Opinion essays

Opinion essay

Definition: An opinion essay is a formal piece of essay writing which presents the author’s point of view on a particular subject supported by reasons and examples. 

The opposing viewpoint is also suggested, it goes with arguments that show that it is unconvincing. 

A Successful Opinion Essay Consists of: 
-An introduction where the topic and the author’s opinion are stated clearly.
-A main body where viewpoints supported by reasons are presented in several paragraphs. 

-A conclusion where the main points of the essay are summarized This section has also the opposing viewpoint which is proved to be unconvincing and the author’s opinion is restated in other words.

Useful Tips for Writing an Opinion Essay: 
-Decide your opinion as for the topic discussed 
-Make a list of viewpoints and reasons supporting your point of view Write well-developed paragraphs
-Use linking words and phrases to join the sentences and the paragraphs within the text 
-Start each paragraph with a topic sentence
Apply to the Following Techniques to Start and Finish Your Opinion Essays: 
-Address to the reader directly 
-Start with a quotation 
-Start with a thought provoking or rhetorical question 
-Refer to some striking or unusual fact, idea or situation
-Use the Following Expressions to Give Your Opinion: 

• As far as I am concerned, … 
• I am (not) convinced that … 
• In my opinion/view … 
• My opinion is that … 
• I (strongly)believe … 
• I (definitely) feel/think that …
•  I am inclined to believe that …

Basic Doe’s in Writing Opinion Essays: 
-Write in a formal style Introduce the topic clearly 
-State clear topic sentences 
-Use generalizations 
-Use quotations
Basic Dont’s in Writing an Opinion Essay: 
-Don’t use colloquial expressions 
-Don’t use short forms 
-Don’t use emotive vocabulary 
-Don’t use over-generalizations 
-Don’t use statistics without proper referencing
 -Don’t give personal examples

Trick or Treat!

    

 BEWITCHING

Let's have some fun and celebrate Halloween.!

My 1ª eso students will decorate some Halloween characters and write a scary sentence below

To get the drawings click on these link.s: 1, 2 &3

Choose one of these sayings to write below your drawing:

• Peter, Peter, the Pumpkin Eater
• Don’t worry the zombies are looking for brains. You’re safe.
• I love my mummy
• Bewitching!
• Boo!
• I boo- lieve in ghosts. Boo, Boo!
• I witch you a Happy Halloween!
• Fresh Spider Cider
• You’re so bootiful.
• Bat wing soup,now being served!
• If you want a tasty sweet. . .
• Be sure to holler trick or treat!
• Wicked Witches Convention Tonight!
• I’m too cute to scare!
• Booo spoken here!
• May our best witches go with you!
• Halloween is a real trick!
• Trick or treat!
• Just hanging out with my ghoul friends.

Nina Willis Walter
The witches fly
Across the sky, 
The owls go, "Who? Who? Who?" 
The black cats yowl
And green ghosts howl, 
"Scary Halloween to you!" 

Theodosia Garrison
At first cock-crow the ghosts must go
Back to their quiet graves below.

This is Halloween 2012!

Halloween is coming soon. Let's enjoy ourselves doing some Halloween activities! Click on the orange links to do the activities.

Activity one. The Haunted House

Activity two. After learning some Halloween words, try to solve this crossword.

Activity three. More vocabulary

Activity four. A wordsearch

Activity five. The Scary Skeleton (easy).

Activity six. A Halloween Joke 

Desdobles 1º ESO: Starter and Unit 1

Here we have different sites to practice exercises on the grammar topics of the start and unit one with my groups of 1º de ESO:

EXERCISES ON THE VERB TO BE:

Exercise one

Exercise two

Exercise three.

EXERCISES ON POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES:
Exercise one

Exercise two

Exercise three

THE NUMBERS

Exercise one

Exercise two

Exercise three

 DEMONSTRATIVES

Exercise one

A OR AN EXERCISES

Exercise one

Exercise two
Exercise three

WATCH A VIDEO ON BRITISH SCHOOL

Rubric for the oral exams in 1º Ampliación de Inglés

The evaluation rubric will measure proficiency in expressing oneself in English.

