SC1 (Wednesday afternoon class) Homework for Christmas and New Year break

These are the exercises from your exam practice book which relate to the magazine topics from term 1. Try to do a couple of tasks a week to spread them over the break – don't leave them all to the end!  

Jump for Joy  

Test 6 UE, Intrepid Travel p.120   

Test 6 READING part 8, Gorge Yourself, p.128-129  

Test 1, READING part 7, On a wing and a woof 

 Big Brother  

Test 2 UE Part 1, texting pigeons p.34  

Test 3 READING PART 6, Views of social media p.64-65  

Test 3 READING PART 5, What price privacy p.62-63 

SB2 Plus (Friday afternoon) Homework for Christmas and New Year Break

Hi 

1. First of all, remember you're in the middle of a project, and you need to present it in the first lesson back after the  break, so don't forget to keep in touch with the other members of your group and get it done!
 
2. These are the exercises for term 1 from your exam practice books. You have done some of these in class. Please do the rest over the break. I suggest you spread them over the break – don't leave them all to the last minute! 
What Makes a Hero 
Test 4 UE part 2 MR BEAN page 69  
Test 8 UE part 3 THE BLIND PILOT p. 142 
Test 4 RUE part 6 FEMI KUTI, African Musician. Page 74 
Test 2 READING part 7 BEING A FEMALE REFEREE p.36-37 
Under Pressure 
Test 3 USE OF ENGLISH part 2 AN INFLUENTIAL COOK p.51 
Test 1 READING part 5 DRIVING IN THE DESERT p.10-11 
Test 1 READING part 6 MUSIC TO GET FIT BY p.12-13

SB2 Plus (Friday Afternoon Class) Homework and Last Class before Christmas

Homework:


1.  Come up with questions for your questionnaire  

2. Write the questions up on a shared document (google docs, office online etc) so that you can add to them, edit them etc outside class. The questionnaire should be pretty much complete by December 6 (next class). 


 3. Carry out a survey of your classmates in your school. Ask enough people to get some interesting data! You could try doing this online (Survey Monkey for example), but you might not get so many answers. You decide.  

4.  Work with your group online to prepare a presentation of your results. You can use Google Slides, PowerPoint in Office Online, Prezi or whatever app or website you think works best for you.  

 5. In the first class after Christmas, each group will present its results to the class.

The answer to your question about bringing food and drink to class for the last class before the end-of-year break is YES! Remember that: 

- the 'party' time is the last bit of the class, not the whole 3 hours! 

- we MUST keep the room clean, so it's your responsibility to not make mess and clear up any mess you make. 

- it's extremely important to be clear if you have any food allergies and not eat or drink anything that might make you sick!

SB2 Plus 15 November 2019

Homework

Reading and Use of English Part 7, pages 14-15 in your exam practice book. 

SC1 Plus Wednesday 13 November

To give a bit more input to the topic of our current magazine, for homework this week, I'd like you to watch one of four TED talks. Please watch the talk assigned to you and be prepared to discuss it in groups in the next class.

Sofia F
Leonor
Rita
Ana Catarina
Watch this talk: http://bit.ly/EdwardSnowden_TED

Sofia P
Vitoria
Lourenço
João
Watch this talk: http://bit.ly/glen_greenwald_TED

María
Mattheus
Filipe
Madalena
Watch this talk: http://bit.ly/Mikko_Hypponen_TED

Gustavo
Afonso
Rafael
Francisco
Watch this talk: http://bit.ly/Richard_Ledgett_TED

Feel free to watch the other talks as well if you want to, but do at least watch the one you have been given.

SC1 Plus 16 October 2019

LINKS

Here are the links from this week's class:
World Happiness Report 2019: https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2019/
Very British Problems: https://twitter.com/SoVeryBritish
The Prison of Your Mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaRO5-V1uK0 

HOMEWORK
Only about half the class handed in the first writing assignment on time. It's important to keep up! Here it is again:
Use the mind map you generated for homework to write a description of your happy place. Try to use around 200 - 300 words. Plan your writing carefully - divide your ideas into clear paragraphs, draft it and redraft it if you need to. Use descriptive language, and try to use the literary techniques we looked at in the first class. Most important, allow yourself to be creative! 

Secondary Plus C1, Wednesday 9 October 2019

Hi everyone. Sorry for posting this a bit late. 

