Preparing for your project

Today is the last day to prepare your project.
The presentations will be next Tuesday...
We will divide the class into two groups, one for the economists and one for the social scientists.
(Check out next Tuesday's blog to see the classrooms).

The economists' presentations will be filmed by someone from the media program.

Don't forget!!


Economists

• Presentation (powerpoint) of successful Young Enterprise (UF) company.
• Why were they successful and why did you choose just them?
• How do they inspire you for your company next year?
• What plans ideas do you have for your own company?
• If you haven't decided do brainstorming with class?
• Product or services?
• "Green" or traditional? 

Each group max. 10 minutes 




You should hand in a document (summary) of your presentation as a word/open office document.( about one page)


Social Scientists

•  Presentation (powerpoint) about aspect/aspects of life in Sweden/Leksand for  school in Uganda
• Facts
• Pictures
• Opinions

 You should hand in a document (summary) of your presentation as a word/open office document( about one page)


In the meantime..................
While this is going on I will continue to talk about grades for the National Test and also have one presentation for Ida L and Emma.

Good luck!

Not much left now!

The National Test is now behind us. I have corrected the listening, reading and done a preliminary reading of your essays... Everything will be done by next Tuesday and as you start to work on your projects I will speak to you individually about your results.

Next week is the final project week and I will be distributing documents today so that you can get going on this. The project is COMPULSORY.

Here is the material for SPS2

From Curriculum

Eleven uttrycker sig och interagerar skriftligt med sammanhang, struktur och allt större variation kring innehåll hämtat från ett flertal områden.
Eleven redovisar och kommenterar stoff från egna intressen och egen studieinriktning.
Du skall  sammanhängande  kunna berätta om, beskriva och förklara  förhållanden inom egna samt inom allmänna  och aktuella temaområden.

During week 21 you will have the opportunity to do a Final Project.

The theme of the project is to present something about Sweden or the place where you live for our Ugandan friends for your visit there or as part of a document to be sent there.

You can decide to work on your own or with one other person.

You must get together as a whole class and make sure you cover as many aspects as possible of the way of life in Sweden/Leksand

You are going to present your mini-project on Tuesday week 22.

The project can be in the form of a simple presentation such as  a powerpoint,

Whatever you choose there should be some kind of visual input ( a picture speaks more than a 1000 words).

You can present facts, attitudes, problems, joys etc.

Here is the material for SPEI2

From Curriculum

Eleven uttrycker sig och interagerar skriftligt med sammanhang, struktur och allt större variation kring innehåll hämtat från ett flertal områden.
Eleven redovisar och kommenterar stoff från egna intressen och egen studieinriktning.
Du skall  sammanhängande  kunna berätta om, beskriva och förklara  förhållanden inom egna samt inom allmänna  och aktuella temaområden.

During week 21 you will have the opportunity to do a Final Project.

The theme of the project is to present something about yours plans for your UF (YE) company that you will be running next year

You can decide to work on your own or with one other person.

You should present one of the former YE companies that you think was successful and explain why this was both orally and written

If you are unsure what kind of company you intend to run then use the project for brain storming

You are going to present your project on Tuesday week 22.

The project can be in the form of a simple presentation such as  a powerpoint,

Whatever you choose there should be some kind of visual/written input

 Good Luck!!!

Don't forget -The grammar is due in today and some of you still have the Archer test to re-do

A good clip to watch about consumerism

Here is a good youtube clip to watch about consumerism and its 5 pillars!

Read Speak listen then WRITE

We welcome the students from the ninth grade who are visiting the Economics Programme today.

Today we get to discuss the  texts for the writing part of the National Test. 
The idea is for you to:
-Build up a vocabulary
-Get thinking
-Formulate your views about consumerism...
This topic is excellent for both economists and social scientists

Economists
Next year you will have a Young Enterprise (UF) company. How many of you will have companies that leave a positive carbon footprint?
How many of you will work with these issues and not only profit and loss?
Social Scientists
 You will be travelling to Uganda. What effects of consumerism do you think you will see there? Who needs to be more aware?

Today we discuss in small  groups:

Here are the  GROUPS

1. Linnea, Selma, Elin Tobias

2. Nathalie, Fredrik, Lisa, Johanna

3. Albin, Ida L, Athena, Samuel

4. Emma, Anna, Daniel, Simon

5. Kevin, Karin, Ida W

6. Magda, John, Vidar

One person is secretary & one is chairperson

Discuss the 9 questions and one makes notes.

After 40 minutes we give feedback together.

Finally I will mail out my thoughts to you...

Writing will be on 9th May!! 

Same procedure as last time!

Today we finish off the speaking part of the National Test..
See the blog from the last lesson for instructions.
Those not involved in the speaking should use their time wisely:
a)Finish off grammar
b)Prepare for Thursday's reading
c) Prepare for rest of National test
d)Complete any remaining exercise (restuppgifter)

Next Wednesday afternoon will be a chance for those who didn't pass the Archer test to redo it.

