A Great Start!

Well done to aall of you on a good term's work. Now that you have set up blogs of your own or are using this blog for your self study - really explore all the possibilities available. Below you will find a list of links that cover every aspect of your English study. Use these links to help you with problem areas from the test - e.g. tenses, conditionals, verb patterns. These are difficult areas that require lots of practice, so the more you can do on your own the better.

Also have a look at other students' blogs. Your answers to the discussion questions were really interesting - read what others have siad and leave a comment on their blog. Let's get a discussion going in English!

Anyway, keep up the good work. Stay in touch through the blog.
Have a great Christmas and see you in 2009!

Sean

Useful Links:

http://www.manythings.org/
http://a4esl.org/
http://www.english-online.org.uk/index.html
www.esl-lab.com
www.elllo.org http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/
http://esl.about.com/blquiz.htm
http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/ http://www.usingenglish.com/comprehension/
http://www.englishlistening.com/
http://www.englishpage.com/
http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/
http://www.cambridgeesol.org/teach/ielts/
http://www.ieltscourse.f2s.com/index.html
http://terra2000.chat.ru/ielts/tasks.html
http://www.zefrank.com/predate/index.html
http://adw.hct.ac.ae/site_ilc/sites_ielts/graphsite/index.htm
http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/af/content/atom_221
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/fun.html http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/database.html http://www.vocabulary.co.il
www.ieltspractice.com
http://www.bbc.co.uk/hardspell/hardspell_game.shtml
http://www.wordreference.com/es
http://www.britannica.com
http://www.funtrivia.com/quizzes/geography/england/london
http://webquest.sdsu.edu/
http://www.geocities.com/eimarjke/webquest/index.htm
http://www.educanet.ch/home/apagani/webquest/index.htm
http://www.bastrimbos.f2s.com/WebQuests/WebQuestLondon

Self Study

This coming week you will be asked to present your self study work for grading. Developing your independent study skills is an important part of the course and so your self study work counts as 25% of your final grade. Below is a guideline for how your self study grade will be calculated:

Grade A
85 -100%
24/25
Must contain all elements from Parts A & B
Grade B
75 - 84%
20/25
6 - 7 elements
Grade C
60 - 74%
16/25
4 – 5 elements
Grade D
50 - 59%
12/25
3 – 4 elements
Grade E
40 - 49%
8/25
2 – 3 elements

Students who have completed less than 2 elements or whose attendance has been minimal will receive Grade F.

Elements:

Part A:
Set up self study blog/notebook/folder containing:
1. Answers to all 6 discussion questions posted on http://seansstudypage.blogspot.com/
2. Collected new vocabulary
3. Vocabulary exercises (lexical sets, example sentences)
4. Homework
5. Error correction of written work
6. Evidence of extra reading or exercises on weak areas

Part B:
1. Full participation in class activities (e.g. debate (B2 groups), questionnaire writing, interviewing, seminar (B1 groups))
2. Full participation in open class discussions
3. All group and pair work conducted in English

Discussion Topic Six: Reflection

Now that most of you have completed your essays and written assessments and we are coming to the end of the term, I would like you to look back to the first lesson and the goals that you set for yourself. Do you think that you have achieved those goals?

What have you learned this term?
How has your English improved?
What is the next thing you want to achieve?