Hello! My name's Liliana. I'm a teacher of English (Language and Literature) to Italian teenage stu

Sunday, October 6, 2019

An extraordinary mind map to talk about global warming


WORDS TO TALK ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT
·        devastating events =extreme weather conditions= weather extremes= weather catastrophes
deforestation
trees are being  cut down
trees absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen
fires
melting glaciers
heat waves
changing weather patterns
rising sea levels
floods
cyclones
tornadoes
droughts
plastic waste goes into the sea.
shortage of rain
rivers overflow
USEFUL  EXPRESSIONS
·        burning of fossil fuels
·        an increase in the average temperature of the Earth
·        decrease in the ozone layer (The Ozone layer is a layer of gas high above the surface of the earth that helps to protect it from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation, which can damage our skins and cause cancer)

·        the extinction of many plant and animal species (a lot of animals go extinct)
·        the Earth has warmed up                                                                                                             
·        increase in the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. 
·        entrapment of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere

·        global temperature is likely to rise by about 1-3.5 Celsius by the year 2100

·        the sea levels are constantly rising

·        ice caps are constantly melting

·        glaciers are gradually melting.

·        global warming increases the acidity of seawater


·        raise awareness about global warming 

·        save the world from disaster

·        a major threat to the mankind

·        carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions                                                                   

·        cut back emissions

·        cutting down on waste and energy consumption 


·        wind and solar power

·        renewable energy 


·        over-exploitation of natural resources
·        Carbon footprint= the amount of emissions we create
·        unseasonably=not normal for the time of year ex. it is unseasonably cold today

GREEN IDEAS
·        Recycling paper, glass and plastic
·        Using bicycles instead of cars
·        Looking for alternative Energy supplies like wind turbines
·        Reduce the areas where people can smoke
·        Using solar panels for heating
·        Make public transport obligatory in cities and ban cars


PRESENTING FACTS
·        It is clear that
·        Recently it has been noticed

OFFERING SUGGESTIONS
·        We had better
·        One possibility could be
·        The best solution is

GIVING EXAMPLE FROM YOUR EXPERIENCE
·        I remember once seeing/reading about……in a newspaper/on the Internet


MAKING CONCLUSIONS
·        For all these reasons, we must
·        It is therefore essential that





WHAT’S THE KYOTO PROTOCOL?
 The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement, initially negotiated by government representatives meeting in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, that sets targets to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change. It requires a variety of actions by governments, including specific emission reduction requirements for industrial countries, as well as provisions to assist developing countries in limiting their emissions.

What's the Paris agreement?
https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/international/negotiations/paris_en








Some  examples of article on the problem of Global Warming (done by students in  class 5B)



LIFE or DEATH?

Have you ever wondered how your life will change in 100 years' time?

Climate change - these are the two words that we have often heard in the latest few years, but do yopu know what it really is?
It is a serious problem, but many people seem not to care, though.
there are many risks to which we are exposed-in recent years we have seen a huge increase in the average temperature of the Earth, the extinction of many plants and animal species.
However, that seems enough to stop a situation, which is worse than we can imagine.

Firstly, climate change is about abnormal variations to climate and the effects of these variations on different parts of the Earth.
There are many causes for this phenomenon and the humans are increasingly influencing climate and the earth's temperature by burning fossil fuels, cutting down rainforests, polluting and producing non-renewable energy.
This adds enormous amounts of greenhouse gases to those naturally occuring in the atmosphere, increasing the greenhouse effect and global warming.

At the same time, while global warming is increasing, ice caps and glaciers are gradually melting and consequently the sea levels are constantly rising.
The solution is to implement sustainable ideas, like planting more trees, using renewable energy sources, reducing energy consumption, recycling, promoting green "start up" activities and finding alternatives to fossil fuels.

For all these reasons, we must act, but no one talks about it and no one acts as it we are really in a crisis. Our future depends on us-young people, so we should be the first generation to fight following the example of a young teenager Greta Thunberg, who has been protesting for the latest two years in big cities by launching her own # Friday for future.

