Final homework questions

Question 1: what is the best science fiction movie and why?

Question 2: if you could see the future without being able to change it, would you?

In total, your answers to these two questions should amount to150 words.

Assignment for Monday November 25

Dear students,

Here is a link to an article called "the 150 things the world's smartest people are afraid of" from Motherboard magazine:

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/what-150-of-the-worlds-smartest-scientists-are-worried-about

Read through them, some will be difficult to understand (lots of science terminology) so if you may skip some if you like.

Choose the 3 that you feel are the biggest concerns for humanity in the future. Write a paragraph about why you feel this is a big concern (50 words each paragraph).

Then choose something about the future that makes you feel hopeful or excited (wearable technology for example) and write about paragraph of your thoughts on the matter (50 words). Why does this excite you? How will it change the world in the future? How will it make our lives better? are some questions to consider for your answer.

Good luck and let me know if you have any questions.

Mr. O'Connor

Long Weekend Homework (Nov. 17)

Hey class,

I hope you are enjoying the long weekend.

In case you forgot, you do have an assignment for Language Arts class. In at least 200 words, answer the following question:

Liberalist theory interprets human history as a constant evolution of our society. Essentially, we are getting better and better as time passes. For example, we progressed from monarchical forms of government to democracy, and from slavery and discrimination to equal rights for everyone regardless of race or gender. Do agree with this interpretation of world history? Why or why not? Be sure to provide some examples in your answer.

Also, be sure to write in full sentences and meet the word minimum. Some of you are providing responses that are only one or two sentences long, which is inappropriate for written Language Arts assignments. If I don't specify a word minimum, assume that I want you to write at least a paragraph.

Basically I just want you to show me that you put some thought into the homework. If you think you can do this in a few sentences then go for it, but if you want to be safe (meaning, if you want a 9 or 10 for your homework mark) then write as much as you can without repeating yourself or going off topic.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Mr. O'Connor

Superhero questions November 13

1. What can we learn from comic books and superheroes? 

2. If you could choose any superpower which would it be and why?

For full marks be sure to answer in complete sentences with at least 75-100 words per question.

Short Stories

Dear Students,

I'm very impressed with the short stories you've submitted. You can see my comments underneath the post with a grade out of 10 (Vero Alcalde I couldn't comment on yours for some reason but you got a 10, Ian I couldn't open yours for some reason). If you would like to improve the grade I gave you, follow my suggestions for improvement and repost in a new blog entry.

For those of you who still haven't submitted a story, you have until tomorrow night with a one point deficit on the grade (so the highest you can receive is a 9).

In case you're wondering, I'm making this story count for half your homework grade which will make it 15% of the total. The other half goes to your personal story, favourite character description, joke etc.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mr. O'Connor

Correction

I made a mistake. The verb tenses on the test will be Past Simple, Past Continuous, Past Perfect, and Past Perfect Continuous (p. 35 in your textbooks) NOT Present Perfect. Any questions, let me know.

Practice exercises for the exam

Dear students,

Below is a link to some practice exercises you can use to study for Monday's exam. Remember, the tenses covered are; past simple, past continuous, past perfect, and present perfect.

http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbtenseintro.html

Good luck and I'll see you Monday!

Story Assignment

Write an interesting story from your life. Anything goes. It must be at least 200 words and have at least 4 different verb tenses (use the ones you practiced on p. 37 of your textbooks - past simple, past continuous, past perfect and past perfect continuous).

2 questions, October 4

Choose 1 recent technological advance ( I.e. Cell phones). Are we better off because of this technology? Why or why not? Do you think technological advance in general has positive or negative effects? 

In some countries community service is necessary for completing high school. Do you agree with this? Why or why not? What service do you think would benefit your community the most and why? 

Assignment due Friday September 27

Answer the following question: if you could live in community in the world, which one would it be and why? Write at least 10 sentences, use your vocabulary words and some of the expressions from the textbook to get full marks. 

Monday's homework

Parts of Speech

Take 5 of your 20 self-selected vocabulary words.

Change the part of speech for each. For example, if it's a noun make it an adjective.

Use the new word in a sentence. Add some detail to your sentences for full marks.

Example: placid (adjective) = placidly (adverb)

"The moon rose placidly over the ocean, making the beach glow with it's silver light."

Weekend homework Sept. 21- 22

Dear class,

In case you've forgotten, your homework for this weekend was to take a few pictures of your community, upload them to your blog, and discuss in 2-3 paragraphs. Tell me how the photos represent your community and also some things you like and dislike about where you live. 

Try to have some fun with it, and remember every assignment is being graded.

Important reminder!

This is just a friendly reminder.

DO NOT copy-paste from Internet websites for ANY assignment unless I say otherwise. 

This is a form of plagiarism and will get you a big fat 0 on the assignment.

If you plan on attending University be in the habit of never doing this because if they catch you usually they expel you.

Idiom assignment September 19

Idioms

An idiom is a phrase where the meaning is different than what the words mean literally. For example, we say "break a leg" sometimes to wish someone good luck. You are not REALLY telling someone to go break their leg. People used to say this because they believed little fairies were hiding everywhere and if they heard you say something about your hopes or plans for the future they would try to sabotage them. So saying "break a leg" was a way of ensuring that if there were fairies listening, they would only stop you from breaking your leg. If you've ever seen someone say "knock wood" and then knock on wood with their hand, it's for the same reason (we don't want the fairies to hear!)

Most people don't know why we used these phrases but they are VERY common in every day speech and even in writing (formal and informal). So it is beneficial for you as advanced English students to know some of them.

The Assignment

Choose 1 idiom.

Tell me the non-literal meaning.

Tell me the story behind it (they're often very interesting and knowing this is a way of helping you remember the idiom).

Write a 4 line dialogue using the idiom.

Some websites you can check out:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Spanish/Idioms shows the similarity between several common Spanish and English idioms.

http://idiomorigins.net/ has lots of idioms with their meaning, origin and history

http://www.phrases.org.uk/ list of thousands of phrase (some of them I'd never heard before)

http://www.bachelorsdegree.org/2011/01/30/30-common-english-idioms-and-the-history-behind-them/

http://www.womansday.com/life/the-origins-of-12-common-idioms-83098

These last two are lists of common idioms with origins.

Any questions, let me know!

Assignment September 18

In your blog, post a recommendation from your community (for example a restaurant, cafe, landmark, activity etc.) Extra points for being original (don't tell me to go to Xel ha or Tulum or Xcaret or Mandala or any other place that I've probably already heard of). Try to use some vocabulary from page 23 and makes sure it's at least 6 sentences. "Go here cuz it's really fun" is not acceptable.

Dear Students,

This is a reminder that you still have until Tuesday to submit any unfinished homework. If you cannot post it to your blog, send it to my email: ryan_oconnor@colegioinglesplaya.com or give it to me tomorrow. Hope you're having a good weekend and I will see you this Wednesday!

Challenge journal

Challenge journal (due Thursday Sept. 5)

What is the most daunting challenge you have ever faced? How did you overcome it? Answer in 2 to 3 paragraphs and remember to incorporate some of your new vocabulary words. Have a nice afternoon!

Homework so far

Dear class,

Here is a recap of the blog assignments you should have completed so far:

1. Success-failure quote
2. 20 new words with sentences
3. Read & recommend
4. Challenge journal (due Thursday)
5. References a& connotations

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.