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ACCENTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD-LANGUAGE COMMUNICATION

All people face the challenge of understanding others language not only because of the wide range of vocabulary they might use but because of their language accents, and since this is a fact in our English class, we will face all these different possibilities to speak ENGLISH (Pitch, Intonation, Pace, Fast Talking, Slang Usage):

21 ACCENTS

Amy Walker does a little tour of 21 accents in 2 1/2 minutes. From the UK and Ireland to Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, France, Australia, New Zealand, and around North America.

BRITISH ACCENTS AND OTHERS

PROJECT VIDEOS- HERO-HIGH ACHIEVERS

Here are the projects that students presented on the topic HEROES, HIGH ACHIEVERS, EXCEPTIONAL PEOPLE; these projects demostrate the quality of their work, you judge!!!

HERO-JUANES

Valentina cortes,Daniela Trujillo, Lina Vargas

11D

LANGUAGE COMMUNICATION-second academic achivement-third academic term

IDIOMS

website full of IDIOMS-----Check it out!!!!: http://www.idiomsite.com/

WATCH SOME VIDEOS RELATED TO IDIOMS:

British Idioms

Eye Idioms


Mouth Idioms

Head idoms

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idioms



idiom - parlance: a manner of speaking that is natural to native speakers of a language

idiom - dialect: the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people; "the immigrants spoke an odd dialect of English"; "he has a strong German accent"; "it has been said that a language is a dialect with an army and navy"

idiom - artistic style: the style of a particular artist or school or movement; "an imaginative orchestral idiom"

idiom - an expression whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words that make it up wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

idiom - A phrase characteristic of a particular language, that cannot necessarily be fully understood from the separate meanings of the individual words ...en.wiktionary.org/wiki/idiom

idiom - A use of words peculiar to a particular language.csmp.ucop.edu/crlp/resources/glossary.html

idiom - an expression in the usage of a language that has a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements (eg, raining cats and dogs)myopiczeal.blogsome.com/2005/03/17/definitions-of-words-in-our-glossary-of-terms/

idiom - A word construction or verbal expression closely associated with a given language.www.novelguide.com/a/discover/nfs_0000_0023_0/nfs_0000_0023_0_00026.html

DEAD LINE CHANGES FOR THE VIDEO PROJECT

Due to the internal changes in 11th grade activities which are related to the school programs that are innevitable to meet, deadline is moved to MARCH 11th, 2009.

Congratulations for English Day

Sometimes we do not realise the importance of what we do until we have the chance to share it with other people and they give us their comments. We want to thank our students one more time for the great projects that they presented in the first academic term and were shown last tuesday during the celebration of our english day.

STEP-BY-STEP U LEAD MOVIE FACTORY

This slide presentation was created by CARLOS MUÑOZ, a student from our classroom of 11B.
We want to CONGRATULATE HIM FOR HIS CONTRIBUTION TO THE CLASS AND THE PROJECTS OF THIS THIRD ACADEMIC TERM.

EXCEPTIONAL PEOPLE- REAL HEROES- HIGH ACHIEVERS PROJECTS

Dear students,

Teachers Oscar and Mauricio have set the final date (dead line) for this project that has been taught in class during the last couple of weeks for MARCH 2nd and 3rd (monday or tuesday), right after vocational week is set off, Please..... REMEMBER to turn in your video projects with all the class work included in there as asked in class progress. Don't hesitate to ask us for help or guidance on any matter.

HINTS FOR THE PROJECT:

Rememeber that true heroes are regular people tht in the face of danger adn from a point of weaksness show great courage and self-sacrifice for others or for a greater good!!!

A HIGH ACHIEVER is one who accomplishes his/her personal goals and aspirations while enriching the lives of those around them !!!

EXCEPTIONAL is....when I teach and meet a class for the first time, you realize that there are people there that have exceptional abilities or have the potential to do exceptional things and you never know who those people are. My job is to provide the best information I can. John Sexton ... and therefore, do something etraordinary to change meaningfully others' lives.

HERE ARE SOME IDEAS ON HOW TO GUIDE YOUR PROJECTS:


QUALITIES OF A LEADER / SIMPLE TRUTH SERVICE

TRANSITIONAL LEADERSHIP

CONTENTS OF THE PROJECT

Group members: Couples (Mauricio's group), couples or trios (Oscar's group), choose one of the 3 kinds (hero-must be a local one, high achiever, exceptional person), INTERVIEW-a must do, and for the closure, the video must leave an inspirational feeling for the viewer.