And you? What are you doing to try to save our planet?
We need action, everything needs to be changed and the change must start today!


THE FUTURE IN OUR HANDS
Have you ever seen or heard of climate change or global warming?anywhere?
Surely many of you have already heard about it on TV, newspapers and some of you know Greta Thunberg and what she is doing to focus on the problem. We all know that climate is currently changing. We also know that the main cause is human. What's more, we know that what lies ahead is an awful climate future. 
What can we do, therefore to build a climate future that is instead good and eligible?
There are many problems that we should solve in order not to risk the end of the world.

Firstly, there are many environmentalists and scientists who have noticed that the summer of 2019 was the hottest across the European continent, so temperature is rising more and more and there is a continuous melting of glaciers and consequently the sea level is growing and many cities are in danger of being flooded.
Furthermore, there is the problem of deforestation-many trees are being cut down. In addition to that, many areas like the Amazon ones are on fire and that greatly damages nature. Also I want to mention Greta Thunberg who has said that 200 species are going extinct every single day. So to start saving our future all we have to do is reacting because there are so many solutions- first of all, people should turn off the lights to save energy and to recycle paper and save resources. People should also try to use less plastic, because in our world we have created real plastic islands into the seas. We should use more green ideas, that is, use bicycles and public means of transport instead of cars to reduce pollution, and stop smoking! Secondly, we need to reduce emissions and quit burning fossil fuels, like oil. One of the main solutions that Greta gives us is that we have to plant more trees because they produce oxygen.

In conclusion, to save our future we need to protect, restore and fund and again I invite you to react, so instead of looking for hope look for action. In my opinion, we have to support and follow these solutions. above all we should pollute less to make life enjoyable and healthy.



THE BEST TITLES 
Alert- our world is sick
Is mankind going to extinct?
Are you ready for the end of the world?


Extreme weather and climate change: Lingohack



http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/course/lower-intermediate/unit-16/session-3

Monday, September 30, 2019

School strike for climate - save the world by changing the rules | Greta...



Answer the questions


  1. When did Greta hear about climate change or global warming for the first time?
  2. What were people expected to do to face the problem of climate change?
  3. What happened when Greta was eleven?
  4. What does she tell us about people being diagnosed the Asperger syndrome?
  5. What should  Sweden reduce every year?
  6. What will  we have anyway when we stop burning fossil fuels ?
  7. What about mass extinction?
  8. What does she mean when she says that climate change affects poorer countries?
  9. Is the problem of climate change so popular in headlines and breaking news?
  10. What  did she do when in Sweden school started in August 2018 and why?
  11. What could we do all together?




Greta Thunberg e George Monbiot realizzano un cortometraggio sulla crisi...

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Learn How to Say and Write the Date in English

An Interview to William Wordsworth


An Interview to William Wordsworth





After having seen a video on Wordsworth's  biography and having read a text related to his life and his works, students are asked to close their books and figure out a possible interview to him.
This is the situation- one of the students plays the role of  Wordsworth. He is introducing his new collection of poems Lyrical Ballads to a group of people.
His purpose is to give information about the book, while answering the questions asked by the other students.
That speaking activity has proved to be useful to memorize the main points of an author's biography and to improve speaking skills while asking questions. 

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Speaking activity in the first year

Speaking activity in the first year



Each student is given a card with an adjective (an easy one-small-big,new-old,beautiful-ugly...) Another student is given the opposite adjective.
Students move around the class as each of them  must find the student having the opposite adjective.
After having found him or her they sit at the same desk and interview each other-ten questions to get to know the new deskmate.
They are asked to practise the conversation as after ten minutes some of them will act it out




Tuesday, September 17, 2019

A conversation to practise new words










Thinking over and over an activity that students in a fourth class could do at the beginning of the school year,  both to revise some of the grammar structures studied in the previous years and to learn new words and expressions while improving their speaking skill, I've had an idea that has proved to be successful.
Students have been asked to make a conversation in groups of four, using modal verbs and the words that they have learnt, while watching a video on the plot of Romeo and Juliet.

