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January 24, 2013

Don't forget the quiz today on the worksheets!

January 20, 2013

Many of you did not give me your homework on the Bernie movie. See the ten questions below. This is a graded assignment. Don't worry, your zeroes can be changed, but act quickly. I depart a week from Thursday! Check for any other missing work ASAP, please, as well... Thank you!

The Texas Prison Museum is is the museum I told you about in class. Remember, Texas no longer uses the electric chair. Several of you answered that it does on your test. "Old Sparky," the last chair, is in the Texas Prison Museum in Huntsville, Texas. You can see it here. 

If I cannot have class on Tuesday because of the weather, I will post an announcement on my blog as early as possible.


January 10, 2013

Tuesday, January 15, no class (bac blanc)

Wednesday, January 16 -- Anglophone Section Lycée play, "We Will Rock You"--confirmed. Leaving from school at 8:30 a.m. Your classmate "O.L." has your permission slips! (Thank you, O.L.!) Please see her for a copy and have it signed for Wednesday morning...

 Answer these questions about the movie for Thursday, December 17th:

1. What did the old man say about the different regions of Texas?
2. What industry made Carthage (and Texas) rich?
3. Where was Bernie from?
4. How was Bernie portrayed in the movie? Give examples of scenes to support your opinion.
5. Why was Bernie so important to the elderly women of Carthage?
6. Talk about Marjorie's family life.
7. What are the reasons people in the movie say he killed Majorie?
8. Why did the DA ask him about his trip to New York in front of the jury?
9. How is Bernie's prison life portrayed?
10. Should Hollywood make comedies about real life stories involving murder? Why or why not?


December 19, 2012

The Social Network: We won't have time to see this part.


·        He is belligerent and condescending with the plaintiffs' lawyers. They break for lunch. 

·        He sees his ex-girlfriend, Emily, in a club. He tries to apologize; she insults him and reminds him of the farm animal and bra size comments.

·        They talk about expanding to other universities--Boston University, Stanford, Yale and Columbia.

·        Back in the current day he talks with the legal assistant (a young woman). He is checking progress on Facebook in Bosnia. She points out their lack of roads.

·        He meets with a group and says Eduardo has 30%, Dustin has 5%, he has the rest, and Chris' salary will come out of his, depending on what he contributes. Nothing is written.

·        The twins go to the Harvard president's office because it is in the school rules that you can't steal from another student. They act like they own the school, and he is not impressed by them. He remind them he was once Secretary of the US. Treasury. He sends them away.

·        We meet Sean Parker, the founder of Napster. (He is ironically played by Justin Timberlake, who is someone who would have likely sued him.) Sean is with a girl who leaves open her Facebook page, which he has not yet heard about. He hunts down Mark and they meet with Eduardo and Christi, one of the two girls they met at a seminar. "Wardo" is not impressed and feels threatened by Sean.

(Hopefully, after the holidays, I will have another copy of  Bernie.)


December 12, 2012



Texas Comprehension Quiz                              Name : ________________

1.       Other than voters, what is another word for the people who are served by a politician?

                ____constituents_____(I wrote this on the board)____________

2.       Which sentence is correct? (choose the best answer)

A.      A large (relatively small) number of people in three states (no, at least seven) have signed a petition to secede from the Union.

B.      The author thinks that secession is a good idea for Texas. (There is not one author, and they don’t agree.)

C.      Texas is the hotbed of the secession movement. (I explained hotbed. We looked it up.)

3.       Name three Texas presidents (first and last names) who have come from Texas.  George Bush, George Bush, Jr and Lyndon Baines Johnson.  (I also wrote Dwight Eisenhower on the board.)
4.       Texas gets more in benefits than it pays in taxes.
A.      True
B.      False
C.      Neither A nor B (Valentin had asked the question; we later saw in the story that they break even.)

5.       Name the two parts of the US Congress and cite the number of members in each:
(I wrote on the board Congress/ House of Representatives/435 and Senate/100. I explained how a split into five states by Texas would mean 8 Senate seats in strong Republican territory.)
6.       In English, the word for subventionner is
__________subsidize___(we looked this up together)____________
7.       The author cited a movie about the Civil War in the text. Cite the film’s director or the title of the film.
____Steven Spielberg/Lincoln____
8.       Give another way of saying “first off” ___”first of all” (though I will accept any valid answers here like “firstly”)_______
9.       The Governor of Texas lost to Mitt Romney when he tried to gain the Republican nomination for president in 2012. What is his name? (I’ll give half credit if you only give his last name.)
____________Rick Perry (this was on the board today)_______


1. We talked about Texas’ rank when compared to other US states. Name two rankings and tell where Texas placed in those categories? ______second in size and population_____________

1. What is Texas’ nickname? __The Lone Star State_ (I can also accept Silicon Valley of the South)__

1. What does an “an unusual ace up its sleeve” mean?

A.    You are made of money.

B.     You have something that will give you an advantage that other people don't know about.

C.     You’ve got a half-baked idea.



BONUS: How many votes did an issue have to get (and in how many days) to qualify for a response from the White House on the web site mentioned in the story? (no partial credit)



#votes ___25,000______ # days_________30 days__________
 
December 11, 2012


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December 5, 2012

Homework for Tuesday....

