Wed May 20 - LAB

Objectives:

- Familiarization with past hypotheticals and oral interaction expressing regrets.

- Identification of "Time travel" rules

- Listening comprehension - Doctor Who - and making predictions

- Discussion post-listening

We began immediately with the section on tattoos, p. 120 - discussion, listening, familiarization with past hypotheticals, and practice. I am definitely getting faster at getting the computer and projector set up a lot faster, which helps a lot.

The sts then discussed in groups of 3-4 the question "If you could go back in time to when you were younger, what would you change of yourself?" They were expected to use "I would have", "I wouldn't have", "I wish I could have" or "if only ..." This went well, although it is one of those "negative humanistic activities" and in fact set a slightly pessimistic mood before the movie. I think I need to slightly change this activity for the future.

The next activity was more lighthearted - discussing the "rules" of time travel. This went well and I wrote them on the board for them to compare as we watched Doctor Who.

We then went to the movie. The only word I asked them to define pre-watching was "wound". I stopped the movie twice - once after Rose saved her father, and then again just after the baby was placed in Rose's arms - and asked them to make predictions. A lot were made and it was obvious they were enjoying the movie. I do need to be aware (and perhaps warn people beforehand) about the emotional load of the episode as it really was upsetting for at least two people. As a result, upon finishing the episode, even though there were still a good ten-fifteen minutes worth for discussion, I stopped the class and allowed people to go home slightly earlier. One st who had been sitting up the back asked me why I stopped the class so abruptly. He obviously hadn't seen the crying sts, and it was true that some were ready to talk after finishing the movie. But after I explained he was more understanding, although a little surprised by the emotional response.

Mon May 18

Objectives:

- Become familiar with vocabulary to do with "interfering with nature"

- Logical identification of numbers, amounts, years etc.

- Reading comprehension and discussion of plastic surgery

- Conceptualization of present and future hypotheticals

- Discussion and recollection of information on Doctor Who

We did a lot of things today! We started with journal writing on the question "Would you change anything about the way you look if you had the money to do so?" Again, my students surprised me. Normally many people say "No, I might have before, but now I'm happy with the way I am"; but this time a good number of people mentioned something they would like to change - or more than one thing.

We then went to p. 116 to begin Module 11 (Interfering with Nature). This has traditionally been an interesting and thought-provoking module. Much discussion ensued about which concepts were already happening, will happen one day or will never happen.

The next reading on Cindy Jackson was also enhanced by a recent photo I found of her which shows her looking even younger and sexier. During the following discussion I made an effort to ask people who generally don't volunteer information, to give their opinions, which they did, fairly satisfactorily.

We looked at the language analysis and then practiced hypotheticals. For "wishful thinking" I got them to do just questions 4, 5 and 6, which also produced a lot of interesting discussion. Hypotheticals is a fun topic as it is so NOT REAL!

Finally I left some time to discuss Doctor Who. I brought in some pictures which helped those who had done no investigation. I was pleased to see that a good percentage of the students had investigated and brought quite a lot of information. In fact almost all those who had done some research had gotten so interested that they read and therefore knew quite a lot of info. Dedicating this extra time before watching the TV episode on Wednesday I think has been a good investment in order for them to enjoy the programme more.

Wed May 13

Objectives:

- Identify formal/informal elements in written texts

- Identify and use specific features of informal writing

- Make an appointment using formal language and future tenses

- Organise verses in a song and become familiar with cultural vocabulary

There was no journal writing today as we were doing work with writing as the first activity anyway. So we began immediately with p. 113, the famous Writing Texts activity of identifying messages and the elements within the texts which make them formal/informal. We spent some time talking about internet/SMS abbreviations, which was quite new for some but familiar for others. In the blog, Karla wrote a message using abbreviations, which was great. They then wrote a post-it note to their partner, either asking them for a favour or making a complaint. This time, in contrast to the last class I did with this, I let them make them funny, and got them to give it to a specific person, rather than anyone. This worked so much better and created some fun messages. None of them had problems with writing "too much".

In different pairs, they then had to make a time to "meet with Adrian Fernández". This activity was taken from the Teacher's Book and slightly modified so that there were a few more opportunities for them to meet, and I made Adrian's schedule a little more "Mexican". The students needed to use polite language and a range of future tenses to complete the exercise. They did excellently and had many opportunities to use the future correctly.

We ended with the song "Down Under" by Men at Work. This was on Alan's request (who happened not to have come that day). I had to explain a lot of the specific vocabulary although some people were familiar with Vegemite and the references to drugs. I began the activity by asking them to sort out the verses and choruses, in small groups. This took them some time. I'm not sure if many have done this activity in other classes but from feedback the students enjoyed the challenge of not only sorting out the verses, but then listening to see if they were correct.

For homework I asked the students to investigate Doctor Who for next Monday's class.

I must say I was just slightly disappointed that nobody wished me a Happy Teacher's Day for Friday. I've always had someone congratulate me, or a class give me a little party, on this day; so considering the feedback I've been getting from my students in this semester I was surprised that no-one did at all. I don't think I'm fishing for it and I feel fairly confident in myself these days with my teaching style and methods; but it was slightly strange for me.

Mon May 11

Objectives: 

- Prepare a list of arguments for and against a topic

- Oral interaction: discussing choices and coming to an agreement

The journal writing topic was not so much writing as making a list of arguments for or against one of these topics:

a. Working at home is better than working at an office.

b. Wearing a surgical mask should be compulsory.

c. Girls should not dress provocatively.

Surprisingly (for me) most students chose a) and only some girls chose c). I guess a) was perhaps the easiest of the three topics. I had expected at least one person to pick b) though, and I had thought more would choose c). All those who chose c) were against the statement, which was also surprising for me.

Perhaps the most difficult thing was to look at b) and c) from the other's point of view, whereas in a) there were advantages/disadvantages on both sides, more easily worked through and written down. Sts had to share their lists with a partner and then some read theirs out. I made it clear that it is important to work through both sides of an argument when writing a for/against essay.