Homework from this week's class was: 

1. Use the mind map you generated for homework last week to write a description of your happy place. Try to use around 200 - 300 words. Plan your writing carefully - divide your ideas into clear paragraphs, draft it and redraft it if you need to. Use descriptive language, and try to use the literary techniques we looked at in the first class. Most important, allow yourself to be creative! 

2. Think about the work you did in groups on the Teen Retreat. Note down any more ideas you come up with, or anything you think your group should change or take away from the plan you have so far. Remember, nothing is set in concrete yet!

Secondary Plus B2, Friday 11 October 2019

Our focus this afternoon was on making timelines and presentations. We listened to interviews about Madison Stewart and Scott Neeson (who Afonso refused to believe was a real person) and then watched videos about them: 

Madison 

Scott

There was an interesting discussion between some students about whether or not it is possible to be happy without money. Well done those students for having an animated debate in English! 

Some people weren't sure about how to use the past perfect tenses. Don't worry, we'll look at this again in a future lesson. 

After the break we watched a video  - Wrong Side of Heaven - about heroes who serve their country and are then discarded by it. 

You then worked in groups of three, researching a hero, making a timeline of their life, and preparing a brief presentation about them to give the class. You will give your presentations to the class at the beginning of next class, so make sure you're ready. If you didn't quite finish in class, make sure to coordinate with the other members of your group before next lesson! 

Homework

1. Make sure your presentation and timeline are ready. Nicely presented timelines will go on the board! 

2. Exam Practice Book page 142 - Blind Pilot. I will check you have done this in the next class! 

SB2 4 October 2019 Links and Homework

Hi Everyone

First of all, well done for a really great class yesterday afternoon! There was a lot of speaking and most people were in English most of the time. This is the way to go - a very positive start! 

Here are the links from tonight's class: 

We started off with this song - Nobody's Hero by Rush: https://youtu.be/0ZokLZV35MI

While you were discussing the two teenage heroes, I played the soundtrack for Amelie in the background: https://youtu.be/CQG7KVUDaJM

Remember, the word which means 'exchange opinions about something' is 'discuss'. You are discussing something. You are not disgusting, which means 'nojo' or 'repugnante' in Portuguese. 

We watched this news item about a 'have-a-go hero' saving a baby who was about to fall from a balcony: https://youtu.be/ZEqWh6fl_sA 

The heavy metal guitarist, who you thought was a tall thin old man with a beard and a bandana, was actually Yuki of D_Drive: https://youtu.be/fo4lCKHhfmk

One mischievous student suggested that I should play a Queen song while you were discussing people like the Dalai Lama and the Queen (of England) to confuse you. Pick a Queen song of your choice. 😏

We talked about an ex-student of mine who lost the use of her legs - one of you knew about her through her father.You can find out about her here, here, here and here. 

Homework

Do the listening exercises here: https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening/upper-intermediate-b2-listening/my-hero

SB1.1 (Saturday morning) Links and Homework

Sorry for posting this late. Hopefully, most of you have seen it on the Portal, but just in case...

Here are all the links from last Saturday's class! 

Irregular Verbs Rap: https://youtu.be/gZzKe1BC2XU and https://youtu.be/lsDtO3kf570 
 
LE Teens New Inventions listening activity:
http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening/upper-intermediate-b2-listening/new-inventions
 
Wingsuite BASE jumping: https://vimeo.com/1778399
 
BASE jump into aeroplane: https://youtu.be/YL9sNrOlK-I
 
Free fall onto trampoline: https://youtu.be/GaANi96Z-Wg 

A great graphic about irregular past participles: http://www.engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Past-participles_mind-map.png

Homework: SB pp 84-85

SB1.2 (Friday evening)

First of all, sorry for posting this late. Hopefully most of you will have seen this on the Portal but just in case... 

Last lesson we did the student's book pp 80-81 and Inês presented her Desert Island Discs! Inês had chosen songs by three artists - ABBA / Mamma Mia, Billie Eilish and Queen. Her book was the complete Harry Potter saga and her luxury was a pendant that her mother gave her and which is very precious to her. 

Homework was SB pp 82-83 and think about your Desert Island Discs if you haven't already done so!

