Class Assignments: Today, we reviewed the basic present perfect structure again. And, we looked at the spelling rules one more time: con. y---i, CVC 2XLL. Do you know what those codes mean?
Then we looked at the first 24 irregular verbs on our list. I give you only 75 irregular verbs to learn. Many students have lists with hundreds. They hold onto it like it's precious. But I think it's better to learn the most common ones really well before trying to learn all the unusual ones. For the next couple weeks, each couple days we'll look at a reason for why we use the present perfect. This isn't like 3A where you spend 4-6 weeks on the grammar. It's just a quick review. Hopefully, no one is hearing about this grammar the first time. The first reason we use it is to describe 'how long...'---when an action started in the past but continues into the now. I dictated some questions and students asked each other for the answers.
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Today we took a look at the basic structure of the present perfect: have/has + past participle. It's very important to understand that although we use the word 'have' or 'has' here, it does not mean 'to possess'. In the present perfect 'have' and 'has' just support the past participle which is the main part of the verb.
Regular past participles end in 'ed' just like regular verbs in the past. However, we do have some strange spelling rules that you'll need to memorize. Here are some clues: con. y, change y to i; and, CVC, 2X LL. If you're not sure what I mean, take a look at #1 above. The second part of class, students took the CASAS pre-test. Today we took our first test on adjectives, nouns, adverbs, comparative adverbs, the story Fashion and its vocabulary.
If you missed the test, you'll be able to take it Thursday. Class Assignments: Only a small number of comparative adverbs are irregular; they don't use 'more; they don't use 'ly': harder, faster, earlier, later, better, and worse.
The rest are regular: more + ____________ly : more slowly, more easily, more simply... Of course, even the regular ones have special rules with spelling that you need to remember. Test on Tuesday: Fashion, the story and vocabulary, Adjectives, Adverbs, Nouns, Comparative Adverbs Class Assignments: We started with a dictation of the questions from #1. Then students spoke their answers and opinions in a group. Later, they wrote their own opinions. If you missed class, you should do #1 and bring the work to me to correct.
We started to look more at regular comparative adverbs which use more + __________ly. She dances more beautifully than Monica. He speaks more clearly than you. They dress more formally than us. We then did a dialogue practice to give students a feel for the language: A: What's the difference between you and me? (walk--slow) B: I walk more slowly than you. Class Assignments: We started to look at comparative adverbs. (kum-PAIR-uh-tiv) We use an adverb to describe how something does something. But what if we have 2 people doing the same action, and we want to describe the difference in how they do it?
That's when we use the comparative adverb:
In sentence 3, the two men do the same action, work, and they both work hard. But there is a difference in how hard they work. To say Jim works 'more hard', which is incorrect in English, we say Jim works harder than Sam. Here are the comparative adverbs we studied today: hard--harder early--earlier fast--faster late--later well--better We did an exercise where students compared themselves with their partner:
If you missed class, write an answer comparing yourself to someone you know. Perhaps some of you haven't looked at the menu at the top of this webpage. You'll see Fashion. I've also added a link under today's Class Assignments. Since I can't let you take the book home, you can find the story on this link. Also, you can hear a recording of me reading the story, which you can practice with, and listen to me pronounce the vocabulary. Class Assignments: Today, we read the two stories about fashion. The first focuses on the problems fashion can cause for teenagers. The second is about men and skirts.
Students spoke about their weekend in groups. We did a couple exercises to practice the grammar that students had problems with when interviewing others about their love of clothes. Class Assignments: If you missed class, be sure to do the Class Assignments above, especially #3 and #4.
Today, we looked at adverbs alone. Exercise #3 above under Class Assignments have you practice regular adverbs with the 4 that don't use 'ly': fast, hard, early, late, and practice the 1 exception: good--well. Unfortunately, there are many irregular adverbs as far as spelling. There are 4 rules that depend on the last letter or 2 letters of the adjective. We took time together to practice them, and then students worked on Exercise #4 above. Finally, students got in groups and interviewed students who love fashion. Class Assignments: We did a lot of work today on adjectives and nouns, and adverbs and verbs.
Then we went over the vocabulary for Fashion. I was impressed with the difference it makes that some students practiced the night before!!! Keep practicing, and when're you're ready, try Scatter, and if you're really ready, take the Test. The other games are really good but require you know how to type. If you missed class, be sure to do #3 and #4 above!! Class Assignments: Everyone needs to register with Quizlet. We are going to do it today in class. If you miss class, you need to do it on your own.
You can sign up on your smart phone. You can even use your Facebook account to join. Android phones seem to open the exercises in their app automatically so you can see the screen well. Iphone users need to go to the App store and download the Quizlet app for free. Make sure you sign up for a free account. You don't need to pay for anything. Start to practice the words today and you'l be more prepared for the story tomorrow. This took us a lot of time. We started the story on fashion. We ended class early because of a teachers' meeting. I passed out some papers to students that they'll need in the next week or so. Each student signed saying they had received them. There will be no extras. Get a binder by Friday and take care of your own materials. |
Teacher BruceI teach ESL at Manual Arts Service Center in Mid-City Los Angeles. Archives
September 2017
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