How do student's feel when they have to write?

How do we go about the process? 

Today we were able to browse through some websites with film reviews and select lexical chunks. We literally sat on the student's chair! Wonderful. Here is my film review. The underlined parts were chunks I previously selected and by re-contextualizing placed carefully in my piece of writing. Hope you enjoy it. 

I certainly did......

Intouchables unveils an astoundingly fresh approach to stereotypes

Based on a true story, this laughter-packed non-English film is a pleasure for those who want something different from the regular Hollywood-like films. This is the most striking film about disability I have ever watched. It pictures an odd-couple friendship between Phillipe (François Cluzet), a rich, handsome, cultivated quadriplegic, and his new carer, Driss (Omar Sy).

Driss (Omar Sy), an intelligent, charismatic, uneducated young working-class West African who has done time for robbery finds himself in desperate need of a job. When he applies for a caretaker’s vacancy he tries to impress with his natural wittiness. And so he does. Not only is his employer attracted to his naïve approach to life but also to the fact that Driss doesn’t have any prejudice whatsoever when it comes to the disabled. In other words, Driss treats Phillipe as he would treat any other person. Philippe’s household is completely changed by the coming of Driss.

The city of lights, Paris, was chosen to offer even more pleasure to the viewer; therefore it is really a joy to the eye. Realistic shots filled with real emotion, wrinkles and smiles play an important part when showing the no-nonsense approach the makers have clearly chosen.  

With an amazingly bold dose of humour does the film unfold towards a more serious underlying reality of fear and desire which all human beings experience. The contrasting physical appearance of the main characters and their equally human desires become evident. A must-see film in which chuckle and tissue sit side by side.  
Juliette Gaasenbeek

Critical thinking in the Advanced classroom

How to foster more critical thinking in the Advanced classroom?

This article caught my attention on the topic. Jackson posted it last week and after our last session I decided to write a few words on it. http://www.edutopia.org/stw-kipp-critical-thinking-10-tips-for-teaching?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=blog-critical-thinking-tips

The first tip is to ask questions. The right questions that is. We cannot take students' learning for granted and must check with concept questions. Also shall we trigger engagement by asking questions without being board-centered, we may well have a couple of questions prepared to start of a group discussion instead of having everything projected on the board. Students contributions are to be explored and questioned as well, not only by the teacher, by their peers too. Critical thinking moments often appear when questioning takes place. Hope to talk to you next week!

Juliette  

Once more a brief blog-entry on the Teaching Advanced levels course which is offered to teachers in order to improve our skills in this area. I have been attending classes, which have been meaningful and fruitful.
My motto these days: Put yourself in your students shoes. While preparing lessons, this has been one of my goals. Instead of just thinking of which topic and grammar point/ outcome, I am doing research on how I can make students think critically so that the lesson enters another level than just the informative one. Well, I have been having lots of moments in which critical thinking was triggered by concept questions. One example was when sts had to match titles to stories, I asked them to imagine what the stories could be about. The outcomes were creative and funny, also some lexis parted from the students, peer correction and collaborative learning were going on.
While browsing the net on the topic I found this entry on Thornbury's blog, an eye-opener really. If you have 10-minutes, read it all. If you have 5, scroll down to his likes and dislikes for the language classroom.
 http://scottthornburyblog.com/2013/09/15/back-to-school/
Thanks for reading once more.

Juliette Gaasenbeek