Mr. Alberto Quaggiotto

Week of June 11th

Grade 9A / B  French: Congratulations to all the students on the excellent work produced in their projects. This week we are focussing on different aspects of communication and specifically how context impacts a language.

Grade 10A / B  French: Congratulations to all the students on the excellent work produced in their projects. This week we are focussing on different aspects of communication and specifically how context impacts a language.

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: Congratulations on the work done this year. With the end of exams and ECAs I am no longer meeting the students, but I take this opportunity to wish you all a safe and restful summer!

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: After the exams, we continue to cover curriculum content in order to meet the requirements of the course. We are now working on the subtopic of technology, reflecting on how it impacts our lives.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: After the exams, we continue to cover curriculum content in order to meet the requirements of the course. We are now working on the subtopic of scientific innovation, reflecting on how science can impact our lives. We also look at scientific and event reports and how we can formally inform the public of something that has happened.

Week of May 28th

Grade 9A / B  French: Throughout the week, Grade 9 students have completed their end-of-year projects, which will be presented next week.

Grade 10A / B  French: This week the class has completed all their assessments and we have started our last topic looking at how the Ab Initio course develops and at the key concepts of this course.

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: This week we worked on writing and I am pleased to say that the structures and range of vocabulary have improved.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: This week we have worked on reading skills preparing for the exam. I take this chance to wish all students a productive revision and good luck on their end-of-year assessments.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: This week we have worked on reading skills preparing for the exam. I take this chance to wish all students a productive revision and good luck on their end-of-year assessments.

Week of May 21st

Grade 9A / B  French: Throughout the week, the class has worked on their projects. Draft should be completed and by the end of next week we will see the final products.

Grade 10A / B  French: Throughout the week, the class has worked on their projects. Draft should be completed and by the end of next week we will see the final products.

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: This week we worked on writing and I am pleased to say that the structures and range of vocabulary have improved.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: This week we started the work on the subtopic of media and communication. Having developed the vocabulary we will consider how media have changed and how they impact our life.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: This week, students have worked on the subtopic of artistic expression investigating what is considered art and wondering what their ideas on the topic are.

Week of May 14th

Grade 9A / B  French: This week we have started our capstone project. The students are considering the various aspects of their learning this week and how they could showcase them successfully and in a  way that would help them review in the future.

Grade 10A / B  French: An exciting week for the G10 project: started with Ms Kath working with some students on the development of their products, students have started creating amazing work. I cannot wait for the final products!

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: The skill focus of the week has been the writing of a review. Alongside this aspect, I have had individual meetings with students to see where they are at and how we can improve. The areas that turned out to need more attention are: meeting the course deadlines, completing homework on time, scheduling independent and regular revision of vocabulary and, more importantly, grammar.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: The skill focus of the week has been the writing of a review. Alongside this aspect, I have had individual meetings with students to see where they are at and how we can improve. The area that turned out to need more attention is the organisation of students' workbooks and time as to support their learning and revision.

Week of May 7th

Grade 9A / B  French: This week we have introduced the near future in French. Students have reviewed previous knowledge before moving on to see how the near future in French is formed and used. Finally, we started using the near future to make plans for after-school activities and weekends.

Grade 10A / B  French: This week we have started our capstone project. The students are considering the various aspects of their learning this week and how they could showcase them successfully and in a  way that would help them review in the future.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: During this week we have focussed on Speaking. While exploring the topic of entertainment we look at how we can achieve good grades in our speaking assessments considering the criteria, the times and the language and structures we need to master.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: During this week we have focussed on the writing of a review and on speaking skills. While exploring the topic of entertainment we look at how we can achieve good grades in our speaking and writing assessments considering the criteria, the times and the language and structures we need to master.

Week of April 30th

Grade 9A / B  French: This week we have learnt how to tell the time in French. Starting with a revision of numbers, we moved on to how to tell the time and make specific plans.

Grade 10A / B  French: This week we have introduced the near future in French. Students have reviewed previous knowledge before moving on to see how the near future in French is formed and used. Finally, we started using the near future to make plans for after-school activities and weekends.

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: Considering the upcoming assessment, this week we focussed on exam preparation.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: In this week we have looked into the topic of transport: we have learnt some vocabulary to talk about the topic in general and then we have explored some traditional modes of transport, namely the "ladder buses" of Colombia.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: During this week, we explored the subtopic of migrations. What does it mean to be a migrant, an Ex-Pat, a refugee or in exile? What are the differences and what are the life stories and experiences behind these words? What are we? How do we perceive ourselves and how are we perceived by others?