The conversation was about the following situation: the character of the Nurse tries to persuade Juliet to marry Count Paris and she replies saying that she can't and giving her reasons.


Sunday, September 15, 2019

Daffodils by William Wordsworth,read by Jeremy Irons




While “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” matches Wordsworth’s description of poetic process in the preface to Lyrical Ballads, he actually composed the poem some years after the success of that anthology.
In 1802 he spent some time in the English Lake District. On April 15 he  and his sister Dorothy went for a walk near Ullswater lake. In her journal, Dorothy recounts the experience of seeing the daffodils:
When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow park we saw a few daffodils close to the water side, we fancied that the lake had floated the seeds ashore & that the little colony had so sprung up—But as we went along there were more & yet more & at last under the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road. I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about & about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness & the rest tossed & reeled & danced & seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the Lake, they looked so gay ever glancing ever changing. This wind blew directly over the Lake to them. There was here & there a little knot & a few stragglers a few yards higher up but they were so few as not to disturb the simplicity & unity & life of that one busy highway—We rested again & again. (85)

Quando eravamo nei boschi oltre il parco di Gowbarrow abbiamo visto alcuni narcisi vicino al lato dell'acqua, abbiamo immaginato che il lago avesse fatto galleggiare i semi a riva e che la piccola colonia fosse così sorta —ma mentre procedevamo ce n'erano di più e ancora di più e alla fine sotto i rami degli alberi, abbiamo visto che ce n'era una lunga fascia lungo la riva, circa la larghezza di una strada a pedaggio di campagna. 

Non ho mai visto narcisi così belli da crescere tra le pietre muschiose intorno e intorno a loro, alcuni appoggiavano la testa su queste pietre come su un cuscino per la stanchezza e gli altri si lanciavano, barcollavano, ballavano e sembravano davvero ridere con il vento che soffiava su di loro sul lago, sembravano così allegri che guardavano sempre e cambiavano.

Questo vento soffiava direttamente sul lago verso di loro. C'era qua e là un piccolo nodo e qualche ritardatario qualche metro più in alto, ma erano così pochi da non disturbare la semplicità, l'unità e la vita di quella trafficata autostrada—. Ci riposammo ancora e ancora. (85)

Group Performance Activity: "Bring the Daffodils to Life"

Objective

To interpret and perform the poem "Daffodils" in a theatrical and expressive manner that captures its imagery, emotions, and rhythm.




I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Wednesday, September 11, 2019



Weird stories
These are the stories created by students (level A 1/2) in a group activity. After each group, made of four students, was given two flashcards representing objects or people  having no clear, logical connection, it was asked to make a very short, funny story.
These are the weird, unreal, fantastic, dreamlike stories created by them!
Of course,while reading them, they couldn't stop laughing!

One day a beautiful princess Julia     was walking along a river. Her dream was falling in love with a handsome, fantastic, good boy. That day the princess wanted to get her feet wet into the river. Suddenly, a witch took a frog to make an experiment, but the witch’s son killed the frog and for revenge the witch transformed her son into a frog.The only way to be human again was to get a magical kiss.
The princess was so depressed that she kissed the frog, which changed into a prince, and they lived happily ever after……

In the afternoon, Federica comes back home, she goes in her bedroom, switches on her lamp, opens her bedside table and finds a pair of socks, which were a present from her grandmother for her birthday and starts to remember all the best moments with her!!!












The mouse birthday
Once upon a time there was a family who had a mouse as a pet. Today it’s his birthday and  his family is making a cake for him, actually a cheese cake. After the celebrations, the mouse, called Tommy, tries to drink some tea but the tea is  too hot       
and he falls off inside. After that, the family realizes he is dead!!!




