B1.3 Fridays

Hi Class,

This is Fran's summary:

Summary's 26th April

Last Friday, we began practicing with sentences of different tenses for Future Time. Then, we corrected quickly the exercise about “the electoral candidate” which she asked us to do.

To end with the future, in little groups, we talked about several topics like the environment, transports and communications, scientific progress… in 2050! It’s was amusing, since we end up talking about the film “Back to the Future”.

Afterwards, we started with the Unit “It smells nice”. Kate asked us about perfumes, scents… and we remembered some known TV advertisements about celebrities who sell or sold these products.

Then, Kate read an interesting essay about history and curiosities about perfumes. She asked us to split in boys and girls, to take notes about different topics that she mentioned. Later, in groups of four (two girls and two boys), we talked about the different notes which we got.

Before the break, we studied the “Homophone words”, that are written different, but that sound in the same way. For example, we saw different cases like: right or write or ate or eight, one or won, son or sun, none or nun, flu or flew, wear or where, through or threw…

After the break, Susana told us her “Oral project” about “The origin of typical Christmas symbols” as the twelve grapes, the nougat, gifts… It was so entertaining!

Finally, in the last ten minutes, we answered several questions about the reading of “Tulips and roses” from page 47. Then, we saw “back referencing”: words which we can use to refer a topic that we used before. Examples: where, they, who…

Notices and homework:

-       On 3^rd May, NO CLASS.

-       On 10^th May, “Steel Magnolias” (play where Kate will perform) is going to be represented at 20.30 p.m. in Instituto Cardenal Cisneros (c/ Reyes 4)

-       For homework we had to do Progress Tests 4 and 5 and a video clip about the environment with an exercise.

And environmental video link: Click here

Con B2 : Jornada Gástronomica : photo

B1.3 Fridays: Summary of last class

A summary of last Friday from Marian:

Marian De Ramos ha dejado un nuevo comentario en su entrada "B1.3 Fridays": 

Summary's 19th April
At the first of class we did exercises about comparative phrases and prepositions. Also we spent a few time talking about the oral project and Kate's play "Steel magnolias", we want to see it on 10th May.
We did the exercise 2 page 42, the text was about the koi, and then we did the exercise 3 about the way of comparing, we had to use expressions for explaining a big difference, a small difference and no difference. In page 43 we did the exercise number 5, we compared cats and dogs, and the exercise number 7 we did it in pairs, we had to complete the phrases (Exemple: Older your get..., the more you learn...). We did another exercise in pairs comparing two cities, two politicians and two actors.
In page 44 we did a great memorie excercise, we read the vocabulary about plants and garden and then we had to remember all the words we had learn. I think that Fran was the winner. Then we did the reading about eden proyect and we did the listening.
In page 45 we did the gammar excercise about future forms, and we did and extra exercise about future for practise. And we finished the class.
For homeworks we had to do an exercise about conjuntions and connectors and excercises number 7 and 9 of page 45, and read the text in page 47.
Sorry for the delay, Carmen and me have a problem with your email. 

Con B1 and B2: Great and funny video clip

This is the first part of the sitcom I told you about where the Cuban husband has trouble with all the pronunciations of OUGH and in the end gets mad at English for not always being pronounced how it's written like Spanish. I think you will enjoy and identify with it.

And it has subtitles ( in English). ENJOY!  :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=g10jFL423ho

Con B2 Both groups - Next Monday and Tuesday

For Monday and Tuesday I would like to talk about the relationship between money and Happiness.

We'll start out with this document:

click here

Then we are going to see a funny scene from Ghost where Ode Mae and the ghost go to the bank.

The exercise that goes with the clip is on the post for July 11 2012 with the label of "movie scenes or series".

But the link to the scene is longer operative. I could only find a link for the end of the scene, if you'd like to see it first.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVRlW-f5B1c


Oh, and DON'T FORGET TO POST YOUR RECIPES AS COMMENTS!

con B1: Some Recipes

Hi Class,

This is Noel's summary of Monday's class. Today's class, those present told their recipes and I wrote the vocabulary and mainly the pronunciation corrections.

Mariaguti ha dejado un nuevo comentario en su entrada "For Con B1 and Con B2": 

Kate Seley's Csim Blog: For Con B1 Hi Kate! I don't know where I can send you the summary of monday 21, sorry, so here it is:
At first, we did a representation about a restaurant situation, so two students were the waitress, ande the rest of us were the people who came to the restaurant, in groups of 3 and 4, and we need to order the dishes, and to argue about if we want or not the special offer: the two-for-one offer.

