An opinion essay (1st of Batx.)

You can choose one of the following options or propose a different one:


- Live concerts are the best way to listen to music. What do you think? 

- My opinion about Instagram. / Twitter. / ...


- There is too much violence on TV/ computer games.


- Young people are not interested in politics. Do you agree?

- Which do you think is the best sport for a young person to take up?

- What would you do to change the world? In your opinion, what are the most important problems? What would you do to solve them?  


-  "Studying traditional degrees like philosophy and history is a waste of time and money." What's your opinion? 

- "The teenage years are the most important years of your life" Do you agree? 

- Do you think today's educational system should change? Why? Why not?

- Do you think politics is an appropriate subject at school?



Once you have written your first draft, go throught our "Writing Checklist" to see that you have not made any of the most common mistakes for a Catalan student. 

Can you use any of the "Connectors and linking words" in our list to improve your composition. 


Some useful expressions to express you opinions:

• Personally, I think.....
• Personally speaking, I believe....

• In my opinion,......
• In my view, .........
• From my point of view, ........

• As I see it, ..............
• It seems to me, .......
• As far as I'm concerned, ...................
• I strongly believe, .........
• I am sure that ........

Happy writing!!!

TEACHING CONVERSATION: The understatement of the year

Well, it wasn't exactly .....

Look at the pattern below:

A:   So, what did you think of Switzerland?
B:   Well, it wasn't exactly the friendliest place I've ever been to. 

Now respond to the following with an understatement. The words in brackets will help you.

1. I hear it was pretty difficult.   (easy)
2. Was it very expensive.    (cheap)
3. I suppose he's quite old now.    (young)
4. So, your car is pretty old.    (new)
5. He's the most stupid person I've ever met.   (intelligent)
6. Hasn't the weather been awful?    (fantastic)
7. It's just so small.    (big)
8. You must have been really angry about it.   (pleased)
9. Isn't it a little cold in here.   (warm)
10. This wine is much too sweet.    (dry)
11. Parisian waiters are so rude.    (polite)

Now try adding some of the following endings to the responses above:

.... I have to admit.

.... that's for sure. 

.... it's true.

Connectors / Linking Words

Here you have a list of the most common connectors.
If you make a good use of them, your text will be better articulated and more coherent.

Connector	Catalan translation	Example
Contrast:
but	però	It's hot but I'll take my coat.
	sinó que	I didn't go out but I stayed at home.
although	encara que	Although it's hot, I'll take my coat.
in spite of	malgrat	The company had earnings in spite of the crisis.
however	malgrat tot	It's very hot. However, I'll take my coat.
on the other hand	per una altra banda	The company has earned a lot of money. On the other hand, they have closed many factories.
Addició:
and	i	I'll come and wait for you.
moreover	a més a més	We've lost everything. Moreover, the banks will take no responsability.
as well as	així com també	We've lost time as well as money.
also	també	We've lost time and we've also lost money.
in addition	a més a més	We've lost everything. In addition, the banks will take no responsability.
Exemple:
for example	per exemple	You need something that can relax you, for example, a long holiday at the beach.
that is	és a dir	We need an aggresive marketing campaign, that is, something that can improve our sales.
such as	tal com	We need something that can improve our sales such as an aggressive marketing campaign.
in other words	amb altres paraules	We need something that can improve our sales. In other words, we need an aggressive marketing campaign.

Seqüencia:
first of all	primer de tot	First of all, turn the computer on
secondly	en segon lloc	Secondly, look for the program
then	aleshores	Then, open the program
after that	després d'això	After that, locate the folders
finally	finalment	Finally, download the folders into your hard disk.
Temps:
before	abans de	I'll meet him before going home. I'll meet him before I go home. I'll meet him before 6 o'clock.
after	després de	I'll meet him after leaving the office. I'll meet him after I leave the office. I'll meet him after 6 o'clock.
while	mentre	I'll wait while you're in the meeting.
until	fins que fins a	I'll stay in the office until I finish my work. I'll stay in the office until 10 in the evening.
for	durant	I've been waiting for 10 minutes.
since	des de	I've been talking on the phone since you arrived.
as soon as	tan aviat com	Please call me as soon as you can.
Propòsit:
so that	de manera que	I'll give you the report so that you can check it.
in order to	per tal de, per a	I'll go to London in order to practise my English.
Resultat:
consequently	en conseqüència	I'ts very late. Consequently, we should go.
therefore	per tant	It's very late. Therefore, we should go.
for this reason	per aquesta raó	It's very late. For this reason, we should go.
so	així que	It's very late so we should go.
Causa:
because	perquè	I can't buy a flat because they are very expensive
because of	degut a	I can't buy a flat because of the price.
as a result	com a resultat	I have little money. As a result, I can't buy a flat.
thanks to	gràcies a	I earned a lot thanks to the extra hours.

Reader Assignment (The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole)

The assignment should have a minimum length of 250 words.

Choose ONE of the options below.

