Class Summary B2.2 Dec. 20 and 21

CLASS SUMMARY – 21/12/2013

JOSÉ PEDRO PASTOR ESCUREDO B.2.2-SAT

Hi guys!!!!!!!!

We started the class being six students, less students than usually we are… Kate told us about this is a strange year with holydays. After that we talked about lottery and a day-dream about some teachers of “Estadística” drinking Champaign at the cafeteria (there was no luck for me this year I hope you had better), at the end of the explanation we were some more students (14) …Kate made some corrections about homework (marriage and divorce):

·         Get Married to…

·         Marriage => Institution

·         Married couple => Members

·         General redaction and:

§  The marriage is good… (general abstraction)

§  The responsibilities in a divorce… (specific)

§  Used to / usually / to be used to

§  “To have” as main verb: No contract!!!

§  Two subjects in a phrase

§  I´m agree…

§  Responsible for

We made some exercises in class (Vocabulary page 25) and pronunciation, we can find a sheet in the blog from Conversation B.2 and we saw some phrasal verbs.

Great game with phrasal verbs!!!!!!

After the break, Kate brought some Christmas cookies to class (thanks they were delicious) and we made a listening of a Christmas carol “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”.

Great Class and no homework**… I will see you on January 11^th.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

** Not quite true, José Pedro. I asked you to do the Reading about the Swiss electoral system and related vocabulary on p. 30. (Or at least I meant to. I know I told the Friday class to do it) But no written homework.  Kate

Summary of B2.2 Made by a Fri student but valid for both groups

Hi B2.2 groups

Cristina from the Friday class has made this summary. It is valid for both groups (except of course for the 1st comment about the transferring students!) Please see my previous post from Saturday for video links and homework. See you all on FridAY or Saturday
AND THANK YOU, CRISTINA!

 Kate

Elena had to change to another English class, and we have another classmate called Carlos (at least I think, I am not too good at rememberING names).

At the beginNING of the class Kate told us that IT is better for us to send our homework by e-mail, because with the color code we can learn more. She told us that it is a good idea to have an English folder on our laptop (or computer), because it is faster to look at our file than look at old posts from Kate´s blog.

We started talking about marriage and divorce and we shareD our opinios, which where a bit different. We did a kind of game: we had to remember vocabulary about divorce from the book, and María and me won!

We corrected page 22 and did page 23. On page 23 we learnt some vocabulary like going out off rails (which means to go out of the correct way). We talked about relationships and described the relationships (on) IN pictures of page 23. We also did the listening on this page,  WHICH was a bit difficult.

AT (To) end the class we learnt some phrasal verbs like take off or put out. Kate explained us that the particle of the phrasal verb is important in terms of the meaning, so if we learn the particles´ meaning it will be eassier to learn phrasal verbs.

A great class, as usual.

Cristina

Recipes Conversation B2 Tu- Thurs Group

Raquel's German noodles!

Now Alejandro's Coffee Cake

Link to Lorena's BEEF WITH GRAVY     Click here

Conversation B2 for Wed. Dec.. 18 and Thurs.19 : Xmas Survey and Songs (for 2 religions!)

Hi M-W group!

As discussed today, on Wednesday, we will do a Survey about your attitude, feelings and thoughts about Xmas.   This can lead to a lot of conversation.    CLICK HERE


Then we will do 2 or 3 Xmas Carols:  CLICK HERE

Finally, there is the song from "Fiddler on the Roof" you suggested cause it's good for practicing the Conditional.

The youtube clip is very entertaining, I think and there is something delightful about the actor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl7BVr36bbs

The clip has subtitles in English, but after watching you can try to fill this in without looking at them. (No cheating!)

Click here

That is 3 different documents. Print what you can, so will I and we can share.

See you on Wednesday.

B2.2 Friday and Saturday

Hi groups,

I am posting the homework with the video clips I have mentioned.

The actual homework for next week is to study the phrasal verbs from the book, p.25  (unit 3C) , the audio script on pp.162-3 and the 1-page document I gave you. There are 2 other links to longer phrasal verb documents posted on  29/11.  .

For Unit 4, we are only going to do the "humourous" or satirical part of politics on pp.28-9 with the Reading and the questions AS HOMEWORK and the Listening about political jokes in the 2nd half of the class.

Also for homework there are 3 videoclips to watch!

The first and most relevant is a videoclip is a political satire about Santa Claus looking at the children's behavior in order to know whether or not they deserve presents (if they are "naughty or nice") and comparing this with the spying of the US government and particularly the NSA (National Surveilllance Agency) to know if you are "naughty or nice with your electronic device."

This video is the perfect way to remember at Xmas time that while Santa’s spying operation may be magical, the NSA’s is very real and a bit worrysome. Click below... 

Check out the hilarious music video for “The NSA is Coming to Town” before anyone else, and be the first one to share it with your friends.  

2. This videoclip in with Orson Welles and another actor talking about a friend is good for personality description, it has the expression "an artistic streak" and it's also funny. Only a few in the Friday class saw it and NONE in the Saturday class, so I am copying the link here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb7uKhI7uqU&feature=PlayList&p=A77AD4D43D39C81D&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=24

3. Finally, in both classes, I spoke about the fact that the book makes all pensioners sound very old and  the descriptions were more appropriate only for pensioners of 80 or older and that I found it strange that the woman in Conversation 1 seemed surprised that a woman who "went to universtiy in the 60's" hadn't lost any of her faculties. But then I remembered this funny video song by a man of that age group who  seems to be losing some of his! He even says :" If you remember the 60's, you weren't really there! Maybe he did a lot of drugs!!

Click here:

I hope you enjoy all 3. They are only 3 minutes long.

Now I am waiting for Cristina's summary.

Good week!  Kate

Con B2 Funny Satirical Xmas song

This is a satirical version of a popular Christmas song "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", which we will do on Wed. /Thurs.

The original version of the song is about how Santa can see everything the children are doing and if they are "naughty or nice" This version substitutes Santa for the NSA (National Surveillance Agency) and says how they spy to see if we are naughty or nice on our electronic device, etc.

It's really quite clever and since we saw the Jon Stewart clip about this, I thought some of you might enjoy it. It shows CIA agents dressed like Santa!

Dear Kate, When you think about it, Santa Claus and the NSA have a lot in common—both can tell when you’ve been sleeping and know when you’re awake... So we decided to make an NSA version of that classic holiday tune, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” taking a cue from Santa’s own secret surveillance program. And as one of the more than 35,000 supporters who signed our petition to Congress to rein in the NSA, we want you to have the first peek at the hysterical new music video! This new video is the perfect way to show your friends that while Santa’s spying operation may be magical, the NSA’s is very real—and why we should all care. Check out the hilarious music video for “The NSA is Coming to Town” before anyone else, and be the first one to share it with your friends.

Conversation B2 ADVERTSING. Very interesting ad for next Monday or Tuesday.

Seeing this ad made me change my mind and decide to do Advertising in the Monday- Wednesday class after finishing the vocab. and discussion on Steve Jobs.

Most ads are not like this, unfortunately but it is good for conversation and short:

Click here to watch.

I also have a listening exercise about Advertising: