Today we divide the class

Just as you did in your Swedish lesson yesterday when the Economists gave their speeches, we will divide the class today.

Social Scientists
Present your powerpoint presentations about different aspects of life in Uganda


Economists
Complete your report and work on your anthology and other items. Don't forget to read  the "No. 1 ladies' Detective Agency". There's a test on it coming up!

Next week
don't bring any computers or books to the lessons
Tuesday
Listening
Thursday 
Reading
from a National Test English B 

Discussion- No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Today we are going to talk about chapters 6 to 12 from our book "The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency" by Alexander McCall Smith.
The chapters are called:
Chapter 6-   Boy
Chapter 7-   Mma Makutsi deals with the Mail
Chapter 8-   A conversation with Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni
Chapter 9-   The Boyfriend
Chapter 10- Mma Ramotswe Thinks about the Land while Driving her Tiny White Van to Francistown
Chapter 11- Big Car Guilt
Chapter 12- Mma Ramotswe's House in Zebra Drive

Come in groups of four (all students must participate) and the rest of the time can be used for:

• Anthology
• Report writing
• Powerpoint
• Reading the book
• Other exercises you habve missed

This Thursday the Social Scientists will present their powerpoints in class for each other.
The economists will have more time to work on their reports  (work in Green Room, Library, Cafeteria)

Thursday 24th November

Last lesson I was asked by one student why the report is being written in English whereas the Social Scientists wrote their essay in Swedish.. Well everyone is going to do a report, based on the requirements below from the curriculum (kursplan)

Eleven ska:

•   kunna (muntligt och) skriftligt sammanfatta och kommentera olika slags texter särskilt sådana som anknyter till intresseområden eller till studieinriktning,

• ha förmåga att skriftligt presentera ett innehåll på ett klart och väl strukturerat sätt samt kunna uttrycka sig varierat, personligt och med anpassning till mot­tagare och situation,

• kunna kritiskt granska och analysera information från olika källor. 

Hope that clarifies a bit!


Today will be tutoring/mentoring (handledning) for those who need it.

SPEI2- you have today and next Thursday to get your report written
SPSP2- You have today's lesson to get your powerpoint done.

Here is a good place to start if you want information about the EU in Swedish 

Here is a more general site with lots of basic information about EU in Swedish 

Here is the same site in English 

For more concrete information use Wikipedia 

Here is information about Europe's trading policy 

Here is a good article about Trade blocs 

Good old Wikipedia gives us much of what we need to know about the European market and the four freedoms


Finally Swedish Trade and European Trade and the relationship between them.

Slight change of plan next Tuesday!

Next Tuesday, 22 November I will be attending a conference about net-based teaching.

That means that our talk about "No. 1 ladies'" chapters 6-12 will be on Tuesday 29th November (week 48).
You will be able to use next Tuesday to do the anthology, read the novel (There will be a test on it- Thursday week 50) or work on your assignment (Powerpoint or Report).

Make sure you use your time wisely as we are going to be busy until Christmas.

Weeks 46-48

We know go into a period when we continue with our literature work on the Tuesday lessons and on the Thursdays there will be a new project. The project will be as follows:

Economists- Write a report according to the following documents:
1. What is a report?
2. What is the report about?

Social Scientists- Do a powerpoint about one aspect of life in Uganda
Here is the document. 

 Here is the scheme for the next weeks
Week 46 TODAY- work on Anthology; Read No. 1 Ladies'
               THURSDAY- start project
Week 47   TUESDAY Discuss chs. 6-12 No. 1 ladies' with me in gps of 4
              THURSDAY -continue with project
Week 48  
               TUESDAY - Literature work continues
               THURSDAY- Presentations SPSP2/ SPEI2 finish off report

Literature studies (continued)