We then went to p. 110 in the book and did the activity "Guess who's coming to dinner". Sts enjoyed this task a lot and participated equally in all the groups. I made sure the groups were mixed around the room and as it turned out, a number of groups were all-female/all-male except for one! But they were all able to come to an agreement about their guests and seating arrangements. 

I used the extra time in class to give indications about the "online" book report (due on May 27th), and also to talk more about the blog. I've decided that, because the blog hasn't achieved much in either direction (interesting comments, interaction, or feedback about the class and their learning in it) that I should ask 3 people to write in it after each class. I hope that this will produce more useful results.

Fri May 8

Objectives:

- Become familiar with vocabulary related to influenza in English.

- Review future forms and Blade Runner movie

Journal writing topic: "Do you agree with the measures the government took with regard to the influenza scare?" Opinion was fairly guarded on the whole; some said yes; others said no; but no-one was adamant either way. 

A lot of people had not read any information about A/H1N1 in English, so while the information given in the Power Point Presentation was mostly very familiar material, reading it in English was helpful for many.

We then went to revision of what we'd been doing since before the forced break. Most of the sts (who had been at class) were able to recall the future forms. We also took time to discuss the movie. Some people understood and offered a lot of information; others a few things that they remembered; and some none at all, even when called upon. I broke the class into small groups to get them discussing the "old" and "new" items they remembered seeing on the video or had written down. This went well and they then put on the board (breaking a number of newly-written hygienic laws by doing so) items onto the list. This went well.

Finally we used this list of items to discuss the future according to the movie. According to Blade Runner, by the year 2019 the world will (be ----ing) (have -------ed); people on Earth will (be ------ing) (have -------ed) etc. The sts made up a sentence or two each and this exercise worked very well. Here, even those who hadn't come to the movie were able to contribute because the information was on the board. Some even gave negative sentences (People will be smoking as much as now). This activity was a very useful consolidation and I think it was a good choice according to the timing and grammatical learning of the module.

FORCED BREAK DUE TO INFLUENZA

From the Wednesday movie on April 22nd till Friday May 8th, there were no classes.

The blog was used by a few people including myself, but apart from that there was no communication during this time.

Wed Apr 22

Objectives:

- Listening comprehension of Blade Runner

- Note taking on objects in the movie that are "old" or "old fashioned" and that are "new" or "futuristic"

The movie runs for almost two hours, so it needs to be started very punctually with all in order. Unfortunately many sts arrived late and quite a few arrived who hadn't attended Monday's class. I'm sure the movie was not as understandable to them. Perhaps working a few classes beforehand would help provide more exposure to the movie before watching.

After finishing I gave the sts two questions for homework and reflection: Why did the replicants risk coming back to Earth? and Do you think Deckard could be a replicant?

I'm concerned that some sts have not returned from after the Easter break, or are only just starting to return, or are having attendance problems. Their erratic attendance makes it difficult to provide continuity or information that is important for them.

Mon Apr 20

Objectives:

- Conceptualization of future continuous and future perfect

- Written predictions of the future in ten years

- Reading comprehension and vocabulary check, predictions pre-viewing and watching excerpt of movie Blade Runner

The journal topic today was "What is your favourite type of movie - romantic, action, drama etc.?" This was a favourite topic to discuss afterwards too.

This lesson plan and the work on Blade Runner was a second choice as I had previously wished to work with Gallipoli, being April and close to ANZAC Day. It didn't have so much to do with the grammar but was a more obvious cultural choice. However, Blade Runner did lend itself well to the grammar of talking about the future and this was exploited fairly well in this class and the one after watching the movie.

We began at page 111 as it was important to complete the grammar of talking about the future, going through the language analysis and then answering verbally the questions about "Jay Fielding" on p. 112. After completing q. 2 the sts had to get up and ask each other the questions - "Will you be sitting on a bus/train at any time today?/ Do you think you will be studying English this time next year?/ Do you think you will have retired by the time you're sixty?" etc. This was a more active activity which was useful for breaking the class time up, using the grammar, and getting them ready to go on to the next activity.

Sts then wrote down their answers to "What do you think life will be like by the year 2019?" Most of them used the grammar that follows "by the year 2019 ..." and made some very interesting predictions.

We read through the text on Blade Runner and sts answered the questions as a TC which included comprehension, vocabulary use (euphemisms) and predictions. They then watched the beginning scene from Blade Runner and answered the questions, Who do you identify with - the human or the replicant? and What do you think Leon will do now that he's been discovered?

The homework was to read some more about the movie Blade Runner on the internet before next class in order to understand better the movie.

Fri Apr 17

Objectives:

- Revision of writing exam, common mistakes, location and self-correction of mistakes.

- Conceptualization and practice of future expressions

- Oral interaction on a future event

Most of the class was spent on going over the exam essays and doing some work on the most common errors ("the top 20"), then correcting their own mistakes on their essays. Those who used the class time to correct their errors were able to detect and correct many more than those who took their essays home, which came back with a number of errors uncorrected, or corrected wrongly.

We used the rest of the time in class to go carefully over the grammar of future events, and practice using the dialogues on p. 109 and choosing two topics for discussion in pairs. Upon monitoring the sts appeared to be using the grammatical points well.

Wed Apr 15

Objectives:

- Revision and feedback

- Introduction to vocabulary of getting together and future expressions: present simple and continuous/will/going to

The journal writing topic was "What do you think you will be doing ... This weekend? This time next year? In three years from now?" I consider these time frames to be easier for sts to handle than "ten years from now/ fifty years etc."

After revision of LC/RC exams, we went to p. 106 in the books with a vocabulary matching/collocations activity. There are some words that are used a lot with "have" and not so many with "go on". It would be good to check this list and create my own with more common collocations for next year. Sts also discussed a memorable "get-together" they've been to. Unfortunately this seemed, and in some cases was, the same activity they'd done a few months ago on a memorable event. It seems a bit useless and should also be changed. Some sts commented that they'd already done this. So I cut it a little shorter than normal.

