Hey guys,

today we read the text about the experiment in a school with shorter holidays. Here is the information that we took out identifying arguments for (in favour of) and against long holidays: 

Vocabulary

Staggered = disturbed = changed

Bored = Un sentiment ressenti (ennuyé)

Boring = Un sentiment provoqué (ennuyant)

a rise = an increase = une augmentation

under pressure = under stress

bored senseless = extremely bored

entertainment = fête, divertissement, amusement

havoc = chaos

Drawbacks and Advantages

Finally, I gave you a methodology worksheet entitled "Link Words". I will explain you what to do with it next time.

HW: être capable de parler de la leçon et présenter les arguments pour et contre de grandes vacances. Vous devrez pouvoir donner votre avis personnel, en justifiant votre choix.

Vous devrez également créer une fiche de vocabulaire à classer par type de mot (nom, verbe, adjectif) appris au cours de la séquence en y mettant un thème. Ceux qui ont écopé d'une punition me fourniront 5 exemplaires de cette fiche.

Documents:

- Télécharger une copie du texte support ici.

- Télécharger la fiche "Link Words" (mots de laison) ici.

Hi guys,

today we first did a quick warm up about Troy Davis's case. You can watch a report about it below:

Here is what we said about this case:

This man was executed yesterday night in the USA. He had been condemned because he had committed a crime.

Some witnesses had said that they had witnessed him do it. Many people disagreed with this execution because some witnesses said that they had lied during their testimony. There was only little evidence now.

NB: Past Perfect = bouleversement chronologique. Un fait passé antérieur vient expliquer une action + proche de nous.

Vocabulary

Some ≠ Many
To witness = to see a crime
To testify = to tell about a crime -> a testimony.
a piece of evidence = a proof 

Then we continued our lesson with the correction of your homework that many hadn't made correctly.

Words indicating anger in Ellman's speech: "disgusting", "revolting", "unacceptable"

Finally, we debated over summer holidays to see if they were too long or too short. Here is the list of drawbacks that we made against long summer holidays:

"to be written by Pascal"

HW: pour vendredi (demain), vous devez lire le texte distribué et identifier les avantages et les inconvénients qui y sont listés concernant des vacances d'été longues. Vous devrez classer ces informations dans le tableau que nous avons commencé.

Hey,

today we first warmed up with the "I love food" song  and we listened to the very beginning of the movie again.

Here is what we said about it:

The director's critism:

Finally, we continued talking about the text we had begun on Monday about Bill and his wife. Here is the info that came out:

HW: apprenez vos leçons et soyez prêts à passer un test de vocabulaire et une compréhension de l'oral.

Hi guys,

today after making a quick recap of what we had said about the text so far, we corrected the questions from last year's exam. We could see how the analysis we had done previously was VERY useful since nearly all the elements to answer the questions were on the board.

Here is what we said in the end:

"to be written by Maheen"

HW: pour demain, penser à bien préparer votre traduction. Nous verrons quelques techniques spécifiques à appliquer pour mieux traduire. Je rammasserai les traductions de ceux qui veulent avoir un avis sur ce qu'ils ont fait. N'oubliez pas que vous devez être capable de commenter le texte dès le début de l'heure (5 minute-talk). Pour jeudi, pensez à votre expression écrite.

Hi guys,

today one of the students made a quick presentation of last time's cartoon. Her performance was not as good as it could have been because she was not prepared enough to talk about it. We then had to concentrate on how to improve things for next time.

Finally we studied an audio document about school. You can listen to it again below:

Here is what we said about it:

The School’s answering machine

I.  The document is a recording of a school’s voicemail but it is not normal. There is a gap between a regular message and this recording.

The author intends to be humorous and aims at denouncing school problems and the attitude of some parents.

The message makes a list of different options that the parents can select if:

-         They want to lie about why their children are absent.

-         They want to make excuses about why they didn’t do their homework.

-         ….. to complain about administration.

-         ….. to swear at staff members.

-         They want teachers to raise their child

-         ..... to slap or hit someone.

Vocabulary:

A recording of = Un enregistrement de

A gap = a discrepancy = a difference

It intends to…+ BV = It aims at…+ ING = verbes pour exprimer la notion de but

To lie = mentir

Homework = devoir

To complain about = se plaindre

To swear at = jurer / insulter

To slap = gifler

Staff members = employés, membres du personnel

To raise = éduquer

Voicemail = answering machine = messagerie vocale

Phonetics:

Attention à la prononciation des mots suivants, vous la trouverez ici:

Recording / Slap / Swear / Regular / Raise / lie / denounce / administration

HW: vous devez imaginer le message que pourrait laisser un parent mécontent sur la boîte vocale du lycée en vous inspirant de l'un des thèmes proposés (press 1, press 2, ...). Vous pouvez inventer plusieurs messages si vous le souhaitez.

Hi guys,

today we corrected your homework and we discussed the notion of junk food to really determine what it was. In the end we concluded that there were 3 types of junk food items and we made a short list according to the main ingredients:

Junk food items are either...

We also did some pronunciation recap and we reviewed some important rules that help make a difference.

HW: apprendre le nouveau vocabulaire et être capable de parler de ce qu'est "junk food". Vous pouvez également vous avancer en lisant le texte qui a été distribué "Junk Food Heaven", tiré de Notes from a big Country.

Documents:

- Download a copy of the text here (p.1 and p. 2)

More information about... Golden syrup here.

Hi guys,

today we welcomed the students who were not present on Monday and we had a little chat about dream holidays.

According to what you said, they had to select their favorite destination and explain their choice.

Here is what we said in the end:

My dream trip:

If I had money, I would like to go to New York City because I think it’s the most beautiful city in the world. I love the skyline.

Nevertheless it is not the cheapest destination. If you don’t have a lot of money, you ought to stay in France. For instance, I would like to go Saint Jean de Luz because the beaches are gorgeous.

Rappel de grammaire:

- Pour exprimer le souhait, on peut utiliser les formes verbales suivantes: « would like to.../ want(s) to… »

Pour exprimer le conseil, on utilise l'auxiliaire modal : « should… » ou l'un de ses équivalents « had better... / ought to... »

- The most + adj long --- the adj court-est... / The least .. (le plus... / le moins...)

Then we finished the class by talking about how you liked or disliked school and how you felt when you came to class. We started to analyse parts of a cartoon but we didn't have time to say much; only to comment on the bizarre shape of the road sign. We'll continue tomorrow.

HW: apprenez la leçon et préparez-vous à un test de vocabulaire très prochainement.

Hi guys,

today after talking bad (and good...) about the person who was absent, we continued the class with the information you had to locate in your texts (who, where, when).

You did a pretty good job talking and here is what we said as a comment:

The text is a first person narrative. It may be an autobiography.

The main character talks about his past in a flash-back. He relates the events that happened to him after highschool when he went to a very famous college and stopped / dropped out after nine weeks only because he was annoyed by other kids.

He comes from a poor family with problems. His father (a brute) left his mother / broke up with / cheated on her when he and his siblings were children.

He went to Florida to get a job and he got married to escape his previous life. He felt under pressure / depressed / abandoned / distraught.

HW: vous devrez placer sur une carte des USA différentes données (lieux) extraites du texte ou que nous avons rajouter ensemble. Il s'agit principalement de localiser les différents "Ivy League Colleges" et les villes ou états mentionnés dans le documents (St Petersburg, Florida, New Hampshire, ... and of course Paris! because yes, Paris exists in the USA too... :)

More information about...

- Ivy League colleges here. 
- A blank map of the USA here.