Today's Work
- Read Wendy's email from China and start writing about this week's topic in our forum
- Read Holiday Postcard and Letter Writing. Imagine you are on a holiday and write a postcard and a letter in your blog
- Do the Holiday exercises in Time4English: elementary level, Modules 2, 3 & 4. You can listen to one in Level 2-Beginner 6G.
- Today we will try taking photos and posting them in your blogs
Holiday Postcard and Letter Writing
Imagine you are on a holiday in a beautiful house you rented on the internet. Write a postcard to your family or a friend, telling them about your holiday. You can practise Holiday texts in Time4English elementary level, Modules 2,3 & 4. You can listen to one in Level 2-Beginner 6G:
Time4English.Writing a Holiday Postcard
- Write 50-60 words.
- Remember to tell your friend about the place, the food, the people, the weather or the things you are doing. (Choose 2 or 3 of theses themes only!)
| STAGES | LETTER |
|---|
| GREETING | Dear mum and dad, |
| ADDRESS PERSON | I hope everyone at home is well. Thanks a lot for your lovely present. I loved it! |
| WHERE/WHO/WHAT/HOW LONG | We have taken a week holiday and are staying at a beautiful hotel in Byron Bay. |
Writing a Holiday Letter
Now write a letter to a friend or relative. Remember the following stages:
| START RECOUNT | We travelled by car. Left Sydney on Sunday and got here ten hours later! |
| EVENT 1 | The first night we ate out. We were too tired to cook. On Monday we all went to the beach. |
| EVENT 2 | In the afternoon we walked around Byron. It’s quite small, so we got to know the place well quickly. |
| EVENT 3 | ………………………….. |
| COMMENT | It’s great being on holiday! We should do it more often. |
| ADDRESSING PERSON | I wish you and my brothers could come! Maybe next year when dad retires. |
| REASON FOR CLOSING | I have to go know. Peter and Mary want me to take them to the beach again. |
| CLOSING | Give my love to everyone, |
| SIGNATURE | Maria XXXX 000 |
- Remember to use simple past for the RECOUNT (what you did).
- Use chronological order
- Use expressions of time and place
email from China
CONGRATULATIONS
Wendy!! It's a baby BOYWe hopeyou are both in good health.
Wendy sent me an email yesterday. I think she would like you to read it:
Dear Rosa,I had baby boy on 21nd Feb.I'm sorry ,it's too late to tell you the news,because I can't play computer in the first month,and I lost Marion's phone number,so I can't give you call to tell the news. At china, I cann't watching TV,wash body and go outside in the first month , because the old people said it's bad for my body. I have to sleep on the bed every day.It's too bad. I'm so happy this month is gone.How are you now, and how are the classmates? I so miss you,and I will go to join you as soon as possible.I hope to hear from you soon.WendyShe talks about old traditions regarding mothers after delivering their babies. This is a very interesting topic for this week's forum: cultural traditions around new mothers and babies just after delivery. Think about your own experinces and we can start discussing this. What are these traditions? What is your opinion about them? Do you agree with them? Do you think that they are old fashioned and out-dated ideas? Do you think popular wisdom is correct in most cases? Or have people totally forgotten old ways?
Go to our
forum and tell us what you think.
Summary of Forum 3
Good Luck to
Nada!!
Everybody says
in the forum
that we will
miss you.
Come back
with the baby,
we'd love
to meet her/him.
Thanks everyone for participating in our 3rd forum. The topic was Our Class blog: how to use it, what we think of it, etc.Rita's comment summarises everyone's:" Rosa, good idea,we have our English blog. I like it very much, because it is a good way to study English and very helpful for us to improve our English. I'm very happy with my blog. My classmates can read what I write in my blog,and they can give me some advises.I can read what my classmates write in their blogs and I can get some new ideas and informations. That is good for me.I agree with Rosa that we must be careful of what we publish in our blog and be polite when we write comments on other people's blogs.RITA"All students agree on using it. Reasons why it is good:- good way of pratising our English
- good way of communicating with classmates and teacher
- helps us study English
- we learn from each other
- we can do it at home in our spare time
- it helps us improve our computer knowledge
- we have to think of grammar and vocabulary when we write
- it's ok to make mistakes, we learn form them
Difficulties:
- students who don't have a computer at home
- students whose computer is very slow
- sometimes we forget usernames and passwords!
- sometimes Rosa has a bad link and we can't find our blog!!
Solutions:
- you can go to the local library, TAFE library or Adult Study Centre and use their computers
- write down all our usernames and passwords in a notebook
- tell Rosa if you can't find your blog (she'll have to fix it!)
