Vocabulary Item (first draft) Erick F.

Audience: 7th grade beginner students
Vocabulary: common items (bags, clothes,etc)

Common objects. Make words from the word halves in the two boxes. See the example.


A
1. back
2. jack
3. cam
4. C
5. CD
6. com
7. lug
8. pass
9. pos
10. sun
11. video
12. sneak


B
et
player
port
camera
pack
era
D
ers
ter
glasses
gage
puter





1. backpack
2. jacket
3.__________
4.___________
5.___________
6.___________
7.___________
8.___________
9.___________
10.____________
11.____________
12.____________

Grammar item (first draft) - Erick Fuentes

Audience: 7th grade beginner students
Functions:Ask and answer 'Wh and Yes-No' questions
Grammar: Verb to be (present simple)

Grammar. Verb be. Cross out the answer that is not correct. See the example.

1. How old are you?

a. I’m 14.
b. I’m 14 years old.
c. I’m not old

2. Is your name Matt?

a. No, it isn’t.
b. No, I’m not.
c. No. My name’s Simon.

3. Are you a student?

a. Yes.
b. I am.
c. Yes, I am.


4. What’s your favorite movie?

a. It’s my favorite movie.
b. It’s Shrek.
c. Shrek.

Reading item (first draft) - Erick Fuentes

Audience: 7th grade beginner students
C-test model.



Read the comments from the exchange student and finish the incomplete words.


My name is Hans, and I’m a German exch_______ student here __n Melrose. My Ame______ life is differ_____ from my Ger______ life. In Germ_____ I live __n Hamburg. It’__ a really __ig city. ___’s noisy, but the___ are always lot__ of things t__ do. Melrose i__ a small to____ –only about 12,000 _____ple. I think everybo___ here knows m___. Small towns ar__ nice during th__ day, but a__ night time it’__ really quiet. I li___ my host fam____ a lot. _____ey’re very nice t__ me, and th__ kids at sch_____ are great __oo. It’s just ___at there’s nothing t__ do at nig___.

Speaking Item (first draft)

Audience: 7th grade beginner students
Functions: Introductions, ask for and give personal information
Grammar: Verb to be (present simple)


Speaking. Read the card the teacher gives you and simulate the situation in the card.



Student A

You are new in the school and it is the first day.

Introduce yourself and ask ‘B’ some questions:
- Name?
- Age?
- Where from?



Student B


You are in the school and it is the first day.

Greet ‘A’ and answer A’s questions

LISTENING items (first draft)

Hello!

This would be for assessing listening. Actually, for practical reasons the teacher should read to the students since not every school has resources as to have CD players so that is why I decided the teacher should better read the statements instead. The target population should be middle school beginner students who'd taken some 16 lessons as much. They should have reviewed introductions, countries and nationalities, and they should know how to ask for an give personal information, telephone numbers, and addresses.


Part I. Listening. Listen very carefully and circle the letter according to the sentence that you hear. The teacher will read every sentence just twice.


1. Example: A.-Are you Brian Gibson?
B.- Are you Brian Williams?
C.- Are you Andy Gibson?
D.- Are you Robbie Gibson?

2. A.- There’s my mom.
B.- There’s my bus.
C.- There’s my dad.
D.- There’s my brother.


3. A.- Brian Gibson is English.
B.- Brian Williams is Australian.
C.- Andy Gibson is not Canadian.
D.- Robbie Gibson is American.


4. A.-What’s your first name?
B.- What’s your last name?
C.- What’s your date of birth?
D.- What’s your address?


5. A.- I’m from Australia.
B.- I’m from China.
C.- I’m from Canada.
D.- I’m from Brazil.


6. A.- this is my sister.
B.- these are my cousins
C.- this is my brother.
D.- these are my uncles.

Nahir Aparicio. Speaking item

Audience: intermediate students

Function: Expressing probability about the future. Grammar: Modal verbs, 1^st & 2^nd conditional. Vocabulary: related to global issues (Environment)

_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________

You are talking with a Japanese friend, Naruto, who is visiting you in Caracas.He’s an environmentalist,interested in the problems this city has regarding the future.

Based on the pictures below, tell him about some present actions and their consequences for the future.

