HOMEWORK FOR XMAS!

Intermediate group should read 'Strangers on a Train' and prepare their speech

Advanced group should read the book they've chosen for the first term.

You are welcome to write your comments about the books you are reading on the wiki. This is the link you need. I hope everybody remembers the password (the same password we have for our gmail account)

FAVOURITE BOOKS (ALL LEVELS)

Do you like reading? And what's your favourite book? I'll tell you about mine:
definitely, 'Ceremony' by Leslie Marmon Silko.
It's about a young Native American man (Tayo) who's lost his identity. He feels invisible and he feels nobody accepts him because he's a halfbred. That is the reason why he starts a spiritual journey where he gets in touch with his cultural heritage and where he learns about his ancestors and ancient Indian traditions (the power of storytelling). Thanks to this, he will find inner peace and self-discovery at the same time that he gets over severe psychological trauma after returning from the second world war.
I like it because even though it belongs to contemporary Native American fiction, we can somehow connect it to Galician culture. I think that people from Galicia sometimes have to understand the past in order to value their present.
Silko recounts Tayo's search for his own cultural identity within American Indian community and I feel that in the same way Tayo did, some people in Galicia should start that journey too. That would help them appreciate Galician cultural heritage much more than what they do.
I know this is my personal opinion and you may disagree with me, but don't you feel embarrassed whenever a Galician person criticises another Galician person because of the place where they live, the way they talk (their accent), their language (ours) or whatever they do? Not everybody feels proud of being Galician. It's a psychological trauma for some. They should also start a process of self-discovery.

I reckon that as this is the community I belong to, I must be proud of it. I'm proud of my ancestors and of my identity as the Galician person I am and I'm happy that my grandparents showed me so many things from the past. They passed on values that are not remembered any longer today. They told me stories from Galician folklore when they were alive. That helped me feel part of the Galician community.
Can you understand why this book was so important to me? It's a very challenging and provoking read because I feel like I also started my spiritual journey together with Tayo.

ENGLISH FOLKLORE (INTERMEDIATE)

What do you know about English folklore? Have you ever heard of King Arthur or Robin Hood? Listen to this dictation and if you have problems trying to understand any word, click here. There, you will find the script.


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What is Kwanzaa? (ADVANCED)

Now that most of us are enjoying Xmas, we should bear in mind that not everybody celebrates it. Have you ever heard of Channukah or Kwanzaa for instance? maybe you have, maybe you haven't...
Now you can listen to a very good description about Kwanzaa, seven days of celebration that African American communities are so proud of. It is a celebration of their cultural heritage, rather than a religious celebration.
If you have problems trying to follow it, have a look at the script here.

GOMAESPUMINGLISH

This is what you can never do!!! You'll be running a risk if you aren't careful when looking up words in a dictionary! Be careful when doing so; otherwise, you'll be misinterpreted or misunderstood. Literal translations from Spanish are dangerous!... Watch this as an example... by the way, have you got any idea about how to say those things he teaches in real English?

A WIKI !!!

Thanks to Fernando, a student from the 4th group, there's a wiki available for us all! He's got a very good idea. This wiki will start being helpful because we will make a book room of it.

By the way, have you started reading the books for the exam in February? If you visit the wiki, you can share your information about them. Remember that everything is editable, so if one makes mistakes, you can contribute adding new ideas and correcting those mistakes yourselves.

Everybody is welcome to visit and edit the page here.

I mean everybody from any group at the school!!! That will make it even greater!

Lambert, the Sheepish Lion (INTERMEDIATE)

Approaching Xmas time... Although this is not a video about Xmas, I thought you may like it. I can give you some words which you have to look up in the dictionary (if needed) and which may help you when reconstructing the story.
These are the words: pick up, ewe, like best, lambs, drop him in the jungle, laugh, tease, tail, bleat, proud, fast asleep, awful sound, awful sight, petrified, gruesome sight, snapped inside of him.
By the way, can you understand the word 'sheepish' that you find in the heading? -ish is a suffix that we can use in English to mean 'something is similar to', so you've got words like sheepish to say Lambert was like a sheep. Likewise, you've got other words such as 'bluish', ''brownish', 'fortyish', etc
That's all folks! Have fun with Lambert!

INTERVIEW WITH MADONNA (ADVANCED)

After watching, try to get the answers for the questions below. Once you finish with it, you can check your answers if you click here.
1. In what sense is Madonna different from her husband? (talking about their childhood)
2. Why is she traditional and strict?
3. What do her children think of her kiss with Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears? Have they seen it?
4. How does Lourdes (her daughter) feel with press and paparazzi?
5. Has Lourdes been to any of her concerts?
6. According to her, what's number one tip for success in marriage?
7. Now that she's getting older, is she worried about it? How does she feel?

exercises with hot potatoes (INTERMEDIATE)

Would you like to do some exercises with hot potatoes? It will be very useful for you if you want to work with vocabulary about jobs. Just follow the instructions. You will find three of them: a cloze (text with gaps), a crossword and a matching activity. Click here and have fun!