George W. Bush's presidency began and ended in ___________ and took place during one of the most _____________ periods in U.S. _____________. Bush was the 43rd _____________ of the United States, and he is a _______________. He led his country's response to the ________ attacks in 2001 and initiated the ___________ in 2003. He ___________ won the ________________ vote in 2000, defeating Al Gore, the ________________ candidate. Before his presidency, Bush was a businessman and served as ______________ of Texas.

The Bush family had been involved in business and politics since the 1950s. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a former Wall Street banker and progressive Republican senator from Connecticut, and his father was a businessman, diplomat, and vice president and president of the United States.

Young George spent most of his childhood in _______________, attending school there until the seventh grade. The family moved to Houston in 1961, and George W. Bush was sent to Phillips Academy in __________________, Massachusetts. There he played baseball, basketball and football. He was a fair student and was an occasional troublemaker. Despite this, family connections helped him enter Yale University in 1964.

In 1968, George W. Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard. The Vietnam War was at its height. He earned his fighter pilot certification in June of 1970. Bush was honorably discharged from the________________ on November 21, 1974.

In 1977, at a backyard barbeque, Bush was introduced by friends to Laura Welch, a school teacher and librarian. After a quick three-month courtship, he proposed, and they were married on November 5, 1977. Prior to marriage, he had several embarrassing episodes with ______________. Soon after marrying Laura, he joined the United Methodist Church and became a ________________________. He and Laura have two daughters, Jenna and Barbara.

Among his nicknames are Bush 2.0,  ___________ and Dubya.

Use these words: Electoral College, governor, alcohol, Democratic, narrowly, born-again Christian, war in Iraq, president, dramatic, controversy, history, 9-11, Republican, Midland, Andover, Air Force Reserve, shrub.


November 27, 2012

My daughter and I drew names tonight for the order, since we were unable to do this in class today.
Here is the order for the first class:

Matthieu's Group
Juliette's Group
Vicky's Group
Valentin's Group
Pierre-Emmanuel's Group

As promised, it will be reverse order for the second class:

Pierre-Emmanuel's Group
Valentin's Group
Vicky's Group
Juliette's Group
Matthieu's Group

See you tomorrow!

Grading for Couperin Idol will be as follows:

Grammar: 40%
Content (what you chose to show us, effort made): 20%
Pronunciation: 10%
Presentation: 10% (slides spelled correctly, materials neatly presented, etc.)
Votes: 20%  (The highest vote-getters will have the highest grade in this section. 
Did you work to convince your audience you are the best?)

This is mostly modeled on our Oral Report Grading form, with the addition of votes, deletion of the knowledge section.

November 22, 2012

vocabulary from today's lesson:

retailer
wholesaler
in the black
stampede
trample
float
drill team
Black Friday
Black Thursday
Black Wednesday
in the black
in the red

What is the busiest travel day of the year? Why?
What department store sponsors the largest Thanksgiving Day parade each year? Where?
What do some people cut to get extra discounts on Black Friday?
The largest shopping mall in the US prohibits unaccompanied children from shopping on certain days around the holidays. What is the mall called? Where is it?



Don't forget your next essay is due Tuesday!  (see Nov. 14)

Here are the singers/groups for the next oral reports. Please listen and watch (at least the first five) before Tuesday.

Alabama
Leanne Womack
Toby Keith
John Denver
Martina McBride
Dan Seals
Lyle Lovett
Kenny Chesney
George Strait  


November 20, 2012


Here are some links you might find interesting for our trip to Somme... If you have time, take a look!



November 14, 2012

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=Innocent+VIII
http://www.audioenglish.net/dictionary/innocent.htm

Excerpts: Dreams from My Father 

1. read the texts in class
2. Listen to the text I will read to you. (p. 80-81 if you have the book)
3. Discussion: Would you have wanted to live in Texas in 1960? How about 1982? If you were white? If you were black?
4. Anecdotes from Texas
5. Imagine you are Obama. You have just been elected president of the US and you are going to have lunch with Ray, a black friend you have not seen since your childhood days in Hawaii. Talk with him about how your life has changed over these nearly 40 years. Discuss your family's experiences and US race relations. Cite examples from the texts you read and heard in class. Due Nov. 27. (150-200 words)

One addition to something I told you in class: we ask for race information on tests to evaluate whether or not one racial group is performing higher or lower than another, and it can help to cut down on discrimination if it can be shown that a disadvantaged group scores lower than other groups. Still, it can be hard for mixed race children to respond if there is not an option that fits their situation.