I HAVE DREAM SPEECH- working compound adjectives

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. SPEECH (1) MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. SPEECH (2)

1. WATCH AND PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE SPEECH:

After watching the speech about this great Afro-american leader, describe in your own blogs the following; use COMPOUND ADJECTIVES:

1. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. himself
2. his life
3. his words
4. his speech
5. the consecuences of his speech

Important Notice

Dear Students

The project that we had planned for the second term, will be put off, because of the short time to develop it. It means that you will work on it during the next term.
Start to get some information about those exceptional people that you admire and it will be easier at the moment of writing the script of your "Talk show"

Thanks a lot.

THE ORANGE BAND BLOG - ILTANA

THE ORANGE BAND is a BLOG created by one of our students of 11th grade related to all the activities that took place over the berchmans week, celebrated in December 2008. We want to prize Carlos Muñoz' effort to bring this blog into two languages (English-Spanish) so all alumni from all the parts of the globe can have a chance to keep track on what is going on during the week, see the pictures and read the stories...

http://iltana08.misfotosvirtuales.net/joomla/

CONGRATULATIONS ON THIS NICE WORK!!!

TWO THUMBS UP!!!

APPOSITIVES

The Appositive

Recognize an appositive when you see one.

An appositive is a noun or noun phrase that renames another noun right beside it. The appositive can be a short or long combination of words. Look at these examples:

1. The insect, a cockroach, is crawling across the kitchen table.
2. The insect, a large cockroach, is crawling across the kitchen table.
3. The insect, a large cockroach with hairy legs, is crawling across the kitchen table.
4. The insect, a large, hairy-legged cockroach that has spied my bowl of oatmeal, is crawling across the kitchen table.

Here are more examples:

During the dinner conversation, Clifford, the messiest eater at the table, spewed mashed potatoes like an erupting volcano.

My 286 computer, a modern-day dinosaur, chews floppy disks as noisily as my brother does peanut brittle.

Genette's bedroom desk, the biggest disaster area in the house, is a collection of overdue library books, dirty plates, computer components, old mail, cat hair, and empty potato chip bags.

Reliable, Diane's eleven-year-old beagle, chews holes in the living room carpeting as if he were still a puppy.

Punctuate the appositive correctly.
The important point to remember is that a nonessential appositive is always separated from the rest of the sentence with comma(s).

When the appositive begins the sentence, it looks like this:

A hot-tempered tennis player, Robbie charged the umpire and tried to crack the poor man's skull with a racket.

When the appositive interrupts the sentence, it looks like this:

Robbie, a hot-tempered tennis player, charged the umpire and tried to crack the poor man's skull with a racket.

And when the appositive ends the sentence, it looks like this:

Upset by the bad call, the crowd cheered Robbie, a hot-tempered tennis player who charged the umpire and tried to crack the poor man's skull with a racket.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO EXERCISES:

http://grammar.about.com/od/basicsentencegrammar/a/practiceappos.htm

http://depts.dyc.edu/learningcenter/owl/exercises/comma_placement_ex5.htm#

WATCH A SHORT VIDEO ABOUT APPOSITIVES:

P.D: Costa Rica is not an Island of Central-america

COMPOUND ADJECTIVES

1. A compound adjective is formed when two or more adjectives work together to modify the same noun. These terms should be hyphenated to avoid confusion or ambiguity.
Incorrect: The black and blue mark suggested that he had been involved in an altercation

Correct: The black-and-blue mark suggested that he had been involved in an altercation.
Incorrect: Her fifteen minute presentation proved decisive to the outcome of the case.
Correct: Her fifteen-minute presentation proved decisive to the outcome of the case.
2. However, combining an adverb (usually a word ending in "ly") and an adjective does not create a compound adjective. No hyphen is required because it is already clear that the adverb modifies the adjective rather than the subsequent noun.
Incorrect: The remarkably-hot day turned into a remarkably-long week.
Correct: The remarkably hot day turned into a remarkably long week.
3. Furthermore, you should not place a hyphen in a compound adjective if the adjectives are capitalized, such as when they are part of a title.
Correct: His book was entitled, "Gender Neutral Language in English Usage," and it revolutionized the way people think about sex roles.
However: His book on gender-neutral language revolutionized the way people think about sex roles.
Correct: The students were participants in Chicago-Kent's vaunted Legal Research and Writing Program.
Also Correct:
The student decided to attend a school with a good legal-research-and-writing program. Note that in this example, the reference is to a type of program, rather than a specific program, and so the use of hyphens is proper.