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

speaking item (yoli)

Speaking
Students: second semester tourism
Aim: giving directions

You are working at the Wellington hotel, a tourist woman needs to go to the
.Main entrance. Tell her how to get there

reading yoli

Reading
Students: second semester of tourism
You are working in a travel agency, you received an article
With missing heading, choose the most suitable heading (A-F) )
for each part
Aim: Reading to organize information

Essentials Tips for the Business Traveler

As they say, getting there stopped being half the fun when airplanes were invented. If you travel a lot, here are some tips to make it more palatable.
1.
With it you’ll get assistance with reservations, seat selection and boarding pass issuance; a quite place to wait and work; complimentary snacks and beverages; private bar at most locations and showers at some. At around $450/yr. for one person, it could be well worth it.
2.
Coordinate to one color, like black. Many women, myself included, swear by Tencel®. Indestructible, always looks nice. Choose the right print blouses and it won’t show stains. Gentlemen, consider microfiber fabrics. Choose something with inner pockets (that zip!) for important papers and cash.
3.
Better than TV in most hotel rooms, good for waits, also good to hide behind if you get next to someone in the plane who annoys you. Leave it behind for another traveler or tear off chapters as you go along and lighten you load.
4.
Especially important in 3rd world countries. Wear cheap-looking watch and jewelry and leave the diamonds at home. Makes you less of a target for pick pockets and luggage theft. If you must take a camera, guard the lens; popular with pick pockets as well.Remove luggage tags from other trips. It’s a tip-off for thieves looking for the “rich frequent traveler”.

Essentials Tips for the Business Traveler

As they say, getting there stopped being half the fun when airplanes were invented. If you travel a lot, here are some tips to make it more palatable.
1.
With it you’ll get assistance with reservations, seat selection and boarding pass issuance; a quite place to wait and work; complimentary snacks and beverages; private bar at most locations and showers at some. At around $450/yr. for one person, it could be well worth it.
2.
Coordinate to one color, like black. Many women, myself included, swear by Tencel®. Indestructible, always looks nice. Choose the right print blouses and it won’t show stains. Gentlemen, consider microfiber fabrics. Choose something with inner pockets (that zip!) for important papers and cash.
3.
Better than TV in most hotel rooms, good for waits, also good to hide behind if you get next to someone in the plane who annoys you. Leave it behind for another traveler or tear off chapters as you go along and lighten you load.
4.
Especially important in 3rd world countries. Wear cheap-looking watch and jewelry and leave the diamonds at home. Makes you less of a target for pick pockets and luggage theft. If you must take a camera, guard the lens; popular with pick pockets as well.Remove luggage tags from other trips. It’s a tip-off for thieves looking for the “rich frequent traveler”.

Go rested D. pay to join something like AA's Admirals Club
Don’t appear wealthy E. Take a book with you
The travel wardrobe F. Don’t talk to strangers

vocabulary (yoli)

Vocabulary
Students: second semester of tourism
Aim: filling the black with the appropriate vocabulary

You are working in a travel agency, you received a fax of a new brochure, but the machine was damage. Fill in the gaps with the correct word in the column



Hong Kong

Hong Kong has a _________ range of tours, all of which can be booked through our _________ representative on arrival.

Travel around Hong Kong Island. See the wonderful ________ from Victoria Peak or Explore the world- famous Stanley Market from a Junk.

Take a _________ along the waterfront and walk round the old Hong Kong.

Watch dolphins perform in the oceanrium in Asia or, for those interested in history, there’s Sung Dynasty village a replica______ of China 1000 years old.

You could, of course, just relax on the ___________ beaches of Lantau Island with its tea plantation, fishing village and green Mountain


Local
great

view
variety
largest
village larger
sandy tasty
boad
under

writing item yoli

Writing
Students: fourth semester of tourism
Aim: replying to a email of complain (apologizing)
You are working at the Liberty travel, you received this complaint, write and apology email to this costumer

Liberty Travel

From CarlaMacfly@yahoo.com
To: libertytravel@hotmail.com
Subject: complaints

Dear [Mr or Mrs]:
This letter is to complain about service I recently received from a Liberty Travel customer service representative staff.
I called you on Monday to find out how to deal with a problem I’ve had with my reservation .After I had been on hold for several minutes, the travel clerk came on the line. I had to explain my problem to him several times because he did not seem to be listening and therefore asked me the same questions repeatedly. The travel clerk put me on hold for several minutes, and then returned to say he could not help me. Needless to say, I was quite frustrated and I lost my reservation.
I expected a much higher level of service from your company, and I am quite disappointed. Because I do not want to spend any more time on this problem, I expect a full refund. I will be informing my friends and family about this experience.
Sincerely,
Carla Macfly

Yahoo! CocinaRecetas prácticas y comida saludableVisitá http://ar.mujer.yahoo.com/cocina/

my listening item yoli

Items
Listening
Students: Second semester of Tourism
Aim: to focus on specific information
· You are working at the British Airways airline; listen to the conversation between an English tourist who wants to make a flight reservation and a travel clerk. Fill out the booking form with the information that you are going to hear.