After that, we review the recipe vocabulary.

Then, we did a listening about differents recipes, and the ingredients of them. At the end of the class we work in pairs talking about which dishes sound the most delicious, and which the least delicious; which dish we think is the easiest to make, and the hardest; and which repecipies we want to cook.

The homework for the next day, tomorrow, is to search for a recipe and to explain it in class without looking any paper; and after that, publish it in Kate's blog.

Have a nice day!

Monday we will do several conversation games and look at another exercise about the vowels.

AND DON'T FORGET TO POST YOUR RECIPES AS COMMENTS.  Your recipes were SO excellent and varied. I think they will be the best of all the groups!

Con B2 Tu -Th

This is a questionnaire we will do on Thursday after we do the recipes.   Click here

And this is the exercise to go with the song "Why Can't the English" from My Fair Lady.

They are funny and true about English.

Click here

And this is the link to the video clip from the film on YouTube. Rex Harrison is so pompous but so charming!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAYUuspQ6BY

Also CAN SOMEONE WHO HASN'T DONE IT PLEASE MAKE A SUMMARY (Important cause several were absent))  Thanks!  :)

Con B2 M -W

DON'T FORGET TO GO TO THE MULTI-CULTI FOOD FEST  TOMORROW AT  6 OR 6.30 PM.  AND  TO PRINT YOUR TICKET ( link is on previous blog) .

Oh,---- and come prepared to tell your recipe!    :)  Kate

Con B2 Tu- Th

Very nice summary of last class from Josefina!

Last  Thursday we had a very interesting and different class.

At first we did interviews to each other about our preferences in restaurant´s in Madrid, like if we prefer Spanish or other countries food, or with whom we used to  usually go, or what restaurants we recommend in terms of price, quality, etc.

Then, in groups, we played that we were in a restaurant and we had to decide how to order. We have different preferences so we have to discuss about which was the better option. It was very funny because the teacher asked us about what we want like she was the waitress!

An the end, we listened to a song, a very beautiful song called: “Sitting on the dock of the bay” so we have to put the correct words.

B1.3 Fridays

For homework, I asked you to do # 7and  #9 on p. 45 and the reading on p. 47, but I forgot to remind you to do the exercise on connectors that I gave you to hand in to me.

Also I forgot to ask anyone to write the summary to publish on the blog, so someone who hasn't done it, PLEASE DO IT.  Perhaps Ivan, Juan Carmen or Marian.  Thanks :)

For Con B1 and Con B2

Listening exercise for recipes. Please print.

This is the link to the Vocabulary sheet, if you haven't printed it already.

Click here

B1.3 Fridays: Explanation Sheet and exercise on different tenses for Future Time

Click here

Con B2 Tu Th

Nice summary of last class by Gonzalo:

Summary for the B2 Conversation class, April16th:

Yesterday, the class was focused on migration, specifically on the Spanish case (even more with the crisis), because, in the words of Kate, I wanted to talk about the multicultural situation in Spain.
We started doing a listening exercise where people from different nationalitys and accents talked about different facts of migration and culture, and then we did exercises related with that listening.
We finished the class with an interesting debate about the inmigrant thing in Spain, the integration depending the ethnical/social group and other interesting points

We suposed to talk about music too but the only thing connected to that was the one woman on the listening who talked about hip hop music, so maybe we gonna take it the next day, because we didnt left time.

I forgot it! We started the class with the Eric Clapton´s Layla, changing the wrong words in the lyrics.

So as I can remember that´s all!
Gonzalo

All classes: important

The CSIM has finally written all the teachers and email about the "Jornada Gastronómica".
Apparently, you have to print an invitation to go. They have included a link for the inviation.
Queridos profesores,

Como todos los años, el CSIM celebrará la Jornada Gastronómica el miércoles 24 de abril, de 18.00 a 19.45 en los jardines de la Facultad de Derecho. Para que la jornada se desarrolle de la mejor forma posible, os agradeceremos que expliquéis  a los alumnos que este año, como novedad, es imprescindible llevar la invitación impresa que les hemos enviado para poder participar en la Jornada (http://pendientedemigracion.ucm.es/info/idiomas/flyjg13.pdf).

Por otro lado, también es importante explicarles que habrá un concurso que consistirá en la entrega a los alumnos, en el lugar de la Jornada, de trípticos con preguntas culturales de los distintos idiomas participantes. Los alumnos pueden conseguir las respuestas a estas preguntas en los puestos de cada idioma, siempre haciendo la pregunta en el idioma original, y entre los que acierten a todas las preguntas correctamente se sortearán bonos de comidas en restaurantes extranjeros de Madrid.

