Back to work!

Dear students,

Monday January 7th, will be our first session this year .
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas time. We have a new year ahead of us hopefully with lots of interesting challenges.
To begin our session we are going to talk about our holidays.
Did you go somewhere? Did you visit any relatives? Did you help prepare Christmas and New Year´s eve dinner? Do you have any plans and resolutions for this new year? Were there any special achievements for 2007 you would like to share with us?
Listen to these guys talking about their New Year´s resolutions and make a brief recording (2 or 3 minutes) telling me about yours.
Deadline Januray 14th.

New Year's resolutions

Our second activity will be reading and discussion about some world news. And finally we will make teams and play
Wordmaster

I need to have your grades ready by the end of this month.
This is an overview of the projects and their weight in the scores for this terms.
All Saints day (text and pictures 2 points, audio2 points )
New Year´s resolutions (audio 2 points)
Creation of a children´s story (audio 2 points)
Class attendance and participation ( 2 points)


I wish you a wonderful year 2008 full of achievements.

"Dia de Muertos" and "Thanksgiving" projects

Dear students,
It is now time to create our next TWO projects

Project 1. "Día de Muertos" (All Saints Day)
for November 12th
These are the tools you can use to report to the world the celebration of November 1rst and second we just had here in Mexico.

• If you have pictures, you can create a powerpoint presentation with pictures and text and upload it to your blog using slideshare

• If you have a videoclip you can upload it and share it in your blog using

springdoo or flixn

• For your audio you will use evoca The idea is that you will report to the audience the celebration that you captured in images (moving images or still pictures).
  

Remember to give your name at the beginning of the presentation and the purpose .
Some phrases you might find useful are:
Hi this is you host (hostess)____(your name)__
In this episode I will (tell you about.../talk about a traditional celebration in Mexico... )


Project 2. Thanksgiving questionnaire
There is an important celebration coming soon in the USA. It is Thanksgiving. Learn about it by reading information on a web site and answering a questionnaire.
Web site :
The First Thanksgiving
Copy and paste in a word document the questionnaire below.
Answer it using the information form the web site indicated above and print it.
Take it to our face to face session on November 26th.

Fact or Myth?
Read each sentence below. Circle T if the sentence is true. Circle F if it is false.
T F 1. The harvest celebration of 1621 lasted for 2 weeks.
T F 2. The Wampanoag people and the colonists were very
good friends at the time of the harvest celebration.
T F 3. At the first harvest celebration, there were more
Wampanoag people than there were colonists.
T F 4. The Wampanoag people and the colonists held a
harvest celebration each year.

The Evidence
Circle the word(s) that best completes each statement below.
5. A letter written by _____ serves as evidence that the harvest
celebration of 1621 really happened.
William Bradford/ Miles Standish/Edward Winslow
6. When colonists wrote letters or journals, they often used the letter
_____ in place of the letter s in their writing.
c/ f /z
7. At the harvest celebration in 1621, Massasoit, the leader of the
Wampanoag people, presented _____ deer to the colonists.
two/ five /eight

The Wampanoag People
Circle the word(s) that best completes each statement below.
8. The homes of the Wampanoag people were covered with _____.
bark/ branches/straw
9. The Wampanoag celebrated the new year each _____.
winter / spring / fall
10. To help crops grow, the Wampanog used _____ as fertilizer.
cow droppings/ bullrush / fish
11. In winter, the Wampanoag moved deep into the woods to ____.
hunt /get away from ocean winds/ find wood

The English Colonists
Read each sentence below. Circle T if the sentence is true. Circle F if it is false.
T F 12. At the time of the 1621 harvest celebration, the colonists lived in a village of three houses.
T F 13. The English colonists were familiar with a game called football.
T F 14. Colonists celebrated Christmas in the winter of 1621.
T F 15. Some of the native Wampanog people spoke English.
T F 16. Most colonists took a bath each Saturday night.
T F 17. Apple pie was served at the first harvest celebration.

The Path to 1621
Circle the word(s) that best completes each statement below.
18. When the Wampanoag saw the colonists sail into Plimoth, it
was the very first time the native people had ever seen _____.
a ship /strangers/ women and children
19. Massasoit, the Wampanoag leader, believed that signing a treaty
with the colonists would help the Wampanoag _____.
protect themselves from enemies/ learn to fish /learn about God

“First Thanksgiving” Glossary
On each line, write the letter of the meaning that matches the word. All of the words can be found
in the glossaries of the You Are the Historian: Investigating the First Thanksgiving Web site.
_____ 20. pitching the bar / a. a white linen cap worn by girls
_____ 21. bullrush / b. to practice shooting
_____ 22. coif /c. not hungry
_____ 23. mishoon/ d. hunting for birds
_____ 24. pottage / e. a game in which players threw logs
_____ 25. wetu / f. the results of hard work
_____ 26. tumpline / g. a dugout boat used for travel
_____ 27. far from want / h. a tall plant that grows in swamps
_____ 28. exercise arms / i. a belt made of plant fiber
_____ 29. fowling / j. a house of the Wampanoag
_____ 30. fruit of labors / k. a thick stew

Have fun, next Monday November 12th, we will meet in the lACE room and share the first project.

