Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope you all have wonderful Christmas weekends with the people you care most about. Enjoy it!

T7 (Friday Class) Xmas Homework

1. Look at pages 38 and 39 of your coursebook. Work through the activities 1 - 7. You'll have to be both student A and B for some of the activities(!), but this will give you good practice in thinking about both sides of an argument. Then, write either the essay in activity 6, or this essay: 'Christmas has lost its original meaning and is nowadays nothing more than an excuse for eating, drinking, and presents.' Discuss.
To be emailed to me or given to me by Monday January 9. This is the Monday after our first lesson, which means that you can do it over the holiday, and get ahead with the work, but if you want to check anything from pages 38-39 of the coursebook with me before you do the composition, then you have the weekend after our first class to write it.

2. We agreed as a class to read 'Refugee Boy' by Benjamin Zephaniah next term. You should get this book as soon as possible to make sure you don't get behind with the reading! You can get it on Amazon.co.uk here: http://amzn.to/vkApoB or on the Book depository here: http://amzn.to/vkApoB - you'll need to ask your parents to order it using a credit card or MBnet. New it is currently £4.47 on Amazon, though you can get used copies for just 1 penny!

Ordering locally usually takes a much longer time unless the book is actually in stock in the shop, and will probably cost more. I asked my proficiency students about selling their copies, but nobody wanted to - they must have enjoyed reading it a lot! :)

Prof 4 Xmas Homework

Homework for the holiday was from your exam practice book (CPE Examination Papers Book 2). All of test 1 paper 1, one composition from test 1 paper 2, and test 1 paper 3 parts 1-4, NOT the summary question.

The book we're going to read next is 'The Secret Life of Bees' by Sue Monk Kid. Here's the Amazon link: http://amzn.to/suwiJq and here's the Book Depository link: http://bit.ly/vpqM29

If you want extra things to do, don't forget about 'English Vocabulary in Use Advanced' - anything you do from this book is useful!

Prof 1 (Saturday classes) Xmas Homework

1. Write a creative composition about Christmas applying the creative principles which we talked about in the last class of term 1. About 300-350 words, to be sent to me or handed in by the first lesson next year. (If you email it, please remember to include your name and class in the file name - don't just send me things like 'xmas story.docx' etc).

2. The first topic of the next module is NIGHT and we'll also be talking about SLEEP, a theme to which one or two of my Saturday morning students will relate well! There are no specific units of English Vocabulary in Use Advanced for this topic, but before you breathe a sigh of relief, there are two things to do from this book. Firstly, this is a good time to catch up with the units from term 1 for those students who haven't already done them. Secondly, if you haven't already done it, you should work through the introductory units, i - viii, pages 6 - 19. Remember, the units from this book are an integral part of the course, and they shouldn't be seen as optional extra work.

3. The book we decided to read next term is 'A Cruel Madness' by Colin Thubron. Do order it in time to have it before the start of next term! The Amazon link is here: http://amzn.to/tKq5br and the Book Depository link is here: http://bit.ly/vZAv86 And feel free to start reading!

4. Finally, here's a podcast to listen to from ABC Radio National: "Dreams: the stuff memories are made of?"
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2010/2745024.htm

And do look at this blog now and then for updates!