Un saludo,

Jorge Sosa Almeida
Secretaría Administrativa
Centro Superior de Idiomas Modernos

B1.3 Friday

Hi Class,

This is wonderful summary of the last class made by Pedro, with the homework at the end. :)

Summary class 12th April 2013 

At first we learned some ways of exaggerating something like “I’m speechless”. It’s at the end of the student’s book in the Language summary 4 and exercise 1 of section 4D. We tried using our body language while we practiced the expressions but we aren’t good actors.

After that  we corrected Review 4 and the exercises 4,5 and 7 of section 4C.  Later we did made groups and we told a funny story about ourselves.

The best story for me was the Susana’s story. She told us a funny story about her mischiefs at the school.

After that we did a listening of the section 4D , concretely, we did exercises 2, 3 and 5. In addition we listened a beautiful song “I heard it through the grapevine”. It appears on the page 102 (old book).

We began the Unit 5 and spoke about the comparative.

In the end we discussed about the animals “What pet is best for you?” and we discovered that Kate really loves dogs. The most of us thought that dogs are better pet than cats because they are more intelligent and loyal.

For next Friday we have to do the reading of 5A and 5B.

Pedro. 

Con B1 and B2 Mon. Wed.

I don't know if we will get to it today, but if you read this, please print the 2 pages for Going out to Eat; post is dated 12/11/12 and it has a Con b1 label.

Con B2 M-W

Really nice summary, which I just discovered, of Monday's class  by Raquel.

Wenesday I think everyone was there and the Debate topics related to Tourism took up almost all the class and got us involved in all kinds of interesting discussions from prostitution and cumpulsive gambling to models of development and cultural imperialsim!

No new material for Monday. There is one new paper but my scanner isn't working, so I have made copies.

Good weekend! Kate

Now for Raquel's summary:

1 comentario:

1. 
   Raquel Diaz Montells9 de abril de 2013 10:03

   Hi everybody, I´m Raquel, the responsible of summarizing our last monday class of conversation b2. The class of yesterday can be mainly divided in four parts. The first one was dedicated to the facebook`s vocabulary and to the acronyms. Some of the most used in colloquial writings are:
   
   ASAP: As soon as possible
   OMG: Oh my God!
   TLC: Tender, Loving, Care
   
   During the third part of the class Kate played us a listening about three people who called a radio show looking for psychological help trying to solve their personal problems with the answer of the speaker.
   
   Finally, in the other parts of the class, we were interacting with some partners playing two different roles: In one case we were playing the role of psychologist to, after that, turned to play the role of someone needed of psichologycal help.
   
   Well, I think I´m not missing much, excepting some interesting vocabulary/grammar that I write down here:
   
   Vocabulary
   
   -pass away: to die
   -reach an agreement: make a deal
   -cougar: woman who dates with younger man
   -cool off: to calm down
   -kick him out: to fire someone
   
   Grammar
   
   -diferencies between prevent and avoid: prevent is used in the future while avoid is used in the present
   
   -we also talked about the uses of a previous “n” in the article that preceed a word beginning with vowels sound.
   
   We should use a previous “n” when there is a word that begins with a vowel sound, but not only in the words that begin with a vowels. So the fact is in the vowel sound of a word.
   
   Ex: An SUV is great for large families and driving on country roads..
   
   On the other side there are cases in which the word begin with vowel but the sound of the word is consonant, then we don´t use a previous “n” in the article
   
   Ex: A university
   
   
   I hope this writing has helped you, see you on Wednesday.

Con B2 Tu-Th (important)

I haven't been able to find my "taboo" cards for the Travel and Love Story vocabulary items. however, I've realized I can turn this disadvantage into an advantage. All of you who read this can write 4 taboo cards for each category. Choosing 4 Travel words and 4 love story words and put them on a little card or small piece of paper. Then under the word, write 4 or 5 "taboo" word that would make defining difficult.

Ex. word: CRUISE
taboo words: ship, trip, water, boat, sea

I'll make some as a "back-up but this really maximizes YOUR  practice.

C U 2morrow.

Con B2 Tu and Th

Please remember to listen to Layla unplugged on YouTube and do the listening exercise.  Also to bring in a Love Story and a Travel story using the vocabulary.

