Exam Preparation

Do not freak out about exams but DO prepare them. Practice, practice, and more practice makes perfect.

Grammar Component
Topics: Defining vs. Non-defining clauses + gerunds vs. infinitives vs. bare infinitives
Where: Class Book Units 7 and 8 / Copy No. 15 Bldg. G Units 7 and 8 / CD ROM / webpages suggested in Virtual Sabana

Reading Component
Topics: Types of questions yes/no/not given - multiple choice - sentence completion
Where: Guides in Virtual Sabana

Listening Component
Topics: multiple choice / sentence completion
Where: guide in Virtual Sabana week 5 / http://www.elllo.org/ / anything you can listen to practice

Writing and Speaking Component
All vocabulary related to festivals, carnivals and customs (units 7 and 8). Double-check your pronunciation before doing your report next week.

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First Exam to be held next week

First Exam to be held next week:

Monday (August 30th) -Tuesday (August 31st) : Written component --- Reading / Listening / Writing / Grammar

Thursday (September 2nd) - Friday (September 3rd): Speaking component --- Project Presentation in groups

Written Exam Day

1. There will be another teacher applying exams.

2. Be VERY punctual. The teacher will have the right to close the door and not let you in. If this happens, you will need to take make-up exams (they need to be paid and are graded over 4.0)

3. Turn your electronic devices off. You are only allowed to have a pen, a pencil, eraser and white out with you. There is no borrowing or lending of these items.

Speaking Report Day

1. Please be punctual.

2. Pair reporting. You can choose your partner.

3. It will be graded based on individual performance.

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TERM 1 Lesson 8 Thursday-Monday August 19th-23rd

In this class:

1. CD ROM: Language Focus 1: Gerunds vs. Infinitives vs. Bare Infinitives
2. CD ROM: Language Focus 1. Practice 1 and Practice 2
3. Class Book: Language Focus 1 Exercise 1 Practice 1 Page 88
4. Class Book: Language Focus 2: Practice 1 Page 89
5. Game: Gerund and Infinitive dominoes: in pairs
6. Class Book: Page 90. Summarize an article. Exercises 1 and 2.
7. Class Book: Page 91. Go over the Useful Language Vocabulary

Independent Work:
A. Copy No. 15. Bldg. G. Units 7 and 8 Workbook. Unit 8 = Exercises 3, 4, 5, and 6 to be checked at the beginning of next class.
B. Write a 100-word summary on one of the articles on page 91. Make sure you use the expressions suggested in the vocabulary box and pay special attention to the use of gerunds and infinitives.

* Do you want to rev up your listening comprehension? http://www.elllo.org/ is great for listening to conversations in English between people with different accents!

TERM 1 Lesson 7 Tuesday-Friday August 16th - 20th

In this lesson:

1. Class Book: Listening Practice about Events (page 74)
2. Class Book: Speaking Practice and Sampling (page 75) to prepare an oral report to be graded next week.
3. Descriptive Sample Analysis
4. Writing Descriptive Essay last paragraphs. Almost everybody handed it in. Those handing the essay in next class will be graded on 4.0

Independent Work:
Keep checking Virtual Sabana for Independent Work + Prepare festivals spoken report and interview.

Make Up Class 1

Dear Monday-Friday students,

We will NOT be able to make up for our Monday class tomorrow. We will make up for it NEXT Wednesday in Studium at 7 and at 10.

UP

¨Read until the end.....
you'll laugh....

This two-letter word in English has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is 'UP.'

It is listed in the dictionary as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v].

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list,
but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?
Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for
election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?
We call UP our friends,
brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers and
clean UP the kitchen.
We lock UP the house and fix UP the old car.
At other times this little word has real special meaning.
People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.

We open UP a store in the morning, but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP !

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look UP the word UP in the dictionary.. In a desk-sized dictionary; it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP . When the sun comes out
we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it soaks UP the earth.
When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on & on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now ........my time is UP !
Oh....one more thing:
What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night?
U
P!

Did that one crack you UP?
Don't screw UP.
Send this on to everyone you look UP in your address book..or not...it's UP to you.

Now I'll shut UP¨

Angela´s Project 1: Descriptive Essay

This semester I intend to produce the same writings and project assignments I ask my students to work on. Therefore, I will be posting my own written production, which you´re all invited to comment on. Our class´ first stage of the project is to write about a festival; this time writing about it as if we had been there. Here is my try:

Cologne: Multicolored Festivity to Warm the Frozen Heart

Kölle Allaf! This unencrypted message to some of us, Spanish speakers, welcomed me to the most incredible carnival ever. Freezing temperatures and the sounds of a language I barely understand did not prevent me from feeling the warmth of the people speaking it. Do accompany me through the streets of Cologne in Germany.

At 11 minutes past 11 on November 11th every year, Cologne streets are dressed with the most amazing lively tones to defy winter colors. Picture this: you standing in the middle of Cologne´s main street, you are definitely cold, freezing cold, not alone though, a human swarm greeting each other and exchanging both smiles and long thin cylindrical glasses filled with a bright straw yellow-hue liquid (that is right! beer!). Later, at a bar, golden after golden vial, which you can kindly reject by covering them with a beermat, are placed in front of you.