Peace out!

Speaking

Today we start the Speaking  part of the National test in English.


Here are the instructions for the recordings:

Sit both students at the same computer in the Lingotek

The following computers can be used:

Numbers 2, 4,6,10,12,13

Don't sit too close to another pair so that there will be interference on your recording

The file should be called:


Name_name_speaking_NP

If you want to divide the recordings in two that's ok
(There are two parts to the task)
Do not just read from the card you have.. That will automatically give you a bad grade. You need to read it and then refer to it
Before you save your file(s) make sure that the recording is ok

Save one copy on your H: 
send one copy by email (hotmail/gmail has more space)
My e-mail address is:
habarimike@gmail.com
michael.hegarty@leksand.se 
All the very best !
Here is a link to the grade guidelines

Welcome back

Hope you had an enjoyable easter break and that you didn't eat too many eggs!
Today we will start by doing an interview about your Easter holidays.
Here it comes on the blog...

English

Interview

Interviewer………… Person interviewed………………

Easter holidays

1. Where did you spend the break ?

2. Describe the most boring day of the break.

3. Describe the best day of the break.

4. What was the best/ worst thing about your holiday ?

5. How does it feel like to be back at school ?

6. Do you think the break was too short / just right / too long ?

7. What does Easter mean to you? Did you celebrate it in any special way?

8. How much English did you hear/ speak during the break ? (explain!)

It's just to get you speaking English... 

This is important since the Oral tests should begin today but will start on Thursday.

The theme of the exam is THE NEWS....

The other part of the National test which we need to prepare today is the writing.

Each of you will receive preparation material which we will discuss next Thursday.

While some are doing the speaking the rest of you will have a chance to do an exercise practising the grammar. Here it is

I want you to do the exercise and mail it in to me. It is COMPULSORY...

If you want a paper copy for whatever reason tell me today and I will get you a copy.

prep for the National Test

The work from Tuesday will be done today.

Reading. 
Here are some parts of the national test Reading which I would like you to download and do.
Street markets
Jams Today
Book Review
One word gaps
Rhino's Last Stand
Parked against the flow 

Want to know how things went? Check up on this homepage! 

While you're there do the listening exercise...
 What's the topic?
News items 1
News Items 2
Bad lad
The questions are in PDF format. You can do them on paper.


Finally We are approaching Easter..

1. Names and Meanings
What is today (Skärtorsdag) called in English and why?
What is Långfredag called in English and why?


2. Easter Traditions and food.
I want you to find out a little bit about Easter traditions and food in the following countries:
1. England
2. Ireland
3. USA
4. Australia
5. New Zealand
What do you notice is a common denominator with regard to food?
Where do you think this comes from?
Finally I want to wish you all a

 

Bye, bye Archer!

Today we will be saying goodbye to Jeffrey Archer.

I will be giving you back the tests and going through them with you...

As you can see from the planner we should be working on the reading and listening parts of the national test.

We will do this on Thursday instead.

It is important for you to remain focused on Thursday. The holiday is close at hand but begins in the afternoon.
So don't skive off. Be there.. don't be square!!!

Inpelning- Sorry abiout the echo

Dear economists.
We have recorded the lesson today.
Click on the link. Choose Arkiv hämta and hämta ändå.
You may need a codexc to see the clip. Here is the address.
see you on Tuesday.

Revision today

Today we revise for the Archer test.
Don't worry economists. I am recording the lesson. I will put a link and instructions in the blog for you later today. The test will be on Tuesday.
If you miss that there is a Wednesday afternoon deadline.

Thursday's lesson- Archer

Today we are going to complete the last story which we are studying from ´Jeffrey Archer's collection " Twist in the Tale". I want you to do the three worksheets we started on Tuesday.
But what is special and different about this story compared to all the others in the collection.

I want you to discuss with your friends around you in buzz groups and decide on four things which make this story unique compared to the others.

How did you find the ending? What were your reactions? What does it say about Benjamin's father?

Next Thursday there will be a test on Archer. It will consist of two parts.
1. The content and themes of the individual stories.
a)Comprehension questions
b) themes
2. A short essay question about a general topic such as.
a) the twists
b) the characters
c) Stories you have liked or disliked and why
d) the autobiographical nature of some of the stories

Next Tuesday I will be in Stockholm with our Ugandan guests. The test will be on Thursday.
Here is a document with study questions to help you to prepare for the test.

You might like to look at this. It's a Word document with some ideas about the general themes in the stories.

Otherwise it's only to re-read the stories and make sure you know them.

Two cultures which meet!

