presentation (grades after Christmas)

I will return all your hand-ins (with their grades by Friday).
Next weekend I will prepare a gradesheet for the other items as well- all except the oral presentations.

If you have missed a part of the Cambridge test you will have a chance to do it on Friday .

The marking has meant around 70-80 hours extra work for me.
If you are going to learn anythiong on this course then you must be consequent and do all your corrections.
I suggest spelling mistakes written correctly 5 times and grammar/ Swenglish etc. should be shown or sent (it happens automatically if you use shared google docs) 

Today we are going to continue with our study of Romeo and Juliet.

First let us look at the source of the play.

One of the criticisms of Shakespeare was that he couldn't possibly have know about exotic places like Verona.

He didn't need to. He "borrowed" material.

Let us now examine the text.

Remember the study questions. 

1. What is the setting for the play?
2. What scene of conflict opens the action of the play?
3. Which character tries to stop the fighting among the servants?
4. Which character is aggressive and eager to fight?
5. What warning does the Prince give to anyone who breaks the peace again?
6. Who has asked for Juliet's hand in marriage?
7. How old is Juliet?
8. In what state of mind is Romeo when we first see him in the play?
 9. Explain how Romeo finds out about the Capulet ball?
10. How does Benvolio try to remedy Romeo's love sickness?

By the end of today's lesson you should be able to answer them all!

We can use this slideshare to help us.
 

Finally- starting Shakespeare

Today we finally get to start studying "Romeo and Juliet".

While I am doing the last of the classic book talks I want you to begin working on the compendium That is on the Teacher's desk.

Here are some of the documents:

General

Words  -Some basic information about Shakespeare's language

Common Shakespeare terms- more general language information

Figurative language- some of the devices Shakespeare uses to enrichen his plays

What did he say? Test your own knowledge of Shakespeare's words having read through the information about his language

Punny guy! The classic Shakespeare device for providing verbal humour (N.B. This is a pdf file!)

Romeo and Juliet
This list of links provides more information than you will ever need

A taste of things to come- Act I Scene 1 (first part in original text and modern text).

Here are the study questions for Act I

1. What is the setting for the play?
2. What scene of conflict opens the action of the play?
3. Which character tries to stop the fighting among the servants?
4. Which character is aggressive and eager to fight?
5. What warning does the Prince give to anyone who breaks the peace again?
6. Who has asked for Juliet's hand in marriage?
7. How old is Juliet?
8. In what state of mind is Romeo when we first see him in the play?
 9. Explain how Romeo finds out about the Capulet ball?
10. How does Benvolio try to remedy Romeo's love sickness?

We shall go through Act I on Monday. By then you should know the answers!

A busy week for some!

CAE 
Welcome back after the week-end. I hope you enjoyed the big "mess" you attended!


Today we are going to do part of a Cambridge CAE Reading Test.

The test normally consists of 4 parts and takes 1 hour 15 minutes.

So today we will do parts 1 and 4 just to give you a feel for the level.
 
Those of you who did the listening- everyone passed, so that is encouraging.


 Book Talks
Friday at 7.50-8.30 a.m. is the last opportunity to do the book talk. After that it will be an "F" grade.
You can also do it this Wednesday at 2 p.m. or on Skype at an agreed time.

 
Shakespeare
On Friday at 8.30 we finally start working on Shakespeare. We will begin with a brief introduction to Shakespeare, his times and language. Then we will look at the first Act of Romeo and Juliet.
I would like you to try and read it by Friday. Here is a handout to help you understand Shakespeare's complex use of language  

Week 48 CAE

This week we will be concentrating on the Cambridge Advanced Examination (CAE) which will be our final test for this course.

In order to give you some idea of the level we will look at two parts of the test this week.

Today  9 a.m.  Listening. This takes about 40 minutes


Friday 
8 a.m. Book talks for those who have not done it yet (Last chance café)
Simon J            Alice
Kalle A            Passage to India
Effe                  Dorian Gray
Marina             Pride and Prejudice
Isak                  Oliver Twist
Lukas               Alice thru' the looking glass
Johan N            Treasure Island
Jessica              Persuasion

8.45 a.m
Reading part of CAE ( takes max. one hour)

Apart from common sense and being careful to read the questions there are not many ways to prepare for this.

Just take it easy and do your best!

Classic books 2

Today we continue with the classic book talks. 