We continue today with our literature studies.
First some revision of what we did last time. Go in on Glosboken.se and do the two exercises just to get you warmed up. (See on the right side of the blog)
Then I want you to learn something about the following 5 periods:
1. The Renaissance
2. The Enlightenment
3. The Romantic Period
4. Realism (Victorian)
5. The Modern Period
I want you to use the following Resource:
http://www.kursnavet.se/
Click on Engelska B
Start
Literature

Take some notes of your own..
Write down three points for each period

Now it's time to start on the Anthology.
You will need to write down New words
You will try to find 40 this time
Here is the document you will need.
Then follow the instructions.
1. Author.. As we did on the timeline. Write when the author was born and died.
Put the author into his/her context (which literary period?)
2. Text and language- Write up any new words and check their meaning
3. Comments- What was the text about? How easy was it to understand? What were the characteristics of the writing (poetry/description/dialogue etc)? Did you understand everything? (Be honest!!!)
4. Write more in depth in your own words about any one literary period. You have the information from Kursnavet at your disposal. The link on the document doesn't work now! Don't trust the internet!!
Use the following link instead:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_literature
Good luck!!!
The work on the Anthology should be sent to me by Week 48

Welcome back!

The holidays are now just a fleeting memory and it's back to the nitty-gritty of getting your English on track. We start today with some quizzes and a compendium. The idea is give you an introduction to the literature of the English-speaking world.

First the quizzes!
World literature 1
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 or give me a paper copy of the results of the literature quizzes.
Prize for the best answer.
And taking of prizes there is a new quiz on the blog for November.

Good luck with that!

Thursday 27th October- From T-Day to D-Day!

After T-Day ( Test Day) last Tuesday we now move on to D-Day (Doomsday!)
Doomsday comes from Old Norse and Means "Day of Judgement" (Domedagen).
There are a number of words from Norse that have come into English with the Vikings.
Words like Doom are no longer used in everyday English
but others  are still used-
Window comes from Vindauga
Neighbour comes from närbo..


Can you think of any others?
Today we are going to go through the test and take any questions.

Then you will have time to do the exercise on No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

After that it's only to wish each other a happy half-term and recharge the batteries for
the next part of the course.

20th October- Revision Day

Next Tuesday will be T-Day

In order to help you with the grammar I include the information squares with some rules and examples.

First up are the plural endings

Second are the words which are singular in English but plural in Swedish- like advice, furniture etc

Thirdly is the opposite- words which are plural in English but singular in Swedish- Like scissors, pliers etc

Fourthly we have the use of a/an/the and when you can omit it (leave it out)

Finally we have the differences in the use of tenses (tempusformer) between English and Swedish
(I WAS born-  Jag ÄR född) etc.

Tuesday 18th October

Thank you for the presentations about the Iraqi , Israel-Palestine and Mexican Drug conflicts. We continue today with the remaining presentations..
Next Tuesday there will be a test on the vocabulary areas and grammar we have touched upon this term.
All these areas are already mentioned in this blog but just to clarify  I will write down what they are (in no special order):
1. Political words based on the UK system of Government (page 32)
2. Similes with as...as  (page 12)
3.Look words (page 13)
4. Suffixes  -er/-or/ -ist (page 13)
5. Prefixes co- / inter- /re- / sub- (page 33)
6. Plural and singular words (page 15)
7. Prepositions from, in, of (page 33)
8. Use of "the" / a/an  (page 34)
9. Different tenses (tempusskillnader)   [ page 35]
10. Plural words (page 14)

Here is the key for the first two chapters to help you revise.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.
This Thursday's lesson will be only revision.
Don't forget the CD-Rom program is a very good source.
THE TEST WILL BE NEXT TUESDAY (WEEK 43)
GOOD LUCK!
Reminders:
1. To hand in your work on No. 1 Ladies' Detective agency by next week

