Friday, 27 June 2014

POST 7: A CAREER RELATED WEBSITE OR AN EXPERT ON YOUR FIELD.

Since in order to write today’s post you can choose ONE out of two options, I have written two sample posts to guide your writing (See below).

Post 1 (Instructions).
Write about a career-related website that you enjoy visiting.

You should:
- provide a link
- describe the website (sections, features,etc)
- say how often you visit the site
- explain why you like the site.

Make sure you add comments to at least 3 of your classmates’ posts.
-Word Count: 190
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Post 2 (Instructions)
Who is a person/expert on your field that you admire?

Say:
-Who she/he is.(short biography)
-What she/he has done. (examples of their work)
-Why you like her/him.
-Include his/her image

> About 190 words
Remember to add comments to at least 3 of your classmates’ posts
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The BBC English learning website.
Whether you’re a student or a teacher, you should visit BBC Learning English. To me,  it’s one of the best sites to look for different kinds of information related to teaching and learning English as a second language.
But it’s not only about learning, it also has lots of articles related to culture. It’s a great site where students can do exercises, read pieces of current news, practice their listening skills, improve their pronunciation, and even have fun playing games, watching videos  or chatting with people from all over the world.
If you are a teacher, you also have lots of options, for example you can download up to date material for your classes, that you can adopt or adapt,  get new ideas to improve your lessons or exchange information with other teachers.
Some of its regular features that I like include, among others,: “Words in the News”, which contains written and video stories; “Express English”, in which people are asked about their opinions on different things -Each week there’s a new topic and the interesting thing is that you can also join the conversation; “Quiznet”, which gives you the chance to increase your vocabulary on different topics; and I also like “6 Minute English”, a short radio programme that helps you improve both your listening comprehension skills and your vocabulary while you learn about an interesting issue.
I like this site because everything in it has been carefully done by very professional people, it’s very user-friendly, so you can find things easily, and everything is interesting and down-to-earth, I mean , it is related to real life.  For all these reasons I visit this site on a regular basis and I strongly reccomend it to you. The address to this website is:       http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/

An expert that I admire
“What a great activity! It’s interesting and fun to do”. This is what I usually say when I see English text books that have been written by Penny Ur.  But Penny is more than an experienced  text book writer, she´s a remarkable English Language Teaching author who has helped teachers develop their teaching skills, that is to say, she teaches teachers to teach.
 I don’t know much about her personal life, all I know is that she is Israeli or American and that she studied at Oxford and Cambridge  Universities.  I also know that she has travelled extensively giving conferences worldwide and has written lots of papers, which are very teacher-friendly, I mean, it’s very easy to understand what she is trying to communicate and her tips are really helpful.
Some of her most prominent books, among others,  are: Five Minute Activities, A Course in Language Teaching , and  Grammar Practice Activities. When I was studying in London I used one of her books, which was called Proficiency in English, if I remember well.
Although her books are more concerned with the teaching of grammar than on improving your communicative  skills, I like her because she is able to teach structures in an interesting and meaningful fashion, which is something that not many writers are able to do. Finally, there are writers concerned with Teaching English as a Foreign Language who have written long, boring and hard to understand papers. Instead, she has written short and clear documents that say more than a million pages.

Friday, 13 June 2014

POST 6: ART

This week you have decided to write about art. So as to narrow down this broad topic, you should  focus into one form of visual arts. Please, read my sample post below.
Here you are some bullet questions you can choose from to start writing.

Introduction:
Why is art important?
Why do you enjoy art?
Were you interested in art when you were a kid?
Do you like to visit art museums?

Body:
Your skills.
What are your best artistic abilities? Have you ever participated in any art competitions?
Have you ever been jealous of someone else's artwork?

Your personal views.
Do you like modern art?
What are your favourite visual art expressions?
Do you consider graffiti a form of art or vandalism?
What do you think of art creations made of human flesh, blood and bones?

Your favourites
Who is your favorite artist?
Do you have a favourite work of art? If so, what is it?  Why do you like it?

Make sure you write at least  160 words and remember to leave a comment on 3 of your classmates' posts.

Friday, 6 June 2014

WEB QUEST 1: LONDON

Continuous Assessment 2 is the first of two webquests we’ll have this term.


Instructions:
You are going to spend a week in London evaluating tourist locations for an end of year study trip. 
Here is a list of things you want to do while you are there. Follow the links and fill in the table.


Half Day Outings:
London Eye
http://www.londoneye.com/
The British Museum
http://www.britishmuseum.org/
The Tower of London
http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/ (including Crown Jewels)
Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum
http://www.madametussauds.com/london/
The Natural History Museum
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/
The Tate Modern Art Gallery
http://www.tate.org.uk/

Full day:
Kew Gardens
http://www.kew.org/
Camden Market
http://www.camden-market.org/

London Tube Map: 
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/standard-tube-map.pdf



For each location say:
What day you will visit,
How much you will have to pay to get in,
Which Tube station you will travel to (nearest to location).


What will you do on the other days? (2 full days / 4 half days / 1 full day / 2 half days)
Search the web for other things to do in London.