domingo, 3 de julio de 2016

Art with young learners

Following up on an activity in their textbooks (Kid's Box 3, Cambridge University Press) about portraits we started working with national artists. 


It was a fantastic opportunity to get to know our artists and use the target language.


After sharing this work with Cambridge representative, we got this reply:










martes, 28 de junio de 2016

Project Time June 2016

June - July is project time at La Casona. 

Every student, either individually or in a group must prepare a project on a topic or choose from a list of topics suggested by the teacher and they must do a presentation for the rest of the class. 
No matter the level of the pupils, they all have to use the language they know in order to do the project. 
Here are a few examples:


Young Learners 1: "Special people"

Lucía, 8 years old





His name is Agustin Casanova.

He’s 22 years old.
He’s from Uruguay.
He’s a singer of Marama.
He’s got brown eyes.
He is short and thin.
In this photo we are in Paso de los Toros.

Máximo, 9 years old



She’s my sister.
Her name is Victoria.
She’s four years old.
Her favourite colours are purple and pink.
She lives in Uruguay.

 Mateo, 9 years old

Rodolfo (my Dad)
 He’s a bald man.
He is 1,76 m tall.
He likes fishing.
He is a very good dad.
 He has brown eyes.
 Camila, 8 years old



 Her name is Martina Stoessel.
She is 19 years old.
She is from Argentina.
She is an actress and singer.

Mathías, 11 years old


She's Eliana.
She's works in a  hair salon.
She's is 33 years old.
She's got brown hair.
She's very tall.
Sofía, 10 years old

His  name is jorge pablo.
HIS Last name IS ortiz rodriguez.
HE IS 35 YeArs old.
HIS biRTHDAY IS ON aUgust 22ND.
He workS IN A car wash.
He’S GOT black hair and black eyes
 

domingo, 22 de mayo de 2016

For the love of the game, Listening activity

David Beckham “For the love of the game”

This activity started quite by accident, I should say. One evening, at home, having dinner my husband commented he had seen the “Beckham movie” the previous night and talked to me as though I had seen it as well. When I asked him what he was talking about he couldn’t believe I didn’t know about that movie. For my husband, the fact that I’m a English teacher means I HAVE to know not only who the British Prime Minister is but also who the next candidate is, together with the population of Leeds, all the members of the Tudor family, the results of the Premier League, how to apply to a British university, just to mention a few things any teacher MUST know.

Coming back to David (Beckham, of course), I happened to find the movie the following day shown on the BBC entertainment channel. I must admit to being a football fan myself (I’m from Uruguay!!) and that I’ve always  loved Beckham, but the movie “For the love of the game” is really inspiring. So, I thought, “how can I use this in my groups?”.  Immediately, I thought I didn’t need any excuse, I could use it in my groups as a listening activity and I did. In my teenage/young adult group, where I  use English File Intermediate text book, I connected the activity with Module 2 lesson B.

Activity: David Beckham’s “For the love of the game”
Lead-in



Photograph of David  Beckam. Ask students whether they know him and those who do share any information about the footballer. At this stage, it’s interesting to see that most boys will give information about his football career and most girls will talk about his family life. 


Why is number 7 significant to him?

You can share:    www.7.org/    This is the website for his fund


Language: Present Perfect Simple
Students are told they would see an extract of the movie but before that they are given a set of sentences:



Choose the correct alternative
Football gave / has given me everything.
It’s never been/ It was never more important to me to give something back.
I’ve organized / I organized a major initiative for my charitable fund.



They have to choose the alternative they consider more appropriate and give reasons for their choice.


Note: In my country, because of the variety of Spanish that is spoken here, the Present Perfect tense is not  commonly used, the Past Simple is used instead; therefore, in English, using their transference strategies, students very rarely use Present Perfect and Past Simple is used in most cases.

Watch from beginning to 1’ 30”
Check. Take this opportunity to talk/revise the uses of Present Perfect.


Use the third sentence to ask students about Beckham’s “major initiative”. 

What’s the major initiative he talks about? ………………………………………………………………….

If they couldn’t get it  watch another scene:  watch minute 3, where you’ll see where he’s planning to play.

  • ·         Papua New Guinea (4’)
  • ·         Nepal (18’30’’)
  • ·         Djibouti (31’50’’)
  • ·         Buenos Aires (47’50’’)
  • ·         Antarctica (58’’)
  • ·         Miami (1:09’)
  • ·         Manchester (1:18”)

Students are allotted one place each (except for Antarctica). For homework,  they have to watch the section of the movie which is about the place they were given and get the following information: 


*General information about the place and current situation
* Venue:
* Match number:
* Surface:
* Teams:
* Players:
* Final score:
* If he meets any locals, what does he learn about them?
* Extra information:
* After-match comments:


In class we watch the Antarctica chapter (58’)

 Watch David  Beckham in Antarctica and complete this chart

Venue:………………………………..
Match number: …………………………..
Surface: …………………………..
Teams: …………………………..
Players: …………………………
Final score: ………………………….

Watch again and answer these questions
1.      What do we learn about the journey to Antarctica?
2.      David mentions a lot of “firsts”. What do you remember about them?
3.      What do they use for the goals and lines?

Extra information: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
After match comments: ………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..


Language: Teachers can also exploit this video in different ways. For instance, adjectives suffixes:
ISH : safe-ish (Dave Gardner about the flight)
ABLE: unbelievable (David arriving in Antarctica)
Y: rusty (David about Dava Gardner)/slippery (the surface)

* For my intermediate group, I also asked them to compare the job done by David Beckham and his charity and that with “Adelante Africa” (English File Intermediate, 3rd edition, Module 2 LessonB)

“ I was lucky enough to play football for twenty years.”
“These last ten days have given me another lifetime of memories”
“They say it’s only a game but it transformed my life; so for me it’s the only game”   David Beckham


For more information about his activity and the keys, do not hesitate to email me.
Cheers, teacher Ana Cabral

miércoles, 17 de febrero de 2016

Cursos 2016


Inscripciones abiertas 2016
Lunes a Viernes de 18 a 20 horas
Febrero 25% descuento en la matrícula

Comienzo de cursos
7 de marzo