Booking Form

Name :- …………………………………………………


From :- …………Barcelona………………….. To:- ……………………………………

Date that you require : …………………………...……


Flight number :- …………………………………………….…

Class …………………………………………


Deposit ( 50% of total cost) : £ ……………………………………


Balance in full will be due 6 weeks before your departure date.

SPEAKING ITEM (First draft) - Aurora Mariscal.

Level: Beginners (ESL learners).

Role Pay: Work in pairs. Make a dialog using the information given. Follow the boxes. **See Note below.

Situation: Two friends meet after school on Friday afternoon. They start to talk about the weekend….

Student A

Student B

Invite B to go to the beach this weekend

Politely refuse A’s invitation

Suggest going to the mountains instead

Accept

Suggest using B’s car (give a reason)

Refuse using your car (give a reason)

Suggest going by train

Agree, but say you don’t have money

Offer to pay both tickets

Accept and thank your partner

Note: A sheet of paper is going to be given to each student......

Making Inferences

To assess reading comprehension: Making Inferences.

Address to first semester of Computer Science.

Instructions: read the following cartoons and reach conclusion from the given data. Then, write two paragraphs of five sentences each one related with the given topic.

Example:

These cartoons are related with the relation between people and electronic devices. Nowadays, people can spend a lot of time in front a computer, in my case it could be six or more hours and if I include the time using the cell phone the stimate goes up. This represent a third or more of my awake time, and that is a significative part of time. So, computer and other electronic devices are replacing our direct relationships.

We could see in the second cartoon the man whose eating companion is a computer and he is ordering "food" for it. In third cartoon the device is threatening the man because he is making mistakes recognicing it. In the first cartoon we do not know who is talking to whom, is the man snarling at the computer or is the computer snarling at him? We do not know but computers are filling important spaces in our lives.

Here you have some question guides that could help you.

What does mean the image of the box?

Is it possitive or negative thinking out of the box?

Why do people have to think out of the box?

Assessing Listening

Getting details, to assess listening.

English for Specific Purpose.

Addressed to First semester of Computer Science.

Instructions: listen to the speaker and answer the questions below. There is an audio related with the meaning and the uses of the word google. Let's see how much you know about it.








Click the link


http://www.zshare.net/audio/517294719d20ef57/





1.- What are the different uses that the word google has?

2.- Who has given a new meaning to it?

3.- What is the meaning of the new use of google?

4.- What are the other two examples of new words related with technology?

Reading Item (second Draft) Margot

Level : 6th grade students.

Content: Natural Disasters.
Aim : To understand vocabulary (actions).

FIRE SAFETY AT SCHOOL
Read the following sentences and underline the appropriate action to complete the commands. Match them to the appropriate picture. Look at the example:

Example: Don't stay / Stay calm. Don't panic.

1.- Use / Don't use the elevator.

2.- Stop / Start the fire alarm.

3.- Don't leave / Leave the school quickly.

4.- Don't take / Take all your things.

5.- Open / Close the doors.

Example

WRITING ITEM - (First draft) - Aurora Mariscal.

Level: ESL Beginners.

Write a paragraph of about 100 words explaining what you would do if you won the lottery. The beginning is already written.



If I won the lottery, I would...

Reading Item (First Draft) Margot

Reading test:
Level : 6th grade students. Content: Natural Disasters.
Aim : To understand vocabulary (actions).
To assess comprehension about Safety Rules in case of a “School Fire” .

FIRE SAFETY AT SCHOOL
Read the following sentences and underline the appropriate action to complete the sentence. Number the pictures. Look at the example.

1.- Don’t stay
calm. Don’t panic.
Stay


2.- Start
the fire alarm.
Stop


3.- Don’t open
the window.
Open


4.- Use
the elevator.
Don’t use


5.- Walk
down the stairs.
Run


6.- Don’t hide
in a closet.
Hide


7.- Don’t leave
the school quickly.
Leave


8.- Don’t take
all your things.
Take


9.- Open
doors.
Close


10.- Stay
with your teacher and classmates.
Don’t stay


11.- Run
in the corridors.
Don’t run

Listening Test (First Draft) Margot

Listening Test:

Level: 6th grade students.
Aim: Part I : To identify vocabulary about Natural Disasters.
Part II: To understand specific information about Natural Disasters.
Part III : To understand specific information about Safety Rules in case of N.D.

Part I : Look at the pictures. Listen to your teacher and number from 1 to 6 the following Natural Disaster:

TAPE SCRIPT:
1.- VOLCANIC ERUPTION.
2.- FLOOD.
3.- DROUGHT.
4.- HURRICANE.
5.- TORNADO.
6.- FIRE.