HERE ARE SOME OTHER EXAMPLE AND EXERCISES:

• http://joelfinley.tripod.com/compadj.htm

WATCH A SHORT VIDEO THAT CAN MAKE IT EASIER TO UNDERSTAND:

REMEMBER THE TITANS

Suburban Virginia schools have been segregated for generations, in sight of the Washington Monument over the river in the nation's capital. One Black and one White high school are closed and the students sent to T.C. Williams High School under federal mandate to integrate. The year is seen through the eyes of the football team where the man hired to coach the Black school is made head coach over the highly successful white coach. Based on the actual events of 1971, the team becomes the unifying symbol for the community as the boys and the adults learn to depend on and trust each other.

In the early 1970s, two schools in Alexandria Virginia integrate forming T.C. Williams High School. The Caucasian head coach of the Titans is replaced by an African American coach from North Carolina. Tensions arise when players of different races are forced together on the same football team. Many of these tensions are eased during the two-week training camp in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. When players returned to Alexandria the players found the city in turmoil due to the forced desegregation of the high school. As the season progresses the team's success caused the community to accept the changes. After the Titans' perfect season, the team and the city were closer than ever.

CLASS ACTIVITY:

Google up the information below, read it, copy it and paste it in your personal blogs, if you still haven't created your blogs, please do so as soon as possible, and post the answers in it. This is important for the understanding of the movie and the sport.

In American football:
1. What is a down?
2. What is a first down?
3. What is a snap?
4. What is the line of scrimmage?
5. What is a punt?
6. What is a fumble?
7. What are turnovers?
8. What is a touchback?
9. What is a touchdown?
10. What is a field goal?
11. Which are the most common fouls? Explain at least 3
12. What is the function of a running back?
13. What is the function of a quarterback?
14. What is the position of a cornerback?
15. What is a Tight end?

IMPORTANT NOTE:
It has been a real satisfaction for the teachers to see that you have been touched by the English classes, it clearly shows the true meaning of learning. I want to invite others to check this out...

"Students transformed what they saw at the movie "REMEMBER THE TITANS" into a different and more meaningful activity that was applied at BERCHMANS WEEK as a chant...
watch this short video of "The Titans warm up a little differently" and click afterwards on the link below the video and watch the second video "INAUGURACIÓN" to see the transformation of the chant performed by berchmans students... ENJOY!!!



INAUGURACION-VIDEO
http://iltana08.misfotosvirtuales.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56&Itemid=12

SONG - HERO- MARIAH CAREY

THE STRONGEST DAD IN THE WORLD
By Rick Reilly for Sports Illustrated

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.
But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars -- all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much -- except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life," Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. "Put him in an institution."

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. "No way," Dick says he was told. "There's nothing going on in his brain."

"Tell him a joke," Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!" And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want to do that."

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker" who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. "Then it was me who was handicapped," Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks."

That day changed Rick's life. "Dad," he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!"

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

"No way," Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?"

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way," he says. Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling" he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992 -- only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

"No question about it," Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century."

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape," one doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago."

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

"The thing I'd most like," Rick types, "is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once."

SECOND TERM - EXCEPTIONAL PEOPLE / HIGH ACHIEVERS

A great leader said “I have a dream”. 11th Grade Teachers also have got one. Teachers want to make of each one of their students an exceptional person; that is why in each class, they will receive more than some information about the structure of the language. They will get important teachings for their lives. How those teachings will be given? It is very simple, through examples of real people and the message of their labours in different fields, such as: science, technology, art, sports, politics, religion, literature and music. Teachers will make their students understand that to be a great achiever it is not necessary to be a celebrity, a millionaire or a world leader. Each human being can do and achieve great things; it is just a matter of choice.
Teachers want to offer a different English class, providing dynamic activities based on the usage of the four language skills. The traditional grammar lesson is not part of the strategies that Ts will use; the language structure will be induced through the contents. It means that the Ss will realise the importance of the structure at the moment of expressing their opinions. This teaching proposal will provide the COMMUNICATIVE and LINGUISTIC elements that will be used during this school year and with no doubt may be really important for their lives as professionals.
According to the topic of this unit, the linguistic functions that the students will study are: Compound adjectives, superlative adjectives and appositives. Teachers expect their students to incorporate these functions into their everyday English in a natural way.
Every time when teachers start writing the lesson planning for a whole academic term, thousands of ideas cross by their minds, but there is a huge gap, between what would be great to work on, and what is really possible because of time matters.
For this second academic term, teachers have got 9 weeks to develop their work plan, and it is important to take into account that there are several institutional activities and holidays that will subtract time. This condition makes of this term the shortest one.
That is why the activities to be developed are not so many, but their level will be really demanding. The idea is not to do activities because teachers need to give a grade to each one.
To get this goal, it’s necessary to choose the proper material for each activity, which must be connected to the following one. Taking this into account, Teachers have made a selection of the material that will be used such as: Mariah Carey’s song “Hero” (video), Team Hoyt story (video), The strongest Dad in the world (article for Sports Illustrated), Remember the Titans (film). The students will be in charge of getting some material related such as: cerebral palsy, triathlons, American football rules, racism in U.S. around 70’s, biography of the film director Boaz Yakin and the film star Denzel Washington. The idea is to involve the students even more by searching what is behind each story, song, documental, interview or film that is heard, read or seen in class.

