Week beginning Monday, December 19

C1.2 Monday + Wednesday:

What we covered in class on Monday, December 19: Press Review + Course book p83 (until 2. Grammar). Here is today's white board.

Homework for Wednesday, December 21: No homework

What we covered in class on Wednesday, December 21: Exams were handed out. Q&A session. Error-correction activity.

Homework for Monday, January 9: Press Review + Correct the remaining mistakes in the error-correction activity above + Review everything we've done so far.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A WONDERFUL 2017 TO ALL OF YOU :)

C1.2 Friday group:

What we covered in class on Friday, December 16: Press review + Progress Test + Course book p83

Homework for Friday, January 13: Press review + Grammar focus 7B p151 + review everything we've done so far.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A WONDERFUL 2017 TO ALL OF YOU :)

Week beginning Monday, December 12

C1.2 Monday + Wednesday:

What we covered in class on Monday, December 12:`Press review + Exercise C p150 + Unit 7 (4a-d) p82.

Here is a tutorial on the difference between specific and general ability in modals. And here is a very good summary of when to use can or could by the British Council.

As you can see in the latter, "could" is fine for a possibility in the future but is less commonly used for an ability in the (hypothetical) future.  Example of an ability in a hypothesis: If I didn't live close to the train station, I couldn't walk there every morning. In this case "wouldn't be able to" is highly preferable: If I didn't live close to the train station, I wouldn't be able to walk there every morning. 

Here is an excellent blog aimed at advanced students for any other grammatical query you might have.

What we covered in class on Wednesday, December 14: Explanation of the above + Progress Test

Homework for Monday, December 19: Press Review

C1.2 Friday group:

What we covered in class on Friday, December 16: Press review + Progress Test + Course book p83

Homework for Friday, January 13: Press review + Grammar focus 7B p151 + review everything we've done so far.

Week beginning Monday December 5

C1.2 Monday + Wednesday:

What we covered in class on Monday, December 5: Homework correction + error-correction activity.

Homework for Wednesday, December 7: No homework  

What we covered in class on Wednesday, December 7: Course book p81 and 150

Homework for Monday, December 12: Finish exercise Cp150 + Press Review (remember, the Progress Test will take place on Wednesday the 14th).

C1.2 Friday group:

Homework for Friday, December 16: Press review + make sure you attend our class: Progress test! 

Week beginning Monday, November 28

C1.2 Monday + Wednesday:

What we covered in class on Monday, November 28: Press Review + activity based on a video by The Economist Films

Homework for Wednesday, November 30: Writing Act. 4 p77

What we covered in class on Wednesday, November 30: Course book p80-81 (until Vocabulary c)

Homework for Monday, December 5: Grammar Focus 7A p164 (NO press review)

C1.2 Friday group:

What we covered in class on Friday, December 2: Press Review + Error-correction activity + Parallel structure tutorial. + course book p150 and 82

Homework for Friday, December 16: Press review + make sure you attend our class: Progress test! 

Week beginning Monday, November 21

C1.2 Monday + Wednesday:

What we covered in class on Monday, November 21: Press Review + signpost language revision + speaking activity p75 + speaking activity around visual aids such as Power Point presentations + we viewed this video.

Homework for Wednesday, November 23: Do the Unit Progress Test on the platform

What we covered in class on Wednesday, November 23: Course book p76-78 + 172 + Paragraph Writing tutorial

Homework for Monday, November 28: Press Review

C1.2 Fridays:

What we covered in class on Friday, November 25: Press Review + speaking stage of last week's activity + Course book p78-81 (including p164).

Homework for Friday, December 2: Press Review + Grammar focus 7A p150

Week beginning November 14

C1.2 Monday + Wednesday:

What we covered in class on Monday, November 14: Press review + homework correction +  Course book p73 (creative writing activity nº5)

Homework for Wednesday, November 16: Review participle clauses 

What we covered in class on Wednesday, November 16: Course book p74-75 (except the Speaking part) + signpost language

Homework for Monday, November 21: Press Review + revise the above-mentioned signpost language.

By the way: On my way back home I finally found a decent example of a "sore point" : my best friend was unable to complete her PHD 15 years ago and it's always been a bit of a sore point with her, she told me recently she is only starting to come to terms with it... 

C1.2 Fridays:

What we covered in class on Friday, November 18: Press Review + signpost language revision + speaking activity around visual aids such as Power Point presentations + we viewed this video. Course book p76-77 + activity based on a video by The Economist Films.