CATEGORY	3	2,5	1,5	0 to 1	Score
Grammar	Grammar covered in class was used to communicate effectively.	A few minor difficulties arose from not using the grammar studied in class.	Grammatical errors led to many minor difficulties or one major breakdown in communication.	Grammatical errors severely hampered communication.	AB33
Fluency	Student acted as a facilitator, helping the conversation flow and develop.	Some minor difficulties maintaining the conversation were evident.	Some effort was required to maintain the conversation. There may have been a few long pauses.	Much effort was required to maintain the conversation. There may have been many long pauses.
CATEGORY	2	1,5	1	0 to 0,5	Score
Vocabulary	Vocabulary studied in class was used to express ideas eloquently.	A few minor difficulties arose from not using appropriate vocabulary.	Some difficulties arose due to limited vocabulary and/or bad diction.	Communication was severely hampered due to lack of vocabulary.
Voice and non-verbal communication	Pronunciation was clear and inflection and expressions were used to enhance communication.	No serious problems arose, but better pronunciation, inflection, and/or non-verbal communication could have made communication more efficient.	Some communication problems arose due to unclear pronunciation and/or lack of inflection and/or expression. Student may have been difficult to hear.	Pronunciation, inflection, and/or expression confused communication. Student may have been very difficult to hear.

Points will be deducted from your final score if you speak for less than the assigned time.

Present Continuous versus Going to Future

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE PRESENT CONTINUOUS AND THE GOING TO FUTURE

 The Present Continuous is used to describe an event in the future which has already been arranged by the time of speaking.

e.g. They are visiting the Prado Museum next week.

=(They’ve got the tickets)

Compare this with the use of be going to:

e.g. They are going to visit a museum sometime next week.

=(The visit is not arranged yet, the focus is on their intention)

We usually use the Present Continuous for future events which involve other people and where we have made some form of commitment (eg. buying the tickets). However we can also use this tense for arrangements that don’t involve other people. In this case we see it as an “arrangement” the speaker makes him/herself.

e.g. I’m staying in tonight. I’ve got lots of paperwork to do.

The focus here is on the “arrangement”, i.e. there is no suggestion that the speaker wants to stay in, which is the case when we use “be going to”. Compare:

e.g. I’m going to stay in tonight. (focus on intention)

We also use the Present Continuous for impersonal plans:

e.g. Computer City has announced that it is opening four new shops next month.

We cannot use this tense with events which are beyond human control, e.g.  the weather, because these events are predictions, not intentions or arrangements.

e.g. It’s going to  rain tomorrow (not It’s raining tomorrow).

 (From Advanced Learner’s Grammar- Longman-)

Writing a Narrative Essay.

Useful information for my 2º Bachillerato students:

A NARRATIVE ESSAY

Basic qualities of a narrative essay:

·               A narrative essay is a piece of writing that recreates an experience through time.

·        A narrative essay can be based on one of your own experiences, either past or present, or it can be based on the experiences of someone else.

·                  In addition to telling a story, a narrative essay also communicates a main idea or a lesson learned.

First steps for writing a narrative essay:

·                  Identify the experience that you want to write about.

·                  Think about why the experience is significant.

·         Spend a good deal of time drafting your recollections about the details of the experience.

·                  Create an outline of the basic parts of your narrative.

Writing about the experience:

·                  Using your outline, describe each part of your narrative.

·                  Rather than telling your readers what happened, use vivid details and descriptions to actually recreate the experience for your readers.

·             Think like your readers. Try to remember that the information you present is the only information your readers have about the experiences.

·              Always keep in mind that all of the small and seemingly unimportant details known to you are not necessarily known to your readers.

TENSES

A narrative describes an event that happened in the past. We use the past continuous, the simple past, and sometimes the past perfect to describe what happened.

Past Continuous  The past continuous is good for setting the scene

Past Perfect  You can use the past perfect to describe something that happened before another thing in the past. 

Use connectors to organize information in narratives

Sequence connectors	Time expressions	Time connectors
At first, firstly, first of all, to begin with, secondly, thirdly, finally, in the end, afterwards, after that, then, next	Last winter/summer, a month/year later, the next morning, that afternoon, on the following/previous day ...	when, while, before, after, until, during, as soon as, by the time, once

Note:

♦ use sequence connectors to show the sequence of events in a story or a report of an event. They introduce a sentence and take a comma immediately after the connector. 

♦ use time expressions to tell exactly when these events happened. They introduce sentences. 

♦ use time connectors to show the connections between the events in the story. A complete clause follows these connectors