We did some study on p. 108-9 of future forms. Two sts read out the dialogue and tried to solve the multiple choice as they went along. They did fairly well but after finishing we listened to the dialogue from the CD and corrected the mistakes. We only got as far as the analysis after this and left the language summaries for next class.

Mon Apr 11

Objectives:

 - Feedback and revision of exams

- Cultural awareness

- Reading comprehension and summarizing of text

- Oral interaction on the topic of getting together

Journal writing today was on "What does the Easter break mean to you?"

Apart from revision, we also began looking at "getting together" which is the topic for the next module. Rather than go straight to the book, the students first completed their Cultural Star and discussed their cultural groups with a partner. Some had a number of things in common and others had nothing in common. We then grouped on the board a number of cultural groups that they had listed, such as being Mexican or from a region of Mexico; sports, family (and their place in the family), career/profession, etc.

They then read the text called "Belonging" and had to write a short summary of the text. They all picked up the key words in the text. The vocabulary underlined in the text was a multiple-choice of which one distractor is a little too ambiguous; and some had some trouble identifying the correct answer. More work needs to be done on understanding vocabulary IN CONTEXT; perhaps work more on words that mean different things depending on the context.

Finally they held a discussion in small groups comparing their own culture stars with the most important cultural groups in British culture. It was revealed that they don't count their friendships as something which defines them as much as British people do.

Midterm exams

The first week of April was dedicated wholly to the exams. Language on Monday, LC/RC on Wednesday, writing on Friday. Everyone turned up to each exam except for Mariela, who had to complete both writing and LC/RC on Friday, and Jorge who didn't attend Friday's class.

After taking into account some vagueness of questions/answers and a vocabulary point which was never touched on in class ("brought up a Catholic"), the results are as following:

Language: 

10 - two students

9 - one student

8 - three students

7 - eight students

6 - five students

5 or lower - five students

RC:

10 - three students (the same two for language, and one more)

9 - 

8 - nine students

7 - six students

6 - three students

5 - two students (neither failed the language)

LC:

10 - eleven students (including one who got 10s in language and RC)

9 - seven students

8 - four students

7 - 

6 - 

5- one student (didn't fail other skills)

Writing:

10 - three students (including one who got 10 in language)

9 - seven students

8 - ten students

7 - three students

6 - 

5 -

One student got NA.

Of these results I conclude that more work needs to be done on language (grammar) and reading and vocabulary skills. As we went through the answers the week after the exam, most students had a chance to improve their written exam by correcting their errors. These students will get an extra point for doing the extra work. Unfortunately the three students who got seven didn't attend any of these revision classes and so their score remains at 7 for the essay.

Fri Mar 27

Objectives:

- Conceptualize strategies and familiarization with writing in an exam setting

There was no journal writing today. We went straight to the handout "Writing in Exam Conditions", stopping and talking about the expectations and strategies behind writing an exam essay. We studied the sample essay for structure, organization, use of formal words, and connectors between sentences and paragraphs.

They then were given a sample exam sheet. First they watched an excerpt from a video and then read the short text; then read the exam question. They had to work out what exactly the exam question was asking, and then write an outline for their hypothetical essay.

Some sts were able to write a very concise outline of a few words for each paragraph as well as their main point and a type of recommendation for their conclusion. Others have never written an outline before and so struggled and took a lot of time. They wrote full sentences and some simply began writing as if they were writing the entire essay, even though they THOUGHT they were writing an outline. I asked two students who, during monitoring, had written brief but clear outlines, to read them out for the whole class to hear.

Wed Mar 25

Objectives:

- Revision of grammar points

- Conceptualization of sound units

- Listening for specific detail

- Identifying meaning of vocabulary through context.

The journal writing topic today was "What experience (if any) have you ever had with the National Army of Mexico?" (Seen them march, entered the army, etc.) About 4-5 sts volunteered information after writing, Antioko remembering some unpleasant experiences in Chiapas!

Sts spent 20-25 minutes on revision of certain grammar points. Here rather than go through every activity, I gave them the choice of the ones that they felt they needed to work on most. The grammatical points were all ones we've worked on during the semester and that would be in the exam, and also some work on the use of articles, which was a level 5 point but one that I know will be needed for the written exam in particular. They seemed to enjoy having the freedom to choose the ones they wanted to do. I had the answer key to each activity so that they could then check their answers. Some finished quickly and were able to complete all the activities anyway. Others went more slowly but were still able to finish at least 3 activities.

We looked at "Some important sound units" next. This was a two-page handout that I'd designed on request by one of the sts in the blog, to assist them in reading out loud by recognizing the sound certain letter combinations make - in particular the long vowel sounds, "ow", "ch", "oo" and "-ed" endings. I also gave them a sentence to read aloud each which used a number of words from the lists using the same sounds, eg. for "ch" "The chess champion was a chimpanzee". I tried to make the sentences memorable and funny. I also used one sentence straight from "Alice's Restaurant". If we had had more time for this activity it would also have been good to have them create some sentences of their own and give them to a partner to practice the pronunciation.

Finally we talked about the TV show "The Biggest Loser" and listened to an interview between a Canadian and a Korean guy talking about losing weight. The sts did work on pronunciation, cloze and comprehension.

Mon Mar 23

Objectives:

- Exchange information about myths and urban legends, and listen for specific information

- Induce the use of past modals through listening to a mystery; then choose correct modals in a dialogue

- Follow a spoken song

The journal writing today was on "the most beautiful sunset you've ever seen. Where did you see it?" This was inspired by the amazing sunset I saw on the way to class. But interestingly enough, the song we listened to "Alice's Restaurant" also mentioned sunsets.

I gave back half of the oral production feedback sheets. Hopefully the rest will be ready by Wednesday. We went to p. 99 and in threes the sts discussed the beliefs and myths ("urban legends") and tried to identify which were true. We then listened to the answers. Like the earlier listening text, some sts doubted the veracity of some of the answers.

