Last lesson of the term

Today is the last lesson of the term in English.

We are going to see the rest of our film "The Gods must be Crazy" and do an assessment of the course until now.

If you miss today's lesson here is the assessment. Please fill it in and send it before Christmas.

Have a good holiday!

Presentations today and possibly film

We start off today with the presentations from Tuesday which didn't take off.

We will be looking at the school system, health and healthcare and the politics of Uganda. Any completion of the other themes will also be done.

Then if we have time we will start to look at a film which is topical.

Presentations today.

You will get 5 minutes at the beginning to get your act together and some time at the end to complete your documents.

Please share your documents with me if you have used Google docs.
My user name is: habarimike@gmail.com
If you have used word/open office then email the documents to me at:
michael.hegarty@leksand.se

Here is the order of presentation:

Living in the country or in the city
Marcus A
Nils
Erik S 
The importance of English
Petronella
Patricia
Jennifer 
The education system
 Linnea
Simone
Johanna 
The economy of Uganda
Sana
Tobias
Jesper 
Sickness and health care
(Eric L)
(Veronica) Mike
Elin 
Music in Uganda
Jonna
Hannes
Max 
The politics and political institutions
William
Denise
Aleksandra 
Births, marriages and deaths
Erik H
Zinhle
Elisabeth 
Celebrations and holidays
Maja
Clara
Elvira 

Good luck!

Final Countdown!

Today is the final countdown for the "Uganda Project"

By the end of the lesson today you should have the material ready to give the presentation on Tuesday..

The actual document needs to be done by the end of the class on Tuesday.

For the presentation I recommend you use a google presentation which is shared with the members of the group.

The same thing on the actual information.

Do it on a google doc and share it.

Here are the groups once again:

Living in the country or in the city
Marcus A
Nils
Erik S 
The importance of English
Petronella
Patricia
Jennifer 
The education system
 Linnea
Simone
Johanna 
The economy of Uganda
Sana
Tobias
Jesper 
Sickness and health care
Eric L
Veronica
Elin 
Music in Uganda
Jonna
Hannes
Max 
The politics and political institutions
William
Denise
Aleksandra 
Births, marriages and deaths
Erik H
Zinhle
Elisabeth 
Celebrations and holidays
Maja
Clara
Elvira

Clean Sweep Ignatius

Before we begin today's story let us look at the words we had last Tuesday for "The Perfect Murder"
Here is the KEY

Today we are continuing with our study of the short stories "Twist in the Tale" by Jeffrey Archer. If the story of "The Perfect Murder" was the longest short story in the collection the one we are going to study today is very short. We are going to listen to "Clean Sweep Ignatius" here in class.
Jeffrey Archer may not be a literary genius but he is a very good storyteller. In all these short stories (noveller) there is a  nearly always an obvious "twist" - something unexpected which we are not ready for. In the Perfect Murder it was the fact that the man who killed Carla becomes the foreman of the jury and tells another man that he is "guilty" although he is innocent.
With one or two exceptions many of Archer's main characters don't have too many scruples and some are amoral/immoral.
Archer is a very good storyteller and uses lots of  devices to create good stories.

• Puns- plays on words...... Tail/Tale is a good example

• Idioms- idiomatic expressions which say something else than the words mean literally, for example "Raining cats and dogs"

• Locations- In The Perfect Murder" Archer puts us in London where all of the locations are well-known. This creates a sense of reality and familiarity for the reader. However, suddenly places and people appear who are fictitious (påhittade).

Our story today has all of these elements. It is short and sweet....It is set in a real place and with many known locations but the Swiss Bank and the people are purely fiction.
As usual there is an area of specialized vocabulary.. Banking and Corruption. I want you to fill in these words please and mail them to me. Don't forget to write your name on the document and in the file name!
The second thing is to do the worksheet. You can work on your own or in pairs.. Don't forget the HOMEWORK!!!!!!!


The worksheet is to be done during the lesson. (These worksheets are compulsory and form a part of your final grade)
Finally I want you to complete this list of idioms form the story of "Clean Sweep Ignatius" with five more! You can take them from any of the stories we have read ( The Perfect Murder" or "Just Good Friends")
Clear out Nigeria’s Augean Stables
Clean Sweep Ignatius
The new broom
Mr. Clean
Breath  of scandal


With regard to the marking of the Writing part of the National Test I hope to be done by next week

Good luck!

Some explanation about the projects

The focus on this project is on the written information.

