THIS POST IS FOR STUDENT WHO ARE GOING TO USE BLOG FOR THEIR PORTFOLIOS.

Hi there!

Here you have some video tutorials on how to create blogs and how to create your portfolio with it.

This is a basic tutorial about how to start a blog.


And here you have some links to more videos that might be useful as well.

How to change a template (basic)

How to create a Static Home Page. When you do the posting on your blog, you will always see the last post at the beginning. For your portfolios it is very convenient that the first page is always the same.

If you decide to change the template, consider watching this.

And now that I mention that, I would like to give you some advice.
When we learn how to use new templates in our blog, we feel very excited about it and want to try them all. You try one, then another, and so. But you will find that some of the templates don't work the way you want and you could experience some anoyance, like losing part of your contents. To avoid that, you could consider doing some of these things.

1- Build a trial-and-error blog. If you ruin it, you can solve it because it will be only for tests.

2- Do all the change of templates first, and then start posting. That way you make sure you will material will not suffer.

3- If you already started posting and want to make changes in template, save all your material first.

I must say thanks to Bob Sommers for these great tutorials. Here's his website (with a lot more videos) if you want to learn how to do more things with your blogs.

Hello,

You all now know how to start working on your portfolio, but this information was pending:

Portfolio minimum contents:

- Introduction
- Two paragraphs (+ their reflections)
- One essay (+ its reflection)
- Prewriting and draft of the essay (+ 1 reflection)
- One formal letter (+ reflection)
- One informal letter (+ reflection)
- One invitation (+ its reflection)
- Two freewriting activities (+ their reflections)
- Conclusion

Due date: Wednesday, 13th of January. (This is the deadine. It can be handed in before, at your convenience)

I am soon going to publish the rubric that I'll use to evaluate your work.

Soon more.

Good luck to all!

Juan Chamorro A.

PS: Before I forget: Here are the video tutorials.

With Powerpoint


With Blog

Hi folks,

This is the reading for this week.
I hope you enjoy it.

Dear all:

Make up classes wtih parallel A will be this Friday, at 11:45 in classroom E-11, and at 3:00 pm we haven't got a classroom. But I think we can get together in the same building, "rooms E" and check if there's a classroom left. Sometimes classes are cancelled and classrooms that are booked, are really available. On Monday the class will be at 12:55 in room CRP-4.

Please don't miss it.

PS: Attendance is normal, like to all classes. If you have any trouble, let me know personally, or you'll be left absent.

Hi all,

I got a classrom. CRP3 (Education Department, downstairs)

See you all there at 8:00 AM

Don't miss it!

This is the extenisive reading. You can get it at the bookshop, or print it. You might not be able to do it at the lab, though. They've been having trouble with the printing service. I'll try to print it and leave it in the copy centre.

Thanks

click here to download it

This is the handout called "Baby Jessica's case." I was previously posted with the other "writing letters" handout.


Baby Jessica's Case.rar (in jpeg format)

Baby Jessica's Case.ppt

I hope you like it. It looks long, but it is quite simple.

The visit (with pictures) You have to click the right button of your mouse and choose "save as" o "guardar como." (If you don't do this, the file will try to open in your web browser and it will take a very long time to doad, if it loads.)


The visit (printer friendly version)

It was left in FEDERACIÓN copy centre on Wednesday.

regards,

JCA.

I hope you enjoy these stories.

Weekly reading 6.doc

Weekly reading 6.pdf

Hi all,

Here you have the handout we worked with in class.

click here to download

Don't forget to bring material to work in class. We're going to work on hand-crafted invitations. So bring any material you would like to work with. (colour paper, glue, ink pens, stickers, etc). At the end of the class we are going to make a poster with all your work.

LOOK AT SOME SAMPLES :D

These are the new handouts for the unit "Letter Writing"


Writing Letters.pdf (hacer click con botón derecho del mouse y elegir "guardar como")

Writing Letters.ppt
(fixed)

Baby Jessica's Case.pdf (coming soon)

Baby Jessica's Case.ppt

I hope you like the reading.



Also in other formats:

liverpool.pdf

liverpool.pdf (printer friendly)

JPGS:

Hi all,

Here are some of your paragraphs. I would like everybody to be published, at least once.

Here we have the first contrubution, thanks to Ariel Vega!

Q1: Teacher, Will the handout "Ways of developing paragraphs" be included in the test?

A: No, it won't. The handouts that I am considering are: All the readings (for general questions), Kinds of paragraph, Who is a Hero (this one for specific vocabulary), Writing paragraphs, and the notes you took about pre-writing.

Q2: Teacher, I still don't have very clear what you'll evaluate in test. What handouts will you consider?

A: I gave you an idea in the previous post; but if you want more specific details, here we go:

Section one: A. Vocabulary:
- You'll have to write sentences using vocabulary words from "Who is a Hero." I am not going to ask you to use specific vocabulary from others handout because there are too many of them. The idea is to demonstrate that you learned some vocabulary, but it's not only that. Hence the selection.

Section one: B. Reading:
- You'll have to answer general questions about the texts that we read and also about "how to write." For example: What is a paragraph? (It's a group of sentences that work together to develop one idea. A good paragraph should have a topic sentence, supportive sentences and a concluding sentence.) or How was Charlie Chaplin's childhood? (It was not very happy. He had to start working when he was very young with his brother and his mother was sick. Then they moved to the USA and there his life changed, but not immediately: At the beginning, he had poor jobs; but with time, he could improve his situation. )
As you see, you have to demponstrate that you read and understood. Advice: Keep your writing simple.