In the assignment, you should show that you have read and understood the story and the vocabulary. Creativity and your ability for reaching conclusions about the story will be highly valued. You are strongly recommended not to copy directly from the book. (Plagiarism will be strongly penalised: The plagiarism checker). Remember to meet the dead-line set by the teacher please. 

• Interview a character from the book. Make a list of 10 questions that will reveal the character’s thoughts and feelings about his/her role in the story. Then answer them as if you were the character.

• Write a diary that one of the main characters might have kept before, during or after the book’s events. Remember that the character’s thoughts and feelings are very important in a diary.

• Write about what you have learned from the story.

• Write a different ending for the story.

• Write a different beginning for the story. 

• Alternatively, you can write about all 4 of these topics:

1. What were Adrian's main objectives in life and what did he do to achieve them?
2. What do you admire and respect about Adrian? What weaknesses do you think he's got?
3. Do you think Adrian was loved by his family? Give reasons for your answer. 
4. What kind of adult do you think Adrian will end up being?

Knowing Me

Write a list with the title:

"Five things you didn't know about me"

Don't write your name on it.
Next class we will collect them and read out some lists, you will have to guess the identity of the student.

Here you have some questions from the speaking activity this morning in case you need some inspiration for the list:

1. What do you think is your best quality?
2. What would you most like to change about your personality?
3. Who do you most enjoy spending time with?
4. What's your ambition?
5. What's your greatest fear?
6. What makes you happy?
7. What are you most proud of?
8. Where would you like to live in the future?
9. What's your favourite possession?
10. What do you like doing at the weekend?
11. What's your earliest memory?
12. Are you an optimist or a pessimist?
13. What's your favourite way to travel?
14. What's the most interesting thing about your family?
15. If you could go anywhere, where would you go and what would you do?
16. What makes you sad?
17. How different would your life be without the Internet?
18. If you could meet someone famous, who would you choose?

A holiday I really enjoyed

Tell your partner about a holiday you really enjoyed.

Ask and answer these questions.

Where did you go on holiday?
Who did you go with?
How did you travel?
Where did you stay?

What activities did you do?
Did you meet any interesting people? Did you practice your English?
What was the weather like? What was the food like?

Have you got an anecdote about that holiday?

Composition Mistakes

Spanglish:
....and I have fear.
I'm agree with them.


I lived for a long time in Spain.
When I will finish it, I ....
blond / blonde

Peer-evaluation Workshop 1

For those of you interested in taking the PAU exam by the end of next year-course, you should know that the writing mark consists of four parts.

• 1 point for Grammar
• 1 point for Vocabulary
• 1 point for Text (connectors and paragraphs)
• 1 point for Maturity (content, creativity,  humour, details, anecdotes, arguments)

Now let's do some co-evaluation and reflect upon maturity:

1. Swap compostions with a fellow student.
2. On a yellow post-it, write down some feedback to help him/her improve his/her content regarding interest and maturity. 
• I would like to know more about your  ...
• I wish you explained more details about ...
• Could you futher explain what kind of ... you like most?
• Why is ... your favourite ... ?

Diagnostic test

• Write an essay describing some of your English learning experiences at school and / or outside the school. 
• Describe the way you study it, your style of working. 
• Mention things that have helped you learn English and things that you have missed in the classroom. 

Happy writing!

Adverbs Bingo

We are going to play a game to practice adverb meaning and position.

absolutely           especially           late           probably     

actually           eventually           lately           rarely

always           fluently            luckily            seriously

as well           gradually            much            slightly

at once           hard            nearly            terribly

carefully           just            often            very

basically           hardly            nowadays            unfortunately

Follow-up to a TED Conference

https://www.ted.com/playlists

https://www.ted.com/talks?sort=popular

Title:
Speaker:	Duration:
What adjectives would you use to describe it? funny     persuasive     courageous     informative     beautiful jaw-dropping     ingenious     fascinating     inspiring     disappointing
TEXT RESPONSE: My review
VOCABULARY -          Write 3 words you want to use more often: _______________      _______________      _______________ -          Write 2 longer expressions with their equivalents in your language: _________________________     =      _________________________ _________________________     =      _________________________

Useful language:

·         What I found most surprising was ........

·         I think the most interesting thing about the conference is......

·         I already knew ...... but I was shocked that ......

Writing Workshop 1

PLANNING

A) Brainstorm the content

1.    Think about the topic and if necessary, research it.

2.    Remember / revise the topic vocabulary.

3.    List the main points before you start writing.

4.    Think of examples to back up each point

B) Organize the paragraphs

1.    Decide how many paragraphs you need.

2.    Decide on the content of each paragraph and list the main points.

3.    Use linkers to connect your ideas.

An article:

The Spanish: What we are really like

Paragraph 1:

The stereotype of people from my country

(noisy, are always late, like paella and bullfighting, sing flamenco all the time)

Paragraph 2:

What’s true / what’s not true about the stereotype

(true: noisy, like paella, Not true: not everybody likes flamenco or sings it!....)