Here are some resources to help you:

Monitor newspaper www.monitor.co.ug New Vision www.newvision.co.ug; 

Ugandan country study http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ugtoc.html; East Africa 

Living Encyclopaedia-Uganda http://www.africa.upenn.edu/NEH/uhome.htm

 + Library resources (landguide) http://www.landguiden.se/

användarnamn Leksand 


lösenord bibl

CIA World Factbook
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ug.html

There should be a short presentation of your material in week 50. It can be in a form of a powerpoint, prezi or similar.

By then you should have got enough material for 1- 1½ pages (12p.- 1.5 spacing) of text about your subject.

The topics are not directly googleable. So you will need to view a variety of sources. Those of you who have contact with your pen friend via social media can ask them to help.

I want all the material in at the same time as the presentation (Tuesday week 50).

Our Tuesday lessons are for Archer-
next Tuesday we will read "Clean Sweep Ignatius" and go through the words from "The Perfect Murder" and a bit of grammar.
Check out Read & Proceed 5- 12!!

Good luck with the project and have a good week-end

The Perfect Murder

We have done an introduction to Jeffrey Archer.

The BBC has compiled a lot of information about him. Here 

is the link.

The question is who is Jeffrey Archer?

Archer can be compared with the characters in his own stories. We will watch the three short clips to give you an idea about what I mean (sorry about the quality of the pictures!)
To make life easier here is a short document telling a bit about the life of Jeffrey Archer.

Our second story in the book of short stories called "A Twist in the Tale" is The Perfect Murder.
Your homework for  Friday is to do the following two worksheets:-
1. Some general questions about the story 
2. As I explained before Christmas each story has a theme and an area of vocabulary.
In the case of The Perfect Murder many words are to do with the judiciary (rättsväsandet).
I want you to complete this worksheet .


If you would rather work on paper there are hard copies of the worksheets available


The interesting thing about the story is the fact that it is quite autobiographical.
There are many parallels between the narrator in the story and Jeffrey Archer.
Try to find three parallels.

This Friday we will continue with the Uganda project.

Until next Tuesday I would like you to read "Clean Sweep Ignatius" which is a very short story about corruption in Nigeria.

Finally- a bit of fun!

One day you’re standing in the line of the school cafeteria when suddenly you hear a deep voice behind you speaking:

”Hey, you! There’s a contract out on that English teacher Mike.

There’s a hundred thousand Swedish crowns in it for you if you waste him.”

”What?”

”You heard- a hundred thou to wipe him out”.

”How interesting” you think and get a group of friends together to plan the perfect murder.

Present your plan for the others…..

Are you a good detective ?

Try out your hand at www.mysterynet.com

There's even a twist section!

 

Archer and Uganda

Today we read "Just Good Friends"

Do the work sheet when you're done!

By next Tuesday read "The Perfect Murder"

Then we divide the class up for the project.
Here are the topics:

Living in the country or in the city
Marcus A
Nils
Erik S
The importance of English
Petronella
Patricia
Jennifer
The education system
 Linnea
Simone
Johanna
The economy of Uganda
Sana
Tobias
Jesper
Sickness and health care
Eric L
Veronica
Elin
Music in Uganda
Jonna
Hannes
Max
The politics and political institutions
William
Denise
Aleksandra
Births, marriages and deaths
Erik H
Zinhle
Elisabeth
Celebrations and holidays
Maja
Clara
Elvira

Presentations before Christmas

Good luck!

Take courage and write!

Today we are going to do our "mock" writing exercise about COURAGE.

In order to help you understand the level check out the following link.

This will give you an idea of what is required for the three main grades A,C,E.

Next week we will begin with our literature lessons every Tuesday using "Twist in the Tale".

Every Friday you will have a project about Uganda. You will be divided into groups of three and there will be nine different topics.

Next Friday you will be working on your own (I won't be here).

We will go through all the instructions next Tuesday.

Have a good weekend!

Take courage!

Today is the final day for handing in your anthologies.

What if you don't even understand what the texts are about?

Well the most desperate measure would be to go back to the first lesson we worked on these texts and open the online version of the texts. There you could use a translation tool to give you some idea about what is going on!
(However, the idea is that your vocabulary level should be expanding all the time!)

We start off today's lesson with two new quizzes( Quiz 6 and Quiz 7)
The first two correct answers will be rewarded with a fruit! Send your answers as a mail (no documents) to my FC!

This Friday, as you can read on the planner, we will be doing the mock writing exercise.

The theme is courage. So, today I want you to start looking for resources to help you prepare for wriing about it.

I will be distributing the "Improve your writing" booklets to remind you about some important issues.

Here are five key words you need to think about:-

1. Organization
2. Structure
3. Style
4. Clarity 
5. Register

I will go through these points briefly with you.

From next week we will use the Tuesday lessons to work on a book of short stories which we will distribute at the end of the lesson today. The book is entitled "Twist in the Tale" and is written by the notorious author "Jeffrey Archer".

