Natural Disasters

 Dear Boys,

You have done a remarkable job putting together a big list of adjectives and adverbs and adding many new ones to your vocabulary this week. Try to use these words as often as possible when you are speaking English.

Till the end of the week, we will talk about 'natural disasters', how and why they form, what areas of the world they affect and read some recent articles featuring current natural disasters. In Iceland, the most active volcano, Grimsvotn, began erupting last week and caused widespread disruption to air travel. Read this article to see how this volcano affected the wider area in Iceland and western Europe.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13489944.


A tornado is a dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cloud. They are often referred to as a twister  Tornadoes come in many shapes and sizes, but are typically in the form of a visible funnel, whose narrow end touches the earth and is often encircled by a cloud of debris and dust. Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than 110 miles per hour (177 km/h), are approximately 250 feet (80 m) across, and travel a few miles (several kilometers) before disappearing. The most extreme can have wind speeds of more than 300 mph (480 km/h), stretch more than two miles (3 km) across, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles (more than 100 km).

Here is the vocabulary we will learn and use in our discussion:

• tornados move thorugh/rip through/tear through neighborhoods and towns
• destroy/destructive/destruction-devastation
• ...was directly hit/....was seriously damaged/ ...was destroyed
• ...cause enormous damage
• the government pledged to help the disaster victims.
• heavily damaged/completely destroyed
• ...pulling people out of the wreckage
• ...debris was falling all over the place.
• Fires broke out.
• Trees were rooted out.
• One of the worst storms to hit the U.S.
• Stunned residents...
• Roofs were ripped off homes.

Click on the links below in Ms Melissa's post to read the recent news articles on the Joplin, Missouri tornado that caused a lot of damage and killed around 300 people. We will have a discussion about tornados, how they form, and how they affect the areas they hit.

See you in class!

The Weather

Dear 9.10 and 9.05,

This week we learned a lot of new vocabulary words to help us describe the weather. You did an excellent job brainstorming and researching to find new and interesting words to describe all types of weather.

Over the past few months we have read a lot of articles about natural disasters that have been happening around the world. From the earthquakes in Japan to the tornadoes in America there has been a lot of damaged caused. This week we will read, Another Disastrous Tornado. This article includes a link that will describe how tornadoes occur. Please take some time to learn more about this natural disaster. If you have time also read, Tornado Storms Smack the South, we will read this article later in the week.

Thank you for your continued effort! I can’t believe the year is almost over! ☺

• Please read Mrs. Lara’s post to help you review the use of “going to” when talking about the future.

"Going to" for talking about the future

09-02 and 09-07,

There are many ways of expressing future time. One of the most common ways is using “going to”. WE use to express future plans, intensions and to make predictions.

Here are some of its forms:

Positive:
Long: I am going to leave.
Short: I'm going to leave.

Negative:
Long: I am not going to leave.
Short: I'm not going to leave.

Questions:
Am I going to leave?

Using "going to" is one of LC4's English objectives, so make sure you understand it, and if you don't, come to class with questions for me!

Gentlemen of 9.01 & 9.06,

Last week we looked at expressing negative opinions by "ranting". To help introduce our opinions we studied how to use adjective and noun clauses to do this: The thing that .......... is the fact that/ What ............ is the way that ........ You made the grammar look really easy. Here is some vocabulary to help fill in our grammar patterns:

bothers
annoys
hate
can't stand
frustrates
gets ...upset
makes ...angry
find annoying
can't understand

Place this vocabulary with correct pattern to help express yourself better. If you don't have them, the grammar sheets are in the extra material file.

Cheers,

Mr. Crosbie

Dear 9.09 & 9.04,

Congratulations on a job well-done! Your brochures were great! I was pleased to see that they were informative, eye-catching, and attractive and that you made every effort to include the required information.



Ice climbing



Are you a thrill-seeker? Have you ever tried bungee jumping, hang gliding, ice climbing, or motor racing? Are you addicted to the adrenaline rush? If your answer is yes, then you are in for a week of fun. This week, we will explore extreme sports and discuss the risks, safety gear used, and external factors affecting the people doing the sports.

Ms. Neriman



Presentations

Dear 9.10 and 9.05,
This week you are doing great generating ideas about ways to get healthy for summer. If you are still unsure of what you would like to write about you can reread the article,GET UP, GET ACTIVE. I’m looking forward to seeing your presentations on fun ways of getting fit.

The Present Continuous

09-02 and 09-07,

Using the Present Continuous correctly is one of your LC4 objectives.

FORM
am/is/are + verb+ing

Examples:

•You are watching TV.
•Are you watching TV?
•You are not watching TV.

Use the Present Continuous to express the idea that something is happening now, at this very moment. It can also be used to show that something is not happening now.

Examples:

•You are learning English now.
•You are not swimming now.
•Are you sleeping?
•I am sitting.
•I am not standing.
•Is he sitting or standing?
•They are reading their books.
•They are not watching television.
•What are you doing?
•Why aren't you doing your homework?

Make sure you refer to your Student Book, Workbook, notebook, hand-outs and online howework when you're preparing for your LC4 English exam.

Please ask me questions when you have them.

Rant

Gentlemen,

Good job today in class. I enjoyed hearing your rants - we are ready to start work in i-movie. A fun mini-project for the end of the year. Like our football movies, we'll show them as a class and vote on a winner.

