Cultural Week: Monday 22nd through Thursday 25th

 

Todavía tenemos plazas en todas las actividades de la semana cultural. ¡Anímate!

• Lunes, 22: visita guiada en inglés al Real Jardín Botánico a las 18h. Se requiere inscripción previa aquí y 1€
• Martes, 23: karaoke en el salón de actos de la escuela, a partir de las 18:00h.
• Miércoles, 24: charla abierta con Graham Fowles: “How to write a whodunnit" -y presentaciones (20 minutos) en clases de nivel avanzado. Puedes ver los niveles y las aulas dónde se dará aquí! 
• Jueves, 25: visita guiada en inglés al museo tiflológico a las 17h. Se requiere inscripción previa aquí. 

Our Second Bookclub: Nickel and Dimed. On (Not) Getting By in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich, April 9th

 

We will hold this second bookclub on Tuesday April 9th, before our second progress assessment session.

As an appetizer, you may want to watch this interview with the author, definitely an out of the ordinary woman:

Check these links too:

Nickel and Dimed: Language to Check

Nickel and Dimed Discussion Questions

And these are Sparknotes for a summary, a character list and some important quotes explained:

Sparknotes on Nickel and Dimed

Grammar Key: Causatives and Modals

Destinations C1-C2 Anwer Key

Written Mediation Exercise

                                   

Written Mediation Exercise

Word limit: 180 words

Due on: April 2nd

You Don't Own Me, a song by Dusty Springfield

 

CRISPR-Casp9 is the Real Game Changer!!

In year 2020 and for the first time in history, a Nobel prize was awarded to two women, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, from the University of California at Berkeley. They made key discoveries in the field of DNA manipulation with the CRISPR-Cas9 system, so called "genetic scissors", which came to revolutionize the scene. 

March 8th is International Women's Day

I would like to share with you these two poems by the great 20th-century American poet Adrienne Rich: 

Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

Aunt Jennifer’s tigers prance across a screen,

Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.

They do not fear the men beneath the tree;

They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.

Aunt Jennifer’s fingers fluttering through her wool

Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.

The massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band

Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand.

When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie

Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.

The tigers in the panel that she made

Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

A Mark of Resistance

Stone by stone I pile

this cairn of my intention

with the noon's weight on my back,

exposed and vulnerable

across the slanting fields

which I love but cannot save

from floods that are to come;

can only fasten down

with this work of my hands,

these painfully assembled

stones, in the shape of nothing 

that has ever existed before.

A pile of stones: an assertion

that this piece of country matters

for large andsimple reasons.

A mark of resistance, a sign.

Biography of Adrienne Rich

The Writers' Cooperative

                                      

It's been a pleasure to read all your "stories with a twist". I really appreciated your joint effort in our first writers' coop, so I'd like to say thanks to all of you. 

Below follows the story co-authored by your classmates Diana and Julita. Enjoy the read!

The Betting Favourite

PS: Diana and Julita would like to thank everybody for their title suggestions. 

Title credits: Ana Gibello.

Power and Social Issues Vocabulary KEY

 

 Power and Social Issues KEY

More Community Action to Learn From, by BBC Planet Future

 

The Cities Stripping Out Concrete for Earth and Plants

Calendario Certificación 2024 Comunidad de Madrid

 Fechas exámenes de certificación mayo-junio 2024

Causative Verbs Practice

Here you have some practice to test yourselves on the use of causative structures. In case you have any doubts, do not hesitate to let me know in class.

Causative Verbs Practice 1

Causative Verb Practice 2

Time for a Class Debate: Smart Phones vs. Smart Kids. Tue February 13th

Click on the link below to watch the talk by Dr. Jonathan Haidt up to minute 40, and gather ideas to participate in our next class debate, next Tuesday February 13th:

Smart Phones vs. Smart Kids, by Jonathan Haidt

So You CAN'T or you CAN teach an old dog new tricks then?

                                           

KEY to the Writing Stories handout

  KEY to the story writing leaflet.

After our progress tests: Time to enhance our performance

                                     

Remedial Work for your WRITING:

1) Complete the conclusions worksheet. Keep it in mind

2) Search and go through specific vocabulary INPUT:

WRITING OPTION A

WRITING OPTION B

3) Write up a brief outline of your article / essay

4) Write a full new version of it (200 words max)

5) Do a thorough revision before turning it in

TO BE TURNED IN ON FEBRUARY 8th

Remedial Work for your SPEAKING and MEDIATING:

1) Listen to your recorded monologue / mediation

2) Identify errors in grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, content and structure.

3) Search for specific vocabulary to express yourself better

4) Write up a brief outline of your monologue / mediation exercise

5) Record your new performance (3 minutes for your speaking / 2 minutes for your mediation)

TO BE UPLOADED ON PADLET ON FEBRUARY 8th

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story

In this TED talk, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a highly-regarded Nigerian writer, talks about the danger of a single story. I would like to ask you to watch this video again, this time answering to the multiple choice questions below. We will dive into the waters of story writing and story telling this Thursday. Enjoy!

Chimamanda Adichie's questions 1

Chimamanda Adichie's questions 2

Chimamanda Adichie's questions 3

Chimamanda Adichie's questions 4

Guinness TV Commercial + Business and Advertising Vocabulary

  

Remember you have been assigned to prepare an elevator pitch for Guinness, with this very advertisement in mind. Check the link below for a general vocabulary revision:

Vocabulary revision: Advertising

Business English to use during meetings / remote working