Some Rules:
- Always avoid plagiarism (do not copy someone's words and use them as if they were yours)
- Always be polite when we write in someone's comments, chat rooms, fora, etc
- Always sign your name when you address someone in their blog or in a chat
- Never publish personal details. We don't know who could be watching
To learn more about NETIQUETTE (good internet manners) do this Netiquette Quiz
Today's Work Programme
Today's Work
- Go to our forum and write your thoughts about Our Class blog. Respond to your classmates' comments. (Remember to write their name and to sign with your name. For example: I agree with you, Jie. Writing personal details in our blogs is not a good idea. You never know who is reading them. Rosa)
- Go to Time4English and do the following:
.............Lower Intermediate- UNIT 7D - RAIN BRINGS HOPE (Reading)
.............Intermediate-UNIT 2C-Hurricanes (Listening)
- Go to the Weather post and answer the last question about the long weekend weather. I've got a picnic planned for Sunday. Can I go ahead and invite my friends or should I cancel it?
- Start writing your story inspired by the pictures of hail (Sydney, 2004). Do it in your blog. I'll check it and send you a copy with highlighted errors for you to correct.
- If you have time, explore all the weather links, otherwise do it at home.
- Last weekend Marion had a party at her house to celebrate St Patrick's Day. (She's Irish, isn't she?. If you want to find out more about that celebration and its history, go to The English Blog . There is information about it and also a link to an interesting Webquest.
The Weather
The weather is very important when you are planning a holiday, a day out on the beach, a picnic or any outdoor party or activity.
Click here to practise weather expressions:
Weather Scrambled Words QuizAbout- Beginner English-The WeatherWeather Word GroupsWeather ForecastWeather Forecast TestWeather Forecast for AustriaWeather Questions for conversationsSydney Morning Herald Weather Forecast (In your blog: write the weather forecast for next weekend, which is going to be a long weekend. Will it be good enough to go on a picnic on Easter Monday?)
Go to Time4English:LOWER INTERMEDIATE - UNIT 2C - RAIN BRINGS HOPE (Reading)
Intermediate-UNIT 2C-Hurricanes (Listening)
Write a story inspired by these pictures and post it in your blog.
Hail in Sydney. September 2004.
FORUM TOPIC 3Go to ourforum. It's about our blog, your blogs, how to use them, rules, ideas, ...
collage
How can I post pictures?
Some of you already have pictures in your blogs, but Eva was asking how to do it.
Remember I told you about the two ways I do it: Hello & Flickr.
- Click on Blogger Help and you will learn how to do it with Hello.
Panticosa (posted with Hello)
- Go to Flickr and you can sign up to use it.
My friend's Exhibitin Invitation(posted with Flickr)
Today's Work Programme
Today's Work
Good morning everybody!
This is what we should be doing today:
- Some of you have to create a blog
- Some of you have to correct last week's posts in your blogs
- Write comments in your classmates' blogs
- Look at Topics to be aware of the links (you can explore them at home)
- Start writing in our Forum Topic 2 & print the exercise on Rights & Responsibilities
- Look at Travelling and write the answers in your blog (new post) or in comments
- Time4English:
- Level 4, Lower Intermediate-Family: (Listening)Plans for the Weekend
- Level 4, Lower Intermediate-Hobbies: Writing about Photographs
Our Student Blogs
Congratulations to all the students who managed to get a blog! The rest of you, don't despair... we'll try again on Thursday. If you have time, you can come to the Adult Study Centre (D1.10) on Tuesday, 3 p.m. I'll be there till 5 p.m. and we have 8 computers with internet connection.
Please try to write comments in your classmates' blogs. It's very good for your English. You can give your opinion about each other blogs, you can exchange tips on how to post photos, you can talk about language, TAFE, etc.
I was very impressed with Ivy and Bingbing: beautiful photos!
I'm also very happy with your writing. It is very good considering I only corrected the winter stories. They still need a bit of fixing, so we are going to work on them next week. Marion will give you copies at TAFE on Monday.
Good work!
Meeting People
Today we did a lot of talking. First we practised how to change the topic of a conversation with Marion. After lunch we met and interviewed students from another AMEP class, Sally's.
Remember to write a short description of the student you talked to. We will try to post them tomorrow. We have very nice photos to go with each description.
Forum Topic 2
Hi there,
Go to the forum link (right hand side bar) and get into our new topic:
Student rights and responsibilities.
If you don't remember the user name and password, ask me in class.
Remember our class talks on this topic, read the hand-outs you got (Student's Kit and AMES Kit) and visit the TAFE website:
Student Support, where you will find all the TAFE student services listed.
Also look at Part B, Do's and Dont's of
Use of TAFE NSW Internet and Intranet Services. It is very important to know this for our Thursday class.
Finally print this exercise on
Student Rights and Responsibilities and give it to me in class.
Travelling
Today we practised buying a plane ticket on the phone. You learnt a few new words. Can you answer these questions?
1. Buying a ticket 21 days before is called .............. .............
2. Another word for buying
3. When you pay less money than the normal price
4. The money you pay for a ticket
5. The most expensive time to travel
6. Not so expensive time to travel
To practise more sentences for travelling look here:
Transportation.
To read what other students write about they holiday trips and travelling experiences go here:
Travel Pages, Topics Magazine