11th grade-First academic term projects

This academic year, teachers Oscar and Mauricio, have been trying really hard, and we mean, really hard to rocket you up to the stars by spicing up the class and your time around the language that you all love "English".

Project “Believe or not” will be assessed and evaluated along the term in which Ss will give reports about the process of their work and difficulties found on the way. The evaluation of this will be done in the final day of project presentation. Ss will choose in pairs or groups two countries from which to get all the information about the project to be developed in which 3 superstitions and 3 legends will be taken, the Ss will prepare it from all the prior activities done and performed during the term, finishing with a superstition created by themselves from the countries they researched about or a collection of some of them describing their personal impressions and telling the story.

Berchmans Superstitions in Egypt
Excellent piece of work, well done, this project was one of the first projects we saw as teachers, and we must say that it really caught our eye. Well done!!! Good job!!! excellent. Your grade for this projetc is a very deserved "E".

Berchmans Japan Superstitions
This project contained a lot of the tools Teachers proposed for the development of the project itself, the voice making, the features, the investigation, the time, the effort, the interviews, everything just fitted in the right place, congratulations!!! YOU JUST EARNED AN "E" in your project.

The thinking of the people
This is a very interesting proposal that sugestted us a different point of you, good remarks are that the actors prettend to be at the airport and talk about their personal superstitions back at home, it is worth the while at watching it, spoken vocubulary could've been better due to academic porpuses, Nice piece of work, your grade is "S".

BERCHMANS PROJECT LA LLORONA
This excellent piece of work is one of the most dramatic and well processed projects we have had so far this academic year, with the fantastic proposal of motion picturing and the black and white story telling this group proposed one of the most recognized popular legends of Colombian culture that also represents most of our ethnic beliefs. I think there is very little information in the web about this local legend that is also shared in other countries of the continent, and now thanks to you there will be more to be shared around the globe.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK, your grade is "E".

BERCHMANS PROJECT SURVIVOR
All we can say is that this project brought out to the surface beliefs from around the globe that most people know about these countries and also the one of our own “Colombia”, since the project started this group improved the idea all the way until the end which teaches us that it is very important to stay focus and hungry for the things that we want to achieve and never give up, learning is a process, the path to self- illumination, not a state from where we are born. In conclusion, keep up the good work!!! You guys deserve an Excellent “E”.

Note: Due to the length of the video, it was not possible to upload the video in YOUTUBE, WE teachers will try to cut the behind the scenes to make it shorter so we can upload the video.

BERCHMANS PROJECT-THE GOBBLING
Excellent work, the interview was fantastic and the Spanish/ English translation just blew out our minds, youguys came up with a different proposal to the projetc that no one imitated, We believe that your creativity and self motivation to do this project gave the ultimate burst to one of the oldest legends in the cultural folklore of our Country, again CONGRATULATIONS!!!
you guys deserve and "E".
NOTE: It was very funny that the person being interviewed enjoyed telling the story over and over, even saying more of what she could.

BERCHMANS PROJECT ATALANTA
This project proposed something different, this time it was about a Greek legend that was also seen in Spanish class, it is always good to combine aspects from different subjects to set a wide range of points of view. Very nice work, you guys deserve an "E".

BERCHMANS PROJECT MYTH, LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS
This project tried to show a nice perspective of what little creatures can do to steal things from our houses, with real situations and events from daily activities, It is very nice to see this ind of work, this project deserves an "S".