If we don't have time for everyone this morning I have a slot at 1 p.m. today or you can mail me your skype name and a suggestion for a time.

Here is the running order for today:

1. Treasure Island                       Erik / Anna
2.  Alice in Wonderland             (Simon J)/Simon E/ Emma S/Astri
3. Dorian Gray                          Emma E/ Daniel
4.Oliver Twist                           Isak/
5. Short Stories Poe                  Martin
6. Brave New World                Filip
7 Alice through the looking glass   Lukas 
8.  Short Stories- Kipling          Linnea
9. Hound of Baskervilles          Hanna
10.  Robin Crusoe                                Henrik
11. Frankenstein                        Jonathan G
12. Rip Van Winkle                  Linda
13. Sons & Lovers                   Catrine
(14. Passage to India                 Kalle)
15 Sherlock Holmes                 Nathalie

Don't forget!

Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" is available in the library!!

 Last chance for the book talk is next Friday for those we don't have time for today.

Classic book talks

This week we will be doing the classic book talks.

I put a document on the blog on 16th September as a basis for the talk. We will discuss the following points:

• The Story
• The message
• The characters
• The language
• The style
• The authenticity of the work
• Why it is a classic?

The talks will take about 5 minutes.

Today:
Hanna
Marina
Jonathan S
Anton A
Yixuan
Eric A
Effe

On Friday
Everyone else!
I will take two/three people with the same book title on Friday

 N.B. If you will not be around for the two lessons you must contact me so that we can arrange a skype meeting to discuss your book!

Translation and preparation for Classic book talks

Today we have reached the end of our writing course.

To recapitulate

We have talked about the general characteristics of writing:

• How it stands "outside" time
• How it requires a structure
• How it is governed by many rules and constraints such as:

1.  Grammar
2.   Spelling
3.   Syntax
4.   Register 
5.   Paragraphing

We have looked at a five-paragraph-essay as a simple building block of writing.

Then we have tried our hand at formal and informal English.

Today we finish off with the skill of translation.

I will start off by distributing and going through a handout with you.
Here it is.

Translation involves transferring the meaning from one language to another as faithfully and accurately as possible.

It is not the same as paraphrasing or summarising in another language.
It is a very useful skill.

If we look just at Leksand and its municipality we can see many areas where translation is needed.

• Business (international companies)
• Twinning arrangements (Uganda-Leksand)
• Tourism
• Music/Song

It is claimed that on an average University course in Sweden 70% of course literature is written in English.
So the uses are endless.

Nowadays it is possible to use eletronic tools to assist in translation.

If you use google translate "It's raining cats and dogs" it no longer says:
"Det regnar hundar och katter" but if you put in
"How are you going to worm your way out of this?" the result is just as bizarre!
Try  "He turned up like the bad penny!" and see what you get!

The problem of producing a good translationis not only to be accurate but also to get the right "feel" conveyed by the original text.

Here is your translation task. Easy? Probably not!

Good luck!!

Now let's turn to next week.
We have the classic book talks.
10 people will do their talks with me on Monday and 20 on next Friday.

Please fill in the sheet which is circulating in class with 

• Your name
• Author's name
• Title of book
• Monday or Friday

Informal/ neutral English

Today we are going to deal with the easiest part of our writing course- informal writing.


Some of the characteristics of informal writing are given in the "English C" text book on pages 95-98.

It is very important to remember that the same rules and constraints such as paragraphing, structure, spelling and correct grammar apply just as much in informal writing as in more formal forms.

Here are 3 assignments. Please choose one of them and write it NOW.


1. A letter or email to a pen-friend from another country who will be coming to spend the Christmas with you here in Dalecarlia.
You need to give the person some information about what they can expect, what to bring along and some general information about the celebration of Christmas in Sweden.



2. A diary entry for the week-end which has passed where you not only talk about events but also your feelings and expectations for the rest of 2013.

 
3. You write a lifestyle blog in English about being young in Sweden. Write a blog entry about Swedish youth culture and their attitudes to alcohol and partying.

Use the whole time we have in the lesson (about 40 minutes) and then take some time during the week to complete the assigment.

It should be in my digital mailbox on Friday morning by 8 a.m.

This Friday we will deal with the final part of our writing course- translation.

We shall also revise what we have said during these two weeks and look at the keys to successful writing.

Could someone please explain what a formal and informal register is?

