preintermediate session3 december5/2015 overview

Dear trainees,

salam

I am very glad to see that our sessions are increasing in productivity.

Let us review together last Saturday’s activities:

In the beginning, we heard an expose from our fellow trainees about their chosen Guardian piece. Thank you very much for these who read and these who posted article reviews.

We then moved to talk about some grammar. The goal was to cover the present tenses and the past tenses. As we realised together, this goal was not realistic.

However we managed to speak at length about some general notions such as personal pronouns (pp) , the nature of words (verbs -V-, nouns -N-..).

We discussed the use of A/an or the before nouns.

Grammar-wise, we covered the essential of unit 2 which is about the present simple and present continuous. We elaborated on the rule and saw how to constitute the present continuous (To be-conjugated in the present- + V+ ing).

Specifically we discussed the different uses of the present simple (general truth…) and these of the present continuous (ongoing present action, near future plan…).

Please remember that the word now is our cue to use the present continuous.

I handed out some exercises (about the past and the present). I asked you to finish the exercise accompanied by an image in a cafe. There are also past tense exercises in the packet, take a look at them as we will be solving them tomorrow inshalla.

I printed a list of irregular verbs, you can also access it below after the end of the post.

Regarding the exam prep, we solved Q19 (a true or false question). As you may have realised, the exam will be quite an easy feat for you fast learners :) :)

Throughout the speaking (Guardian) and grammar we grew our vocabulary lists. Please review them and try to see if you can make phrases using the new words. Post your phrases on the blog and I will review them and correct them for you.

It would also be wonderful if you post your favorite new words for your fellow trainees to see as well.

Your comments, thoughts and advice on how to make the lesson more fruitful will be very welcome.

Peace,

Your trainer

MFA

VW sales drop 20% in UK as diesel emissions scandal hits carmaker

New car registrations in November for car maker's brands all tumble year-on-year in best gauge yet of scandal fallout

Volkswagen sales branded cars fell by 20% year-on-year last month in Britain tumbled the diesel emissions scandal has hit the German brand.

Other car brands also recorded a fall in sales in November

The VW crisis appears to have had a limited effect on sales of diesel cars in general, which rose 3.6% year-on-year in November. 

VW is one of the biggest-selling car brands in the UK. The VW Golf was the fourth best-selling car in the UK last month,

session3 december5/2015 preperation

*please read the previous post bellow this one first.

Now, Let’s see what we need for our upcoming session on Saturday:

For the pre intermediate group, we will need to cover 2 units from the Headway student’s book. Unit2 pertains to the present tense and Unit 3 is about the past tenses.

You do not have the books yet so please review the following pages:

to practice Unit2 (present) and Unit3(past) I will be handing out the following printed exercises. However you can read them, solve them on your own and get familiar with the prompts/prepare your questions:

-Please Read your articles from the guardian. If you figure it out, post the link of your chosen piece on the blog with a little introduction and prepare notes about your pieces (synonymous to article) on your copybook so you are ready to discuss it in class.

As we have seen today, some articles are quite lengthy. Yoiu can portion your reading as you please, read half or just a third of the whole article.

Use google translate and the dictionary to help you understand the ambiguous (antonym clear) terms. Please have your list of questions about terminology and anything else that you wish to ask so that I can help you clarify and understand them.

Again, please make sure the article you choose interests you. We do not want our reading to be a chore but rather a joyous activity that still contributes to our learning.

Saturday will be a busy session. I am looking forward to it being very productive as well.

Peace,

Your trainer

MFA

PS* pages courtesy of the Oxford Headway preintermediate student's book

Session2 December2/2015 overview

Dear trainees,

salam

Thank you for a wonderful second session.

To recap what we have done:

We made sure that everybody had access to the blog and knew how to navigate The Guardian’s ecosystem.

We were mostly successful in this technical quest. For the few of us who did not have viable access to an email account, by next session inshallah you would have caught up with the group. Please ask these around you to help you out. If your kids have some of these fancy phones or tablets, then they surely know how to set up an email. Please pick passwords that you can remember as well. Otherwise, and if you did not manage to get over the technicalities, please come a little early and ask someone here at the center to help you in the computer lab (where we had our last session). Ask for Salim, I already agreed with him and he is an invaluable resource. If If you still don’t have access by Saturday’s session, come to me to explain your difficulties and we will work on it together and make sure this side is done with.

As some suggested to me, Having the gmail, blogger and guardian applications on your portable devices will make access very easy and seamless. I encourage you to download the aforementioned apps from the playstore, the appstore etc.

We read the first post together. Thus we started working on our reading skills, comprehension, pronunciation, vocabulary and a little bit of grammar.

Keep the vocabulary list growing. Most of you had their copybooks which is essential. Regarding the pre-intermediate student’s book I have been informed that they will be provided no later than Saturday. Please pick them up before we start our session.

Please read the next blog post to get a head start on our Saturday session.

Peace,

Your trainer

MFA

Session 1 overview (November 30th, 2015)

Dear Trainees,
Salam

I have truly enjoyed our first session.

To recap what we have done:
We have introduced ourselves to each other. It is an honor for me to be your trainer and I hope to be instrumental in your quest to achieve your goals whether they are personal or career oriented.
We also introduced and discussed the methods and tools we shall be using throughout these short 24 hours that we will be spending together:

-We will keep a class journal through this blog (to publish the paragraph we write together at the end of each session, to access outside resources, to keep track of where we are in our learning process and more.)

-We will be using the renowned and critically acclaimed "The Guardian" to improve our reading/comprehension skills and our conversation/speaking abilities. (reading only one little article that interests you, writing a few notes in your copybooks and finally sharing the central idea of your article with the group. We look forward to hearing about your chosen pieces).
Bellow is the link to The Guardian's front page:

http://www.theguardian.com/international

As we have discussed, there are quite a few sections and it might get overwhelming. However, it would be great if you try to navigate the site a little before tomorrows class. The "all sections" menu and the search bar are great places to start your exploration.

-We will be using the Headway students book for the exercises and the organised access to the rules/grammar etc

-We will also reserve a portion of times each session for test prep. like we demonstrated yesterday (pick questions, we answer them and then discuss our choices and deduce the relevant rules and review them). Thus, by the time the 24h are over, we will be accustomed and adept at taking the final exam.

For tomorrow, I hope that we will each have the student's book, a copybook (taking notes is crucial, also don't forget to keep your corner of the page vocabulary list always growing). Please familiarize yourself with the Guardian's environment. I am sure everybody will be confident enough to ask question abundantly. It really helps me tremendously and help your fellow trainees so thank you for those who were already asking.  

Looking forward to meeting you tomorrow,
your trainer.
Firas