Week 9 - Day 4 - March 13, 2014

Today we listened to a recording about Joe, a homeless guy, who lives at a shelter. We listened for details from the the audio and have a discussion about homelessness. Our best discussion centered around whether or not Joe was lazy.

During the second half of class, we went to the computer lab and searched for houses. We used this worksheet to research houses for rent in the Triangle area. Most of you found great places, and it was great that you all found different places.

Main Learning Point
You should be aware of how to talk about homeless and be able to talk about your opinion about it. You should also be familiar with house-searching websites and know some good questions to ask when looking for housing.

Week 9 - Day 3 - March 12, 2014

Today we did a lot. We introduced the ACC tournament. If you did not fill out a bracket, you can get one here.

For English, we talked about Direct and Reported speech. We used this worksheet and talked about putting everything in the past for Reported Speech and the rules for punctuating quotes.

For more fun, we talked about a few more vocabulary words for housing and some housing idioms. You can find those worksheets here.

Housing Vocabulary with Pictures

Housing Idioms

Main Learning Point
You should have learned a few new words about housing. You should be familiar with some housing idioms in English. You should also have been introduced to Direct and Reported speech and have a weak grasp of it. You should not be an expert on it. You should also have finished filling out your ACC tournament bracket.

Week 9 - Day 2 - March 11, 2014

What a beautiful day today! We diverted from talking about housing to talk about the active and passive voice. You can find the worksheets that we worked on today here:

Active and Passive Voice Introduction

Active and Passive Voice Practice

We spent the majority of our time on the active and passive voice. After the break, we took a quiz on everything we did last week with banking. I'm not going to put that online.

Main Learning Point
You should be able to recognize the active and the passive voice. Don't worry if you are not a master of it yet. You should be able to get it right about half of the time.

Week 9 - Day 1 - March 10, 2014

I hope you all had an eventful weekend. Today we looked at the basics of housing vocabulary. The goal for this week is to be able to understand issues about housing, specifically finding housing.

We started by talking about the words:

Urban (city)               Suburban (outside city)                  Rural (countryside)

We listed as many adjectives as we could about each of them. You guys used some great words.

We talked about these three words because most housing is found in one of these three places. The next thing we looked at were the rooms in a house. We used this worksheet to label the names of the rooms of the house and talk about materials used to build a house. Remember materials are the base ingredients of something. Floors are not a material. Floors are made of wood. Wood is a material.


After we discussed the rooms of the house, we had a little project. You drew a picture of your house and showed the class while describing the rooms and what they are made of. It was a great chance to see the different places that we all live.

Main Learning Point
You should know the names of the major rooms of a house. You should be know a few adjectives to describe where a house a located. You should also be able to describe your current living situation and describe what you want in a new house.

Week 8 - Day 3 - March 6, 2014

Today we had some fun and did a listening exercise with the song "The Man" by Aloe Blacc. You can find the worksheet here. If you want to hear the song, you can go to Youtube.

"The Man" Listening Activity

We also talked about embedded questions. The notes and practice and everything can be found on this worksheet.

Open-Ended Embedded Question Worksheet

Main Learning Point

You should be able to form embedded questions with confidence. You should also feel a little bit better about understanding songs that you hear on the radio.

Week 8 - Day 2 - March 5, 2014

Today was a practical use of yesterday's information. We spent most of our time listening to a conversation between two friends about one of them moving to California. We talked about the cost of living.

We practiced creating comparative sentences such as:
     The weather in the US is hotter than in my country. (1 syllable word = "adj+er)
     The food in the US is more delicious than in my country. (2+ syllable word = "more adj")

Notice that the comparative adjective is followed by "than"
There are other rules for when we use "-er" and "more" but we did not discuss them today.

We followed up our listening exercise with some practical research about credit cards and banks. It was my hope that you were able to use this practice to help you become confident when dealing with financial websites.


Main Learning Point

You should be able to understand enough of a financial website to find the information that you need to make a good decision. You should also be aware of what your bank is charging you and be able to make a decision to switch if you need to.

Week 8 - Day 1 - March 4, 2014

This week is a short one due to the snow. I hope you remember that I predicted this about 2 weeks ago. Regardless, this week, we will be discussing the topic of banking and finance. The goal for this week is to give you a working ability to use financial services. We will discuss banks, their terminology, credit cards, and a few grammar points. You won't be able to understand how to get a mortgage for your house (I still don't), but you should be able to accomplish necessary financial tasks with confidence.

We started today by working with banking vocabulary and currencies. We used a worksheet to discover certain words. You can look up these words on your own if you missed class.

Savings
Credit
Loan
Overdraft
Withdraw
Deposit
Account
Checks
ATM
Online Banking
Exchange
Cash
Balance
Teller
Slip
Cashback
Interest
Principal
Refund

After discussing the vocabulary words, we introduced the words "lend" and "borrow". These are two commonly misused words in English. Here's a simple definition.

Lend = to temporarily give something to someone

Borrow = to temporary take something from someone

  Ex. Thomas wants to borrow your phone. (Thomas wants to (temporarily) take your phone)
             If you can substitute the word "take" for "borrow", and it still sounds good. It works.

  Ex. Leah won't lend you her frying pan. (Leah won't (temporarily) give you her frying pan.)
             If you can substitute the word "give" for "lend", and it still sounds good. It works.

*Notice*
     After you use the word "borrow" you must tell us what you are borrowing. Borrow is a transitive verb. That means it needs an object after it.
   Ex. Don't let him borrow that BOOK.
         Jake said I could borrow his CALCULATOR
         Can I borrow some PAPER.

     After you use the word "lend" you must tell us who you are lending to and what you are lending. Lend is a transitive verb
   Ex. Can you lend ME your pencil?
         She has never lent HIM her car.
         They are lending US the drum set for a week.


We did practice on "lend and borrow" using a worksheet.

Our next point was a crossword puzzle looking for more vocabulary words.

 Main Learning Point

After today, you should be familiar with some necessary words we use in banking and finance as well as a few expressions. You should also have a strong grasp of the difference between "lend" and "borrow"