Tuesday 11th October

No word list today!
Now the students in the Final Grade are back from Uganda. They can tell you what it is really like in Africa. If you get a chance read the article in today's Dala Demokraten about their trip.
We are also touching Africa with our book "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency"
There was a mix up with the questions. I took them from the Penguin Version of the book and discovered too late that it was an abridged version (shortened). The questions for chapter 1 were correct but not for chapter 2.
By the way where are all the answers? Many students have not done the work even for chapter 1!!
My patience is starting to wear a bit thin...
The test in week 43 will probably give a clearer picture..
Until then we are working today on Chapter 3 of the book.
Here are 4 questions to discuss in small groups.
Mail or hand in your answers. You have 15 minutes to do this.
1. On page 30 what do we see regarding attitudes to women who cannot have children? Why do you think this is and how does it compare with Sweden?'
2. On pages 31-33 how does Obed's cousin unknowingly prepare Precious for her career choice as a detective. Give 4 examples.
3. What does the incident with the boy at Sunday school on pages 33-36 tell us about Precious and her attitude to men?
4.Precious was good at drawing (pages 39-42) but she was very upset when she won a ´big prize' for one of her drawings.
What did she react in the way she did? What does it tell us about her attitude to truth?

Here comes the assignment (which is correct!) for chapters 1-5.
This MUST be done by week 44 when you start your holiday.

Then before Christmas you should do the following questions.
There will also be a test in week 50 (Thursday lesson) to finish the book.

We are also rounding off the material from Read & Proceed Chapter 2 today.
Check out the grammar called "Tempusskillnader"- chapter 15.
Finally look at the text and words on page 32.
Name 2 differences between the political system in Britain and Sweden.

This Thursday all the powerpoints should be complete and make sure you
have access to your presentation (memory stick/ mail or utb account)
Office software is now available on the classroom computer.

The social scientists will do a powerpoint later this term. (see planner).

Thursday 6th October

So in fact it should be today the economists do their presentations.
Don't forget to include the maps and follow the instructions given by Marko for
the geography course. 2 students have asked to do their presentations on Tuesday
week 41 because of other school commitments. There has been a mix-up
with times... MY FAULT not yours. Those who are ready can present today.
Otherwise ALL students should be ready to present next Thursday-
even though time restrictions will mean that
some students may have to wait until the following Tuesday.
But a deadline is a deadline.
I should get a copy of your powerpoint (impress) mailed to me or on a memory stick
at the LATEST next Thursday (13th October).
This is a compulsory part of the course and failure to do it will automatically mean an
IG-warning. See the coloured areas of the curriculum and grade guidelines.
The social scientists will do their presentation in the spring when the economists will
do a longer piece of writing.

The other thing for this week is the first assignment based on No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.
This should be mailed to me by tomorrow.

Don't forget the only way to keep your head above water is to move your arms and legs!

Next Tuesday we will read chapter three of the novel together and work on it in class.
We will also do some work from Read and Proceed.
Don't forget!
Tuesday week 43 you have a bigger test on all we have done this term!
Notice I have adjusted the test to week 43 because of the mix-up and because you
already have two tests in week 42.

Tuesday 4th October

I had a lot to do this week-end and as a result haven't sent out your monthly assessment.
I will get it out this week.
As usual, we start our Tuesday lesson with a word list.
By now you should have got into the habit of doing this.
Try to inculcate good habits and eradicate bad ones! (Easier said than done!)

Today we are going to reflect on the Northern Ireland conflict through the eyes of Kevin an Sadie.
These two teenagers were created by Joan Lingard to highlight the Northern Ireland conflict from a fictional perspective.

Joan Lingard wrote five books about the catholic boy and protestant girl who fall in love in Belfast and their struggle to overcome hate, mistrust, prejudice and fear.

Joan lingard wrote five novels about them- The 12th July, ACROSS THE BARRICADES; Into exile, A Proper Place and Hostages of Fortune.
I would like you to listen and read the first text.
Notice the characteristic Northern Ireland accent.
Do the T/F exercise on page 41 (in class- don't send it!)
Then we will do the listening comprehension on page 42-43.