Finally, please print the Document Talking about Music. It's on the blog of 7 May 2012. Its label is Con B1 but really it is general and used in all B groups in the summer.

Con B1

I have a wonderful summary from Ana Oca, who volunteered as I forgot to ask someone to do it. As she explains, you have to bring in a Love story and also to print the song which is on the previous post for this class.

After this we are going to talk about music and songs in general. Please try to print the document Talking About Music on 7 May 2012, as it is very good for this topic.

Now for Ana's wonderful summary.

Ana Ok8 de abril de 2013 11:21

Hello classmates!!
Today we forgot resolve who whould do the summary so, as I think that almost all of us did it, I decide restart the shifts.

Today we had a discussion in pairs about the descriptions of Simpson family members.So whe did, all together this time, a little game trying to guess the character that, each of us, was describing to the rest of the class.

It was very interesting to learn words like:

Bun = moño (Marge has a long blue hair in a bun).
Naughty = travieso (Bart is a naughty boy).
Pranks = trastadas (Bart has fun doing pranks).

or knowing that EDUCATION is only used like an academic term.
For example, we must say: "Bart is the perfect example of the effects caused by the EXAMPLE or INFLUENCE of Homer". We can't say "...the education of Homer".

We learned too how to say "chupete":
- Pacifier (american).
- Dummy (british).

and others terms like
- argumento = plot
- discusión = argument
- charla = discussion

Then, in group of three, we talked about the questions suggested in the end of the Simpson exrcise.
We talked about personal experiences with SEX EDUCATION CLASSES, JEALOUS, REVENGE... and we puted it in common. We could listen some funny stories.

In the second part of the class we speaked about LOVE and saw the vocabulary wich can be found in the blog.
We could learn that "to have a crush on somebody" = colarse por alguien, but not in a serious way.
Or that A DATE (una cita) can be a VERB (I'm dating at Susana) or a PERSON (George was my date).

We was thinking about films and English songs in which we can find "LOVE", there is a lot of them!!
- "All you nedd is love"
_ "Love is in the air"
- "Where is the love"
- "I will allways loving you"...etc.

And finally we could listen a Love Story between three persons, a love triangle, wich not ends  doesn't end very happy.

For the next day, we have to whrite a LOVE STORY using the VOCABULARY which you can find on the blog.

Enjoy the exercise and see you on wednesday!!

Ana Oca

B1.3 FRIDAYS

Very nice summary by Pablo Cabrera.

I will make a summary doc. about connecting words for tomorrow. Here it is:

Click here

Thanks, Pablo!

Pablo Cabrera7 de abril de 2013 13:31

Kate, I write here the summary of B1.3 class.

Summary class 05th April 2013.
Firstly, we played a game which consisted of filling the gaps with prepositions. This game was useful to remember some phrasal verbs such as “consist of” or “look after”… For this task the class was divided in three teams, and when a member of a team said the correct answer, that team won a point. Finally team 2 won the quiz even though team 1 and team 3 were very close to them.
After that we talked about books, concretely, we did exercises on page 37-38. We had to ask other students questions about their favorite novels or if they had read a biography, thus we spent some time telling others about our habits of reading. That task was related to “relative clauses”, which was the second part of the class, so we learned about when we have to use “who”, “which”, “whose”, “when”, “where” or “that”.
After the rest time, we did a listening exercise, it was about a joke, because Kate told us about 3rd April in United Kingdom, which is similar to 28th December in Spain. The listening was very hard to understand it, we listened to the conversatio between two guys four times and then we answered some questions in the book.
Finally, for next Friday we have to do exercises of “Review” unit 4, and also think about our oral projects.

Pablo.

Con B1

For Monday, we will discuss the questions for the Simpson Video

and talk about Love.

For Vocabulary sheet

Click here

This is a song that goes with the listening and which I hope we'll have time to do:

Click here

Finally here is a really complete summary from Inés:

Hi there! This is the summary of the 3 of April.
We started the class talking about our holidays
Then, in pairs we had to do an exercise about travel and turism:
1. Accommodation - place to sleep, hotel
2. Resort - special sport or beach vacation place
3. bed and breakfast - big house that rent rooms
4. cruise - trip that combine ship and land
5. Jet lag- tiredness from changing time zones
6. Round trip- two way ticket. 
7. Sightseeing - visiting tourist attractions
8. Spa- vacation place to go for health
9. tip - extra money
10. Customs - inspection on entering a country. 
11. Hitch- hiking - getting a ride with a stranger
12. knapsack - backpack
13. tour guide - person who shows tourist around.
14. concerge - s/he deals with the guests at the hotel
15. life vest- infatable jacket for floating
16. flight attendant- person who serves passengers
17. a visa- special stamp
18. check in/check out - registering for a hotel or a flight
19. affordable- cheap enought to by or book
20. fare - price of the ticket
21. hiking trail- narrow road for walking in nature
22. conveniently located - well- situated
23. overbooking- selling too many seats or rooms. 