Sorry I forgot to distribute the timetable for our writer's course.
here is the document. As on Monday, we will work without the computer today, until we start writing the relevant assignment.

I also want you to bring along your copy of our text book "English C" today since there is a lot of relevant material there.

As a follow-up to your 5 paragraph essay there is an excellent section on 

Paragraphing ( p. 89)

The opening sentence (p. 90) using different techniques to grab the reader's attention (grabbers)

 Sentence length and how to vary it (p.91)

Linking words and expressions (p. 92-93)

Structuring argumentative essays (p. 93-94) by expressing yourself using ready-to-go phrases

All of these strategies can help you become a more confident writer.

However, there is one key question which must always be addressed when writing- the question of "register"
On the "Yahoo answers" website  the question was asked which is the title of today's blog.
With regard to writing it is the most important question of all.

Here is how one of the people who answered the question expressed himself:

The difference between formal and informal English is not a difference between correct and incorrect, but a difference of what is known as register. A register is a variety of language related to a particular subject matter or area of activity, a set of words and expressions as well as syntactical features that may be said to characterise that specific area of language. There are many registers: technical, academic, mathematical, scientific, etc. Very broadly speaking, we can also speak of a “formal” and “informal” register in English. In writing academic reports and the like, it would be normal to draw most of the vocabulary and expressions from the formal register, and few, if any, from the informal. This entails avoiding colloquial (everyday) or slang expressions in your writing assignments. The question of register is far more complicated than indicated here; for example, there are many degrees of formality and informality 

This is reflected in the curriculum and grade guidelines for our course where it talks about:

Bearbetning av språk och struktur i egna och andras framställningar, i formella och komplexa sammanhang, och för att skapa anpassning till genre, stilnivå och syfte

and for the "E" grade it says:


I muntlig och skriftlig interaktion i olika, även formella och komplexa, sammanhang kan eleven uttrycka sig tydligt, relativt ledigt och med flyt samt med anpassning till syfte, mottagare och situation.

 There is a clear distinction made between "formal" English and other registers.

I want you to start off today by discussing Section A on page 95 in the "English C" book.

What conclusions did you reach in the group?

 Look at the picture of the gardens- Formal or informal?

Now look together at Section B on page 95-96.


What characterises "Formal" and "Informal" writing?

Today we are going to concentrate on formal English..

In what circumstances do we use it and why?

The first hand-out today is about the use of formal English in science...

The guidelines which are presented are relevant even for non-scientific writing.

The same hand-out contains a definition of formal English and some of the areas of usage.

It also gives a comparison of levels of spoken and written English.

Your task today is to do a piece of formal writing.

You can choose Task D on page 98 in "English C" or one of the following (also found on the second hand-out)

Examples of Formal English:

Report writing

Obituary

Academic essays (or parts thereof)

Minutes of a meeting

Business Letters

-Covering letter (job/course application)

-Enquiries

-Ordering

-Complaint

-Resignation

Serious Press article

  
Now you may begin writing!

Writing course- Boot camp!

Well, my mail box wasn't exactly inundated with film reviews!

We are now in an intensive period of writing where all of the assignments will be graded.

The film review was going to be the first one!!

TODAY WE WORK WITHOUT THE COMPUTER, SO SWITCH IT OFF AND PUT IT AWAY.

We start off today with a gist summary of your neighbour's half-term break. Remember? 20 words based on the five questions
Who? What? How? When? Why?
Interview then go for it! Hand it in to me!

Now we will start off by discussing writing in groups of three to four students. Here is the handout. Today we will also get it on paper


TODAY, all assignments on paper please!

Now we are going to write a story in three's.
The story is about Peter and John ( Petra and Jane).

The first person sets the story on his /her slip
It was................................

The second person writes about an unexpected occurrence
Suddenly.........................

The third person writes about the consequences of this occurrence
As a result/Consequently.............

You should write WITHOUT looking at each others' slips of paper.

Now put the story together!

What do we learn about writing as a skill from this exercise?

Now we move on to a building- block of writing-
namely the 5 paragraph essay.

Here is the first one and here is the other hand-out.

Your task BY Friday is to write a five-paragraph essay based on the title Mike will give you today.  Send it to Mike's mailbox.

Film review

Today we are going to do our last assignment of this half-term- to watch a film and then review it in a written document,
A number of students will be missing today but if you are on the skidpan or at the doctor's or test-driving a car or just taking a sickie... you still have to watch a film and review it.....