Wikis in plain English (ADVANCED)

Hi there! Look at this! Have you ever heard of wikis? I know the wikipedia, but actually, I have to confess the first time I heard of wikis was two or three weeks ago when my students of the 4th year explained it to me. In case not everybody knows about it, watch this video where you have a perfect explanation in plain English. If I knew how to do it, for sure I would include wikis in my blog... so, please... can you help me? I think we would all find it very useful for written debates!

The Littlest Santa Claus (INTERMEDIATE AND ABOVE)

Santa Claus is coming to town... we are all making our lists to give him..., but what would happen if we found a santa Claus like this one? ;) Watch it and try to understand at least the questions that Sarah's dad asks her.

Krissie speaks about capital punishment (ADVANCED)

I've just found out about this girl, Krissie, on the net. She usually uploads some videos where she talks and talks about any moral, political, social... issue that she likes. If you visit the youtube website, write her name as a tag, and you'll have a list with plenty of videos to watch. They are not always easy to follow but I would like you to at least have a try! This is 9 minutes long. She is giving her opinion about capital punishment. Can you understand the reasons that she gives not to put someone to death?
It's also very interesting because she mentions particular cases in different states in the US where death penalty is (not) forbidden.

WHAT FOOD DO YOU LIKE? (intermediate)

hi, try to watch this video about food. Before the video, you will be given some vocabulary so that you can understand the whole of it.
It's very short but it's very good because you have to follow the instructions, and pay attention to vocabulary, pronunciation and quantity phrases...

An Inconvenient Truth (ADVANCED)

Have you ever seen 'An Inconvenient Truth' by Al Gore? For those of you who don't know it, it's a green film about the major environmental catastrophes in the world. It's a little bit scary, after watching for example how the coastlines we know today will eventually disappear. This is just an example but in the film, there are so many other environmental problems that global warming results in... so at the end of the film, you get to realise we are really doing nothing to avoid it!
This is an interview with AL Gore. If you watch it, try to get the answers for the following questions:

• What does he say about Chinese symbols?
• What was he aiming at when doing the film?
• Does he think global warming should be a political issue?
• What does he think children will be shocked at in the future?
• According to him, what can people start doing in order to avoid these environmental catastrophes?

And...what about you? How do you think we can all contribute? Do you think it's a difficult task? What do you think of the film?

Have you ever seen Little Britain? Watch this! (ADVANCED)

Have you ever seen Little Britain? I like it a lot! I've just found a clip with a special guest: Robbie Williams. If you know these comedians, is there any funny scene that you especially remember? Who is your favourite character? Why?

Were you good at school? (INTERMEDIATE)

Check that you understand people in the interview. the interviewer is always asking the same question... but what about the answers? Can you understand them all? Is there anything that sounds strange to you? And you? Were you good at school?

Spanish enclaves in North Africa

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Script: In September 2005, hundreds of African migrants stormed the fences of a heavily fortified Spanish enclave located on the coast of Morocco. Since then, thousands more have tried to enter the European Union at a second enclave not too far away. Why does Spain have cities in Africa?

It’s had them for hundreds of years and won’t give them up. The two enclaves—Ceuta and Melilla—have been under Spanish control for more than 400 years. Located on the African side of the Strait of Gibraltar, the cities offered protection for Spanish ships and provided posts for trading between Europe and Africa. In the 1930s, Franco launched his civil war campaign from the Spanish North African cities. When Morocco gained independence in 1956, Spain refused to give them up.

The Moroccans have long contested the ownership of Ceuta and Melilla (and a number of nearby Spanish islands). To make matters more complicated, Spain has argued that it should also own the British colony at Gibraltar—which is just across the strait from Ceuta. This apparent double standard has led to some criticism of the Spanish position: Spain responds by saying that Ceuta and Melilla aren’t “colonies” since Spaniards have been living there since before Morocco even existed.

In 2002, a dozen Moroccan soldiers planted a flag on Parsley Island, a small, uninhabited outcropping off the shore near Ceuta. Spain demanded their withdrawal on the grounds that the taking of Parsley was a threat to the enclaves. Military ships and helicopters were dispatched to defend Ceuta, and Colin Powell stepped in to defuse the situation.

Today, the Spanish enclaves are home to about 65,000 people each. Both are very poor, with high unemployment rates. Moroccan laborers and traders go in and out of the enclaves each day, but the cities also serve as relatively easy entry points for drug smugglers and African migrants hoping to get into Europe.

The illegal immigration problem only became serious in the 1990s with the loosening of borders within the EU. Since Ceuta and Melilla are officially part of Spain—they even have representatives in the Spanish Parliament—their borders in Africa are effectively the borders of Europe. African immigrants who don’t want to risk crossing the strait in fishing boats can try to sneak into the enclaves instead. (Spain has had a great deal of trouble deporting non-Moroccans who make it into the enclaves.)

Just listen!

Mr Bean's Working Day
Dictation for elementary groups

Storytelling practice

Check how a Native American tells children a beautiful story