We then went to p. 100, discussed the vocabulary in the box and the sts tried to predict the story following the pictures. There were a few mistakes but some made good efforts at working it out. However, while listening to the story it became clear that there were elements no-one had actually thought about at all. They tried to produce possible explanations for the mystery, and then we listened to one that the "experts" consider the most probable. After doing the activity we looked at the language summary on p. 154. However as a number of sts hadn't come last Friday they didn't understand so well, not having done the groundwork with modals. Still, doing the "Spy Talk" handout of Oskar and Andrei, most of them seemed to work it out. This exercise also helped them to see that there are a number of possible answers and it often depends on the level of certainly one has for the situation as to which modal one will use.

We then went to the final activity of listening to Alice's Restaurant. It's a long song and I wanted the sts to listen and enjoy and understand the story without worrying about filling in the gaps; so they simply read along. Many of them laughed as well (especially Elvia!). We did some important vocabulary first (important because it helps them understand the story and the humour more).

The exercises (and homework for Friday) are to work out the meaning of words in bold according to the context; underline all the past and present modals they can find; and work out the meaning of various collocations which were in italics.

Fri Mar 20

Objectives:

- conceptualize and use modals of deduction and their level of probability

Rather than getting the sts to write today, I asked them to share some interesting but little-known facts. I started them off with "no-one can kiss their elbow" and "Mexico is the second most linguistically diverse country in the world, after India". A number of sts volunteered facts but some couldn't think of anything. I agree that at this time of night it's not so easy to think about things like this off the top of your head.

We discussed the movie trailers activity. They all enjoyed it and talked about what they relied on in order to understand: gestures, camera angles, facial expressions, repetition of words, sound effects etc.

I then wrote on the board the simple sentences: 

I am sick.

I might be sick.

I must be sick.

And asked them to infer the different meaning of each one. They had trouble defining "must be", considering it to be an obligation, so I explained the idea of deduction based on the evidence.

We turned to pages 98-99 and went through the exercises and the language summary, skipping the analysis. We practiced with exercises 1 and 2. The picture in ex. 1 appears to be from Mexico City. In the future I should exploit this more and consciously ask the sts to use "must", "could" etc. to talk about where they think this is.

Then I handed out some close-up pictures of everyday objects. The idea was that sts use modals of possibility to work out what they could be. Finally I showed them the complete picture. Unfortunately, again, I didn't make it so clear that the idea was to use modals, and I'm not sure I paid as much attention to it while monitoring as I could have. Still, I think the activity was a worthwhile one.

"Guess the picture" is from http://floorsix.blogspot.com

Wed Mar 18 - LAB

Objectives:

- Recognize and correct common Level 6 errors and identify which are the most problematic, in order to keep working on them and to avoid fossilization.

- Rely on either visual or auditive clues to make meaning of a text

- Relay this information to another

We didn't have journal writing today in order to have enough time to do all the activities.

First we went through the answers to the Stardust homework briefly. If I had had more time I would have asked them what they did in order to work out the answers to the vocabulary questions.

Then I gave them the handout of common errors and explained the concept of fossilization. I think the notion of this shocked them into doing their best on the error sheet! First they tried to answer the questions individually, then checked with a partner. There were some disagreements about spelling and the use of gerunds and infinitives, which allowed them to pay closer attention to the correct answer and discover that, perhaps, they didn't know that particular structure. I think it was very useful for them. Finally they put an asterisk next to the ones they got wrong, in order to work on them more.

The final activity of the night was Listeners and Watchers. Half the group were Listeners. They were sent out of the room with a list of vocabulary which was in the movie trailers. While they waited, they had to work out between them the meaning of these words. Meanwhile, the Watchers watched the four movie trailers without any sound. As they watched, they commented on what they saw and tried to deduce what the story was about. Then they went out and worked out between them the four storylines, while the Listeners came in and heard the trailers without seeing any images. Then when the Watchers came back in, they paired up, a listener and a watcher together, and they told each other what they had understood from the movie. Finally they watched and listened to the trailers and worked out the parts they had not understood. They agreed that it was more difficult to listen than to watch.

I liked this activity because it caused them to rely on visual or auditive clues to understand meaning, and the element of information-gap while discussing in pairs was very useful. Of course the trailers were in themselves attractive. The only thing I find disheartening is that I don't think I can use the same trailers each time, because if a st has seen the movie they won't be relying on what they see, rather on what they remember of the movie. So this activity will require researching new trailers each time I give this activity. Or, at the very most, finding little-heard-of movies and hoping that no movie buff in the class has already seen them.

Fri Mar 13

Interestingly enough, today was the second Friday the 13th of the year. And the topic of class ended up being quite macabre, although I hadn't actually planned it that way!!

Objectives:

- Correctly use vocabulary related to mysteries, problems and oddities

- Identify types of strange events with a related situation

- Explain different phenomena and listen for the correct explanation

We began with journal writing of "Have you ever experienced anything supernatural or mysterious? Or do you know of someone who has?" It seemed that almost everyone had no problem writing about this, and a number shared their experiences of ghost-like entities or visitations. I suspect it surprises people to know that they're not the only ones to have experienced something like this. I shared about the miracle of my friend Naomi who broke her neck and walked out of hospital two weeks later. I think next time I give this class, I'll share about Heidi as well!

We then listened to some remaining news articles by sts who hadn't come to the previous class. One st, I suspect, had taken her news article from a Spanish source. I'm not sure, but she had a lot of difficulty with vocabulary which, had it been in English, wouldn't have been a problem.

Then we turned to p. 96 of the book. Sts matched the words and phrases and as we went through the exercise I elicited examples of other similar experiences they may have had. It turns out that one st is an identical twin, and another can do card tricks!

Then we discussed the q's on p. 97 (ticklish, hiccups and sleepwalking were all explained by sts) and in pairs they came up with explanations about natural phenomena. We went through the box of vocabulary and then listened to the explanations. It seems that some of the "official" explanations may be slightly wrong, or at least only half-right. A number of sts, particularly medical sts, were keen to set the records straight.

We then finished with a song - Sympathy for the Devil, filling in gaps and making predictions about each era or period of time the Rolling stones were referring to. It's a very long song and there needs to be sufficient time set aside to listen to this, in future classes.

Wed Mar 11

Objectives:

- To verbally summarize a news article and give their opinion on it.