Homework for Friday, November 25: Press Review + Writing 4p77 + ex. 1&2p78

Week beginning Monday, November 7

C1.2 Monday + Wednesday:

What we covered in class on Monday, November 7: Press review + Course book p73 (until Gramar e.) + other grammar and vocab concepts

Homework for Monday, November 14: (NO CLASS ON WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 9) Press review + Exercises p149. By the way, here is the article I mentioned!

C1.2 Fridays: 

What we covered in class on Friday, November 11: Press Review, homework correction, course book p74-75, presentation language

Homework for Friday, November 18: Press Review + Unit Progress Test on the platform  + review the above-mentioned presentation/signpost language.

Week beginning Monday, October 31

C1.2 Monday + Wednesday:

What we covered in class on Monday, October 31:  Course book p132 + p70 + tutorial on gradable / non gradable adjectives + we did this exercise

Homework for Wednesday, November 2: All exercises p148

What we covered in class on Wednesday: Homework correction + course book p70-71

Homework for Monday, November 7: Press review + sections d & e p72

C1.2 Fridays: 

What we covered in class on Friday, November 4: Press review + course book p73 + other grammar and vocab concepts.

Homework for Friday, November 11: Grammar focus + exercises p149. Press review.

Week beginning Monday, October 24

C1.2 Monday + Wednesday:

What we covered in class on Monday, October 24: We finished the activity on introverts vs extroverts + Press Review + Course book p67-69

Homework for Wednesday, October 26: (optional) Create a Quizlet study set for last week's activity on "Introverts vs Extroverts". Learn the vocabulary in question.

What we covered in class on Wednesday: Course book p68 + 163

Homework for Monday, October 31st: Press Review

C1.2 Fridays:

What we covered in class on Friday, October 28: Press Review + Course book p70-72

Homework for Friday, November 5: Grammar focus 6A p148 + Press Review

Week beginning Monday, October 17

C1.2 Monday + Wednesday:

What we covered in class on Monday: Ice-breaking activity + first stages of an activity based on an article by The Economist.

Homework for Wednesday, October 19: Buy the book: EMPOWER C1 (Cambridge University Press - Cambridge English) DO NOT buy the workbook. And finish the first stage of the above-mentioned activity.

What we covered in class on Wednesday: We finished the above-mentioned activity, introduced Quizlet and watched the first 12 minutes of the following video.

Homework for Monday: Watch the rest of the video + Press review activity: 
You read an article every week from the following sources and write a 100-word summary (bullet points are ok) so that you can talk about each other's article with your classmates.

The New York times
The Economist
The Washington Post
The Guardian
The Independent
The New Yorker
The Times
The Telegraph


C1.2 Fridays:

What we covered in class on Friday, October 21: We discussed the above-mentioned  video , introduced Quizlet + covered course book p67-70

Homework for Friday, October 28: All exercises in "Grammar 4" p70 + Don't forget to register on the platform + Press review activity: 
You read an article every week from the following sources and write a 100-word summary (bullet points are ok) so that you can talk about each other's article with your classmates.

The New York times
The Economist
The Washington Post
The Guardian
The Independent
The New Yorker
The Times
The Telegraph

Week beginning Monday, October 10

C1.2 Monday + Wednesday:

What we covered in class on Monday:

Homework for Wednesday:

What we covered in class on Wednesday:

Homework for Monday:


C1.2 Fridays:

What we covered in class on Friday, October 14: Course introduction + ice-breaking activity + 3-stage activity based on an article by The Economist.

Homework for Friday, October 21: Buy the book: EMPOWER C1 (Cambridge University Press - Cambridge English) DO NOT buy the workbook.Watch this video on the subject we delved into today and take notes.

End of course

Hi there,

First of all many thanks to all of you, you were an absolute delight to teach!!

I will post the marks here around the 5th of June.

There will be an alternative session of the final exam on Friday June 3 at 10:00 in the staffroom of Edificio Filología E "Multiusos". Fernando, I left an additional copy of the exam with Amy for you so do not hesitate to do the exam on the 3rd of June.

If you are interested in doing a PDI intensive course in June please fill out the following form and send it to me per email! Many thanks! :)

I wish you all the very very best!!!

Hasta pronto

Abrazos

Take care

Jeanphi

Week beginning Monday, May 16

What we covered in class on Friday, May 20: We carried out the student A - student B activity mentioned in the previous entry + grammar lesson on emphasis and inversions with exercises (you might also want to read this other very good review of inversions) + 3-stage activity based on a video by The Economist as part of our chapter on sustainability.

