Thoughts, words and pleasure of writing together

Today we talked about a wonderful subject--Food! We read some recipes written in english (for Spider Web Brownies and for Chicken Française). We looked at the verbs and discussed the imperative tense and also the importance of prepositions following some of the verbs (for example, lift up or stir in). Additionally, we looked at several pages of vocabulary.

The assignment for today was to write one of your favorite recipes in english, paying close attention to the verbs and their prepositions.

Today we spoke about stories like Little Red Riding Hood and Blue Beard. We discussed these stories and the past tenses in English, like the simple past and the past continuous. After we discussed the rules involved in these tenses, we then each wrote our own story with the elements found in the following image:

Please write a story using the past tenses and publish it in your blog.

At the last session we discussed ecology and global warming, using the vocabularly found at the following website:

http://esl.about.com/library/vocabulary/blwordgroups_environment.htm

Using those vocabularly words as well as the verb forms we practiced in class (should; shouldn't; must; musn't; need to; have to; important to; necessary; forbidden; good idea; etc.) write a letter to your friend explaining what you think should be done in order to save the planet.

Write your daily routine. Start with what you do when you wake up in the morning. An example can be found here. All verbs should be in present simple.

Imagine that you are in the following places. Describe what you see happening around you. In groups of two.

-         in a hotel

-         in my car

-         in my house

-         at the cinema

-         at my school

-         at the train station

-         in a store

We are Katie and Bhushan, English Teaching Assistants for the French Department of Education. Katie comes from the United States of America (Tucson, Arizona), where she finished her university studies in May 2006. She earned a Bachelor of Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) in the Biological Sciences, with minors in English and French and Francophone Studies. She likes to read and watch movies, and enjoys good food and culture. Bhushan comes from India (Delhi), and has been in France for four years. He studied French as a Foreign Language (FLE) and earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters Degree. He is currently working on his thesis on creative writing and literary study and the use of the internet in FFL (FLE) at the University Stendhal. He likes reading, writing, movies, and ofcourse teaching.

In addition to their teaching in primary schools, they also prepare a weekly workshop for teachers who wish to ameliorate their English skills. It is for this workshop that they have created this blog, in order to connect the teachers to each other and to the various resources on the internet. In this way, they can interact, get to know each other, and learn from one another. The blog focuses primarily on reading and writing, giving the teachers a chance to improve their English skills.

           "The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think."

Edwin Schlossberg

"Keep writing. Keep doing it and doing it. Even in the moments when it's so hurtful to think about writing."

        Heather Armstrong, Keynote Speech, SXSW 2006