November 10, 2012

I have posted your grades for your tests and your essays on web sites. They should appear tonight by midnight. Here are a few notes about those assignments:

  • one of the most interestings sites
  • another, not an other
  • beware of run-on sentences
  • every day vs. everyday
  • three options: Web site, web site or website (be consistent)
  • eklablog on alexa is rated highly, not the sites that are hosted on it
  • "is teenagers" is correct in a sentence like this: "The main audience is teenagers." The subject audience is singular...
  • you can't be concentrated unless you are orange juice in a can. Write, "I can't concentrate," or "I am distracted."
  • most often, "to arrive at" should be followed by a location
  • the good bus should be the right/correct bus
  • Facebook is capitalized, even if the logo is not.
  • anybody vs everybody and anything vs everything
  • to pay attention
  • example, not exemple in English
  • about all kinds of
  • to log in (verb) vs login (noun)  
  • "a" horrible lesson not "an" because we pronounce the "h"
  • "a" universal idea because the sound of the "u" is like a "y"
  • information is never with an "s"  
 

October 24, 2012


Technology review
--Know the vocabulary, of course... This includes words we talked about that were not in the texts.
--Can you explain what happened in the story about the dad who shot his daughter’s laptop?
--Explain the story “He’s Logged On!” Tell me the girl’s problem, and how technology was useful to her, both for hiding her feelings and getting information from a boy.
--Talk about the play we did; what was the main problem? How was it solved?
--Can you answer the six questions we discussed about cell phones, computers, etc?
--Tell me about the best web site ever invented.
--What are the advantages and disadvantages of “being wired?”
There will be a bonus....
 
October 20, 2012

My goal for you today: be able to talk about the benefits of web sties you use regularly. Know how to explain a site to someone who knows nothing about it.

key vocabulary:

blog: (web log)
blogger: blogeur
bookmark: signet
browser: feuilleteur
click: cliquer, clic (option-clic, commande-clic, majuscule-clic)
diskette: disquette
download: télécharger
Email: courrier electronique (CE), Message
Email address: adresse de courrier (électronique) ou ACE, courriel 
error: erreur
giveaway: cadeau
home page: page d'accueil
icon: icône
ID (User): identificateur (de l'usager), identification, nom d'utilisateur
Internet: l'Internet
keyboard: clavier
link (hyperlink): lien hypertexte 
logoff: fin de session, déconnexion
logon: connexion, début de session
mailbox: boîte aux lettres (BAL), boîte aux lettres électronique
mailing list: liste de diffusion, forum électronique
monitor: moniteur
mouse: souris  
network: réseau  
news: nouvelles (f.)
print: imprimer
printer: imprimante (f.)
reboot: redémarrage (redémarrer), réamorçage (réamorçer), relance (relancer)
restart: redémarrage (redémarrer)
spam
screen: écran scroll down: dérouler en bas
scroll up: dérouler en haut
search field: champ de recherche
surf: naviguer, surfer
URL: localisateur, adresse URL, localisateur URL
USB key: clef USB
webpage: page web, site web
World Wide Web (WWW): WWW, hypertoile, toile mondiale 

Sites to view/discuss in class:

www.alexa.com
www.google.com
www.yahoo.com
www.oprah.com
www.people.com 
http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/revenge/episode-guide
www.amazon.com
www.thebookdepository.com
www.howstuffworks.com
www.pinterest.com
www.mcdonalds.com
www.thepioneerwoman.com
www.allrecipes.com
www.nba.com


In class group assignment (groups of four, alphabetically):

Like last week, you are going to use your creativity. This time, imagine you are going to create a web site. Give it a catchy name, tell me what it will be about, why people would want to visit it. How many visitors you expect. Who will be your target audience? How will you promote the site? What will be special about it?

For homework for next Tuesday:

Write an essay about one of your favorite web sites. Please avoid youtube, google, yahoo, Facebook, etc. Tell me about a site I might not know about. It can be English, French, Turkish, whatever, but of course you must tell me about it in English. Why do you like it? Why is it popular (or not)? Who visits? What kind of traffic does it get? How did you find it?

200 words


October 11, 2012

You will have a test on Thursday, October 18 over the irregular verb list I gave you. You will get the same chart, and there will be many blanks to fill in.

