SPECULATIONS AND DEDUCTIONS WITH MODAL VERBS

Have you ever wanted to be a bit like Sherlock Holmes??? I guess everybody must have felt this at least once in their life, so don´t you think it is essential to have the tools to be able to make deductions and speculations in English????

That is why this week we have been learning how to make deductions and speculations by using modals, revising how to do it in the present and learning how to do it in the past, and we did so with the help of a Powerpoint presentation I found on the net, which I considered really useful: PRESENT AND PAST MODALS OF DEDUCTION WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES . And we kept on working with deductions and speculations using modal verbs with another activity I also created and of which I am really proud: SOLVING RIDDLES.

What if we also saw the master of deduction, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, working???? Let’s have a look at some videos, which, apart from being really interesting, can also be good to improve your understanding:

First, the animated version:

After that, the old film version: What can you guess or which information can you gather from a hat???? Incredible all the things Sherlock can get!!!!  :

Why not the most recent film version, when Holmes meets Watson’s fiancée and just by looking at her makes a precise portrait of her???:

Do you consider yourself a good detective????

AMAZINGLY SURPRISING NEWS!!!!!

 

Would you like to share with us some surprising, amazing, incredible, unbelievable, shocking or extremely interesting news????? I am really looking forward to reading, hearing or watching whatever you would like to offer: they should be written by you, but they can make reference to an existing video or another piece of news that you may even include!!!!!! Let’s put them together in this post comments!!!!!

ENVIRONMENT

We have started dealing with the ENVIRONMENT.

Firstly, I decided to introduce the vocabulary about the ENVIRONMENT in a communicative way, including it in questions that we went through: PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT (VOCABULARY THROUGH QUESTIONS).

We moved on to watch a video, which was an interesting documentary called HOME. Besides, we decided to work about natural disasters, so we did a listening about the earthquake and tsunami  in Japan (Do you remember???) : .

Then, we tried to get a more optimistic view, by doing a song “HEAL THE WORLD”: and by trying to propose ways to improve our city.

But, apart from all this, I also wanted to share with you some ads that are really good to raise our awareness on the importance of protecting our environment:

And the last one, which is a link: IT’S NOT TOO LATE

Are you a real environmentalist or aren´t you????

ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAYS

We have been looking at opinion essays and the main differences between them and balanced ones. For this reason, I have prepared a draft with all the most important points to consider in each type of argumentative essays.

There it goes, I think it is better than the photo some of you took, isn´t it????

ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAYS

RIC ELIAS: THREE THINGS HE LEARNT WHILE THE PLANE WAS ABOUT TO CRASH

This is something I should have posted before, but during my holidays, I have not had the time or the resources to do it, as I was away without real access to the Internet.

Anyway, I think this video is worth watching and I would like to thank our classmate Sonia, from the 4A group, to have shared it with us. There it goes, some food for thought to really appreciate all the things we have in life!!!!!!

It seems incredible this video was published three days before the fatal accident of Germanwings, doesn’t it? It looks like a premonition!!!!!

LA ISLA BONITA by MADONNA

Whenever I listen to this song, I feel so… transported by it that I cannot help but let myself go far, far away (with my imagination, of course).

So I thought it would be a perfect song to introduce the topic of HOLIDAYS!!!!

Thanks to the website BUSYTEACHER, it also came with this worksheet:

la-isla-bonita-lyrics

Do you also feel transported far, far away?????

PHONETICS: ENGLISH RHYTHM

This week we have been dealing with English rhythm, which is really important to consider if we want to have a good pronunciation.

These are the videos we watched in order to grasp this concept of English rhythm. Remember!!!! The more you practise, the better you will become at it!!!!

VIDEO 1

RHYTHM depends, not on how many words are in a sentence, but on how many stressed words there are. Remember that we need to stress certain words, which are longer, stronger and with a higher pitch:

VIDEO 2

We learn which are the words that are stressed and unstressed in a sentence:

VIDEO 3

But stress also depends on pauses and we need to pause after THOUGHT GROUPS:

Really interesting and useful, isn´t it? Now you need to practise!!!!!

MARTIN LUTHER KING

   This month was the celebration of the anniversary of MARTIN LUTHER KING, a hero of the Civil Rights Movement and a defender of non-violence.

I prepared a listening activity  to remember such an important figure in American History.

This is the video I want you to watch as part of your homework, a biography of this man:

This is the other video showing us his famous “I HAVE A DREAM” SPEECH:

And this is the worksheet coming with it: VIDEO COMPREHENSION MARTIN LUTHER KING 1ST YEAR ADVANCED  (including 2 different comprehensions: a multiple choice for the video of his biography and a fill-in the gaps for the video of his speech). (that most of you already have).

And this is the worksheet with the solutions for both listenings:

VIDEO COMPREHENSION MARTIN LUTHER KING KEY 1ST YEAR ADVANCED

I hope you’ll have enjoyed learning more about this man!!!!!!

ADDICTION TO VIDEOGAMES

 

When dealing with addictions, we saw a video about the symptoms and feelings you have when you are hooked on videogames and we discussed obsessions in general, and this one in particular. In case you want to watch the video again, there it goes!!!!!

On the same website, you can watch many other videos related to this highly interesting topic!!!!

OSCARS 2015: PREDICTIONS

AND THE OSCAR GOES TO…

I thought it could be a good idea to do our own betting sheet or ballot on the films we think will win the different Oscars this year. What do you think????

However, in order to do that, we need to have some information about the films that are nominated, to see which ones we like best. We have been making speeches on reviews about the different films, but maybe it will help you to see a video with the opinion of some critics about their predictions of the Oscars’ winners:

And for those who want more, a longer version:

By the way, have you seen who is going to host The Oscars this year!!!!! The awesome Neil Patrick Harris, do you know who??? Bartney in “How I met your mother”!!!! Sounds fantastic!!!!!

Well, remember we will be having our contest:The winner will have a WONDERFUL PRIZE!!!!! Let the contest begin!!!!!