Section two: Paragraph writing:
- Here you'll have to put into practice what we have seen in class, by writing a paragraph following a topic that I will give to you. For example: "Your most memorably Sunday at the beach." You'll have to do pre-writing and drafting.

Hi,

thanks to all the ones who came to class, in spite of having a test in the following hour. I like this attitude!

Thank you very much.


Now, let's leave things clear so there aren't any missunderstandings. Feel free to make comments here, in the shoutbox or by email to juanchamorroarenas (a) g m a i l . c o m

Photocopies
We're finishing the handout about heroes and I need you to take copies of the new one. You can print it or photocopy it if you want. If you don't have enough money to take photocopies, take them with another classmate; if you have no money at all, just make sure you sit with someone who has the handout. It's more difficult to follow the activities if you don't have the material.

Weekly readings
Today I am going with some people from parallel A to choose the next weekly reading (5th), but for the 10th on November. It's just logic, because we have a test next Tuesday. Make sure that you read the texts because they will be considered in the test.

Class Activities: Drafts (I wrote this message on the board, in class)
The word"Draft" means "borrador" in Spanish. In the classes, when I ask you to write a draft, it means that it is the first version of a text. In this stage I usually read it and make some comments or corrections. After that, you have to write it again and give it to me in a sheet of paper (typed, desirebly). Sometimes I'll ask you to write 2 drafts, so you have to be attentive to instructions.

Ah, and please remember: Don't throw away the texts that you write: Create a folder where you keep all this material. This will be very useful to your portfolios.

Thanks

Exam contents
The test will consist of two parts.
Part one: vocabulary and questions. Part two: paragraph writing.

The contents will be evaluated by:
- Writing sentences with the vocaculary words from "Who is a Hero."
- Answering general questions about all the weekly readings.
- Answering general quesitons about the process of writing, paragraphs writing, topic sentences, concluding sentences, etc.
- Writing a paragraph following a topic that I will give to you.

Success to everyone!

New handout: Kinds of paragraphs.

Hi all!

We've chosen the weekly reading with a group of students of parallel B. Next time I'll choose it with students from parallel A. This time, the texts are two: A police short story and an article, both taken from I Love English magazine.

They're in the SIGA, in the photocopy centre (next to old caffeteria) and hemeroteca (library, 2nd floor. The labels are: S428 T565i 2006 abr / S428 T565i 2004 jul). You don't need to use up your printer ink; you have many options to read the texts, and my e-mail address as well to report problems, if they arise.

Murder on the Boat.ppt

Hello folks,

I decided to write this and clear out doubts that you may have.

Today Wednesday we worked on the first part of the handout "Who is a hero," and read the amazing story of a little boy who became a hero after helping his mother, who was badly hurt. We worked on the vocabulary activities and we'll keep on working with it next class. Please bring it.

We haven't chosen the new weekly reading, so tomorrow I am going with volunteers of parallel B to choose some magazine articles in hemeroteca (2nd floor). Next week I'll go with parallel A.

Don't forget that you have to bring your paragraphs ready for Monday (A) and Tuesday (B). You'll surely have to write another one next week, so don't miss classes.

We've fixed dates of exams as follows:

Parallel A
Exam 1: Tuesday 3rd of November (Paragraphs, kinds of paragraphs and vocabulary)
Exam 2(Extensive): Wednesday 9th of December (Extensive reading)
Exam 3: Wednesday 20th of January - (Essay writing)

Parallel B
Exam 1: Tuesday 3rd of November (Paragraphs, kinds of paragraphs and vocabulary)
Exam 2(Extensive): Wednesday 9th of December (Extensive reading)
Exam 3: Wednesday 20th of January (Essay writing)


best regards,

your teacher.

Dear all:

As I told you in class, here I am leaving the material that I also left in the photocopy centre, next to the old caffetereria. Don't forget that for next class you must do the following:
1) bring the first draft of your paragraph ready (not necesarily typed, but easily readable),
2) bring the new handout called "Who is a Hero" ,
and 3) read the short story "How did he do it?", I hope you enjoy it.

Please, let me know if a link fails, so I upload it to another server.

How did he do it.ppt
Who is a Hero.ppt
Who is a Hero.pdf

(click on "request download ticket" in the upper left corner when you access the links )

Have a nice weekend!

Juan Ch A.

The server was down during the weekend, so I wasn't able to work on the SIGA. I'll have it reading throughout the week.


regards,

JCA

This is the first handout of the unit.

Writing paragraphs.ppt

Hello,

this is the Tuesday weekly reading that you have to read for next class. I hope you like it.

(in jpeg format)

(power point format)

If you don't want to waste paper and ink, read it from the original. This is a magazine that is available in hemeroteca, second floor. It is called "I love English" and the edition is: July-August-September 2004.

The material in hemeroteca (like the dictionaries, for instance) is to be read there. You can't take it home.

I hope you enjoy it.

Dear students:

This is the handout that contains the same explanation and examples seen in class.

Punctuation handout.doc

Exercises.doc

The SIGA will be ready very soon.

Regards,

JCA

Dear all:

This is the short story you're supposed to read. I'll ask general questions to 5 students, random. You don't need to pay attention to vocabulary on this occasion.

I hope you like it