Since I don't want you to copy something from the internet I would like you to think about the following points:

What is the message of the film and how universal is it?
How does the director use music and other devices to enhance the message of the film?

How did the casting work for the success of the film? Were the actors/actresses chosen because of their fame or in order to characterise a special role?

Where did the original story for the film come from? Find out how the film and original story differ.

Your review should be in my digital mailbox by Sunday 3rd November. Have a good holiday!

 

Speech or song lyrics

We start off today by listening to a song performed by the students from the music programme as a presentation related to their area of study.

Then we continue to either look at a song text (lyrics) or a famous speech to analyse it and discuss it.

I would like you to work in small groups on this task (maximum 4 students)

For those who choose a speech I recommend this site on the internet.

Examples of a famous speech might be 
1) Winston Churchill's wartime speeches
2) Martin Luther King's "I have a dream"
3)Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement speech

Another site which can help you is the following 

If you choose a song lyric then it should be one which is famous for its content and not only the music:

Some examples might be:
Beatles                Eleanor Rigby, Let it be
Bob Marley         Redemption Song, No woman no cry
Don Mclean         American Pie, Vincent
Leonard Cohen   Hallelujah, Suzanne
Eagles                  Hotel California
 Bob Dylan           Times they are a changing
Here is a site you may find useful for your analysis

Presentations

Today it is time for our first round of presentations. These should be done in small groups and have some connection to your area of studies.

In the spring you will be given the opportunity to present your "Gymnasiearbete" for the rest of the class.

As well today we are going to introduce you (on this course) to peer assessment. This is something which is used widely in other countries and can provide a lot of help (peer support, peer learning etc). 

This means that as soon as soon as you finish your presentation you should do a peer assessment of the following group.

The document is available on the blog but for simplicity I have printed out copies for everyone.

The last group up (we decide at the beginning) should assess the first group up.

Start off the presentations by giving your name. 

All the presentations will be filmed for marking purposes.
They will NOT turn up on YouTube..

Some practical things to arrange:

1. Debate
-Topic
-Speakers

2. Monday (week 43)
-speech
-lyrics

3 Friday (week 43)
-Film (suggestion for a good biographical/thematic film) 
We will also try to do our first assessment of the course on this class. 

Area of interest

Today I want you to prepare for a short presentation on Friday about some subject connected to your area of study. You can work in groups of 2-4 (maximum) students and the presentation can be based on the sources given on the planner or directly from your studies. It could be a study visit, a project you have done or are working on, your planned YE company, your field trip to Uganda or anything else.

The presentation should not be more than 5 minutes long and should contain some kind of simple presentation material (photos, powerpoint, prezi, impress, film clip etc.).

Everyone in the group must be actively involved in the presentation.

As a final possibility you could always do a presentation of the impact of a contemporary person for your area of study:
- Professor Hans Rosling for social science
- Steve Jobs for technology
- Stephen Hawking for science
-Muhammad Yunus for economy(microloans)
-Paul McCartney or Mike Jagger for music
(And of course Jamie Oliver for food)

We will start the presentations at 8.30 on Friday in order to give you some time on Friday morning.

Before you go today I should receive a paper slip with your names and the title of your presentation. 

A time to reflect and look forward

We need to stop for a moment and reflect over what we have done.
If we base our reflection on the 4 language skills we can see the following:

Reading

•  Literary texts (text book and classic novel etc)
• General interest texts (text book)
• Non-fiction texts (internet)

Listening

• TED Talk
• Text book
• Internet

Speaking

• Role plays
• Ice breaker
• Discussions

Writing

• Reflections
• Text analysis
• Comprehension questions
• letter writing (informal)

Other skills/areas

• Vocabulary building (word lists /corrections)
• Grammar/syntax (corrections)

I have now caught up with all corrections. The question is how many items have you sent in? Learning a language is a continual process which needs effort.

Today we look at debating.
A debate in the sense I mean is not like you see on the TV when Reinfeldt and Lowén are battling it out.

We can look together at a good website which can help us.

A debate in this sense requires teamwork and preparation.

We will look at a clip from "The Great Debaters"- a biographical film from 2007 which really gives insights into the art of debating.

How can we tackle this in class?

If we look at the texts we studied last week several debating topic emerge.

Here are three proposals:

1. This house believes that war can be justified
2. This house believes that women are the weaker sex
3. This house believes that western lifestyle is morally bankrupt

We will now divide you into 6 groups
three for the proposals and three against.