Latest activities

Last session we listened to a grammar podcast from the BBC about how to give suggestions.
I hope you can take a look at the site and check if there are any other topics that you might find useful or interesting.

For homework you need to

1. select your favorite song from MSM tunes . Make sure you know how to pronounce it as you will be asked to read it aloud and explain the content.
2. Write your script for the audio recording about "All Saints day"
   

On Monday 12th we will put together your presentation on "Dia de Muertos" in which you become reporters and tell the world about this celebration.
Your report will include a videoclip or using Springdoo or Flixn for the videoclip and evoca for the audio.
Please bring your script to class so we can read it and make sure it is well organized.
Have fun

BBC words in the news.

Dear students
I hope you liked the reading What's in a name? form the BBC.

• Remember that you were asked to bring a reading from the same site to share and be read during next session (october 29th). BBC words in the News
  

• I have prepared the assessment report that you need to collect and take to your teachers .It is very important to give your teacher this report becasue the 29th is the last day for reporting this grades to the school administration.

See you on Monday.

Become a reporter

Grades for the first partial

Hi guys,
For those of you who could not attend yesterday to the seminar session.
These are some of the agreements we reached to assign a grade for the first partial term.

• Projects 80%

1. Introducing yourself in a blog you create in blogger.
2. Developing a topic of your choice using images an your voice . The tool for this project is " Voicethread" (use minimum 10 images). This project will be published in your blog.
   

• Attendance 10%

• Participation in class 10%

• We also read and commented on a text about the use of internet in the life of a journalist..

• Finally we listened to a podcast from the BBC called Grammar challenge explaining the use of indefinite articles.

Please make sure your blog is ithe tag cloud under the tag English Seminar
Have fun and see you next Monday.

Visit this blog and make a comment.

Hi guys,

You are welcome to post a comment on his blog. I think you will find it interesting.

http://jovenes4ma.motime.com/

Meanings

Can you find where the play on words is?

G R O A N E R S

A Compendium Of Puntifications

1. I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.

2. Police were called to a daycare where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.

3. Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He's all right now.

4. The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference.

5. To write with a broken pencil is pointless.

6. When fish are in schools they sometimes take debate.

7. A thief who stole a calendar got twelve months.

8. A thief fell and broke his leg in wet concrete. He became a hardened criminal.

9. Thieves who steal corn from a garden could be charged with stalking.

10. We'll never run out of math teachers because they always multiply.

11. When the smog lifts in Los Angeles, U C L A.

12. The professor discovered that her theory of earthquakes was on shaky ground.

13. The dead batteries were given out free of charge.

Listen to your text

Dear students,
Before recording the audio for your Voice Thread project make sure you know how to pronounce the text correctly.
The following tool can help you. Just copy and paste the text and click on speak.

TEXT TO SPEECH

Have fun

Just for Fun

Dear seminar students

Check the following karaoke site. Write a comment on this blog telling me if you like it or if you found any of your favorite songs.
SMS tunes karaoke

Hippocampus

You can find here some interesting videoclips on Biology content.
Tell me what you think of them

A place in Wales

Dear seminar students
I found this description of a place in Wales.
Hope you like it.
http://voicethread.com/view.php?b=8519

An example using Voice Thread

We are going to use Voice Thread next week in the LACE computer lab.
You need to decide on the topic you would like to talk about. It can be individually or in groups.
Look at he following example.
And check the samples in the main home page of the tools.

Welcome to our virtual class

This will be the place to post our comments and make a calendar of the activities.
For the last three weeks we have been commenting on videos from video jug,
We also had a description of a wonderful trip to Canada.

Next October 1rst

• We will also have some more comments on videos form video jug and Ricardo is going to talk about a trip.

• We will begin learning about different types of podcast. I have selected a story and a program called China 232.

October 8th and 15th
We will have a chance to create a visual and aural description of a place. Our meeting site will be the LACE room. We will use the computers and a program called Voice Thread.
Remind me to discuss this point in class.

Please post yur comments on the activites.
Do you like this sort of activities?
Would you like to do something in particular?