The stories cover different themes such as the legal system, food, corruption etc. Every story has a "twist"- or unexpected ending.
We will study 2-3 stories before Christmas and 2-3 stories after Christmas.

The Friday lessons will involve a project about Uganda working in groups of three ( 9 topics). I will present these topics next Tuesday.

Have a good lesson!

Wheels and the anthology

We continue today our work on the text "Wheels"- chapter 12 in the context 2 book.

A number of people were missing last time. However, several of the students who were present did not send in their work!

Those of you ho were absent need to catch up by reading the text.

We will do three things today.

1. A listening exercise
On page 170 there is a very good listening exercise.

What about the key words introducing the listening exercise?

Still far too many students who have not sent in a single word list. This is a very poor learning strategy to have to do several lists in a short space of time.

We are going to listen to the text twice.

Answer the questions and email me your answers.....

2. A role play
a) with two students- choose one of the role plays on page 168
All about buying and selling

b) with three students- 
1/ Sipho comes home after talking to his boss. Roles: Sipho / wife/ child
OR
2/ Johan, Sipho and the craft lady are discussing the project with the new designs.

3. Go in on the web   www.gleerupslms.se and do the word exercises for the chapter

Book talk/Anthology
This will be your last chance to work on the anthology today.

At the same time I will do the book talks with those students who are ready

Finally have a good week-end. Don't fall over on the snow!
Here is the key for the corrections

Corrected

spelling

grammar

tense= brown

^^= missing words

swenglish= purple

Welcome back after the holiday!

So, how was your break? Hope you managed to rest a bit and recharge your batteries.

Today we will continue with some literature work and also begin with a chapter from Context 2 which deals with living in Africa.

We will try to make this a more predominant theme since the exchange trip to Uganda is now starting to become more of a reality.

First the literature.

A couple of years ago I did some exercises on Glosboken.

Here is a direct link to the first exercise about literary periods.

I recommend that you get an account. There are thousands of great 

exercises to use.



With regard to the literary periods and the Anthology (compendium) I recommend that you use 
www.kursnavet.se
Click on the Engelska B course. Click on start and literature.

Here you can find a good resource about several of the literary periods.

But back to today..

We will divide the English lesson today and on Friday into two parts.

1. "Wheels" chapter 12 
We will read the story together

Questions to reflect upon?

What is Soweto?
Why do you think the people of Soweto are on strike?

Answer the questions  "A" on page 164-65


We will continue with this chapter on Friday.

The rest of the time we willl work on the literature anthology.

Good luck!

Anthology and book presentation

Today we continue where we left off last time....

You will have a chance to work on the anthology.

Remember the tasks:

General Instructions:

1. Before you read the texts- try to find out something about the author-

When did they live , where ?

2. Read the text and check the language

3. Make short commentaries about  them( 3-4 lines each)- Content and spontaneous comments

4. Find out more about any one writer or the literary period when that person was writing.

 Use the Internet for example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_literature

5. Make a wordlist with 40 new words you have learnt from the Anthology.

While this is going on we will let those who have read their book present in a small group. Remember the points to present:

• The story

• The characters

• The setting

• The message/relevance of your book

When listening you should decide which of the books presented would be most interesting to read and why.

Mail me your answer.

Finally we will give out some candy to the winners of Tuesday's quizzes.

By the way, have a great break next week and don't forget to go down to the UN celebrations in 30 minutes.

Literature..compendia.. quizzes

By today you were supposed to do your personal reflections about our theme of gender and sexuality.

Who has sent in the reflections?

We will give you some minutes at the end for those who have nearly completed...

Remember today is the deadline


We were supposed to  start today with some quizzes and a compendium. The idea is give you an introduction to the literature of the English-speaking world.

The question is WHY?

First the quizzes!

World literature 1

We will go through the first quiz together

World Literature 2

And now the Compendium/Anthology... We will be working with this over the next week or two

By the end of the lesson I want you to mail me a copy of the results of the  Second literature quiz.


Prize for the best answer.


And taking of prizes there are two new quizzes on the blog for October.

Prizes for each of these.

As always when we do things for prizes you send your answers to F/C

On Friday there will be an opportunity for those who want to

 get their book assignment out of the way.

Be prepared to talk in a small group about:

• The story

• The characters

• The setting

• The message/relevance of your book

Presentations (continued)

Thank you for those who did their presentations last time (groups 1,2,3)

Today we will give groups 4-7  the opportunity to do their presentations.

After that there will be an opportunity to complete your personal reflections on the clips and articles as well as a brief evaluation of this theme.

The evaluation questions are:

What was good?

