Term 1 / Week 3 - 5: Plan and write a narrative - what are the narrative stages?

Over the next few weeks, we will read and listen to a range of narrative stories. We will plan and write our own stories following the narrative stages. Here they are.

Abstract	lets the reader know that a story is about to be told and tells why it will be told
Orientation	describes where and when the events took place, and if other people were there too
Complication	describes what happened
Evaluation	describes how the main character coped with the problem/ situation
Resolution	describes how the situation was resolved (sorted out)
Coda	tells why the story was worth sharing with us

As you listen to the Emperor's New Clothes, think about which parts of the story fit in each stage.



The Emperor's New Clothes was first published in 1837 by Hans Christian Andersen for children. It was based on an earlier Spanish story from medieval times.

Consider the following questions about the story

• Why don't the Emperor's advisers tell him the truth about his new suit of clothes?
• Why do the people in the village pretend that they can see the Emperor's clothes?
• Why does it take a child to point out what all the adults can see?
• What lessons can children learn from this story?

Welcome to ESL 3 Class blog in 2014

Welcome to our Class blog where we will post work and links to the internet each week.

This will help you revise what you did in class OR catch up work you missed if you were away OR do extra work for independent learning away from class.

Our places on the Internet

We will use a Class Record to keep a record of new language learnt in class. You can visit this Google Presentation any time and anywhere!



We had a similar Google Presentation in 2012 but this one will be more accessible - you can view it as long as you remember how to find the Class Blog.

Your Independent Learning Record in 2014

We kept track of your Independent Learning in 2013 with a Google document. This was successful because it is a list of all independent learning topics that students choose to write about in the Learning Journal or in Kidblog. Here is a link to the new document in 2014 and the link will always be available for you to access in the right Sidebar of this Class blog.

Our Kidblog

We will continue the wonderfully successful ESL3 at CNLC Kidblog in 2014. It is open to the public to view but you will need to join up to write posts.

You can post your Independent Learning here INSTEAD of in your Learning Journal. Can you see how many visitors have viewed our Kidblog?

Screenshot taken 2 February 2014

CNLCTalks Students' wiki

Last but not least, is our learning place for the whole of CNLC, here: CNLCTalks wiki.

The HOME page is open to view but you'll have to sign in to view Our Photos and Slideshows Page (do you remember the username and password to sign IN?) and ESL3 Pages.

Grammar corner - extend yourself

Reported Questions:

We practised reporting questions that were asked earlier. Look at our Class Record, Slide 3 for examples.

Here is a great lesson on Reported Questions at BBC Learning English: it includes a conversation and some worksheets.

Term 4 / Week 5 - 6: Write a report

Some important Language features

Using Past continuous to describe what was happening

Have a look at the video below. Can you describe what was happening as the young woman walked past?


 

Noun groups


Here is a presentation (slideshow) reviewing the parts of a noun group.

 

Noun Groups from James Buchanan

Reporting verbs

Try to use the following verbs instead of 'say' (but choose the correct one for each occasion):

• advise
• state
• claim
• suggest
• maintain
• insist

Term 4 / Week 2 - 4: Blogging your Learning Projects

Some students have typed up their Learning Projects on Active Citizens in Kidblog and they are looking great. In the screenshot below you can see who has finished (or almost finished) blogging their reports.

Screenshot taken on 31 October of our Blog posts in Kidblog

 To view the blog posts, click the Page link on the right sidebar to go to Kidblog and then log in.

Can you see how many Comments there are on each post? if there's only one Comment, then it is likely to be Jill's!

Reading other people's posts

When you read a blog post, it's polite to reply - try to write something acknowledging that person's work. You can thank them or, even better, ask a question or make a comment.

Looking for replies to your posts

Check for any replies - if someone asked a question, try to answer it. For example, I asked Jason a question about his post on the Moon Cake Festival, so I'm still hoping that you can answer that, Jason....

ABC News in 90 seconds - Extend yourself

The other day I had trouble searching for this program. I think I searched for 30 October instead of 29 October - I got a bit ahead of myself.

So here is the link to the video and here is the worksheet with the questions.

Locating the ABC News in 90 Seconds for a particular day: I searched for 'abcnews in 90 seconds 29 october' and found it without any problems!!!!!!!