Finally I want to do a little competition.
On page 36 there is a list of topics and keywords about the UK.
Either by using your own knowledge or the links on the CD-rom programme
there will be a prize for the first person to match correctly 12 topics and key words.

Hope you are well into your essay/powerpoint. You now have 9 days left for the ppt and
two weeks for the essay!

Thursday 29th September

I have listened to all of your Ireland Revisited Interviews. They were very good.

Today is Thursday and that means you get the whole lesson (well almost!) to work on your Powerpoint presentations / Essays.

I am returning your Wave journals. They finally appeared from the printer so I have corrected them and commented them with ink not pixels!!
I want you to realize that the only way to learn is by making mistakes and then correcting them.
That's why I am sending out a copy of a correction document to help you see what kind of mistakes you have made.

We also have a book to read "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency". Last night Episode Six out of Seven was on SVT 2. If you want to get a feeling for the settings in the book check out the last episode at 8pm on SVT2 next Wednesday..

To help you get started I am sending you a Powerpoint about the book which summarises all the chapters.
Next week for your homework I want you to do two simple exercises about the first two chapters just to get you going with your reading.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2

Next Tuesday we will be working with the two texts from the book taken from Joan Lingard's "Across the Barricades". In the book they are called "A Painful Decision 1 & 2"
That's a very good place to get words for your wordlist!!!!
It should be sent to me by next Monday at the latest.
Have a good day!

Mike

Tuesday 27th September

There was no blog for last Thursday's lesson as you were supposed to use the time to work on your powerpoint/essay about a conflict in the world.
Two words a number of members of the class need to learn and apply- responsibility and accountability.

Today we start with a wordlist..... Only 12 out of 28 have sent it to me this time! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!

Then we go to the Lingotek to do an interview exercise. One of you is a journalist interviewing the Professor who has revisited Northern Ireland. The name of the Professor is Peter Rose.
You should include the following questions:
When was the last time you were in Northern Ireland?
Why did you come here?
What memories do you have of that visit?
Were there any outbreaks of violence during your visit?
What was your contribution to try to resolve the conflict?
What changes did you notice now when you returned?
Were you surprised by what you saw?
What is the city like now?
How do you feel about the future for Northern Ireland?
Is there a chance of lasting peace?
What will it depend on if they succeed?


After this I want you to work on the words from the Computer programme. The we will work from the book.. The following exercises on on page 32-33

E- Matching exercise 1. Bill   2. MP     3. Poll   4. Referendum    etc

I Make words using the prefixes- 1. Re-establish; 2. Intervene etc.

L. Use of From, in  of  1. in      2. from        etc. 


This Thursday will be Powerpoint/Essay.  Next Tuesday we will look at the texts from "Across the Barricades"
DON'T FORGET YOUR WORDLIST!

 

Tuesday 20th September 2011

We  should start off today as usual on Tuesdays with a word list!

However, we will do it next Tuesday instead!

Today I want to know what you will be doing for your conflict assignment and for the Economists- with whom.
Last Thursday we had a lecture on Northern Ireland to try to get an idea of the reasons for conflicts; what keeps them alive; how they can get worse and what is necessary to solve them.

WE continue on this theme today with an article from an older edition of Read and Proceed. It gives a clear short history of the conflict and is called "Ireland-A divided Island".
It is on three pages:
Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Then I want you to read/listen to the text "Northern Ireland revisited".
You will recognise many of the things I talked about on Thursday (if you were listening!!!)
Do exercise A on page 30-31 and use these words for next week's word list:
These are some of the words you are looking for:
revolution, prosperity, setback, reward, increase, tranquility, struggle, dividend, Good Friday,
Fragile, toll, impression, revolution, citizen, dreary, classified, decade, constabulary,
intermittent, tension, advertisement etc.
The word areas in this chapter are to do with government and conflict.
On page 32 you have words to do with the British system of government.
What about the Swedish system?
This page gives all the information you need!
Finally today I want you to go in on the CD-rom programme and do the first part
of the Grammar- 5-Bestämd och obestämd artikel... Do 20 examples and check out some of the rules.