I have written some new vocabulary words:
- a prude
- to sunbathe
- Sin city

After that we do did a listening. It consist in a interview about the vacation that the people prefer. 

Next, we do did another exercise in pairs. Kate gave us two types of leaves, one of type a and another type B. Each person in the couple had a kind of questions. The questions were about what we prefer to do on holiday or for example where we have traveled. The goal was that we speak with more than one person and entertained the holiday theme.

Finally we did the practice of roleplay airplane which consisted put in the role of a person as is his personality in pairs .Your partner had to guess what kind of paper ROLE you were doing on your tone of voice, gestures .

Con.2 Mon.Wed.

Since we are one day "behind" the Tues- th group cause we have had more holidays, the post I wrote for the Tu-th. group,, we will do most of on Wed.

For Monday, we will do the Facebook vocabulary and another activity, and finish with the Debate Questions about Toursim in the post of  4/1.

Also see the Simpson Episode, post of 3/30. It is very funny and the Discussion question are very good.

There is a link to see it with subtitles in English.

Con B2 Tues. Thurs.

First a great summary of the last class by Lucia de Lucas:

Lucía de Lucas4 de abril de 2013 11:23

Hi everyone!

The class on 4th April was focused on these topics: tourism, holidays and travelling.

After revising some vocabulary about it (that you'll find on the post of 1st April), we did a listening in which several people were interviewed about these matters. We had to answer to some questions proposed by Kate. We shared our answers in groups of three, and then, to everybody.

We continued by interviewing each other in pairs, about our preferences in travelling or the places we have visited.

We completed these notions with a debate, in groups of three, concerning tourism in general and some polemic topics about tourism in Spain: Eurovegas, the drinking and partying tourism or the culture market (you can find the topics we talked about on the post of 1st April).

Then, we shared the opinions of each group with the whole class.

Finally, Kate gave us several notions about vowels and the several sounds they have (sixteen!! about fourteen in American English).

That was all.

See you!

Lucía

For Tuesday, we are going to discuss the 4 discussion questions of the Simpson episode ( we can correct the rest quickly or you can email it to me at kate@kseley.jazztel.es .

Then, we'll connect this with the topic of love and love stories: talking and a listening. Here's a vocabulary sheet:
Click here

And if we have time, a song:

Click here

Con B 1

Vocabulary for talking about Travel and Tourism


Click here

Roleplay for traveling based on French Kiss

Click here

And here

Finally, this is the summary of the last class before vacation.

Rebeca Jose Calvo2 de abril de 2013 14:23

Hi there! I hope that you had had a great holiday. This is the 13th of March summary:
We started the class talking about situations that any of us had lived at the airport like the Kate’s experience, who had to sleep a night in a hotel because the flight didn’t took off. Later, other people shared their experiences with the rest of the class.
Then, we form groups of 3. We had to order some drawings to discover a story about a girl, who had a party the night before travelling. The girl got up late and arrived late at the airport but the flight was delayed and she had to wait.
We continued learning some vocabulary about travelling by plane:
• oxygen mask
• to be in a holiday mood
• delay
• huge storm
• lightning
• thunder
• …
In the same groups, we wrote a list about things that the pilot and the flight attendants usually say in a plane:
• Please, turn off your electronics devices
• In case the oxygen mask drop down, put it on yourself before putting it on children
• Fasten your seat belt
• There are two emergency exits located…
• …
Finally, we saw a video of French Kiss: Kate receives a call from her boyfriend who is in Paris in a convention. She doesn’t go with Charlie because she is afraid of flying. He says he is in love with another girl and he breaks their relationship.
Immediately after, Kate takes a plane to Paris. An unknown man sits on the next seat (…the movie continues).
We answered the true of false questions and we compared them in pairs.
After correcting, we returned to watch the video and answered more difficult questions about what the characters had been spoken.

Rebeca

Con B2 travel and Tourism

Vocabulary for talking about this topic

Click here

Debate questions about tourism

Click here

And finally: a recent article in the NY Times about Spain's "paradores" (optional)

Click here