Saturday B2.2 : Please print if you can

Find Someone who

1. LIVE  in a very vibrant part of Madrid. (Where?)

2. DRIVE  a rundown old car.   (What kind?)

3. Recently HEAR something really appalling in the news.  (What?)

4. VACATION  in a sprawling coastal resort.  (Where?)

5. BE in a place that was absolutely packed.  (Where / Which place?)

6. BE STUCK in crawling traffic (today/ in the past we

7. HAVE a good friend who lives in a very affluent neighbourhood. ( who/ Where?)

     8. HAVE a nearly spotless room or work area

    9. WORK in / for an extremely well-run company. (Where?)

Conversation B2: good summary by Laura

Hi, I´m Laura and I´m going to do the summary of the conversation b2 class that we had last wednesday. We were watching the Malala´s interview and we did the Malala´s work sheet answering the questions in pairs and with the whole class. We also listened the two parts of the strange story in Scotland and did the exercises number 2 and 4. Our homework for next monday is to do the exercise 6 os this strange story sheet and to think about a story of ghosts, urban legends, something that happened to you that was paranormal or scary...whatever you want.

Conversation B2: Surveillance of normal citizens

I would like to hear about the demonstration from those who attended.

On Monday / Tuesday, we will continue with the listening on the "strange" stories that we started this week.

However, I have been sent a short video clip with sub-titles and simple language about the surveillance ( or spying) on average citizens through cellphones, internet,etc. Since this is very much in the news - with Hollande and Meryl protesting the spying by the US - please watch it. We will discuss it as a warm-up at the beginning of the class.

http://www.thensavideo.com/

In the Mon. - Wed. class, some one (I think either Diana or Laura) said she would write a summary of the last class. You can do it in the Comments of this post.

Conversation B2 classes: Demonstrations and other "business"

Demonstrations:

Thursday group:
 After class today, Carlos, Alejandro and several others -7 in all - stayed to talk to me. Carlos and Alejandro told me about the demonstration in favor of public education this Thursday and said that they would not be coming to class. A few of the others expressed interest in attending.
SINCE THE DEMONSTRATION DOES NOT START UNTIL 18.30, WE DECIDED THAT THE MOST SENSIBLE THING TO DO WOULD BE TO GIVE THE CLASS UNTIL 17.45 ON THURSDAY AND RECOVER THE 45 MINUTES BY ADDING 10 MINUTES TO THE NEXT 3 CLASSES ( OR 5 MINUTES OF TO NEXT 6.). THEN ALL WHO WANT TO ATTEND THE DEMONSTRATION CAN GO WITHOUT MISSING CLASS. But naturally, I want to check this with the other students who were not there.

Please remember to do the exercise on Malala in writng and the Learning Questionnaire for Thursday if possible.

Wednesday group:
 I know there is also a demonstration tomorrow only for students, but I think it starts after 6 pm, so there shouldn't be any problem.

Both groups:
I like a different student to write a short summary after each class and post it as a comment on the last post for your class on my blog. That way,  it's practice for you and absent students can read it.

Thanks
Kate

Conversation B2

For Wed. + Thurs.

Please print this document if you can as well Reacting to and Telling an anecdote Click here , which I am reposting from 3 posts down)

B2.2 classes: summary of Friday class and a link about interesting examples of city life (not mandatory for class)

First, there is an EXCELLENT summary of Friday's  class by Mónica. (The Saturday class, though not identical, was similar in general).  Thanks so much, Mónica!

Hi everybody
Last Friday, we had our first CSIM English class in the strange building of “Estudios Estadísticos”, in LAB 3B. As Kate says, we did some “ice-breaker” activities, but before that, she used what was written on the blackboard to make us talk and break the typical big first-class-day silence. Some of the things we could see there were written down were “greetings, asking for examples, showing surprise, asking for reasons, showing interest, give reasons…” She asked all of us to suggest different ways to do all that. After that, we made a Listening and Comprehension exercise: we could hear 4 different little interviews and we had to take note of the name of the person, why they had that name, if they liked it or not and why, and if they wanted to change it. After checking the answers, Kate gave everybody a sheet with some “knowing each other” questions, which were also related to cities. Here we started with “ice-breaker” activities by asking the person (sited) SEATED next to us (and then, to other two people in the class) 5 questions: 2 questions we heard on the tape in the listening and 3 questions from the sheet. After that, we introduced to the rest of the class the people we spoke with, and finally we all had a name: Alejandro, Esther, Miguel, Miguel, Rocío, Alberto, Vic, Elena, Cristina, Alejandro, Carlos and me, Mónica. 
We had a break of 15 minutes and at the return, we worked for the last hour in our book Advanced Outcomes. We did two exercises of adjectives about cities in groups, and finish with another little Listening. Finally, Kate told us our homework, remind us some things for next Friday (like bringing completed our card and the Learning Questionnaire) and told me to do this summary. Then, we sayID goodbye.

I received an interesting video link of a talk by a Venezuelan architecture about ingenious adaptations made by people who live in slums ( run-down derelict areas of cities) to make their environment more attractive or useful for them ( things like inhabiting unfinished or abandoned buildings in a creative way.) It is a little long and is NOT essential for the class, but since it is related to the topic of the lesson and there are several engineers and architecture students in the B2.2 groups, I thought it might be interesting extra listening for you. The images help with understanding and the fact that the speaker is Venezuelan might make him easier to understand.

Here is link, which I stupidly forgot to copy last night!


http://www.ted.com/talks/iwan_baan_ingenious_homes_in_unexpected_places.html

Conversation B2: Worksheet for Malala's interview

Hi,

I have made a worksheet with questions about the interview with Malala.  I realize from the statistics on pageviews that at least half of you have not seen it, so we will see it in class. Those who have seen it can listen to answer the questions in more detail and those who see it for the first time can listen to answer in a general way.

For the worksheet Click here and please print if you can.