This Thursday we will meet in the classroom and I will give you back your journals on the Wave.
Then you will have time to work on your essay/powerpoint.
Peace out!

Mike

Thursday 15 th September

Today we are going to have a lecture about a Conflict- namely Northern Ireland.

This is to give you some ideas about your assignment- SPSP2- an Essay  SPEI2- a powerpoint presentation
about a conflict in the World.

You will not need your computers today until the very end of the lesson.

All the material for the lecture you will find here:
The powerpoint about Northern Ireland
The Song text
and the Song called "The Patriot Game"

By next Tuesday you should have started your project.
I need to know the conflict you will be studying and for the economists who you will be working with.
Presentation of Powerpoint - Thursday week 40 and Tuesday week 41.
Essays should also be ready to hand in during week 41.
Good luck!

New week new topic-CONFLICT!

Today we are starting a new comprehensive topic, namely CONFLICT.
Before we do so let's have a brief look at How a movement like "The Wave" can exist in
an everyday situation.
The clip about the dancing guy shows that Movements- even crazy ones- can be created in three minutes.

Amazing!
We will start off the theme of conflict by doing some role plays.
These are to get you thinking and speaking...
Then there is a document I want you to write and return to me about conflicts on a
personal level. It's intended to get you writing a bit... nothing more!!
The actual instruction for the conflict assignment will be given out on paper but here is a copy of it.
Basically the students of civics (spsp2) will work on an individual essay in Swedish- but with one English-speaking source.
The students of economics will work in pairs and do a powerpoint presentation about a world conflict which will include a geography (map) assignment.
The powerpoint presentations will be done on Thursday week 40 and the date of handing in the essays will be around that time. I'll get back to you with an exact date.

Today we also start reading this term's novel "The No 1 ladies' Detective Agency"
This gives a bit of a picture of life in Africa but also how a woman starts a company and runs it..
Good for both social scientists and economists..
We haven't had a Detective Agency as a UF company yet!

I will be giving you different assignmeents from the novel until Christmas.. So, start reading.
You can also see much of the novel on SVT at the moment..Wednesdays at 20.00 on Kanal 2.

I think that's enough for today!!

Last Day on Leadership!

Today we finish off our first theme for the year namely Leadership.

We have read the text about D-Day and seen a short extract of the film about it.
Focus was on Dwight Eisenhower who led the entire invasion on Sweden's National Day in 1944.
WE also discussed what makes a good leader and examples of leaders we know.

On the theme of the Second World War I asked you to find out 10 facts about any of the topics-
they are both in the book on page 16 and on the computer programme under "Länkar" "Kapitel 1"
NOT MANY PEOPLE HAVE DONE THIS.  The results should be sent to me by e-mail.

FICTION
You should have seen the film version of "the Wave" and written a journal based on the experiences of one the main charcters (see last blog post).
if it's not done then get it done!

Then there are the two texts- The Experiment I and the Experiment II.
Use them to get your 25 words for next Tuesday and mail them to me by Monday at the latest.
Don't forget the listening comprehension for The Experiment II. Again mail your answers to me.

LANGUAGE
We have done the idioms on page 12. Here are the correct answers.
GRAMMAR
We have studied how plural words are made and how these vary between Swedish and English.
In the book this is on page 14-15. On the computer programme numbers 2 and 3.
Here is an exercise to do
And one more for the road

Next week we will begin a new topic- CONFLICT.
This will involve a much bigger piece of work covering several school subjects.

Peace out!

All the text disappeared.

WE are going to work on the Wave today.

Look at the clips and write a journal as if you were one of the main characters.
These are Ben Ross, Amy Smith (friend of Laurie); Laurie Saunders; David Collins (her boyfriend);
Robert Billings (bullied by the class); Christy (Ben's wife).