- To create humorous captions for comic pictures

- To identify captions correctly for each picture

The journal writing today was based on a semi-guided activity I've shown my Formación teacher trainees: to write the inner part of a paragraph with these sentences as the first and last:

- Last week my sister bought a lottery ticket.

- If only she still had her coat, she'd be a wealthy woman today.

Some sts read their "stories" out loud and two were very coherent but different in content; one was difficult to understand and didn't seem coherent. I wasn't sure what to do with that one, but thanked the st for sharing anyway (the sharing was voluntary).

Then the sts began sharing their articles. The "rules" were 2 minutes each; one minute to share the content of the article, and one to give your opinion about it. I had written on the board what criteria I would be using: Use language fluently and accurately; communicate with good grammatical control; express opinions with precision; and summarize an article. These were taken from the Oral grading sheet for level 6. But I let the sts know that I wasn't going to give them a grade as such; rather give them feedback on which areas they need to work on more. This settled them down a little!

We listened to ten articles and on occasions I invited comments and questions from the rest of the group so that it wouldn't seem so boring for them. After the tenth article we took a break and read a silly poem (How to prepare a hippopotamus sandwich), just to get their minds thinking about something completely different. After the next ten articles we again did something completely different and fun in order to break the tension. It's my experience that even though sts are willing to share and talk in class, as soon as they have to do something remotely "formal" they become very tense and nervous. One st was visibly trembling throughout, and others forgot the words they had rehearsed saying. But to their credit, a number spoke very well and made few errors. I encouraged them with this as I had previously substitute taught a level 5 group which had numerous pronunciation and grammatical errors when speaking. All of them gave their opinion as well, which demonstrated good understanding of the task set before them.

So we looked at some Gary Larson pictures afterwards - actually got photos from a website that people had created to imitate the cartoons. First the sts had to guess punchlines for them. Of course some sts had difficulty due to the time of day and low level of creativity. But many came up with good punchlines. Then I gave them the punchlines on strips of paper and they had to match the punchline with the cartoon. Most successfully did this although there was some debate on a few concerning bears.

Mon Mar 9

Objectives:

- Writing: use of connectors in written texts

- Speaking: preparing a talk

The journal writing today was answering the questions "What's good about mobile phones? What's bad about mobile phones?" A number of good and bad things arose in a later discussion about them. The sts are quite happy to talk and share in class, even though many of them have had their first class at 7am in the morning and have been at the uni for the whole day.

I wrote some sentences on the board which were related but separate sentences, and asked the sts how they could make them into one sentence. Immediately they suggested by using connectors. So they gave a number of examples of connectors that could be used. We examined a little more closely the ones that were applied wrongly. Then I gave them a handout that has a lot of information about linking words taken from the website . I put gaps in the handout so they sts had to listen and volunteer possible answers and examples of linking words throughout. It was a lot of information, but more complete and easier to understand than the textbook. When they got to the exercise in the textbook (p. 92), they had very little problems with it, much less than previous classes have had. It paid off to do the extra work beforehand.

The rest of the class was devoted to preparing their talk for Wednesday's class. Most sts had brought their article and went through it. I answered vocab questions and checked understanding of the articles. Some who hadn't come on Friday had to use one from the textbook. One st, Jorge, seemed very unsettled and distracted and didn't work very well by himself. Mariela also was not willing to use any article from the textbook and so didn't have a lot to do. But before leaving I got sts to get into pairs and to practice their presentations, and their partner had to give them feedback and recommendations about their talk. This also gave the sts a chance to speak out loud and try to put their ideas into words. It's sometimes one thing to think "yes I'm going to talk about that article, it's about that lady" but actually getting the exact words out coherently is something quite different.

This exercise went well, even though it was close to finishing the class. Those sts who had not been distracted were able to get through both their presentation and their partner's as well, and make notes about how to improve their talk.

Fri Mar 6

Objectives:

- Review gerund and infinitives.

- Complete viewing of movie.

After last Wednesday's fiasco I feel a bit traumatised about having to show videos. Thankfully today the Play Station worked and the subtitles worked and the rest of the movie was shown without mishap.

The journal writing topic today was taken from Roberto's contribution to the blog: the quote "Remember that the only thing necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing."

I asked the sts to write their thoughts and opinions about this quote. I asked a few to share what they had written afterwards, and a number didn't precisely agree with the quote, which made for interesting discussion.

We then checked the homework from the workbook and listened to the answers. I am happy to see that the majority do their homework and are eager to check their answers. Those who don't end up sitting uncomfortably during that period of time without much clue of what is going on, but I think it also makes them try harder to do their homework next time.

After completing the movie watching I gave the sts the details about the following task (a speaking one, based on p. 91). They had to choose either one of the articles from the textbook or else look for one on the internet (or The News), read the article carefully and take notes on it, create an oral summary of it and give their opinion about the information. This homework is due for next Wednesday's class. The sts seemed happy to do this. I let them go early (being Friday) but they'll have time in next Monday's class to prepare some more for this. Their homework was to bring in an article to Monday's class if they were going to use an external one.

Wed Mar 4 - LAB

Objectives:

- Identify which listening strategies would be useful for watching the movie

- Take notes / answer questions while watching the movie

Well it was all a bit of a farce this day - the lab computer wasn't equipped with the movie-watching programme, as i'd been informed it would be. So in between putting it on the two smaller TV screens and then deciding to watch it via a different computer, it took a lot more time than we had - the movie is LONG!!

I felt flustered and out of control, and more so when we discovered that the speakers were only playing one half of the sound - the music and sound effects, but hardly any dialogue! MORE fixing and struggling. So in the end we had about an hour of movie to watch when there was about 1 1/2 hours left of it. I was very disappointed, and it meant the students had to do more reading comprehension than listening comp, which had been the aim of the exercise. It was not very enjoyable and also as a result the sts missed a number of the questions on the handout. Still, we decided to finish watching the movie on Friday's class "con calma".

Mon Mar 2

Objectives:

- Conceptualize different infinitive and gerund forms by creating a top 5 list.

