I  apologize for being so long without writing. For some reason I forgot about this group. In fact, I thought I had done an entry for last week. Possibly I made a mistake and wrote it somewhere else.

Anyway, in our last lesson we were practicing modal verbs: have to, can, must and should.

You can use should to give advise and also to present some chices or alternatives, like: should we travel by car or by train?
Students looked at some signs and and explained what they meant using sentences live: you have to, you can´t, it is not allowed, X is allowed.

We listened to a conversation between two friends who were planning a trip together. We studied the sentences and then some of the students read it and role played the dialogue.

As homework students must read the section What do you think? and say what is like in Spain for each one of the laws in Britain that are mentioned.
Also, you should write a conversation between two friends that are planning a trip together. The conversation must include 3 questions of the type: Should we...?

Our Tuesday lesson was about artists and authors. At the beginning of the lesson students read homework. A part of it were sentences about things they were allowed or not allowed to do when they were in school.

Remember this is a passive construction and is followed by an infinitive:

I was not allowed  to exchange clothes with my classmates.

We were allowed to sit anywhere we wanted.

This time we read a short biography of Ernest Hemingway, a very famous American author who made the San Fermines in Pamplona a worldwide known celebration. Words that we learned from this text are: shotgun, hunt, eyesight, wounded, plane crash.

Remember the Past tenses we are studying:

Past Simple:
Affirmative: I wrote        Questions: did you write? ( You must always use the auxiliary did,whatever the beginning of the question. The only exception is when the question starts with Whoand Who is the subject of the question: Who wrote that book?
Negative: I didn´t write.

Past Continuous: (The auxiliary verb is the past of the verb to be: was/were)
Affirmative: I was reading (The auxiliary verb is the past of the verb to be: was/were
 Questions: Were you reading?
Negative: I wasn´t reading.

Past Perfect (The auxiliary verb is the past of the verb to have)
Affirmative: I had already read the book when I watched  the film.
Questions: Had you already seen the film?
Negative: I hadn´t read the book.

Homework
Write 5 questions about Hemingway´s biography.
Choose an artist, any kind of artist - musician, painter, dancer, actor, film director, etc. and do some research about him/her. Note down a few details of his/her biography.

We are trying really hard to learn how to speak using the correct past tenses.

So students started the lesson saying 3 things they did on the weekend. They were not allowed to use the verb to go. Next they ask their classmates about the first thing they had done in the morning.

Beatriz read her version of Snow White, the rest of the students will read their stories in future classes.

Looking at Judy´s schedule for yesterday students were asking each other questions in the past continuous: What was Judy doing at 8:30 in the evening? and answering: She was putting the baby to bed.
Later students made a list of things they had done yesterday, swapped their papers and asked one another questions like: Were you taking a nap at 4:00 in the afternoon? Yes, I was or No, I wasn´t. At 4 I was studying in the library.

Finally we listened to the very famous song by Otis Redding: Sitting on the dock of a bay. Here is the link, in case you feel like listening to it again.