Your journal should be at least half-page A4.

Mail it to me.

We start with 25 words.

21 out of 28 send them. That's 75 % of the class who want to get a grade!
There are 500,000 words in English! Don't tell me you know them all.

Your words for this week should be based on the two texts in the book
The Experiment I
The Experiment II
both from the book version of the Wave

Homework:
1. Journal from a character in the Wave- sent to me by Friday
2. 25 new words- mailed by AT THE LATEST Monday week 37
3. Listening exercise from The Experiment II on page 22,23- by Thursday

Good luck on an autumn Day

An Autumn Day- Tuesday 6th September

A new month with new opportunities!

WE start off our first lesson in September with an ICEBREAKER.
You need to get on your feet and get active..
A prize for the first correct answer!
After that the prize winner for the quiz will also be announced

Then we will continue working with the material from the book and CD-rom.
WE started with the similes on page 12 last time. Don't forget to mail your answers to me.

Today we will work with the grammar on page 14-15 in "Read and Proceed"

Check out the examples  of how to make plurals and words which are PLURAL in Swedish
like "möbler" but are SINGULAR in English "furniture".
We say "Where IS the Furniture?" and not where are the furniture.
Go in on the CD-rom programme and click on Grammatik . Choose number 2 and 3.
Do at least 20 on each.
Afterwards discuss with a friend and formulate some rules about plurals in English.

Last time we studied the theme of leadership based on D-day.
Please click on länkar and choose kapitel 1
Go in on one area and write down ten facts about it.

That's about it for today.

Don't forget to mail your new words for week 35 to me BY TOMORROW.

We will be testing them next Tuesday so practise them at home.

Don't forget....
If you don't learn it you'll probably burn it!

Lesson notes for Tuesday 30 August

Thanks to all of you who sent in your introductions on time. However, 18 out of 28 is far too low.
The activity I had planned for today will be postponed until Thursday... By then every introduction will be in my mail box!
Today we are going to look at the way to work with the book. We always start off a new theme with a discussion in small groups.
The theme for this unit is leadership.
In small groups I want you to discuss the following three questions:
1. What makes a good leader? 5 key words
2. Give examples of good leaders from sport, politics and other areas
3. Are leaders born or can you be trained to be a leader?

Then we will introduce the text  about D-Day by seeing a short section from the DVD about it.

Then listen to the text "How the leaders led" and follow it in your book or on the screen.
As you read you should write up 25 new words.
You do this on the new word document. Save this document on your computer and every week you will fill in 25 words, your name and the week and mail it to me. this is compulsory for the course as without vocabulary you cannot express yourself.

You don't fill in the third column. You will do that in class for me.

Finally I want you to do some work in the book.

Page 12 Similes. Match the phrases using a word from (a) and a word from (b)
as BLIND as a BAT
as DEAD as a DOORNAIL etc.

Those of you who haven't done the diagnosis will do it at the end of the class today.

Homework for next Tuesday

Look at the link below "Introducing yourself in English".
I want to write about yourself in the same way as James has done on the Youtube clip.
You should talk about yourself, your background; what you do in school; what you do in your free time; your future plans (if any) and something unique about yourself-a skill, experience or anything else which is special to you!
This MUST be done by Tuesday and e-mailed to me before the class either at my school account
michael.hegarty@leksand.se
mike.hegarty@leksand.se

or to my gmail account:
habarimike@gmail.com

This assignment will not be graded.
However, if you send me an Mp3 version this will give a credit towards your final grade!

See you in a while!

We start on Thursday!

Hallo students. Just to let you know that there will be a blog for this course and I hope that as well as having teaching material on First Class on the two conferences "Noname" and "Kantarell klubben" there will also be all information available on this blog.
Great if you can make some comments and of course I want them to be in English!
Welcome!!

Introducing yourself in English

How about this? You can do even better!!