By the way, here is the tutorial on the Subjunctive for those who are interested. It will NOT be part of the exam.

IMPORTANT: The exam will take place during the first session (9:00-11:00) since this suited everybody in the end. We will correct it in the second session!

Homework for Friday, May 27: Review everything we covered during the course, especially the vocabulary we compiled in our Quizlet study sets (some of them are incomplete and therefore still need to be updated, so feel free...:), all the specific writing techniques such as paraphrasing, the error-correction activities and all the grammar we covered (conditionals, gradable/ungradable adjectives, inversions...).

Week beginning Monday, May 9

CAE: Ya he entregado el acta y aparentemente ya la podéis visualizar en la web del CSIM!  Congratulations to all of you! It was a real pleasure to teach you and I wish you all the very best! Take care. Jeanphi

PDI:

What we covered in class on Friday, May 13: Presentations + Error-correction activity + 3-stage activity based on an article by The Economist related to sustainability. Review of question writing + polite questions.

Homework for Friday, May 20: Do the following activity: Student A / Student B. Those of you who didn't attend our class have been assigned a text, as indicated below. Follow the instructions and make sure you write the answers on a separate sheet of paper! Rodrigo and Óscar Bascuñán: Student A / Cristóbal and Óscar Hernández Muñoz: Student B

IMPORTANT: I talked to the CSIM administration about the alternative session for the final exam and there are still a couple of parameters to sort out but we're getting there :) I'll come back to you a.s.a.p.!

CURSOS DE VERANO :)

You'll find all the information you need here :)

Week beginning Monday, May, 2

English C.A.E. Preparation Stage 2:

What we covered in class on Tuesday: FINAL EXAM 1 (Listening + Writing)

What we covered in class on Thursday: FINAL EXAM 2 (Reading and Use of English)

Scroll down for the Official CAE speaking timetable

PDI:

What we covered in class on Friday, May 6: Presentations + activity based on a video by The Economist Films as an introduction to our last topic: Sustainability.

Homework for Friday, May 13: If you weren't able to attend our class please view the video and try to do the activity above. For everybody: Press Review.
By the way, here is another very interesting video on Conchita's topic, i.e. how to purify water and make it drinkable.

CAE SPEAKING TEST JUNE 1 AND 2, 2016:

HERE IS THE TIMETABLE

Week beginning Monday, April 25

English C.A.E. Preparation Stage 2:

What we covered in class on Tuesday: We finished unit 7 and started unit 8 (p119)

Homework for Thursday: Reading task p120-121

What we covered in class on Thursday: Course book p121-123 + we started an Activity based on an article by The Economist following up on our class on solar energy.

Homework for Tuesday, May 3rd: Revise everything we covered: FINAL EXAM (Writing and Listening)

PDI: Scroll down to the previous entry

Week beginning Monday, April 18

English C.A.E. Preparation Stage 2:

What we covered in class on Tuesday: Homework correction + course book p106-107 including a vocab-enhancing activity on one's ideal home. Here is a link to a very interesting real estate ad with loads of vocabulary.

Homework for Thursday: Language development p109 (go to Expert Grammar p183 beforehand)

IMPORTANT MESSAGE: HERE ARE THE TIME AND VENUE DETAILS FOR THE OFFICIAL CAE WRITTEN EXAM 

What we covered in class on Thursday: Course book p108-111

Homework for Tuesday, April 26: Language development 2 p114.

PDI:

What we covered in class on Friday, April 22: Press Review + 3-stage activity based on an article by The Economist on pharmaceutical pricing + Video on ethics in the pharmaceutical industry + debate on whether or not ethics should prevail over intellectual property + Introduction to paraphrasing techniques. 

IMPORTANT: THERE WILL BE NO CLASS ON FRIDAY APRIL 29. OUR NEXT CLASS WILL TAKE PLACE ON FRIDAY, MAY 6.

Homework for Friday, May 6: Press Review + choose a paragraph from the article you've selected and paraphrase it (100-150 words). 

Week beginning April 11

English C.A.E. Preparation Stage 2:

What we covered in class on Tuesday: Press Review + Course book p95-97

Homework for Thursday: All exercises p98-99

What we covered in class on Thursday: Homework correction + course book p103-105

Homework for Tuesday, April 18: Reading task p104 + Essay p100-101

PDI: Important info: Friday, April 29th is a bank holiday so there will be no class that day. The classes will therefore continue until Friday May 27th rather than May 20th as originally planned.