You will have time to prepare your arguments and then be given an opportunity to briefly "meet" and present them for each other.

We will not follow the procedures of a "proper" debate as formulated by Karl Popper but at least give you the opportunity to present something in small groups.

The register of English should be neutral-formal.

What we do today can be the basis of a proper debate later on in the course.
 

Reflections on Friday's texts

Here are some reflections on Friday's reading texts

Falling Leaves

Pre-reading activity.
In an age when most Chinese women stayed at home and tried to please their husbands, "Grand Aunt" emerged as a woman who wanted to radically change that view. She dared to go against the norms about occupations and lifestyles.
 TRY TO FIND OUT SOMETHING ABOUT THE SITUATION OF WOMEN IN CHINA IN THE EARLY 1900'S 
 or
FIND OUT ABOUT A SWEDISH  BUSINESSWOMAN OR INNOVATOR WHO WENT AGAINST THE TIDE IN THE EARLY 1900'S


Alternative title
Feminism-Chinese Style /My Great GrandAunt


Why included in the book
The text tells us nothing abouit the author but it is clear she was inspired by Grand Aunt for her courage. We see a picture of women who have the potential to liberate themselves. This is what Amy did later in her own life. The text is very relevant in our days when we can still see prejudice snd discrimination against women.
It is a good introduction to the later chapter entitled "The World of women".

 Dust of life
Pre-Reading Activity
 Liz Thomas was only a year older than most of you are when she left everything that was familiar and secure to work with war victims in Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War (around 1973).

Discuss what can make a person do as she did. In what circumstances would you do the same?

Comment
This text is a huge challenge to our lifestyle  based on comfort and self-indulgence. It really asks the question as to what is truly important in life. We need heroes and heroines (not heroin!) to shake us up and wake us up!

Alternative title
Leaving it all behind

What similarities are there between them and what differences are there?
Both texts tell the story of  women who were completely unafraid and ignored the restrictions placed on them by society in order to do what they felt was right. Both women have a very strong sense of social justice.
Both texts are set in Asia and even introduce the local language (Chinese/Vietnamese).
 In "Falling Leaves" Grand Aunt has her whole family around her but still manages to go her own way.
In "Dust of Life" Liz leaves everything to live in an extremely dangerous and precarious situation.
Both women are amazingly courageous.
I admire them both.
From the formal sense the texts are very different. "Falling Leaves" is written in the third person and is a stylized text.
"Dust of life" is written in the in the first person and contains elements of Vietnamese which are hard to understand.

It's all beer and no books
The article presents a very gloomy picture of the ambition level of 18 year-olds in Britain who are studying at University.
Thankfully, today many students take a gap-year or, in Sweden, wait until they are motivated (if ever!) to study.
One quote which I liked can be applied to the earlier texts:
"If you don't want to solve the world's problems at 18 then you surely never will"
The writer is somehow biased but achieves her goal.

The heroes in the rubble
I thought immediately about Shakespeare's quote from "Twelfth Night"
Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them
 
If Grand Aunt and Liz achieve "greatness" then the rescue workers of this text "have greatness thrust upon them".
The article is written like a TV script offering cameo pictures of the aftermath of the 9/11 attack. The aim is to highlight the bravery of the rescue workers and, in my view, it succeeds.

Reading- non-fiction texts

Today we are going to work on non-fiction reading.

First of all, on Friday we spoke about the two methods of scanning and skimming to read larger amounts of text quickly.

Here is a site to see if you have understood and practise these skills.

Do all four tasks and write a comment to me about them.

Now read the following pdf file about Reading skills

Use the method stated (scanning and skimming) to find brief information about the following:

What is "reciprocal teaching" and when can it be used?

What is important to remember when writing quick summaries?

Compare "Magnet summaries" and "gist summaries". What differences are there between them?

Now two brief articles on non-fiction subjects but at a very elementary level. Read and do the relevant exercise

Here is the first text 
about the relationship between science and society.

The second text is about Florida and introduces some very simple economic terms. 
Paraphrase the final paragraph of the article.

The final text is a longer text about the effects of listening to music when reading
Summarize these effects in a few sentences.

Reading skills

Today we are going to look at the skill of reading. 
It is an essential part of language learning.

