English 09C: A Letter to My Teacher

Hello!
Today you will continue writing the first drafts of your letters to me. You will do that tomorrow as well. Your first drafts need to be done by the end of tomorrow's class.

1. Finish your first draft,
2. share it with Susanna,
3. try to correct your own mistakes,
4. try to improve and develop your letter.

I will see you in class!
Susanna

Freedom Writers Friday

Discuss the following

- how children around the age of 10 are manipulated into becoming gang members,
- that when they are old enough to understand it is hard to get out but it can be done,
- that most gang members have experienced violence and trauma during their childhood,
- that being initiated by being beaten up is very dangerous and could kill a young person,
- that carrying weapons such as guns and knives gives a false feeling of protection,
- that it is always safer not to use weapons or any other kind of violence,
- that if someone starts a fight, the safest choice is always to stay out of it.

Today you will study these words and phrases, from the movie and the book:
Freedom Writers Diary p. 1-29 (Part 1) Flashcards | Quizlet

Then you are going to read diary entries 1-4 in the book, while listening to them here:
Mr. Prusinowski 8th Grade Freedom Writer's Diary 1 - 4 - YouTube (8:00-18:11)

In the end, we will continue watching the movie and discussing new scenes.

Your homework for next Friday is the Quizlet exercise above. 

Freedom Writers: 1

 

• Warm-up

What do you think it would be like being young in California or in the United States in general? Write down your ideas. 

• Intro to movie 

In the fall of 1994, in Room 203 at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, a young teacher with big hopes and dreams named Erin Gruwell faced her first group of students. The administration had called them "unteachable, at-risk"  teenagers. The class was a diverse mix of African-American, Latino, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Caucasian students, and many  had grown up in rough neighborhoods in Long Beach. In the first few weeks of class, the students made it clear that they were not interested in what their teacher had to say, and made bets about how long she would last in their classroom... 

• Words 

Practice these words:
https://quizlet.com/219218954/freedom-writers-part-1-flash-cards/ 

Chatter, discouraged, eventually, divided, threaten, scoff, immediately, education, salary, lyrics, deserve

• Watch the first part of the movie Freedom Writers 

• Answer these questions after seeing the first part of the movie. 

Why did Erin Gruwell (Mrs G) decide to become a teacher instead of a lawyer? 

Name some problems that Mrs Gruwell faces in the beginning! 

How do the students in room 203 treat each other in the beginning? 

A Letter to my Teacher 09C Wednesday 14:10-15:10

Dear students,
Your first task is to answer the letter I read to you last week.
1. Write a first draft and share it with me. I will give you feedback on it.
2. Improve your writing. Correct and develop your letter.
3. Write a new letter on exam.net, to show me what you have learnt.

Before you start writing we need to take a look at some examples of useful phrases. You should not use all the phrases in the same letter. Pick those that suit your letter the best. These phrases are only examples. You should write other things in your letter as well:

Greeting:

Dear Susanna, 

Hello Susanna,

Starting your letter (Paragraph 1)
Thank you for your letter.
Lovely to hear from you.
How are you?
How are things?
I hope you are well.

Commenting on something (Paragraph 1)
I am so pleased to hear ...
It is great to hear ...
What wonderful news about ...

Moving the topic on (Paragraph 2)
Now I am going to tell you a little about myself...

Ending your letter (Paragraph 3)
Well, that's all for now.
Write back soon!
I look forward to hearing from you again.

End phrase:
All the best,
Best wishes,
See you soon,
Take care
Yours,
Love,
Lots of love,
Best regards,

Write your name!

When you are done with your letter:
Present simple | LearnEnglish Teens - British Council

A Letter to your Teacher

 Dear students, 

For the first weeks of English in grade seven you are going to write a letter to me, your teacher. You will get a letter from me and your task is to respond to it.  

You are going write a first draft to me and I will comment on it. 
After that you will get a chance to make some improvements before you hand in your final version. 

Before you start writing we need to take look at some useful phrases.

Always start your letter with:

Dear XX, 

and then use some of the phrases below:

Starting your letter (Paragraph 1)
Thanks for your letter.
Lovely to hear from you.
How are you?
How are things?
Hope you're well.

Commenting on something (Paragraph 1)
I'm so pleased to hear ...
It's great to hear ...
What wonderful news about ...

Moving the topic on (Paragraph 2)
Now I am going to tell you a little bit about myself...


Ending your letter (Paragraph 3)
Well, that's all for now
Write back soon
Looking forward to hearing from you again

All the best,
Best wishes,
See you soon,
Take care
Yours,
Love,
Lots of love,
Best regards,

You don't use all the phrases in the same letter. Choose those that suit your letter the best.

National Test Speaking Preparation

 Time to prepare for the national speaking tests! 

In this blog post you will find different links where you can practice speaking and get familiar with the structure of the test.

On glosor.eu , if you use the username susles7812 and the password hello you will find a list of old topics of the national tests. These sets of words are called  "National test - Questions and answers" and "National test cards".

In these two sets of words on Quizlet you can practice discussion phrases: https://quizlet.com/239404359/discussion-words-flash-cards/  &
 https://quizlet.com/234736994/discussion-words-ii-flash-cards/ 

Here you can practice going through an old national speaking test.

1) Read the instructions on the page called "The World Around US" here: En_ak9_The_World_Around_Us.pdf  Do "Part One". 

2) Pick a topic among the blue cards here: En_ak9_elevkort.pdf Read the statement aloud. Say if you agree or disagree —explain why and give examples. Ask your friend/s what they think and why. 

3) Pick a topic among the red cards here: En_ak9_elevkort.pdf. Read the question aloud. Discuss your own opinions about the question —and also what other opinions there are.

Extra speaking activities:

Explain yourself! https://www.kimstudies.com/explain-yourself.html

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: https://www.kimstudies.com/between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place.html 

Talk about the photo captions! http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/study-break/photo-captions