What was less good?

What can be kept?

What can be changed?

Overall impression



Using your time /resources wisely
The resources used for the gender/sexuality theme provide a lot of good vocabulary.

I have not received the FIRST wordlist for over half the class.

8 HAVE to be done by Christmas otherwise you get an F warning!!!

Today is "P"-Day!

Today is the final Preparation Day for the work about gender and sexuality.

The first 30 minutes you will have the opportunity- together with your group- to prepare.

Then it will be Presentation Day.

We will present in the order of the materials- Group 1 first.

You will have 5-10 minutes per group.

The presentations will continue on Friday and finally you will have the chance to write your group and individual reflection which I should receive by the 21st October ( A WEEK FROM TODAY)

Preparations for presentations

Today you will be divided into 7 groups to prepare for short presentations about the gender equality resources...

The presentations will begin on Tuesday (see instructions on previous blog).

They should be short and cover relevant material,

Group 1  Resource  1,2,3
Group 2                   3,4,5
Group 3                   5,6,7
Group 4                   7,8,9
Group 5                   9,10,11
Group 6                   11,12,13
Group 7                   14,15, 16


All groups   Resource 17

Number 11
Alternative clip

Test run and gender clips

Today we will go through the first (language) sections of the test..

Then you will have time to continue to view and read all the clips and articles from the last lesson (see blog)

On Friday you will be divided into groups to work on presentations and group/ personal reflections

Gender equality

We will continue today and two more weeks working on the theme of gender equality.

The only exception will be next Tuesday when we go through the test.

Start off today by going through the study questions about "Philadelphia"
Here are the instructions for our continued work:

Gender – Sexuality – Identity

Instructions for group work

1        Watch all the clips and read all the articles on the list enclosed (all groups)

2        Go through again the clips or articles that your group has to focus on and discuss the following points for each one of them:

What is the main issue in each of the clips or articles?

Are there any views expressed in the clips/articles that you don’t agree with or find provocative? If so, give examples.

From each clip/article, choose one quotation or short extract that you find interesting to discuss.

Add your own questions and ideas to discuss.

3        Each group must have a secretary who takes notes and sends them to all group members after each class. You take turns being the secretary. Don’t forget to keep a track of your own ideas (to be handed in on Tues 21 Oct.)

4        Group presentation and discussion in class  (we will decide a date together)

5        Hand in individual reflections on Tuesday 21 Oct.

                                                                         

Good luck!

Then work through the following list of resources about gender equality and gender issues

1. http://www.upworthy.com/what-would-you-say-to-your-son-if-he-came-home-with-nail-polish-on
2. http://www.upworthy.com/they-asked-if-she-had-anything-else-she-wanted-to-say-to-the-audience-thats-when-she-took-it-home    Jane Fonda says something a bit frightening but very clever.
3. http://www.upworthy.com/theres-something-absolutely-wrong-with-what-we-do-to-boys-before-they-grow-into-men?c=reccon1
4. http://www.upworthy.com/hear-the-powerful-way-the-worlds-ugliest-woman-beat-her-bullies?c=ufb1
5. http://www.upworthy.com/scientists-discover-one-of-the-greatest-contributing-factors-to-happiness-youll-thank-me?c=reccon1
6. http://www.upworthy.com/being-a-sex-object-is-empowering-oh-wait-no-it-s-not-here-s-why-2?c=ufb1
7. http://www.ted.com/talks/jackson_katz_violence_against_women_it_s_a_men_s_issue.html
8. https://www.facebook.com/Upworthy/posts/698254136882114 A text about being young, trying to be oneself, and what that means
9. http://nynashamnsposten.se/ung/1.2031570-vaga-vara-dig-sjalv  Article
10. http://www.upworthy.com/remember-how-shocking-it-was-when-ellen-came-out-on-tv-look-how-far-we-ve-come-since-then-2
11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qztnmdgxSto Parent of a teenager with ADHD
12. http://www.dn.se/sthlm/det-ar-vansinnigt-viktigt-att-komma-ut/   Article
13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV8n_E_6Tpc                                   - Make Love Not Porn 
14. https://www.ted.com/talks/zimchallenge       -                                           The demise of Guys
15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4UWxlVvT1A             - oppressed majority - a French film that turns gender roles upside down
16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CxIWy8Aykg/        Discuss LBGTQQ with your kids
17. 
    

http://www.upworthy.com/her-voice-might-tremble-but-emma-watsons-message-is-strong-and-clear?c=tpstream
Emma Watson's amazing speech before the UN.

Next week we will divide you into small groups 

with three or four resources each to work on

Good watching!

While you are watching I will speak to you 

individually about your test result