Some of you will want to know more about passive sentences. As you know, Unit 6 only teaches the present and past simple passive. If you’re curious about the other tenses, this chart may help you.

Hello students, if you need to add more exercises to your Unit 6 dossier, you can use this one. It counts as two exercises (sentences 1-7 and sentences 8-15).

Passive exercise (2 activities in the dossier!)

And if you want to do something more than just past and present passive sentences, this exercise (sentences 1-7 and sentences 8-15) will make you practise other tenses. Check it out!

Passive exercise (extension, 2 activities in the dossier)

I have started a new website called Whitefield’s Wiki. At the moment it is only an experiment to make you participate more, because I feel that the blog is mainly MY things, not YOURS. So, what do you have to do?

1. Visit Whitefield’s Wiki.

2. Register.

3. Participate!!!

Oh, here’s a video that explain what a Wiki is:

If you need to revise the passive voice, why not have a look at this powerpoint presentation? It’s in Catalan and it includes everything we have said in the classroom.

The passive voice

Please, write down your comments about it. I will appreciate them.

I have attended three interesting lectures, all of them about the use of computers in the classroom. But if I had to highlight one of them, I would mention Susana’s intervention in the APAC’s  roundtable. She managed to include in the projecte curricular something I have only dreamed of so far: convince the parents that, instead of spending €200 in course books, they should buy a small laptop for their children. So… she’s taken THE step: getting rid of books and take absolute control of everything that happens in the classroom. Mmm… and she says she works in Sant Pere Ribes.

Sorry folks, I have to google “IES Sant Pere de Ribes computers”.

Michael Swan (APAC Convention, day 1) gave us some examples of stupid sentences that we teach in our classrooms:

“The oxen are treading on my feet” (Els bous em trepitgen els peus)

“Has your grandmother got any grandchildren?” “No, she ______” (La teva àvia té cap net? No, no en _____.)

“Those people have no teeth” (Aquella gent no té dents).

Today I attended to sessions at the APAC (Associació de Professors i Professores d’ Anglès de Catalunya) Congress. The first session, by Jeremy Harmer, dealt with how teachers include new technologies in their teaching. It was entertaining, with lots of examples and funny remarks, but I’m not sure it was any useful -apart from the general optimism he transpired. The second lecture was by Michael Swan. Michael Swan is the author of General English Usage, the grammar book most teachers keep near at hand. He’s a guru in English teaching, so everything he said sounded interesting and relevant, even though it only talked about how he got to write his book and how he has written another one that complements it. I think I’m getting the idea. So now… I’m supposed to have a look at it and maybe buy it?

Let’s see what’s in store tomorrow.

Unit 6 is dedicated to the passive voice. This video tells you everything you need to know about it. I have watched it from beginning to end and I am afraid I must say she is probably better at explaining grammar than me.

Thanks to Àlex (4th ESO D), I have realised that the link for the dossier of unit 6 was not working properly. Now everything works fine. You can download the dossier the usual way or just by clicking here.