Often students forget to apply the skills they use as native speakers when reading in a foreign language. They stop to look up every word and find reading very difficult compared to listening.

Here are some strategies to improve your reading:

• Previewing: reviewing titles, section headings, and photo captions to get a sense of the structure and content of a reading selection
• Predicting: using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about content and vocabulary and check comprehension; using knowledge of the text type and purpose to make predictions about discourse structure; using knowledge about the author to make predictions about writing style, vocabulary, and content
• Skimming and scanning: using a quick survey of the text to get the main idea, identify text structure, confirm or question predictions
• Guessing from context: using prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in the text as clues to the meanings of unknown words, instead of stopping to look them up
• Paraphrasing: stopping at the end of a section to check comprehension by restating the information and ideas in the text.

Today we are going to read two texts from the text book. 

I want you to read the texts and apply some of the strategies given above.

After reading I want you to make up a pre-reading activity that a student could have done before reading the text in order to help a student to get more out of his/her reading.

Why do you think just this text is in the textbook? How could we apply it to our situation today?

Make up a new title for the text so that a reader more esaily can understand beforehand what it is about.

Here are the two texts:

Falling Leaves  page 19

Dust of life   p. 39

Finally, compare the two texts.

What similarities are there between them and what differences are there?

If you have time over you can read either

It's all beer and no books p.26    or

Heroes in the rubble p.45.

These are not extracts from a literary work but are self-contained articles with a specific purpose.

What do you think the purpose is and does the writer achieve what he/she set out to do in your opinion?

Role plays

Today we are going to use the exercise of doing role plays.
Start off 2 x 2 with some simple role plays from the internet
1.Celebrity interview

2.Assorted role plays

3. Applying for a job as chef 


Now we move on to role plays using 3 people.
The main theme is conflict.

1. Here is one from the internet.
It is for three roles. 2 parents and a teenager.

The other four are role plays Mike has written.

They are all for 3 people and all based on the theme of conflict.

He will give you them on paper!!

Finally I want you to round off the lesson with a work sheet on the theme of conflict.
Here it is.
Fill it in and mail it to me!
Your homework as usual is to read your classic work. 7 weeks left!
 

Listening exercises

Today we are going to concentrate on the skill of listening.

The first texts are all related to the text book.

You can follow them and answer the relevant questions.

Some general questions:

What accent does the speaker have?

What specific words in the text show some kind of regional bias?

The first text is from page 104 in the book "My lovely daughter is a rolling stone" .

Please do the exercises on page 105 after listening

The second text is a story divided into three parts about Ronnie and the Winnebago.

You will find the specific questions on 64-65

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

After listening to the three parts of the story please do the speaking exercise on page 65.

The third listening exercise is based on an interview entitled
"Bigfoot is Dead". The questions and exercises are on page 86 in the book

The final listening exercise related to the book is "The last enemy" on page 37. It is a cloze test (gap-fill). Listen and fill in the answers.
Please mail your answers to me for this exercise.

When you have done these 3 listening exercises I would like you to use the following resource.

The English 7 course lies between B2 and C1.

So try out resources on the C1 level using the following link.
Good luck!

The local and the international

According to the planner for today we are going to look at the news ands have discussions.

Start off by checking out some item of international news using one or several of the resources we discussed last Friday.

You might like to discuss the problem of terrorism.

Is it possible to wage a war against it as George Bush claimed?

If we are not happy about email/telephone surveillance how can we expect authorities to intercept plans made by terrorists?

There has been one unsuccessful terrorist attack in Sweden (suicide bomber in Stockholm). Do you think there will be more?

In several European countries there have been "Columbine-like attacks". Will these reach Sweden? (Finland has already been affected)

The attack by Breivik in Norway put a new perspective on terrorism in Europe. What are the chances of an attack from the extreme-right in Sweden?

Then... on a lighter level. Check out The Local.
Have a look at some of the main stories and discuss them with your neighbour.

Don't forget to document your discussions either by recording them on your computer using "ljudinspelaren" or as a written document.

The truth is out there!

