dramatized readings

Diary for Wed Oct 26 – 1st Dramatized Reading + Homework & Lesson Plans

Today I was fearing people would miss the lesson due to the approaching holiday and due to the fact that when adults have communication problems they feel discouraged and rather quit trying, but most people made it to class: thanks so much! ❤ And it was a wonderful lesson, too!

We welcomed Isabel, who comes from a different school, and will just join us on Mondays, unless her rota of teachers on duty is convenient. (For people gathering Useful Language for teachers: any other alternative to “profes de guardia”?)

People asked more language questions on the Friends 1×1 script and then, volunteered for roles and we had a wonderful Dramatized Reading of the whole episode! People’s performance was outstanding, so congratulations!We had Lourdes as Narrator, Marta playing the role of Chandler, Sergio as Paul the Wine Guy, Cristina R as Ross, Karen as Rachel, Lucía as Mónica, Germán as Joey, Clara as Phoebe, and Cristina B filling in for some smaller parts.

In the upcoming month, when you plan your week, find time to watch episode 2 at least once a week, to prepare for our next session! Underline your language questions and your fav lines! I hope we can have new volunteers then — but of course, anyone volunteering on the spot is welcome! Remember to print the copy I created (shrinking tens of pages into 4!) Path: It’s on talkingpeople.net – Enter – Scripts.

I hope in the future, some day, we can record sts doing this amazing teamwork exercise! ❤ In this way, others might get the chance to read the script some other day, too. Just let me know if you decide to do this, or want to! 🙂

The other project of this kind is that you all form groups around a movie (preparing a scene or something). That’s on our C1 Materials blog, and Lucía has been having a look at that. We can talk about it next week, too.

Feedback on Romina’s OP

see next post next day – can’t finish it today!

Cristina R. gave Romina some feedback + best wishes (I’m sure you’ll succeed) and made a question: mass lay-offs = ere.

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NOW, WHAT’S FOR NOW & NEXT WEEK? We have several things in store:

  • 3-4 minute OPs by you are always welcome. Actually, if everybody is going to speak once a month, we should be having two in every lesson? (I’m bad at maths!)
  • individual Useful Language projects, to share next week when you find out who’s worked on what;
  • checking the handouts on collocations (but I can post the answers, too);
  • reading out the Rational Discussion workshop, to mull over how we can improve discussions on controversial topics.
  • C-Day…

But just one lesson next week due to the Monday hol.

MORE AT HOME. You also need to post your minisagas, if you like, read posts here and comment, watch videos here and re-tell… It’s your pick! If you feel you want to improve your grammar, I recommend you use my podcast and do some Listen and Repeat with the Useful Language episodes. They will also inspire you for your Useful Language projects.

Diary for Oct 19. Two more OPs & Upcoming Lesson Plans!

Today some people came back to class, which was good news.

Some people wrote the lesson plan on the whiteboard, and when I got back from my break I completed it. I loved this experience, so I hope we can do this in every lesson, OK? Feel free to jot down stuff when you get to class!

We started with people voting for the group reps. Karen and Lucía volunteered and got their classmates’ support! ❤

Then Lucía did her OP on How to work on your monologues at home, and it was very interesting and she also allowed me to videoshoot! Please, watch the video, you all, when I manage to publish it, OK? It’ll be good for taking notes on the topic, and working on Lists of Mistakes. I would like to see some work of yours on that towards the end of November (use the C1 Resource Pack for reading a bit about it).

Germán gave an OP on the oral book review I suggested you prepared (the Ngozi essay), and it was very well put together. I hope he can record it for his speaking file taking into consideration the feedback I gave thim. Lucía took a pic of this outline and we’ll be publising it because it’s a great example of how to speak from outlines in timed OPs.

LoMs: some language questions came up, and Sergio contributed a good example for us to discuss “worth”, “worthy”, “worth it”.

I misunderstood a language question, but fortunately other students realized where I was making the mistake and helped clarify! Thanks!

Finally we watched 1×1 of Friends, and people agreed to read the transcript at home (download it following the links on “Handouts” here) and come to class with language questions. After that session, we’ll do a dramatized reading. We’ll see in what way!

We have lots of plans for next week, but you need to help me out of this. The priority will always be listening to people who have prepared 3, 4-min OPs, OK? I reminded people they should practice this format once a month, in class, for feedback, provided they worked on the piece as I indicate in my video and the resource pack.

Romina couldn’t make it to class today either. So I deeply regret having postponed her OP the other day! Romina, whenever you come back you can do it!!! 🙂 ❤

We have Lorena who will be offering a longer OP (a project OP, really) on Patriarchy or the Origin of patriachal societies. I have to say that this is a true precious talk and hope everybody will take notes and comment or ask questions after her performance.

AND — consider that after October-Feminist-Workshop-Month, you should be able to speak and write about gender issues and social change including awareness of the role feminism as a social struggle has played in the very different lifestyles some of us lead today. You could write a reasoned opinion in 100 words answering a question of your choice, for instance, for the November Writing Assignment which involves two brief writings.

Then we’ll work on language used in Friends 1×1, and the following day we’ll do dramatized readings of the script. It’d be great that some group allowed videoshooting, but if you don’t want to, even if it’s just one person, please, don’t feel obliged.

What’s for the first week in September? The collocations handouts (pinned on the board in class if you don’t have a copy) and the Useful Language project to share in class.

For the overview of what we did, remember to check out my previous post on this!