Today we have the meeting of two cultures, both in the classroom and in the literature we are studying.
We welcome our friends from Soroti Secondary School- 2 teachers and 5 students.
They are here as part of the exchange program with the social science department here in Leksands Gymnasium.
I want you to sit in small groups. 
Introduce yourselves and tell each other where you live, something about your family and your interests.
Then I want you to discuss which things you enjoy about living where you do? What are the main problems which you as young people face? How motivated are students in Sweden and Uganda to learn? Is there a difference in the level of motivation and if so why is this? Ask your visitors to tell you about their impressions of Sweden and what differences they have seen compared with Uganda.
Look at the pictures from Uganda and Sweden. What do they tell you?

Now we say goodbye to our friends and turn to another meeting of two cultures in the story of Christina Rosenthal.
This is, in my opinion an incredible story. What is special about it compared to the other stories you have read?
Here are some documents to work with:
Here are questions about the story which I want you to answer.
How is your English? Please correct the mistakes of grammar and spelling in the sentences.
Finally, how is your vocabulary? Translate the sentences into English.
We will continue discussing the story on Thursday and do an assessment of the stories we have read as part of our revision for the Archer test next week.
 I will give you revision documents on Thursday.

Welcome back after the break!

Today we get to study one of Archer's shortest stories, namely "Just Good Friends".

You could call the story a CATastrophe! But the fact is that this story shows that Archer is not only an excellent storyteller, he is also a clever writer.
I want you to start by doing the worksheet. As usual paper copies are available if you want to be unkind to the forest!!!
Then there are the words- no theme for this story but a lot of words.
Your task is to use the document which is on the blog for words and phrases to put 25 of the words into a context.

The twist in this tale is typical of Archer... Mistaken identity!!!
Here is another example of a short story I have written.
No it's your turn!
Write a short story where the person wasn't who we thought he/she was.
Mail it to me or write it on paper!!!!!!!

Change of venue!

Change of venue. It will be better for us to do the listening in the classroom. So, forget about Lingoteket. We don't need the computers.

After doing the listening we will correct it together and see how you got on.

Next week is the mid-term holiday. Afterwards we will study the last two stories from "Twist in the Tale" that we are supposed to read.
I think we have kept the best for last. We'll see if you agree.
The stories are

• Just Good Friends
• Christina Rosenthal

Have a great holiday.. and remember more people get injured in the Bar during After Ski than they do out on the ski slopes :-D.

Not the real thing!

If you want to listen to the story go about half way into the track
The rest of the story is on the first half of this track
Today we are going to study the last of the short stories in the collection with an autobiographical twist.
We started with the man who killed his lover and put the blame on another man in "The Perfect Murder".
Then came the "sweeper" who was just as corrupt as all the others in "Clean Sweep Ignatius".
After that came the "rags to riches" story of  "A la carte"
The fourth story "The Steal" shows how even a normal everyday couple can do illegal actions when fired by feelings of revenge.
Now we turn to "Not the real thing"
People of my age remember the 1970s campaign for Coca Cola

I'm sure that Archer was thinking about this when he gave the story this title.
The story has a morecomplex narrative structure than many of the others but the
characters as quite typical for Yorkshiremen who boast of their background.

Monty Python got it right!

I want you to start off by checking up on some words and abbreviations.

These are important for our understanding of the story.

Then I want you to answer some questions about the story and finally

prepare one of the two role plays in pairs.

This Thursday we will be in the Lingotek to practise the "Listening" part

of the National Test.

So make sure you bring your ears!

Speaking today

Sorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry! Didn't get the blog done yesterday as our conferences and Wednesday meeting went on until late.
So now you get the chance to practise the last part of the national test- speaking.

You will do the test in the Lingotek in pairs. So find a partner and then start to prepare.

I will divide the class in two halves. The first half will take the first thirty-five minutes

Group 1   10.45-11.20
Group 2   11.20-11.55

 
The test consists of two parts.

For the first part you will choose one of the six student cards.

Read it and try to get the main points of what it says.

For the second part you will discuss the subject of stress and cover the points which are included on the examination sheet.

Try to make it into a real discussion and when you talk about your student card don't read from it.
Remember how it works in the Lingotek. 

• Open the sanako media assistant duo.
• To record press the red button.
• You can always pause your recording.
• If you have to redo it, press file, new, save the changes? nej.

There are problems with the profiling so you may not be able to save the file on your home catalogue. Save on the desktop (skrivbord) and email it to me either with first class or hotmail/gmail etc.

The file name should be stress_name_name.mp3.
The mp3 part comes automatically when you save it.

Send it to:
michael.hegarty@leksand.se
or
habarimike@gmail.com
 
What is important to remember?
When you did the writing you were marked on 2 areas:

1. content
2. language 

Now there are three areas

1. Will and Competence
2. content
3. Language

See the document for more information

The rest of the time you can work on the Archer stories.
Next up on Tuesday is  "Not the real thing".

Good luck!