This was the tagline of the TV-series the "X-Files"and it is important to know what we are sourcing and what the information stands for.
Here are some guidelines named by Christian Kreutz on his blog "Exploring the Web for change"

A typical situation: You sit with friends together and discuss; a fact is cited, but you do not believe it and want to prove it is wrong, so you quickly check it  in the Internet. We increasingly rely on our digital backbone, which now it is even ubiquitous available through mobile phones. The net becomes our extended memory – not in any case it is easy to find an answer quickly, but is getting easier thanks to sources such as Wikipedia.
But how do we trust these sources? Sources can have very different approaches, trusted behind the information they offer:

• Wikileaks anonymously "publishes and comments on leaked documents alleging government and corporate misconduct."
• Bloggers stand with their reputation behind an information.
• Demand Media attempts to deliver thousands of answers each month from amateur writers and film-makers.
• Wikipedia relies on voluntarily work and editors to deliver accurate information or highlight it if it is not the case.
• Newspapers have a reputation of professional journalism.

But how do we decide in our daily information research source whether it is trusted or untrusted? There are many nuances between these two poles and various personal criteria on how to assess a source. I am curious to know what is desicive for you.  Here is a list of questions, which might apply or not:
Source Criteria:

• Who is behind the source?
• Is it a well-known institution or person?
• Where does it originally come from?
• Does it indicate an author?
• Is the article old or up-to-date?
• Does it have comments? How many comments?
• Has the website a commercial intention or is the information service a common good?
• Is the article personally or objectively written?
• Does it have many or none citation to other sources?
• How well written is the article?
• How open is the person behind a presented page? For example, does the author have a biography or a Twitter account?

Network factor:

• Who has recommended the source? Is it a friend, colleague or peer?
• Is it a link from  a well-known or unknown blog post to the source?
• Does the source have many readers/subscribers?
• Is it often cited? Can it be checked for example through a Twitter search or Technorati rank, in case of a blog.

Appearance:

• Is the website professionally designed?
• Do you like the design? Would you trust an information source with an appalling design?
• Does it focus on content or rather advertisement?
• Can you navigate easily or are there obstacles to find your information?
• Is it a rather closed site or does it link to a website?

These are only some examples showing how tricky it is to evaluate a source and set the needed range of skills to assess an information from different angles. How can these skills be learnt?

Today I want you to look at three kinds of internet sources and give comments which you can email me afterwards.
Information .
Check out the homepage of the BBC
www.bbc.co.uk

Look at the news section.
What are the main headline stories?
How does the BBC divide its reporting of the news.
Compare with SVT's homepage.
What differences do you notice.
Now check out a major national newspaper such as
The Independent
Their job is to give the news but also to sell "copy".
Look at their homepage. Can you see any differences between the kind of stories they publish compared to the BBC?

Education
A lot of news sites have an educational/pedagogical aim.
Check out CNN Student news
In what way are CNN using the news to "educate"?
What aspects of English can you learn from their reporting?
How is this different from the above news sites?

What is the focus of their news? (USA, world events etc)
Are they presented "objectively"? How can you tell?

Propaganda
Look at the following article.
How much of the information you access is in fact misinformation?
Check out some sites dealing with 9/11
The film "Loose change" and the articles around it.
Here is an article from Slate magazine dealing with the issue.

How do you find out if things are true or not on the internet.

Finally look at one of the clips from Vsauce.
How do you know the information is factual?
In a TED Talk there is a live audience who are "scrutinising" what is being said.
Who stands for the information in Vsauce and how reliable is it?
Students from SA13.
Work on your documents for Uganda!!

A classic and an assignment

Fun Day Monday 
The "Bad Day" texts are there for you to read and comment. Why not send a recording from your computer about your worst day?

At the time of writing (6:56) I have received 11 out of thirty-one Ted Talk summaries! By the end of today I want them all in.

I will start off today's lesson by returning some of the work you have given to me. The first lesson you worked on paper but from now onwards I would like you to send your assignments digitally.

The absolute best way is to send them as google documents so that the process of writing can be enhanced.
To make life a bit easier I have included a document on the right-hand side of the blog to do with corrections. 
We can look at it briefly and then get on with the task in hand for today.
 Today we will be beginning the first of three literary works which are part of the course.
We start with a "classic".
The definition of what constitutes a "classic" has always been open to interpretation and discussion. I want you to add your fuel to this discussion.

Here is the document I would like you to download as a basis for your assignment.

If you cannot find anything of interest on our shelves then here is a list of possible authors.
Finally to give some perspective of what was going on in the UK during the nineteenth century (1800's) I have included a time-line of important events.
Your homework for this week is to start reading your "classic". The deadline for completion is week 47 when you will give your classic talk.
E-mail me by Friday the title of your work and the name of the author.