Part II : Listen to your teacher talking about some Natural Disasters. Pay attention to the characteristics she is mentioning and underline the phenomenon she is describing:

1.- flood tidal wave earthquake
2.- tidal wave hurricane fire
3.- earthquake drought tornado
4.- flood volcanic eruption drought
5.- earthquake fire tidal wave
6.- tornado hurricane volcanic eruption


TAPE SCRIPT:
1.- THE EARTH IS MOVING.
2.- THIS IS A TROPICAL STORM THAT STARTS IN THE OCEAN.
3.- THE EARTH IS VERY DRY. THERE IS NO WATER.
4.- THERE IS A LOT OF LAVA EVERYWHERE.
5.- THIS IS A VERY BIG WAVE THAT COMES FROM THE SEA.
6.- THIS IS A STORM THAT STARTS ON LAND IN FLAT PLACES.


Part III: Listen to your teacher talking about some Safety Rules in case of Natural Disasters.
Circle “Right” or “Wrong” according to what you hear.

1.- RIGHT WRONG

2.- RIGHT WRONG

3.- RIGHT WRONG

4.- RIGHT WRONG


TAPE SCRIPT:
1.- YOU SHOULD LEAVE THE BUILDING DURING A HURRICANE.
2.- YOU SHOULDN’T OPEN THE WINDOW DURING A FIRE.
3.- YOU SHOULDN’T TAKE AN ELEVATOR DURING AN EARTHQUAKE
4.- YOU SHOULD HAVE A DISASTER SUPPLY KIT AT HOME.

LISTENING (First draft) - Aurora Mariscal

LEVEL: ESL Pre-Intermediate learners.

This is part of a VOA (Voice of America) radio report which is dedicated to the current situation the Hollywood film industry is facing in USA. Listen carefully and do the activities bellow.

http:/www.ompersonal.com.ar.newsletters/audios/176-Hollywood.wma

Activity: Choose the option that fits the best with the statement.

1. What happened this year at the Academy Awards that had not happened since 1964?

All the winners for best acting were from:

a. the south of United States

b. outside the United States

c. the north of United States

2. Tilda Swinton won:

a. supporting actress

b. leading actress

c. best actress

3. Hollywood has:

a. developed new film industries

b. lost market share in some places

c. won fifty percent of the market

4. People are now getting their movies through:

a. DVDs

b. the Internet

c. the TV cable

HOLLYWOOD 2008 AUDIO

This year, something happened at the Academy Awards that had not happened since nineteen sixty-four. All the winners for best acting were from outside the United States.

Daniel Day-Lewis and Tilda Swinton are British. He won best actor for "There Will Be Blood"; she won best supporting actress for "Michael Clayton." French actress Marion Cotillard won the Oscar for best actress for "La Vie en Rose." And Spain's Javier Bardem won best supporting actor in "No Country for Old Men."

Hollywood is increasingly looking outside America's borders for stars and profit. Jonathan Taplin is a professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. He says that today, about fifty-four percent of the ticket sales for Hollywood studios now come from outside the United States.

Hollywood has lost market share in some places as other countries develop their own film industries. For example, in the mid-eighties, American films had eighty percent of the market in South Korea. Today that share is about forty percent.

Hollywood also faces competition from illegally copied movies, a major issue to the Motion Picture Association of America. The trade group estimated more than eighteen billion dollars in worldwide losses from piracy in two thousand five.

Hollywood reporter Alan Silverman says piracy has influenced how American movies are released. In the past, Hollywood studios waited months after the American release of a film to release it in foreign markets. Now, many aim to release films at the same time around the world.

Foreign markets may also influence how people get their movies. Different nations have different levels of technology. Efforts to settle on the next-generation DVD got a lot of attention recently.

Yet DVD sales have dropped in recent years. This may be a sign that people are increasingly getting their movies off the Internet. The Internet is another front in Hollywood's war on piracy. But more than that, it presents complex business questions for an industry now built mostly on DVD and ticket sales.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

READING (Third draft) - Aurora Mariscal

LEVEL: EFL Pre-Intermediate students.

Metacognition - Thinking about thinking - Learning to learn

Metacognition refers to higher order thinking that involves active control over the thinking processes involved in learning. Activities such as planning how to approach a given learning task, monitoring comprehension, and evaluating progress toward the completion of a task are metacognitive in nature. Because metacognition plays a critical role in successful learning it is important for both students and teachers. Metacognition has been linked with intelligence and it has been shown that those with greater metacognitive abilities tend to be more successful thinkers.