- Identify listening strategies used and attempt new strategies when listening to a text.

The journal writing today went a bit longer than expected, but was interesting for the sts. They were given a series of eight songs/pieces of music, and were asked to write down whatever came into their head - descriptions of the music, memories, thoughts, feelings. The music was quite different and one was positively scary, so there were many different entries. People were walking in late, though; so as we went through the music at the end they had to sit and wait. Perhaps in the future we could discuss each one, one by one. I had thought of doing this but decided it would be better to have them write more continuously.

We went to p. 89 and looked at slightly more difficult infinitive and gerund forms (passive, perfect and continuous). This time we just went through the language summary at the end of the book. I guess we did the exercises fairly quickly as I didn't want to spend too much time on this again. However, being more difficult to grasp for Spanish-speakers, they needed practice so we did practice 1 and half of 2. Then the sts, in small groups, made lists. Half did "5 things to worry about if you're a CELE student". The other half did "5 things to be happy about because you're a CELE student." I made the error last time I taught this level to only do the "worry" list which made everyone feel bad at the end. So having half look at the negative things and half look at positive things was much more positive overall.

I handed out some reference material on verbs that are used before gerunds and infinitives. Some sts were concerned that they had to memorize all the verbs, but I assured them it was just for reference!

The next activity was very worthwhile. I got the sts to listen to a text and "make notes" on what they thought it was about. I deliberately didn't give them any more instructions than that. After finishing listening to the first part (an interview about love and romance) the sts stated the listening strategies they had used to understand the text. I wrote these on the board. Then I gave the handout on listening strategy use, and the sts filled it out with their own information as we went through it slowly. I encouraged the sts to use different strategies while listening to the second half of the text - particularly key words, not translating, making predictions, and listening to specific details.

After finishing listening and discussing the main points, the sts noted that they had understood a lot more the second time. This was very encouraging for me.

Fri Feb 27

Objectives for today:

- Identify gerunds and infinitives in a written text

- Create a dialogue in a written text, including gerunds and infinitives

- Identify basic movie conventions, and begin watching Stardust (without subtitles)

Although the journal writing for today was to listen to African music and write their thoughts as they listened, it took a while to set up the Play Station equipment in order to watch the DVD, so I skipped the writing task today.

We went straight to looking at the homework (final exercise on infinitives), and then in groups of three I gave out one page each of the comic strip to each group. They had to read the strips and identify the gerunds and infinitives in them. It seemed like simple and hopefully fun exercise, and in the end they identified a good number of the grammar points; but they got more stuck on the unknown vocabulary of the strips, which I hadn't counted on -  words like preposterous, web-slinging wacko, whining, in cahoots, criminal underbelly, luring - and which distracted them. So by the time they finished the exercise (which took longer than expected) I wasn't prepared to get them to do the "invent the dialogue" exercise as well.

Unfortunately knowing that you're going to watch a DVD at some point in the class (please, please, no more exercises, we want to watch the movie!!!) is a distraction. I had planned to show at least 40 minutes of the movie in order to ensure that we would finish watching it in one more session. So as we went through some common movie conventions, I could see the sts' minds ticking away and my own watch-hands moving forward, the need becoming greater and greater.

So we watched the movie. I stopped it a few times. Mental note: putting the DVD through the VCR and into the TV brings down the volume quite notably. Also, not putting on subtitles for the first part ensures that your sts don't understand what is going on quite as much because they're not used to the accents and are still trying to establish characters and plot.

Wed Feb 25

Objectives for today -

- Reading comprehension: Extracting information from the text, working out vocabulary from the context

- Conceptualize gerunds and infinitives

The journal writing for today was about the question: "What do you think it would be like to be rich and famous?" I asked some students for their input after they finished. They had some thoughtful statements.

We went straight to p. 84 with the reading "How to be a celebrity". I had sts discuss in small groups the questions about famous people and the ways people become famous. We wrote these ideas on the board later. Then they read the text individually. No-one had heard of Charles Blondin, so I explained the story of the wheelbarrow and whether people believed he could do it or not. We also discussed different diseases with the names of the discoverer, and people who had created their own formula for success. Working through the phrases according to the context was a little difficult for them. We looked at the phrase "fond of", which came up again in the next class.

Then we went to p. 88. I skipped the song for obvious reasons, and also p. 86's road to fame story as it seems to be a bit redundant. Unfortunately the grammar section for gerunds and infinitives seems to be more confusing than helpful, so I created a worksheet for both gerunds and infinitives that I hope was more helpful for the sts. It gave them a list of commonly used verbs, some explanations and clear examples and a few exceptions; and then one or two exercises to practise. I'm a little worried though that I didn't give the sts much practice in making up their own sentences. I'm not sure exactly how to get sts to produce them themselves - only how to work through them in other, already-given sentences. Gerunds and infinitives seem to me to be so entrenched in the English language that it's difficult for me to work through how to isolate them and get the sts to consciously use them.

I did photocopy some Spiderman comic strips in order to get the sts to identify them in an authentic text; and I whited-out another strip for them to create their own dialogues there. But the grammar section took a long time; and I still wanted to give the sts opportunity to look at some novels I'd brought for them to read. So I left the comic strips for the next class.

Mon Feb 23

Objectives:

Intercultural awareness - making suggestions and responding to polite forms of handling awkward social situations

Speaking - asking "yes/no" questions to guess someone's identity, introduction to the topic

The journal writing topic today was to write about an awkward social situation that they had once had. I think I didn't give a good enough example for them, but still when a number of them shared their situation, it was clear they had understood what I had expected of them. I think in the future a good example would be a mobile phone going off at the wrong possible moment, or asking for the wrong dish in an expensive restaurant.

I then reiterated the need to find a book for the English class (gave them the opportunity to borrow some of mine) and we talked a little more about the website.