The steal!

Welcome to St. Valentine's Day.

While I am talking to you about your essays I have some work I want you to do.
The first is a little Valentine's Day Activity.

Fill in the information and complete the activity. The first correct answer mailed to me gets some candy!
Here is the activity!

Then we are going to discuss and work with the story of the STEAL.
As usual Archer plays with words in the title of the story...
Just as in the first two stories people don't behave the way they expect and
as usual Archer presents a situation where moral choices are necessary.

There are three things I want you to do.
1. Discuss the story with your neighbour/s. Answer the questions and mail it to me (paper copies are available). Here it is.
2. Do some word study by filling in the missing words on the worksheet. This time I have chosen to take general words and not theme-specific ones. (The theme of commerce and business is clear)
Here it comes.
3. I want you in FOURS to do a role play based on this document. I will ask you to do it for me at the end of the class.

Finally for your homework try to find ten words or phrases to do with business and selling...

Good luck!

Writing an essay

Today we are going to go through the essays which you wrote last week on the theme of COURAGE.

You have been given a subject and this requires you to think about some issues even before you start writing

• Who is the target reader? How am I going to communicate with the reader?
• What kind of format have I chosen? A letter? An article?
• How formal/informal can I be when I write?
• How do I plan and structure my writing?

Here is a great resource to get you started.

The difference between writing and speaking is that you have the chance to plan and structure your writing.
In everyday discussions that is seldom the case.

Now to your writing assignment.

Here is the document I used to assess your essays (writing).

Read through your essay and see the kind of mistakes you have made
. They are the same as on the assessment sheet. A plus sign (+) means you have used them in a good way, a minus sign (-) means that they need improvement.

Then look at the example essays on the different levels.
The first one is on a level of GODKÄND.


The next one is on a VG level (on the lower end)
Here is part 1
Here is part 2

Then finally here is an essay which is on the VG+/ MVG- level.
The opening sentences are on the last document.
Here comes the main body of the assignment.
Here is the end of the essay and the comments.

Now compare with your essay and the grade you got!

Finally I have taken an essay that Skolverket have given as VG - and
shown how I would have corrected it.

Here it is!

The rest of the time today I want you to work on the grammar.
Go in on the Read and Proceed program on your computer.
Click on grammatik.
Go to number 13 and work through all the examples.
For those who don't have a computer you will have to work with paper copies.

Good luck...

You get a paper copy with a summary of the website on writing!!!!

A la carte!

Since a number of people still have not written their essays we will do the essay assessment on Thursday. Today we will concentrate on A la Carte.

This story is extremely topical at the momemt. The idea of a person making a career as a chef was pretty unknown when Archer wrote this story but nowadays with all the tv series about becoming a chef (like Sveriges Mästerkock) this is very up-to-date.

We will start off by listening to the end of the story. Here is the file.

Then we will use a lot of the time to do some discussions. The first document is about career choice and gender. Why is it that women do most of the cooking in the home but as soon as someone can earn a living at it then it's only men!

Here is the document. 


To continue I want you to discuss the story more specifically. Discuss the first section with a neighbour and write and mail me your answers. We will take the comments section in class.. The write about the final question.
Is there a twist AT ALL in this tale? If so what is it?
I will be interested to see your opinions.
Here is the worksheet

Finally we have the vocabulary section. The topic in this story is obvious! There are very many CULINARY words (to do with cooking). Here is the file. Complete the words.
Good luck!!!

Words and more words!!!!!!

Today we are going to kill two birds with one stone ( In Swedish "two flies with one blow")... A phrase like this is an example of an idiomatic expression

Definition: An idiomatic expression are common phrases or sayings whose meanings cannot be understood by the individual words or elements. Examples of these idioms are "Baker's Dozen", "Funny Farm" and "Cold War".

Idiomatic expressions are also non-standard speech, slang or dialect that are natural to native speakers of a language. Examples of these idioms are "Apples and Pears" for stairs

Jeffrey Archer uses these kind of expression often in his writing to spice it up. However, these kind of expression are also often tested in the National Test.
Here are some examples from Archer's "Clean Sweep Ignatius"

Clear out Nigeria’s Augean Stables

Clean Sweep Ignatius

The new broom

Mr. Clean

Breath  of scandal

Into whose pockets this money is falling

Ferret out the villains

Ready to pounce

Down to business

Flicker of surprise

Bring your country to its knees

Beads  of sweat

The banker cleared his throat

And here are two documents of the assembled idioms which have come in the National Test reading over the years
Doc 1
Doc 2
Here is another document with phrases from an older National Test
Today I want you to start working on the language and words. Check throug the next story "A la carte".
Here is the first part as an MP3 (go in about 6 minutes into the recording)
Here is part 2
Next Tuesday we will work with this story and I will give back your essays.
Make sure all of you have written it!!!!