One morning in spring, Tom wakes up and gets up. His mum calls him for breakfast. Tom enters the kitchen and sits at the table. Tom takes a  cup of tea and under it he finds a mouse and he starts screaming…he’s really scared.

One day  I bought a  bus ticket, but after that  I realized  I had run out of money, so I decided to get some money from the bank. While  I was coming back to the bus station a stranger in a black coat hit me and our bags fell off the ground, then we picked them up.
Only ten minutes later,  I realized that we had exchanged our bags and mine was full of money!




Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Beyoncé - I Was Here (United Nations World Humanitarian Day Performance ...



I Was Here
I want to leave my footprints on the sand of time
Know there was something that, something that I left behind
When I leave this world, I'll leave no regrets
Leave something to remember, so they won't forget
I was here, I lived, I loved, I was here
I did, I've done, everything that I wanted
And it was more than I thought it would be
I will leave my mark, soul, everyone will know, I was here
I wanna say I lived each day, until I died
You know that I, been something in, somebody's life
The hearts I have touched
Will be the proof that I leave
That I made a difference
And this world will see
I was here, I lived, I loved, I was here
I did, I've done, everything that I wanted
And it was more than I thought it would be
I will leave my mark so everyone will know
I was here, I lived, I loved, I was here
I did, I've done, everything that I wanted
And it was more than I thought it would be
I will leave my mark so everyone will know, I was here
I just want them to know
That I gave my all, did my best
Brought someone some happiness
Left this world a little better just because, I was here
I was here, I lived, I loved, I was here
I did, I've done, everything that I wanted
And it was more than I thought it would be
I wanna leave my mark so everyone will know
I was here, I lived, I loved, I was here
I did, I've done
I was here, I lived, I loved, I was here
I did, I've done, I was here

Sunday, May 12, 2019

The Vikings - In a nutshell

https://www.powershow.com/viewfl/42c6bc-ZWE1M/The_Vikings_powerpoint_ppt_presentation

ELIOTHis poetic mission is to create a new symbolic system , based upon both significant fragments of the old and a fusion between western traditions with those of other cultures

a MODERNIST POET



Why did he choose Modernism?

He justified his modernism as follows:
MODERN CIVILIZATION is characterized by COMPLEXITY→ What is the origin of that COMPLEXITY? 
It is due to the fragmentation of the western cultural, mythological and religious tradition, caused by the process of 
industrialization,
mass production 
and consumerism
  • Modern man is alienated (he's empty morally and spiritually)
  • There is no longer a shared code of values


The poet must represent that complexity in language, as well.


Such representation leads to DIFFICULT POETRY


The poet must become " MORE ALLUSIVE", " MORE INDIRECT" to express that complexity
                                                                         ⇩
Unfortunately for the ordinary reader that means a kind of poetry characterized by OBSCURITY


Sunday, May 5, 2019

Video SparkNotes: Orwell's 1984 Summary


For discussion
  • systems of control such as the Internet, the social networks (privacy is invaded)
  • telephone and video surveillance
  • digital store and availability of personal information
  • state of permanent war
  • demonisation of those perceived as other or foreign to the consensus culture
  • government and big business control of mass media
  • fake news
  • increase in the use of Doublethink (humanitarian war, flexible labour, collateral damage)
  • privatisation of public space
  • soft totalitarianism of market forces
  • over-organization
  • reduction of problems to questions of statistics
  • limitations on public assembly
  • communication itself has been elevated to the level of an absolute value, irrespective of what is actually communicated
  • language and thought areas are alterated by mass media slogans
  • they are let in people's minds like Orwell's doublethink

Connection with Orwell's themes
  • the danger of propaganda
  • the useless of any revolution by the masses
  • the danger of the personality cult
  • easy manipulation of the masses
  • control of the language as a political instrument

1984 George Orwell Movie Trailer (1984)



How to recognize a dystopia

When to use "some" and "any" | English grammar lesson

Gogo36 some any