Out in the streets again there is no time for grieving, there is only time to be amused. Green, red, yellow, a full array of dancing ballons float to match the masquerade of multicolored festivity-goers who populate the already busy streets to welcome the masters of the event: here he comes; peacock-tail crowned; chain around his neck; a girdle with glitzy stones; a sceptre, which represents fertility, in his hand: the prince, who, in turn, is accompanied by his fellowman, the farmer, to finally let me awe in surprise as I see a graceful feminine figure, "thre Lieblichkeit," who is no longer a gracious being to me as she approaches to let me realize she is a he, which, my nice German host explains, is the way the virgin (one of the carnival´s main characters) is represented every year.

It is time for us to go back home; Cologne Carnival is not any closer to an end: cheering crowds will continue singing kölsch chants I will not be able to understand soon but which will forever make my heart feel alive and my love for Germany and their friendly people sprout.

By Ángela Forero Aponte (who has never been to the Cologne Carnival but wanted to do this writing exercise for her students).

*** Adjectives have been highlighted in orange.
*** Defining and non-defining clauses have been highlighted in purple.

Picture retrieved from http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2176/2242952594_08cbfee8f5.jpg

TERM 1 Lesson 6 Thursday-Friday August 12th-13th

Today:

0. Homework correction: Class Book Page 83. Exercises 1,2, and 5
1. International Exam Reading Practice: Titanic (yes/no/not given) + Checking on Reading Speed
2. Descriptive Essay Sample Analysis: A Carnival Ride (copy No. 42, Bldg. G)
3. Group work: unscrambling descriptive essay samples paragraphs (essays available by clicking here)

Independent Work / Homework:
a. Essay Outline (using ppt format)
b. First two paragraphs of the essay. Three last paragraphs to be finished next class.
c. Virtual Sabana: Reading Practice

TERM 1 Lesson 5 Monday-Tuesday August 9th-10th

Today:

1. Relative Clauses (Defining vs. nondefining clauses) revision and more practice
a. Language Focus Class Book Page 76
b. CD ROM Practice 2
c. Class Book Page 77

2. Improving your reading speed
a. Class Book Page 82
b. Reading + Vocabulary Class Book Pages 78-79

3. Power Point Presentation: Writing a Descriptive Essay available by clicking here
(Sorry about the hoarse voice...I have a cold ;)

Independent Work / Homework/ Reminders:
a. Bring your outline of your essay using the chart in the ppt
b. + Material / resources related to the festival you´re writing about
c. Class Book Page 83 Exercises 1, 2, and 5
d. Copies:
15 --) Workbook Units 7 and 8
26 --) Reading to bring with you next class

Don´t Say.... / Say...

After checking on your diagnostic writings I made a list of common mistakes. Take a look:

DON´T SAY... / SAY ...

I am agree / I agree
A children is / Children are
I make homeworks / I do pieces of homework
Another people like computers / Other people like computers
Exist many tools / There exist many tools
They have suffered all of their lifes / They have suffered all of their lives
preparate / Prepare
organizate / Organize

TERM 1 Lesson 4 Thursday-Friday Aug 5th-6th

In this lesson:

1. We explored the way to understand the entries in a dictionary. (Available under Copy No. 22; Bldg. G).

2. Reading + Listening Diagnostic Feedback

3. We studied the use of relative clauses (defining vs. non defining relative clauses) using the class book´s CD ROM (Module 7).

4. We also studied a list of extreme adjectives (Student´s Book Page 73).

5. We watched the following video describing a festival. Available by clicking on this link: India: Festival of Lights (Pay special attention to the use of adjectives)

6. Project groups were decided.

Independent work:
Page 77 Student´s Book (Relative Clauses)
Bring information about a festival/carnival/celebration for writing a descriptive essay on this subject.

* Copy No. 22 this week includes ¨using the mini dictionary workshop¨ + Vocabulary units with words which can be useful for describing places and the senses.

Image taken from ...

Vocabulary quest: Per diem

Somebody asked me about this word this week. Well, follow the link if you want to know... PER DIEM

TERM 1 Lesson 3 Monday- Tuesday August 2nd, 3rd

Today, we held a listening+reading international exam-type diagnostic test.

To keep in mind for next class:

• Bring class book: New Cutting Edge Upper Intermediate (Student´s Book)
• Project groups will be made
• You have all been registered under the course in Virtual Sabana. Please let me know whether you can`t have access or whether you have not received my messages.

TERM 1 Lessons 1 and 2 July 26th-30th

This is info you might want to know:

Lesson 1: a. General Introduction to the class b. Project-based work (3-4 members groups) c. Weekly written assignments throughout the semester (a video is the final project / written assignments are individual) d. My e-mail address: angela.forero@unisabana.com (an e-mail has been sent with the level program attached) / my skype account: angelaworking e. A general grammar knowledge diagnostic test was taken by all students (make sure you have transferred your score in the sheet handed out by me). f. Weekly counselling sessions are held every Tuesday at Studium from 9 to 10 am.

Lesson 2: a. Grammar check (diagnostic) b. 5-minute interview (speaking diagnostic) c. Essay writing (written diagnostic).

* If you started classes with another teacher and, for some reason, have been transferred to my class, please make sure you hand in your diagnostic test results. *

Welcoming Note

Hello everyone!

This is a blog I´ve created to post news, resources, have discussions related to our level seven class this semester. If you happen to miss class, you can find information related to the topics studied, glossaries, useful info, and some reminders. Feel free to contact me through my e-mail addresses (a.preintermediate@gmail.com / angela.forero@unisabana.edu.co) or skype account (angelaworking).