 

Did you miss ..... in Weeks 1 to 4?

• Here is a very important worksheet practising Passive Voice (complete the sentences before checking the answers!) - put the Active sentence into passive by removing the Subject and making the Object the New Subject- in simple present, simple past and present perfect tenses.
• In Week 2, we also practised writing passive sentences with an Agent, using 'with' or 'by' in this worksheet and here are the answers.
• And in Week 3, we practised using the Past Perfect tense (the past before the past) with past tense in this worksheet (complete the sentences before checking the answers!).

Term 4 / Week 1: Breaking news. Making news. Locating news.

Note: this week Jill is still working with ONE arm - so we will keep this post brief.

Here is the News

 

Police and protestors clash at East West Link drill site in Carlton

Listen to this radio report by reporter Gus Goswell, from outside CNLC. We will reconstruct sentences from a shorter report which we read in the Wednesday class.

Wednesday people will share their learnings and take a leadership role in building sentences. See the Worksheet: Writing workshop - Report: 'Protestors clash with police at East West Link drilling site'.

• Do you want to read the news report?? Just Google the title (headline):  Protestors clash with police at East West Link drilling site and you will locate the full written report.

Term 3 / Week 7: Learning Project: Active citizenship

We chose the theme of 'active citizenship' for this term at CNLC largely because there is a Federal election in September and some students will be actively exercising their right (and responsibility) to vote for politicians and political parties to represent us in the two Houses of Parliament: the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Being a citizen is not just about getting Citizenship

Let's review some of the examples of active citizenship that we discussed a few weeks ago. As you can see in the photo below, we came up with a wide range of ways we can be active citizens in our community. And there was one more point which we added after this photo was taken - we called it 'doing an act of honesty' or doing the 'right thing' (like, returning a wallet found on the street to its rightful owner - with all the money still in it!)

Some of the ways we can be active citizens - 7 August, 2013

So if you're going to vote in the Federal election, you should take this responsibility seriously. (Heaven knows, there are many people who don't!)

It's a good idea to make sure that:

1. you know who you want to vote for; and
2. you vote correctly (formally) so that you're vote counts.

Our Learning Project - write a report about an active citizen

This is an opportunity to find out information about a well-known person who has contributed something special to public life in Australia. Hopefully, you will find more than one source of information and locate a photo of the person to include in your report.

An important part of this project is sharing your work with other students in class. You can use a few Powerpoint slides to help you tell their story.

A great place to start is the Gallery of Australian Biographies. Here you can find information about people such as:

• Waleed Aly
• Trish Broadbridge
• Tan Le (a TV program has been made about her)
• Michael Long
• Jimmy Pham
• Mandaway Yunupingu
• Fred Hollows

You may complete your plan on the worksheet provided and write your full report in your Journal or as a blog post in kidblog.

Results of our Two Party Preferred Count

You can view our short report and a few photos from last week at Sue Phan's blog post (you'll need to log in to view it) and watch the video explaining how the votes are counted here.

Did you miss.... in Week 7?

• This week we listened to a news report Garden in the Clouds from BBC Learning English Words in the News
• Here is the worksheet: Reported Speech Explanations and Practice for you to print and complete. When you are finished you can check your answers - on pages 3 and 4. 

Writing for Web 2 with Kidblog

This week we will continue to explore the kidblog we are using for students' writing and internet learning.

If you attended computer class last week, you'll remember that we just got started with Adding a New post. No-one finished the post - this is what the work looks like for the teacher.

After you log in, don't forget to TAB to your Blog to see your unfinished Draft. In Edit view, can you also see how many words you have written? This is the Word Count.

When you have finished your Draft, select Submit for Review. Teacher will then check it and Publish.

While you are waiting for that to happen, you could Tab to All Blogs and read the ones that are published. Please Comment on one of the blog posts there.

Again, your Comment will go to the teacher for Moderation before Publishing. Yes! Teacher has the responsibility to ensure that all posts AND comments are good enough for all the other students to read.

Happy blogging!

Have you got an iphone or iPad?

You can download the Kidblog app at the iTunes App store on your mobile iphone or iPad. You will find this very easy to use to access and use the Students' kidblog.