What we covered in class on Friday: Press Review + Error-correction activity + paragraph writing + assessed graph description exercise (in pairs) + report writing activity

Homework for Friday, April 22: Review all the vocabulary we have covered so far. Press Review

Week beginning Monday, April 4

English C.A.E. Preparation Stage 2:

What we covered in class on Tuesday: Homework correction + course book p94 (here is the correction of task 2b)

Homework for Thursday: No homework (we'll do our press review activity on Thursday)

What we covered in class on Thursday: Error correction activity. Here is the document in question.

Homework for Tuesday, April 12: Press review (use this week's! :) + review all the mistakes/corrections contained in the document above. 
IMPORTANT: The Cambridge confirmation of entry document plus a copy of the exam regulations has just been emailed to those of you who are taking the official exam in June. Please keep an eye open for this email! If you have not received it you should contact Caroline or Irene about it.

PDI: 

What we covered in class on Friday: Press Review + homework correction + debate on racial bias + Video on power point presentations + Signposting language + Graph/trend description language + Graph vocab exercise (with key)
Here is the wonderful radio show we talked about in class.

Homework for Friday, April 15: Press Review + revise all the vocabulary we have covered so far (it might be a good idea to use and update our quizlet account)

Week beginning Monday, March 28

English C.A.E. Preparation Stage 2:

REMEMBER YOU NEED TO CHOOSE YOUR SPEAKING PARTNER FOR THE EXAM BY THURSDAY

What we covered in class on Tuesday: Homework correction + course book p88-90

Homework for Thursday: Exercises p90-91

What we covered in class on Thursday: Homework correction + course book p92-93

Homework for Tuesday, April 5th: ex5+6 p93 + Press Review 

PDI: 

What we did in class on Friday: Press review + we finished the Mad Men activity + Listening test + Activity on the song "Strange Fruit" and its relevance for the Civil Rights movement + reading comprehension activity based on an obituary by The Economist (of two prominent Civil Rights figures)

Homework for Friday, April 8th: Press Review + finish the activity above, highlight the sentence "watching him from the beach, deeply worried, was Dan Warren..." and read this tutorial on gradable / ungradable adjectives and do the following exercise. 

Presentations are due on May 6th. They should last a maximum of 7 minutes. You're more than welcome to dig into your own area of expertise to find a suitable topic. We will work on presentation language next Friday.

Week beginning Monday, March 14

English C.A.E. Preparation Stage 2:

What we covered in class on Tuesday: Press Review + course book p77-79

Homework for Thursday: No homework :) By the way, those of you who are taking the official CAE exam in June should choose their speaking partner a.s.a.p..

What we covered in class on Thursday: Course book p80-81 + 87

Homework for Tuesday, March 29: Exercises p82-83 + Essay p84-85 + (optional) Review p86. This is the article I mentioned in class.
REMEMBER YOU NEED TO CHOOSE YOUR SPEAKING PARTNER FOR THE EXAM

PDI: Scroll down to the previous entry :)

Week beginning March 7

English C.A.E. Preparation Stage 2:

What we covered in class on Tuesday: Writings were handed out and we did this error-correction activity.

Homework for Thursday: No homework :)

What we covered in class on Thursday: Course book 75-77

Homework for Tuesday, March 15: Press Review + exercises 2b and 3a p77 Here is the article we talked about in class.

PDI:

By the way, I just saw this very interesting article on gender equality and working women

What we covered in class on Friday: Press Review + Conditionals + first stages of an Activity based on the first episode of Mad Men (season 1)

Homework for Friday, April 1st: 

1. Make sure somebody updates our quizlet account with all the vocabulary we covered today :) This should make your life easier...
2. Press Review 
3. Write a review (200-300 words) on the Mad Men episode we viewed in class. Here is a very good review of a TV series to draw inspiration from. 
The normal structure of a review is as follows: 
  -Title/type of film/short introduction of the topic
  -Plot summary 
  -Overall impression
  -Opinion in detail, acting, music, direction...
  -Recommendation
A good idea would be to identify these structural elements in the review above before you start writing yours.

Enjoy the holiday! :)

Week beginning Monday, February 29

English C.A.E. Preparation Stage 2:

What we covered in class on Tuesday: Course book p71-73

Homework for Thursday: All vocabulary exercises p74

What we covered in class on Thursday: Homework correction + 3-stage activity based on a video by The Economist Films.