October 10, 2012

Today were are going to work on Blog Talk Radio. Work in your "Couperin Idol" groups to create your own Internet radio talk show.

Do the following:

1. Choose a subject (politics, education, music, fashion, etc.). Remember you cannot make a regular radio station. You don't own any music! Well, unless you play your own... This is a talk show...
2. Choose a title for your talk show. Make it catchy!
3. Create a memorable slogan. Example: "More conversation, less confrontation."
4. Give us a description of your show.
5. Tell us who your target audience is, and why they would want to listen.

October 3, 2012

Vocabulary from today: scrutiny, poll, grounded, hypocrite, hindsight, rant, Yahoo

Expression: "Two wrongs don't make a right."


October 1, 2012



Couperin Idol(s)

You must choose a new name for the “show.” Think about this for Wednesday…
 
The brave contestants:

Pierre Emmanuel (guitarist, singer)
Matthieu (guitarist, singer)
Vicky (guitarist, singer)
Shabbaz/Valentin (unknown)
Juliette/Sahra/Manon (unknown)

Each act will choose a promotions team on Wednesday, October 3. (This should take no more than five minutes. Prepare your “draft picks” in advance, please.)

The game: each act presents something in English before an audience of two classes of sophomores who study English with Mrs. Lucain. We will choose a random order via a drawing, then will go in the same order (in reverse) for her second class.

One team member (host/hostess) introduces the person (“She’s got the smoothest voice ever,” “he has chosen a song by Elton John that explains ____”)

The other team members create flyers, videos, PowerPoint presentations -- or whatever -- about their star(s) to convince people to vote for them. This promotions team shows these presentations before the contestant performs… Contestants may perform live or on a recorded program. Each group has a maximum of six minutes, including their act.

The “host” or "hostess" concludes by asking the “audience members” to vote for his or her team’s act. Be creative!

I am hoping we can hold this competition just after we return from our November holiday break, but I must confirm the date with Mrs. Lucain. It will fall during a week when we have two hours of class.

Any questions?



September 27, 2012


I think he didn’t mean to have a lot of hits with this video, and he just wanted to teach his daughter a lesson.



It’s a father filming himself. He conveys a message to his daughter about what he is about to do in the video: he is going to shoot her laptop.



He shot the laptop and then he posted the video on www.youtubecom. The video got millions of hits. The video went viral. It became a viral video.


September 19, 2012

From: http://www.beatthegmat.com/

"Would" is used in counterfactual future conditions -- ones known to be false or at least highly unlikely. "Will" is used in factual future conditions -- ones known to be true, always true, or at least highly likely.

If she keeps eating pizza, she will get sick. (factual: we have no reason to believe she won't get sick if she doesn't stop)
If she kept eating pizza, she would get sick (but we don't expect that to happen for whatever reason)

The counterfactual future conditions require the use of the simple past in the "if" clause.

September 12, 2012

Homework for Tuesday, September 18th:
If you could create and produce a reality TV program, what would it be? Who would watch? Why would it be popular? What countries would copy the idea?

Anglais au Bac –
Les 4 notions au programme sont :
1- MYTHES ET HEROS 2 - ESPACES ET ECHANGES
3- LIEUX ET FORMES DU POUVOIR 4 - L’IDEE DE PROGRES


Oral Reports: “Country Music”
Please choose a song from www.mrsrobicsenglishblog.blogspot.fr for your oral report. First come, first served.  Please don’t simply read to us. There should be some form of visual support (computer presentation, poster, etc.) Check your USB key in advance to be sure your software works at school.
The game plan:
1.       Play the song for the class in its entirety.
2.       Explain its general meaning. Most of these are ballads; they tell a story.
3.       What impact has the song had? (Check www.billboard.com and Wikipedia)
4.       Give biographical information about the singer or group. (born/died, where from, spouse, children, awards, how he or she got started in the biz)
5.       Many of these people are interesting characters:
·         One was married to Julia Roberts
·         Many have also acted in movies or TV
·         One is the dad of “Hannah Montana”
·         One was just 14 when she had her first hit
·         A few are more mainstream, and perhaps you’ve heard of them
Reports must be about three minutes long, minus the time of the song. You will be graded on the following:
·         Content
·         Grammar
·         Pronunciation
·         Depth of knowledge about the subject matter (I will ask you questions!)
·         Presentation (Don’t read from the page, please!) This includes a grade for slides, poster, etc.
Additional information:
·         If you have questions about pronunciation, don’t hesitate to ask me or you can check www.dictionary.com and click on the speaker symbol.
·         Please give me a small sheet of paper with your name, class and song as soon as possible.
·         Reports will begin the week of Monday, October 1. Volunteers may go first; otherwise, we will go in alphabetical order.



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