I promised you photos of the pigeon and the gull that I took through the classroom window, but I haven't downloaded them from my camera yet. They will appear! ;) 

I'll also add links to Inês's songs later.

SB2.2 Cambridge Exams - Exam and Registration Dates

How to register:
https://www.britishcouncil.pt/en/exam/cambridge/register


Exam and registration dates: 
https://www.britishcouncil.pt/sites/default/files/cambridge-english-exam-dates-2019v2_1.pdf

SB1.1 Saturday March 23 2019

Our focus today was tourism and responsible tourism.  

• We checked the homework from last lesson that SOME people had done – workbook pages 60-61 exercises 1 - 4.  
• We did student’s book pages 72-73 
• You talked in groups about tourism in Porto and ways tourism could be made more responsible 
• We did two activities from LearnEnglish Teens about tourism:  http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening/elementary-a2-listening/tour-london  https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/uk-now/video-uk/heritage-tourism  
• We also looked at this video activity about multicultural Britain, as it features Cardiff, which is the name of our classroom! http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/uk-now/video-uk/multicultural-britain  
• In groups, you began to plan a tourist information poster about Cardiff. We will make these in class next week.  
• We had a few minutes left at the end, so I showed you a video of a woman who lost the use of her legs in an accident, but still goes surfing with the help of a friend of her son. It’s here if you’d like to see it again: https://youtu.be/4h51_z386-M  

Homework: Find out the information you need for your tourist information poster about Cardiff. Collect any pictures or photos you want to use. Don’t copy huge amounts of text from Wikipedia or other websites. Collect key information so you can write your own texts in class.  

Here is a good example of the sort of language you can use when you do your poster in class: http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/reading/intermediate-b1-reading/travel-guide   

SB1.2 Friday March 22 2019

In today’s class, we talked about unusual hobbies. We started off by watching a part of a video about parkour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vfoyY9lshI 

Then we did these activities from LearnEnglish Teens: https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/uk-now/film-uk/generation-parkour  

A great parkour artist is Jackie Chan. Here’s a compilation of some of his stunts: https://youtu.be/oY8KGNOCk4U  

Only 3 students had done the homework :( So I couldn’t do exactly what I wanted to do next. We looked at the activities on page 65 of the student’s book, and then you did page 68 in groups.  

After that, you did an information swap about strange hobbies.  The activity was taken from this article in the Daily Mirror: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/15-strange-hobbies-around-world-7345374  

HOMEWORK:  

• Do the homework from last week if you haven’t already done it – pages 66-67 of the student’s book 
• Do page 69 of the student’s book 

SB1.2 Notes and homework for 8 March 2019

Here are the links to the activities the lesson was based around:
https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/uk-now/read-uk/international-womens-day

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/sport/womens-football  

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/video-zone/seeing-believing  

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/study-break/video-zone/emma-watson-introduces-new-heforsheorg  

The last link, about Emma Watson and He for She, is aimed at B2 students, so you did well to do that! :)

Homework: Do the reading exercises on pages 66 and 67 of the student's book.

SB1.1 Notes and homework for 9 March, 2019

Here are the links to the activities the lesson was based around:

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/video-zone/seeing-believing

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/sport/womens-football

Homework: Workbook pages 60-61 exercises 1 - 4

SB2.2 Lesson outline and homework for 23 February 2019

Scroll all the way down for useful links!  

- We did the first four pages of Unit 5 up until the gap-fill listening 

- We watched this advertisement: https://youtu.be/U4MTgjNkfyI?t=7 

- We watched this short clip about the diet of sumo wrestlers from NHK: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/nhknewsline/liveblog/india/sumo2/  

- We watched and commented on Jamie Oliver's TED talk about obesity in the US: https://ed.ted.com/featured/qdZphjrI   

- We learned the expression, 'Popcorn should be popped in a proper popcorn popper.'  

- The question of IELTS came up. I mentioned that the British Council has a free MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), 'Understanding IELTS', as well as other MOOCs. Here are the links:  

https://www.futurelearn.com/partners/british-council   

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/understanding-ielts   

Homework:  

- Do the essay from Unit 4 that you should have done 2 weeks ago! 

- The next two pages of the unit. I haven't got the book here, but I think it's pages 54-55. It's the long text and the reading exercises that go with it. I'll update this when I'm at work next week.