Essays and Brochures

Dear Boys,

I am really impressed by your hard work and dedication this week. The quality of your persuasive essays has been remarkable and I am proud to display your work in class. Thank you for your effort and patience in producing a final draft after revising and editing your work. Now, you know what is involved in the writing process and follow the same procedure to develop more great essays like these!

You are almost ready to present your brochures, which look vibrant and eye-catching! Keep browsing the internet to find real hotel brochures and compare them with that of yours to see what else you can include to make them even more attractive! But overall, all brochures seem to have the four required type of information that I outlined in class. On Thursday, please submit a hard copy at the time of presentations and turn in soft copies on Edmodo.

Keep up the good work!

Ms. Neriman

Dear 9.10 and 9.05

DON'T FORGET TO READ EVERYDAY! :)





Wow! Your essays, comparing two cities, are excellent. I’m very impressed with how you are researching and finding information, but not copy and pasting. I can see that you are finding important facts and putting the information into your own words. This is a skill we will continue to work on!

This week's been fun describing people. What do they look like? What are they wearing? What’s their personality like? We will keep working on finding new words to be descriptive.

Thank you for all your hard work!

• Please read Ms. Lara’s post, to help you review when to use “who’s” and when to use “whose”.

whose VS who's

09-02 and 09-07,

Who knows the difference between who's and whose (one of your grammar objectives from New Headway Plus Elementary Unit 11)? Here's a lesson whose time has come.


Who's
Who's is a contraction of who is or, less commonly, who has.

For example:

Who's watching TV?

Do you know who's going to speak?

Who's ready to go?

Who's in the kitchen?

Who's this?

Who's already eaten?


Whose
Whose is the possessive of who.

For example:

Whose book is this?

Do you know whose car this is?

I know a woman whose kids study there.

Whose side are you on?

An idea whose time has come.


Basically:

The apostrophe for the who's here is a CONTRACTION - not to show possession.

If you can replace the word with who is or who has, use who's. If not, use whose.

Your Criteria

Gentlemen of 9.01 and 9.o6,

I have started to read your criteria reports. Some of them, 9.01, are fantastic. The tables look good, the writing is good, and you have used the new vocab grammar. Great Job. For the few students in 9.01 who have not handed it in - get it in.

9.06, I look forward to reading yours next week.

Have a great weekend.

Making progress...

Dear Boys,


Congratulations on a job well-done! All persuasive essays have been turned in and they look great! We will still go through the steps in the writing process, revise and edit before we produce a final copy. Meanwhile, I want you to go over all the new words and structures you learned about so far this week and review your notes to make sure you're on the right track. Keep up the effort and good work as we are nearing the end of the school year and there's still much to cover before the summer holiday!


Ms. Neriman

Mid-Cycle Quiz This Week

09-02 and 09-07,

Remember to study the objectives we've covered so far from the New Headway Plus Elemenary course book for your Mid-Cycle Quiz this week.

Please ask me questions if you need any clarifications.

Good luck studying!

Cities Around The World

Dear 9.05 and 9.10 Students,

I absolutely love how your brochures turned out! You did an amazing job and they look very professional. Thank you for working cooperatively with your team and completing your projects on time.


What makes a city? Continue thinking about how we define a city. What do you find in cities? How are cities different and how are they alike? We will continue researching and comparing cities around the world. I hope you enjoyed learning about the cities I lived in before moving here.

Please keep doing your best!

Tutorials

Gentlemen of 9.01,

So far a great job on the video tutorials for I-movie. They are excellent, some even professional. What is more important is that you are making a learning resource that will stay with grade nine even after you leave for the summer. Great Job!

Mr. Crosbie

How persuasive is your argument?

May 4th, 2011

Dear Boys,

It has been such a pleasure teaching you essay writing. All the time and effort we spent brainstorming ideas, creating graphic organizers, making outlines, and debating the issue of city versus country living paid off. Your persuasive essays look great! I was impressed to see how hard you tried to meet the word limit for paragraph and essay. In the end, all of you wrote a minimum of 80 words per paragraph and over 400 words for the entire essay! Some had 600 words! But, the quality is more important than the quality. The essays I have gone over so far follows the order of the outline and the ideas planned to go into each paragraph.  Tomorrow is the deadline for the essay, however, many of you already submitted your first drafts on Edmodo. Upon marking them, I will have volunteers to share their work with the class and we will, as usual, display all pieces on our board in class!

Good job and keep up the good work!

Ms. Neriman

9.10 and 9.5

Dear 9.5 and 9.10,

Thank you for the quality work you are doing on your hotel projects. I know they will turn out wonderful! Remember to work as a team, discuss, problem solve and negotiate together. Teamwork isn’t one person doing all the work.

I know how difficult it is to research, find information and put it into your own words. However, it’s very important that you are reading, understanding and summarizing…not copy and pasting! ☺ We will continue to work on the strategy of summarizing information.

Keep up your enthusiasm for learning! I appreciate the effort you make to listen, complete assignments and appropriately participate in the classroom.

One more thing! I would like to welcome my new students to our class ☺

Present Continuous Tense

09-02 and 09-07,

This is week 3 of LC4 and we've started learning about the present continuous tense. Refer to Grammar Reference 11.1 and 11.2 on page 132 of your New Headway Plus Student Book for details on its forms and usage.

During the week remember to access your Quia account for homework and to be prepared for your daily short quizzes and any other possible drop quiz you may have.