Week of April 16th

Grade 9A / B  French: This week we have focussed on what we want and can do in our area. With these two verbs, we have started to create more complex sentences (if you want, we can...), express preferences and discuss and agree on plans.

Considering the upcoming break, let me take this chance to wish you all Eid Mubarak.

Grade 10A / B  French: This week we have worked on making specific plans, being able to tell the time in French and talking about what one can and cannot do, want and do not want to do.  We focussed on the text formats and reflected upon success criteria for a writing test before completing our own writing.

Considering the upcoming break, let me take this chance to wish you all Eid Mubarak.

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: This week we have seen how a writing task could be structured and considered what we need to do to perform well.

Considering the upcoming break, let me take this chance to wish you all Eid Mubarak.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: During this week, we have moved on from the topic of celebration and we looked at the next subtopic: holidays! With Eid break in between our lessons on the topic, we have a great chance to talk about holidays in a real-life scenario both in the future (making plans) and in the past (reflecting on how our holidays went and catching up with one another).

Considering all this, let me take the chance to wish you all Eid Mubarak.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: During this week, we explored the subtopic of holidays! Working well, students managed to go through almost all the material in this week's lessons: well done to them. With Eid break in between our lessons on the topic, we have a great chance to talk about holidays in a real-life scenario both in the future (making plans) and in the past (reflecting on how our holidays went and catching up with one another). Furthermore, during the break, students are invited to research and try one technique to improve the skill they find more challenging.

Considering the upcoming break, let me take this chance to wish you all Eid Mubarak.

Week of April 10th

Grade 9A / B  French: This week we have looked at AERO standards and the students did really well in completing their evidence portfolio. We also looked at how to express things that we want to do and we focussed on accuracy of spelling, variety of vocabulary and verb conjugation.

Grade 10A / B  French: This week we have looked at AERO standards: great new evidence in everybody's portfolios! Really well done! We also worked on accuracy of spelling, variety of vocabulary and verb conjugation: we tried a translation, marked it, took time to revise and tried a second translation. How much did we improve? What has helped us the most?

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: Since G11 are allowed on the field at break time, we have postponed this week's meeting to next week.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: A lot of hard work has gone into understanding the structures of written tasks and what needs to be done to obtain high grades. Finally, we completed a challenging, exam-style piece of writing. 

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: A lot of hard work has gone into understanding the structures of written tasks and what needs to be done to obtain high grades. Finally, we completed a challenging, exam-style piece of writing. We then moved on to the next subtopic of holidays and travels.

Week of March 26th

Grade 9A / B  French: This week we have considered the verb "to go", crucial in French since it will be necessary for the formation of the future. We have continued to revise the vocabulary about places in town and we talked about directions.

Grade 10A / B  French: This week we have looked at verb conjugations to express what different people can and/or want to do. We have continued to work on vocabulary regarding places in town expanding it with new terms and infinitives to create more complex sentences.

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: In this week's meeting we have worked on correcting French texts hence focussing on accuracy and awareness of grammatical structures.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: The focus of this week has been talking about how different festivals are celebrated around the world. Grammatically, we have focussed on impersonal verbs and conjugations in first and third persons both singular and plural.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: The focus of this week has been talking about how different festivals are celebrated around the world. Grammatically, we have focussed on the passive form and on impersonal verbs and conjugations in all the persons to create more complex texts.

Week of March 19th

Grade 9A / B  French: During this week students have started navigating the topic of our neighbourhoods: what there is in a city and where things are. Lessons are also available online: this will help students to revise vocabulary during the holy month of Ramadan. 

Let me take this chance to wish you all Ramadan Kareem!

Grade 10A / B  French: During this week students have continued navigating the topic of our neighbourhoods: where things are and where we want to go over the weekend. Lessons are also available online: this will help students to revise vocabulary during the holy month of Ramadan. 

Let me take this chance to wish you all Ramadan Kareem!

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: Due to the changes in the timetable, we will continue to meet during break, possibly on Thursdays.

Let me take this chance to wish you all Ramadan Kareem!

