Gifted Children

As I mentioned to you, here is the link to the video about a gifted child who can play anything on the piano since he was 6 years old...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQC3L4OY1Jg

Remember you have to write a 30-word summary on the most important ideas. It would be great if you post your work here in the blog.

I hope you enjoy this.

What would you rather be? a photographer? a travel writer?

Remember it is very important that you post your writings on the pictures you selected. To help those who do not know where to start, I am posting the sample description of a photo, written by the photographer who took the picture:

"About 7:00am I was down by the river. Walked around took a few shots and wasn't really pleased with what I shot. So I packed up and started to leave when I came across the falls and thought to myself while the sun is still low why not try to open my shutter up and see what this looks like, I took about 6 shots but this one was the first one and my favorite I knew when I took it, it was special."

Location: Jeffersonville, IN United States

Author: Dante Cooper

Here are also a couple of videos that will give you an idea of what it takes to be a professional photographer and a travel writer. If you could choose any of them, which one would you choose? Why? Think in terms of your actual skills and lifestyle to support your ideas and choose a point of view for your photo description. Remember you need to use a rubrics and make sure your work covers the criteria detailed in the one you are using. Check your Grammar and Spelling before posting your work!!!

The typical day of a photographer....

Portrait of a travel writer...

I hope this material enhances your motivation to write!

As for the reading exercise you had for homework last week, it would be great if you posted your answers to the questions here so everybody could read them and check their own answers so we'd save a lot of time!

Logical Deduction Puzzle

Do you want to test your detective abilities? Read the puzzle below and if you find the solution, post a comment with it:
(Taken from the book "Logical Deduction Puzzles" by George J. Summers)

Malice and Alice

Alice, Alice's husband, their son, their daughter, and Alice's brother were involved in a murder. One of the five killed one of the other four. The following facts refer to the five people mentioned:

1. A man and a woman were together in a bar at the time of the murder.

2. The victim and the killer were together on a beach at the time of the murder.

3. One of Alice's two children was alone at the time of the murder.

4. Alice and her husband were not together at the time of the murder.

5. The victim's twin was not the killer.

6. The killer was younger than the victim.

Which one of the five was the victim?

Puzzle Project Instructions

As I mentioned to you last class, you are working on a Vocabulary Review Project which you will bring to class on April 27th.

1. You need to choose 10 vocabulary words of pharasal verbs from all the book's units (6-10). If you do this on a Word sheet you will be able to copy and paste all of your words in the puzzle maker program.

2. Write the word or words, if it is a phrasal verb or an idiom use hyphens in the place of spaces, then insert a space a write the definition:

 example: "out-of-focus describes a photo that is not clear"

3. When your list with all the definitions is done get in the web page:

http://www.discoveryeducation.com/free-puzzlemaker/?CFID=11158818&CFTOKEN=80448979

and choose CRISS-CROSS from the list.

4. Follow the steps. In fact you will only need to add a title so you know it was done by you. Leave the same default values and then proceed to write the words and definitions or copy and paste them in the corresponding box from your Word document.

5. Once this is done, click on "Create my Puzzle". You can either print it from there or copy it in a Word page and save it. 

6. Of course you will need to bring your list of words because that will be the answer key for your puzzle.

7. You will exchange puzzles and try to solve the one you get as a vocabulary review.

Feel free to send me a message or write a comment if you have any problems or doubts on how to do it.

Enjoy it!

 

PREPOSITIONS

Hello everyone,
here you have the links we talked about last class.
If you want to brush up on prepositions and practice with the dependent ones, here you have two options.
I hope you can really take the time to check them out.

Lists and a quiz:
http://englishwithjames.wordpress.com/prepositions/

Click below if you´d like to download the:
English Prepostions E-book and List

Steve Jobs' Stanford University Commencement Speech and more....

Hello everyone!

I hope you are having a wonderful time and are ready to get back to class work next Saturday.  Better late than never, here I am with the links I mentioned during our last class which I highly recommend you listen. 

The first link takes you to the video of Steve Jobs' speech at Stanford University. Listen and make a list of the key events Jobs mentions and describe in a few lines your own point of view about what he says.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

Now, let's talk about writing a cause-effect essay. Having a clear idea of what a cause-effect essay is and how it should be organized are basic steps to get your work started. Besides providing you with the links to videos with information about this process, here are a couple of links with explanations that you might find helpful, try:

http://www.writeawriting.com/essay/cause-and-effect-essay/   and

http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/lgarret/organiz1.htm

http://www.hqessays.com/info/cause-and-effect-essay/

I am also e-mailing a couple of diagrams and other useful information.

The links to the tutorial videos are:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i8o_mWSwjE

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcUg4ACQEao

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ7ZI2NmJfQ

Finally, the link to the film "Educating Rita" I really hope you have a chance to watch it and enjoy it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smKTxgQp8S0&list=PL4342CDA84D093566

See you on Saturday!

ABOUT SAINT PATRICK´S DAY

MARCH 17TH

JUST 4 U 2 KNOW

Can you name these objects??  Good Luck!!

Last class we mentioned Saint Patrick´s Day and just in case you didn´t know about this festivity, I will post here some links and videos with diverse facts and information.

I hope this can contribute to increase culture about other English-speaking countries.

HISTORY IN NUMBERS (History Channel)   Watch some of their videos too!!

BET YOU DIDN´T KNOW, DID YOU??  (Video)

AND FOR THE CHILD WE ALL HAVE INSIDE, A CARTOON WITH THE STORY...