Most definitions of metacognition include both knowledge and strategy components. Knowledge is considered to be metacognitive if it is actively used in a strategic manner to ensure that a goal is met. Metacognition is often referred to as "thinking about thinking" and can be used to help students “learn how to learn.” Cognitive strategies are used to help achieve a particular goal while metacognitive strategies are used to ensure that the goal has been reached.

Metacognitive knowledge involves executive monitoring processes directed at the acquisition of information about thinking processes. They involve decisions that help to identify the task on which one is currently working, to check on current progress of that work, to evaluate that progress, and to predict what the outcome of that progress will be. Metacognitive strategies involve executive regulation processes directed at the regulation of the course of thinking. They involve decisions that help to allocate resources to the current task, to determine the order of steps to be taken to complete the task, and to set the intensity or the speed at which one should work the task.

Tomado de http://members.iinet.net.au /files/metacognition.htm

According to the text, answer the following:

1. What does Metacognition represent?


2. Metacognitive actions in nature are:


3. Why is metacognition significant for teachers and learners?


4. What’s the main characteristic of people who have metacognitive abilities?


5. What’s the difference between cognitive and metacognitive strategies?


6. What’s the difference between metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive strategies?

Speaking Item (First Draft) Aisha

Level: Pre-intermediate

Aim:  -To narrate a story

            -To transfer from visual to verbal information

-Look at the pictures below and tell the story that these pictures describe.

 

Writing Item (First Draft) Aisha

Level: Pre-intermediate

Aim: To write a short article expressing students' opinion on what life will be like in the future.

-Look at the pictures below. Write an article on what life will be like in the future.

Alexander Vàsquez

Writing Item
Level: EFL students (False beginners)
English III

In order to publish a short text on a friend's blog you have to write an anecdote of an interesting moment of your life. Think of the time you met your best friend, boyfriend or girlfriend and write a description of such situation.
Make sure you mention the following aspects in it.



1) Name/full description: personality/appearance
(use descriptive words)
2) Place where you met him/her
3) What you were doing
4) What you thought of him/her
5) Something about the relationship at the moment.



MARKING CRITERIA FOR WRITING:

CONTENT _____ / 1 point GRAMMAR ______ / 3 points

COHESION/COHERENCE ______ / 1 point

MECHANICS (spelling, punctuation, capitalization) ______ / 2 points

VOCABULARY ______/ 3 points

Alexander Vàsquez
Speaking Item (ROLE PLAY)
Level: EFL students (FALSE BEGINNERS)
Evaluation Criteria ( Holistic Scale)

The test-takers will be given some minutes to read the instructions and get ready with the information presented in their role play card.

English Speaking Quiz – English II
Role play 01

Candidate’s instructions A:
You’ll have two topics to have a conversation with a partner. Student B will play the part of your friend. Make sure you ask and answer the questions in the instructions. Give as much information as necessary. Turn taking will be taken into account.

1. You and your friend are talking about sports.
Talk about a sport you like, but you can’t play very well. Say why you can’t play it well. Also, explain why you like it.

2. Two friends are watching a TV program about junk food, but they have different points of view.
Talk about junk food. Say that you like it and explain why it is so popular these days. Mention some advantages of eating this food.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
English Speaking Quiz – English II
Role play 01 . Candidate’s instructions B:
You’ll have two topics to have a conversation with a partner. Student A will play the part of your friend. Make sure you ask and answer the questions in the instructions. Give as much information as necessary. Turn taking will be taken into account.

1. You and your friend are talking about sports while watching TV at home.
Give some advice to your friend in order to practice this sport. Tell him/her about some of the attributes he/she needs to have to practice such sport.

2. Two friends are watching a TV program about junk food, but they have different points of view
Disagree with your partner. Explain why you think this food is bad. Say what he she/should eat.

READING ITEM (Second Draft) - Aurora Mariscal

Multiple-choice cloze

Instructions: Read the following paragraph and choose the correct word from the ones in parenthesis. (0,25 points each one)

ENERGY CRISIS

"If we spent money on research now, we [1] (will / would / can) develop plants which create their own fuel and burn their own waste. If you [2] (accept / accepted / accepting) that we need electricity, we will need nuclear energy. Just imagine what the world [3] (would / can / will) be like if we didn't have electricity -no heating, no lighting, no computer, radio or TV. Horrible, isn't it? That's what will happen if we [4] (turned / turning / turn) our backs on nuclear research."


*Note: This is also one of the items I developed when studying at Universidad de Carabobo. I would appreciate if you could give me feedback.

Aurora.