Finally we went to p. 81 and did the exercise on awkward social situations, discussing each one and hearing suggestions (both voluntarily and asked for) for what Bella should say. We had a good discussion about the difference between Mexican ways of answering and British ways. Quite a few sts said they were much more upfront and honest with their answers, rather than beating around the bush or saying a "white lie", while others said they preferred to look for a peaceful way out which may not necessarily be truthful. The sts then acted out their own situations, including a few I suggested for them - a bad haircut, forgetting someone's birthday, or discovering that your friend really supported George W. Bush! Some of these situations were acted out in front of the class.

We then played a game where each person had to think of a famous person, alive or dead, and their partner had to guess who it was, asking only questions which could be answered with "yes" or "no". Before beginning, I elicited the correct forms of questions of this type, such as "Does he" or "Is she" or "Was he" or "has she been". This worked quite well and only a very few couldn't guess the person.

Then I changed the rules and gave each person a famous person, whose name they had to hold to their forehead so that everyone could see the name except for them. They had to ask questions about themselves, going around the room. Here they had to use "Am I" or "Do I" or "Was I". Again, this worked well and provoked people's curiosity. Some were easier than others but there were a lot of laughs, and the language was used well.

Fri Feb 20

Objectives for today:

Language awareness: Revision of quantifiers

Reading comprehension - strategies the sts use for reading faster, making summaries, guessing meaning from context

The topic for today's journal writing was on the book they are reading for English (or going to read). If they are reading one - what's it about? Are you enjoying it? If you don't have one, what book would you like to read?

(In hindsight, I could have altered this a little, as most of them still don't have a book, and were a little at a loss as to what to write.)

At the end of the class I gave them some ideas about where to look for English novels, and what type to look for.

We did some work in p. 56 of the Workbook, in order to revise quantifiers. The activity was a little hard, particularly the second column, which says "this ice cream is full of flavour and should satisfy any of the chocolate lovers among our readers." It seemed a little strange, but nothing else fit.

I then went around the room and asked each person, "how fast can you read in Spanish?" most said that they considered themselves quite fast readers. But the next question, "how fast can you read in English?" made them admit that (except for Elvia), they were much slower readers in English. They discussed in groups what things they personally read in English, what strategies they use to read better, and what the difficulties are of reading in English. They reported back and I wrote their answers on the board. Some said they hardly read in English at all. Others said they read a lot while playing Play Station. Most said that their difficulty was in vocabulary and in understanding "lexical chunks". I showed them a sentence which, if translated directly to Spanish, makes no sense whatsoever, but that dividing the sentence up into lexical chunks, makes more sense.

Sts read p. 82, "improving your reading speed". Then they practiced reading a text on p. 139 in 60 seconds, following the advice of the tips, and writing down the main points of the text. Everyone was able to finish within 60 seconds and give an accurate summary of what the text was about. We then turned back to p. 78. I called on specific people to participate as I felt I wasn't getting enough participation out of certain sts. The sts read the article, section by section, having one minute to read each one, and summarize the main points. They were all able to read the text in the given time. They then worked with vocabulary and chose the correct meaning from the context. Other vocab not mentioned in the exercise that they had trouble with was stall, port wine, wasabi.

By the end of this activity many sts commented that they were reading faster, and were proud of that.

We still haven't managed to do awkward social situations, although this has been on the lesson plan for about three classes now!

I gave the sts information about the blog (erroneously called 612cele) and asked them to write and share in it, use it as a class diary, and give feedback on the classes given. It's an opportunity for them to not only practice writing, but also for me to improve my teaching. The sts present gave me their emails for me to invite them. They seemed enthusiastic about the idea of a blog.

Wed Feb 18 - LAB

Objectives for today:

Language awareness - classification of vocabulary (types of food), conceptualization of quantifiers

Listening comprehension - making inferences based on the title and beginning of song, listening for specific information

Being in the lab but not being able to use the electronic blackboard, I had to seat everyone on one side of the lab, closest to the whiteboard. Three students didn't fit so they sat on the closest seats on the other side. The lab doesn't work well for speaking except possibly in pairs or max. 3 people.

The topic for journal writing was to write a simple recipe for one of their favourite types of food. This took a little longer than expected. A number need a lot of vocabulary to do with cooking. No-one wanted to share their recipe, but they did tell me which type of food they were writing a recipe for. Some were not very simple!

Feeling a little unorganized today - leaving too many things to the last minute, which made me feel flustered. I brought in a lot of plastic food for the sts to classify into countable and uncountable nouns. The food stayed down the front on the table and I picked each one up and they said where it should go - with "a few, too many, a number of" or "very little, too much, a great deal of". This was very teacher-centred and lacked interaction from more people. Often the same people answered. In hindsight, it would have been better to break the class into groups and get them to categorize a number of food items, then report back to the whole class. My boardwork was also a little lopsided.

We turned to p. 80 and read the "food facts" together. The sts made guesses as to where the quantifiers should go in the text. They then listened for the correct information. They categorized the quantifiers on the board into "countable", "uncountable" and "both". We went through the analysis and read the language summary on p. 151. I emphasised the difference between "too much" and "demasiado", which in Spanish is also used to refer to something great - "demasiado bueno". One st asked about the phrase "too good to be true".

They then made twelve sentences out of the the list provided, eg. I don't eat much chocolate and then discussed them with a partner. Some made mistakes with the quantifiers, but were corrected during monitoring.

We didn't do the next activity "The lazy cook's guide" but went straight to the song in order to break up the grammar, which seemed to have gone on for too long, especially for a lab.

The song was "How to make gravy". The sts made inferences based on the title, some having given the meaning of "gravy". We looked at the first line and they made guesses about who the song was about, what it was; the second line established what time of year it was; and the third line established from where the letter was being written.

The sts listened to the song and filled in the gaps of the words. Some vocabulary we worked on later was roast, Queensland, dollop, cologne, stab me in the back, tang, my mind it plays up.I had to give them most of the vocabulary as it was quite Australia-specific. We listened to it again for them to confirm the word gaps and to enjoy it.

Mon Feb 16

Objectives for today:

Language awareness - conceptualizing defining and non-defining relative clauses

For journal writing, sts wrote describing their favourite place.

