Poetry Festival

 Dear all,

As you now, our school celebrates its Poetry Festival on May 25.  This year's recital is dedicated to the Mediterranean sea and its countries, history, peoples, and cultures.

There are different ways to participate:

(1) Write your own poem (find your rhymes here)
(2) Create a calligram or visual poem (see examples below)

(3) Translate a short poem into English

(4) Play an instrument

*You can participate individually or in small groups, but if you want extra credit, you have to do something related to the Mediterranean, publish your creations in the festival's booklet, and perform at the festival.

**If you want to participate, you need to let me know before May 18.

(Example of a calligram about pyramids)

P

YR
AMIDS
are wonders
that show what
numbers and people
can do if they get together.

Oral Presentations (A biography)

Hi again!

In this post, you will find ideas and resources to prepare your oral presentations.

Here is the handout I gave you in class.  Please download it if you didn't come.

Template - Biography


1. CHOOSE A PERSON

Famous people
Explorers of the world
List of British people (wikipedia)

2. READ AND LISTEN TO BIOGRAPHIES

Stories about people
Famous people lessons

Click on the play button to listen to a student present her biography in class.



3. SOME EXAMPLES
(The following examples can help you learn how to structure your biography.  Of course you can use more SIMPLE LANGUAGE in your own biographies...)


Theodore Roosevelt
Christopher Columbus
Jan Brett
Ralph Bunche
Eleanor Roosevelt

4. PRACTICE (simple past)
Here you have two short biographies to practice using the simple past tense.  For more exercises, go to the previous posts on FILE 5

Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo (fill in the gap)

5. WORDS AND PRONUNCIATION

• Remember to pronounce the past simple endings correctly when you are doing your presentations. Go to this post to review the three possible pronunciations of the -ED ending (/t/, /d/, /id/).
• You can check the meaning and pronunciation of new words in an online dictionary.  Go to section "online dictionaries" to find links to some useful online dictionaries.
• Below is an interesting application where you can type a text and listen to an avatar reading it.  You can even select different accents and male / female voices                    

• Click here to check it out!

6A - Listening: Houses

Try the following listenings:   Craig’s House (Br.)

Terry’s House (Br.)

Stephanie’s House (Br.)

Fran’s House (Br.)

Kevin’s House (Br.)

Harry’s House (Br.)

Innes’s House (Br.)   A Big House

File 5 - Extra practice

A. Exercises:

1. Write the sentences in the past.
2. Complete Columbus's biography using the verbs in the past.
3. Complete Linbergh's biography using the verbs in the past.
4. Order the words to make sentences.
5. Choose the right verb.
6. Choose the right sentence.
7. Match.
8. Match.
9. Match the days and the sentences.
10. Choose the correct answer.
11. QUIZZES on REGULAR and IRREGULAR VERBS

B. Reading activities:

1. Watch the video, read the book and do the exercise (play the game) about Elvis Presley.
2. Watch the video, read the book and do the exercise about Marylin Monroe.

C. Listening activities:

1. Yesterday: listen and complete the text with the right verb.
2. Dictation: listen and write the sentences.

File 5C - Simple Past of Irregular Verbs

Here are some resources (lists, videos and tests) to help you learn the irregular verbs in English:

(1) AUDIO LIST: Here is the audio recording of the list I gave you in class:

**************************************************************
NOTE: to download the file, click here and and find "AUDIO MATERIAL: IRREGULAR VERB LIST"  (para descargar el archivo y poder guardarlo en tu PC, haz click en el en el enlace y busca "irregular verb list")**************************************************************

(2) OTHER USEFUL LISTS:

• Irregular verbs listed in groups (shorter list) 

• Irregular verbs listed in groups (longer list):

(3) VIDEOS: Watch these videos and use the play/pause button to test yourself!

                                                          (BRITISH ENGLISH)



                                                   (AMERICAN ENGLISH)

(4) TESTS: If you want to test your knowledge of irregular verbs, you can try this crossword or the following quizzes: quiz1 quiz 2 (I highly recommend quiz 2, because you can personalize it)

File 5B - Pronunciation of past -ED ending.

First watch the videos and then do the tests.

TESTS:

test 1  test 2  test 3

VIDEOS:

5A - Past of TO BE

File 5 introduces the use of the simple past.  First of all, you need to learn the past of the verb TO BE.  It is also important to know the expression BE BORN, so click on the link for an explanation and some practice.

For more practice, try these quizzes: quiz1 quiz2 quiz3, quiz4 (Present or Past?),

File 5 also talks about the use of the suffixes -er, -or, -ist and -ian to make nouns from verbs or other nouns. Browse this list of occupations and try to find at least 5 more jobs with those endings.

Finally, below is a short video where a teacher explains the past of the verb TO BE.

Good luck with this new file!