21 accents in 2 1/2 minutes

Hi all, while you are enjoying your holidays, have a look at this video. Amy Walker introduces herself in 21 different accents, mostly English in just 2 and a half minutes.

Did you think learning English was a question of getting the right accent? What do you think now?

My Hometown

What is this? Where did I take this picture?

Last week you answered some questions about tigers and lions. The resulting paragraph was a report. Today you can write a report about your hometown. Before you write it, check the power point below. You can also get morte information about report writing in these links from previous posts (there is a bit of repetition):

Reports:
Reports: Information Texts
My Hometown
Written Skill, Report: Places,Checklist
Huesca
Sydney
My suburb
Students'Hometowns or Countries
More Students'Hometowns or Countries
Cities
Reports:
Animals
Template for a report on animals





Don't forget to read the answers to your questions on last week' s walwisher. Some teachers read them and answered them!

Dust Storm, Persuasive Writing & Ask ESOL teachers

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Yesterday we experienced a weather phenomenon that Sydney had not experienced for more than 30 years, a severe dust storm. Richard Glover from the abc radio, Drive 702, talked to Sannon Lush who is an expert on cleaning. Listen to the podcast and you may find very good tips on what to do to clean up the mess at home. You can check these photos that listeners sent to the abc radio website.

Write a recount of your day yesterday. Did you see the sky? Did your house get dirty? Was your throat itchy? Your mouth dry? tell us about it.


Yesterday we were playing with the smartboard and we created a persuasion map. The topic was The benefits of using technology to improve our English (ESOL& technology).
THis is template you can use to guide your exposisionor persuasive text.

Have a look at what we did on the left, I will also give you a print so that you can read it better and write notes on it.
Before you write your text visit Persuasive Writing. It will help you with your task.

You must write 5 paragraphs:

1. 1. Introduction (state your thesis)
2. 2. Reason 1 and examples or facts that support it
3. 3. Reason 2 and examples or facts that support it
4. 4. Reason 3 and examples or facts that support it
5. 5. Conclusion

Publish your text in your blog.

Now let's do something to help a group of 8 teachers who are learning how to write blogs. You've already done this, so you can show off your skills:

• Create stickies on the Wall wisher below and write questions or suggestions about teaching ESOL.The teachers will have to answer them and copy the wall wisher onto their own blogs and ask their students to add more questions. Please try to also add a picture or a relevant link to a website, podcast or video. For a whole board click here.
  
  Finally, check Marion's post where she tells her students about Breakfast on the Bridge on October 25. I have already registered for the draw. Do it! It should be very interesting.

Australian Architecture

Last week Jean de Dieu gave us a short talk on Australian architecture. I happened to go to Ultimo TAFE college on Friday to pick up some equipment and I took some photos of two of the old buildings there. One is the Muse and the other one is building A or the Administration building.

Have a look at the photos below, check this Heritage Office information. You can copy the slideshow HTML to embed this album in a new post in your blog. Write a paragraph about the building with the Heritage Office information and your answers to these questions:

• What style is this building?


• Who designed and built it?


• When was it built?


• Name some of the materials used (eg brick)
• What is the roof made of?


• How tall is the building?


• What was it built for? What was the original purpose of this building?

You can also try to answer the questions on each picture in the album below. They are of houses from the same architectural Australian style.
Do you know the name of this Australian architectural style? This will help you get to know useful vocabulary about houses. Most of the answers are spread in the album.

• Yesterday we were working on two short reports on tigers and lions. Now is your chance to check up our doubts: How long do they live? Are they good climbers? Can they swim? Do they hunt at night?
• You are practising listening to the news with Silvia, this is the BTN link I promised! Check it out. Ask me for the worksheets and do it on the weekend.
  

Finally, go to Marion's blog and read about the exciting breakfast on the bridge. I'm going to register too and so should you. It's free!

09/09/09

Yesterday was a special day: 09.09.09. I heard on the radio that a group of German university students has created a website where they are asking people from everywhere in the world to write about what they did on the ninth of September 2009. They will them publish a book with the best stories and a part of the profits made from the sale of the books will be donated to charity. This is what you can do:

• Read about it on the abc blog entry: 09 09 09 a Day on the Planet.
• Listen to the interview with one of the organisers.
• Visit the website called “a day on the planet”
• As you know, the type of text is a a recount. Check the link on the left for a review of recount structure and linguistic features.
• Write a 400 word story about what you did yesterday. Publish it on your blog
• Send it to the German website (follow their instructions)
  
  You can also finish your writing about a belonging and record it on our voicethread.
  
  

Every week we will try to record your personal stories about an object that you hold very dear because of its sentimental value.

Casual Conversations & Recounts

Talking about what we did on the weekend is something that we often do when we meet our friends, classmates or work colleagues. Last week we started writing about our weekend on our Wallwisher. Some other people have left their messages & links too. Read them and write about your weekend on it.

We also tend to tell anecdotes, which are short funny stories (i.e. recounts) of something that has happened to us of people we know. Anecdotes are part of what we call casual conversation. Today you can listen to a very good example of a casual conversation with an anecdote. Listen to this podcast of two TAFE teachers, Wendy and Gihan, having a chat during their coffee break. Do the worksheet and choose a classmate to practise anecdote telling later in class.