Homework for Tuesday, March 8: Prepare the speaking part of the activity above.

PDI: 

What we covered in class on Friday, March 4: Follow-up discussion on gender balance + Press Review + we watched the following video until min.22:00 and held a discussion on the findings mentioned in the video. Third conditional in context thanks to this article by The Guardian and these exercises (we'll finish correcting them next Friday).

Homework for Friday, March 11: Press Review + learn the vocabulary we covered and review the third conditional and mixed conditionals here then have another shot at the exercises we did in class. 

Week beginning Monday, February 22

English C.A.E. Preparation Stage 2:

What we covered in class on Tuesday: Press Review + 2nd part of error-correction activity. course book p65

Homework for Thursday: All exercises p66

What we covered in class on Thursday: Course book p66-69

Homework for Tuesday, March 1: Writing task p68-69

PDI: 

Hi everybody, 

Welcome to your blog for the duration of this course!

It is meant to keep you updated with what we've done in class and what the homework is.

This is how it works:

What we've done in class on Friday, February 26: Course introduction + "One place / One feeling" activity (ice-breaker) + Work-Life balance speaking activity + 3-stage (listening/reading/speaking) activity based on an article by The Economist + introduction to Quizlet

Homework for Friday, March 4: Read this article and view that short video to follow up on what we did today and prepare the speaking part of the above-mentioned activity. + Press Review: choose an article from the following sources: Nature / The Economist / the guardian / The Independent / The New Yorker / The Washington Post and take notes on its main ideas and supporting details (bullet points).

Important info

The registration period for the Cambridge exams will be the first two weeks of March (1st to 15th).

Here are the registration forms along with the procedure.

Best

Jeanphi

Week beginning Monday, February 15

English C.A.E. Preparation Stage 2:

What we covered in class on Tuesday: MOCK EXAM Reading + Use of English

Homework for Thursday: Press Review

What we covered in class on Thursday: Press Review + Exam correction + Common mistakes 

Homework for Tuesday, February 22: Press Review + Detect and correct the rest of the mistakes contained in the above-mentioned document

English C.A.E. Preparation Stage 2:

What we covered in class on Tuesday: Homework correction + course book p63-64

Homework for Thursday: Exercise 2p64-65 + revise for the exam!! Remember, we'll do the Listening and Writing on Thursday and Reading/Use of English next Tuesday.

What we covered in class on Thursday: MOCK EXAM Listening and Writing

Homework for Tuesday, February 16: Revise for the Reading and UoE parts...

Important: Official CAE exam dates

CAE WRITTEN

4th and 8th June (morning)

CAE ORALS

1st and 2nd June (afternoon)

Change to calendar dates

Monday May 16th has now officially been declared 'festivo'.

This means that LX classes will now finish on X25 of May and not L23.

https://www.ucm.es/csim/noticias/calendario-curso-2015/16

Week beginning Monday, January 25

English C.A.E. Preparation Stage 2:

What we covered in class on Tuesday: Speaking part of last week's video activity + course book p59

Homework for Thursday: "Language development 1" p61, all exercises.

What we covered in class on Thursday: Course book p60-61

Homework for Tuesday, February 9: Here is the Reading Comprehension we talked about in class, I typed it so you wouldn't have to read it upside down ;) and added a few things. Please do it, from a vocab perspective it fits perfectly well with what we've been doing. Good luck with your exams! See you on the 9th.

By the way, here is a very good entry by the Oxford Learner's dictionary on the word "proof", it is indeed both countable and uncountable :) 

Week beginning Monday, January 18

English C.A.E. Preparation Stage 2:

What we covered in class on Tuesday: Press Review + error-correction activity #3 + Vocabulary: "Sleep" p58

Homework for Thursday: All other exercises p58

What we covered in class on Thursday: We corrected the homework and did a 3-stage activity based on a video by The Economist

Homework for Tuesday, January 26: Prepare your answers to the questions in the speaking part of the above-mentioned activity.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION RE THE MOCK EXAM: Writing + Listening: February 11 / Reading + Use of English: February 16.

Week beginning Monday January 11

English C.A.E. Preparation Stage 2:

What we covered in class on Tuesday: We corrected the homework + started Unit 4 (p55)

Homework for Thursday: Press Review

What we covered in class on Thursday: Press Review + Course book p56-57

Homework for Tuesday, January 19: Press Review