Worksheet: My Honeywell Educators@SpaceCamp 2010 Experience

Dear All,

Its a pleasant surprised to know that a friend of mine, Ms. Yong Fui Yin had used a write-up on my experience at the Honeywell Educators@SpaceCamp 2010 experience as a comprehension and summary text for her SPM (1119) exercises for her Skor A+ Kertas Model 2012 Edition published by Pelangi Publications.

I liked the way that the text had been modified and the questions posed for the students to answer.

Below are the text and questions.

Enjoy!


Rodney Tan Chai Whatt
(Spaceman Teacher)

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Videos: Free English Video Lessons & Activities

Dear All,

For those who need videos for a change in their ELT lessons, I've included a link below which has links to YouTube videos and some separate files for the comprehension and extension activities. The Sherlock Holmes files are excellent.

The video series include:
-  English Lessons for Jamie Oliver's School Dinners
- English lessons for Sherlock Holmes (7 videos & exercises)
- English Lessons for the I.T Crowd (4 series - 22 videos)
- English Lessons for The Office (1 series - 6 videos from the BBC)


Link: http://www.skype-lessons.com/lang-en/content/10-video-lessons-skype-english-lessons 


Rodney Tan Chai Whatt

Resource: The Best Sites for Learning About Planets and Space

Since returning from the Honeywell NASA Educators @ Space Camp recently, I've been very interested in materials that will help me use Space Science and Technology texts and exercies as a resource to teach English.

I've found an interesting site. Below is the link to a well-known ELT teacher blogger: Larry Ferlazzo's blog where he lists down useful websites to obtain such materials.

Have fun exploring and adapting the materials for your classroom!

Rodney Tan
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Larry Ferlazzo has added some historic NASA photos to his excellent page, The Best Sites for Learning About Planets and Space.

Source: http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/04/03/the-best-sites-for-learning-about-planets-space/

Malaysian 2010 New Literature Component for Secondary Schools

Hi Everyone,

Many of you would have dropped by this blog because you may want to know more about the new cycle for the Malaysian MOE English Literature Component for English.

Many schools would have received the prescibed texts by now. But there are still some novels that have not being issued as they will be used only in Forms 3.

Latest: Form 5 Novels for Literature 2011
There are 3 different novels which will be alloted according to the states; like the old cycle of the 3 novels of Jungle of Hope, The Return & The Pearl.


The 3 novels are:
1) The Curse by Lee Su Ann
2) Step by Wicked Step by Anne Fine
3) Catch Us If You Can by Catherine MacPhail

From the feedback and my own study of the text (Forms 4 and 5), I noticed that the texts are generally simple and straightforward. The authors/poets are mainly unfamiliar ones.

I think the literary texts chosen were meant to be very accessible and fun for our students.

The main different with this current selection of literature texts is the inclusion of dramas or plays. I think it bodes well for the teaching of literature as students will find it fun to act it out.

There is a possiblity that the Literature Component would be very much school-based (PLBS and ULBS), with activities and is student-centred.

One thing I've noticed about the authors chosen by the MOE is they must be "politically correct" in terms of the local writer/poet or the contents. It's really a shame. In modern literature, texts used in schools and universities elsewhere, are not based on their "political leanings" but rather, strictly on MERIT.

Below is list of the literary texts without the Novels:

Form 1:
Poems
1. The River -Valerie Bloom
2. Mr Nobody - author unknown

Short Stories
1. Flipping Fantastic -Jane Langford

Form 2:

Poems
1. I wonder - Jeannie Kirby
2. Heir Conditioning - M. Shanmughalingam

Short Stories
1. One is One and All Alone - Nicholas Fisk

Play
1. Rumpelstiltskin -Angela Lanyon

Form 3:

Poems
1. A Fighter's Line- Marzuki Ali
2. Leisure - Willian Henry Davies

Form 4:

Poems
1. In the Midst of Hardship -Latiff Mohidin  (The Malay version is found in this blog)
2. He Had such Quiet Eyes -Bibsy Soenharjo (For a fun activity, please go to my blog dated 19th January 2011)

Short Stories
1. QWERTYUIOP -Vivian Alcock
2. The Fruitcake Special -Frank Brennan

Play
1. Gulp and Gasp- John Townsend

Form 5:

Poems
1. Nature -H.D. Carberry
2. Are you Still Playing Your Flute -Zurinah Hassan (The Malay version is found in this blog)
    *There's a controversy brewing about this "ïncomplete" poem. Look in my blog for the Malay version.

Please look out for the Pearson Form 4 Literature Workbook which is co-written by Christine Tan and me. We'll be coming out with a third edition as well. There's also a separate resource toolkit.

Rodney Tan

Humour Activities

Humour Activities in ELT

2 Phrasal Verbs

Complete each joke with a verb. Try to do it without looking at the list of verbs at the bottom of the page. Each verb makes up a phrasal verb. Underline them all.

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1.	Doctor, Doctor, I can't sleep at night. > Sleep on the edge of the bed and you'll soon . . . . . . off.
2.	Why are ghosts bad at telling lies? > Because you can always . . . . . . . . through them.
3.	Why do birds in a nest always agree ? > Because they don't want to . . . . . . out.
4.	When is a deep-sea diver disappointed with his colleagues ? > When they . . . . . . him down.
5.	What training do you need to become a rubbish collector ? > None, you . . . . . . it up as you go along.
6.	Waiter, I asked you to bring my order quickly but why is the food on my plate all squashed ? > Well sir, when you ordered your food, you did tell me to . . . . . . on it.
7.	Why do taxi-drivers always go bankrupt? >Because they . . . . . . . . . . . their customers away.
8.	Wife : Did you . . . . . . the cat out, dear. Sarcastic Husband: No. Was it on fire?
9.	When are the traffic police strong? When they . . . . . . up cars with one hand.

see	put	drop
pick	hold	let
drive	fall	step