We then went to p. 76 and discussed the special days listed there (Children's Day, Mother's Day and Day of the Dead). I also gave them information, on their request, about these days in Australia. They attempted to complete the three texts using the relative clauses. The sts got the majority of the clauses correct. We took time to look at the analysis and I wrote on the board the various types of nouns which go before a relative clause (people, places, things, times and dates). The sts identified which relative pronouns refer to each one.

We also read through the language summaries. I didn't find this information so helpful for the sts, in fact it seems to confuse them more. In the future I'll try to find better reference information.

Sts then practiced with relative clauses, first just filling in relative pronouns, then discussing in pairs answers to questions such as "the name of a country you'd really like to visit". They did well discussing these and using the relative clauses correctly.

Finally we played a game. I gave each st a card with some information on it - the name of a famous person, place or film, or information about each one. They had to find the person with the card that matched the information, then together create sentences with the information using relative clauses. eg. "'The Dark Knight', which stars Christian Bale, is a 2008 movie which is set in Gotham City." The game was very successful and all sts participated to create effective sentences. Many of them wrote down the sentences they had made. This also was interesting as they learned about the people, places and movies.

Fri Feb 13

Objectives for today:

Listening comprehension - extracting the main information, recognition

Speaking - interviewing and describing an event

Listening comprehension - listening for main information, inferring attitudes

Today I remembered to bring music for the journal writing, which made things feel a little more relaxed. Their topic for today was "What will you do tomorrow for Valentine's Day / the Day of Love and Friendship / Saturday?" (It depended on whether they celebrate Valentine's Day or not!)

We went straight to p. 74 and they began the initial discussion with a partner a memorable event that they had both been to. They then listened to four people speaking about a memorable event. We listened to them one at a time and discussed the questions as we went, which basically looked for the main information from the texts. They then identified which phrases came from which listening text. I put special emphasis on the way "just" was used and also the use of "absolutely" in a number of sentences.

On p. 75 the sts then began the speaking task. We worked through the useful language. They worked with a different partner this time, and interviewed each other on a memorable event from their lives. Some of them later shared their partner's experience, and there were some very interesting ones - a concert in Italy, a carnival in Veracruz, and even working with Habitat for Humanity in Tabasco. This impressed me. The sts did well interviewing and using the language presented.

We had to skip "Awkward Social Situations" as there was not time to do both that and also listen to the song. So then we listened to the song "Knockbacks in Halifax", explaining the vocabulary knockbacks, Halifax, Northern Lights, Sydney, Geelong, bluenose, bitter. One of the students explained the Northern Lights. I got the students just to listen to the song with the words, and then they discussed what was going on in the song, how the singer felt about being in a disco in Halifax, and what happened between him and the girl. They enjoyed the song.

Wed Feb 11

Objectives:

Speaking - making observations about visual texts, exchanging information about carnivals

Language awareness - extreme adjectives

Writing - creating a social profile and writing observations on the profiles of others

The journal writing for today was "the last concert you went to". It could be a rock concert, classical, listening to music at a bar, etc. The sts had to describe it in as much detail as possible. I made sure the students felt comfortable not having to share anything they had written if they didn't want to.

I took some time to re-introduce myself, especially for those who hadn't come to Monday's class. Then we went straight to NCE p. 72 - Big Events. We did all the activities on p. 72 & 73, and they talked and participated a lot. The extreme adjectives seemed relatively easy for them.

Then we did an activity called Tunoumi. The sts discussed social profiles on the internet. A number of them are involved in at least one social profile, and talked about what they liked and disliked about them. Then they filled out their own "social profile" called Tunoumi. They could do it any way that they liked. Some were very creative and took a lot of time to fill theirs out nicely. Others did it quickly, and then went back and added more detail. Then they swapped and looked at each others' profile and made comments on them. Those who wrote quickly and had finished early got to see quite a few profiles. I think they really enjoyed this activity, both for writing and creating, and being the audience for others' profiles.

I gave them homework from the workbook - p. 50 & 51, ex. 2 & 3.

First day - Mon Feb 9

My group for this term is a level 6 group (613), Upper Intermediate, from 7-9pm, Monday-Wednesday-Friday. There are 31 students enrolled in the class. I imagine that there will be less than that by the end, and that Friday's attendances are lower.

Objectives:

Getting to know you activities

Speaking and cultural awareness - Comparing money from Mexico and Australia, inferring things of national importance

As I have just returned from Australia, the first class was a little difficult. I was very tired; and the group had already had two classes with a substitute teacher, and so were a little wary of who I was. But I introduced myself a little and let them know I'd just gotten back from Australia.

Then I gave them some administrative information, including that I want them to read at least one novel throughout the semester, and to do journal writing at the beginning of each class. The students seemed happy with this although they weren't particularly communicative.

For a "get to know you game" I got them to do "Sit next to" ... It's a game that involves you getting out of your seat and finding out something small about other people in the class. In the end people were sitting next to other people, but as I didn't print out a copy for myself of the commands, I had to ask them questions from the ones I could remember - which weren't so many, as I was so tired! So I felt that this game was not as effective as it could have been.

Then as an introductory exercise, I brought along some coins from Australia and we talked about money. I got the sts to take out any notes or coins that they had on them and we discussed who was on them, what they represented, and what, as a result, is important to Mexicans. Then I got them into groups and they answered the following questions:

• Whose picture is on the coins? Why is it there?
• What's on the other side? Why do you think it is there?
• What types of things do you think Australia considers to be important?

Later they also discussed the different "ages and stages" of Queen Elizabeth II.

I think they enjoyed looking at the coins and working out the different animals on them. Some groups had very similar coins, however. It would be better to work out beforehand that each group has a good selection of coins or notes.

They looked at vocabulary like platypus, echidna, Commonwealth, kangaroo, emu, lyrebird, note (as compared to "bill" - they pointed this out to me), Aborigine, and Southern Cross.

Looking back, I'm not sure if this activity was the best for the first day. It would probably have worked better if I had done it when there was more interaction among the sts. I imagine they were a little overwhelmed by my Australian-ness!

The classroom was quite warm even though it was evening. We finished a little early - around 8:35. This also helped to work through some administration issues with some students.