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: Continuing in the theme of Experiences, we have started focussing on celebrations and traditions: what makes our celebrations special? Why are traditions so important? How do our traditions compare with those of other cultures? These are some of the questions that we are going to discuss in class. Feel free to talk about these points at home: knowing one's own culture is the best place to start discovering others.

Let me take this chance to wish you all Ramadan Kareem!

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: Continuing in the theme of Experiences, we have started focussing on celebrations and traditions: what makes our celebrations special? Why are traditions so important? What to they reveal about our values and our cultures? Are we part of any tradition? To which tradition(s) do we belong? Feel free to talk about these points at home: knowing one's own culture is the best place to start discovering others.

Let me take this chance to wish you all Ramadan Kareem!

Week of February 26th

Grade 9A / B  French: During this week students have sat their listening assessments on the topic of "Family and friends" and they have worked on some end-of-unit projects to showcase vocabulary and structures. Students have proved to be able to describe themselves and others.

Grade 10A / B  French: This week, to conclude the previous topic, students have worked on some end-of-unit projects to showcase vocabulary and structures. We have also expanded our knowledge of places in town and refreshed our understanding of French grammar by looking at negative sentences.

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: This week, we continued to work on reading skills: identifying information and using them to answer questions correctly or for the improvement of our productive skills.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: This week we focussed on different text types (article and speech) and considered how audience and purpose affect our text choice. Students have then worked to create their own speech reflecting upon their CAS experience.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: This week students have worked on their speaking skills and they have been challenging themselves with a mock test. They were then asked to work independently on the feedback given to see how their speaking performances can be improved.

Week of February 19th

Grade 9A / B  French: During this week students have sat their speaking and writing assessments on the topic of "Family and friends". Students have proved to be able to describe themselves and others.

Grade 10A / B  French: This week students have worked independently on the creation of a sentence builder on the topic of "My local area" and they have started learning simple sentences like "I (don't) like my city because there is...".

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: This week, due to my sick leave and conferences, we have not had lessons.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: This week students have been working independently on how experiences can change us and we started developing a revision list.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: During this week students have worked independently on the study of El coronel no tiene quien le escriba before next week's speaking.

Week of February 5th

Grade 9A / B  French: During this week we worked on revision and preparation for the upcoming assessments. Students have developed a good understanding of the unit and the ability to express ideas, provide and ask for simple information and describe people. It is important that they focus on expressing agreement and disagreement. 

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: with whom do they get along? Why? Would you agree? Why and why not?

Grade 10A / B  French: This week we have had summative assessments on all four skills and the results have been very interesting: as the year progresses, the demands from the course increase and students have demonstrated an improved vocabulary, the use of more complex grammatical structures and a better command of the language. Well done to all of them! 

Please, congratulate them on their commitment to the subject and feel free to start talking with them about their surroundings (house, city, etc.): how do they compare with the environment in which you grew up?

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: The students are starting to develop an understanding of what it is to read a text to improve their language and they are starting to look for words and expressions that can be used in their own writings.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: This week we worked on the difficult question of how our experiences change and shape who we are. Focussing on expanding our vocabulary, we looked at how people would feel after certain accomplishments and how certain events can impact us. 

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: how do they feel at the beginning of a week of school? How do they feel at the beginning of the holidays? Do they ever get bored during holidays? How will they feel when it's time to be back in school?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: During this week we have finished the analysis of El coronel no tiene quien le escriba. After the break, students will face an oral assessment that will include the reading of and the discussion about a passage of the text. In preparation, students could open the book at random points read a paragraph or two and relate them to what they learnt in the course. 

Please, feel free to discuss the book with them and debate its themes and how it depicts Latin-American cultures.

Week of January 29th

Grade 9A / B  French: During this week we worked a lot on improving the range of our expressions, we focussed on developing more balanced points of view and we have seen how to enrich our answers.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: what is the difference between a point of view and an opinion? Which traits do we appreciate in people? Which are the ones we cannot stand? Are we now able to give more developed answers than at the beginning of the unit?

Grade 10A / B  French: During this week we worked a lot on improving the range of our expressions, we focussed on developing more balanced points of view and we have seen how to enrich our answers. We have also written a letter to ourselves, will we change our minds between now and when we read the letter?

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: what is the difference between a point of view and an opinion? Which traits do we appreciate in people? Which are the ones we cannot stand? Are we now able to give more developed answers than at the beginning of the unit?

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: The rhythm is now set and on Mondays, we explore texts to identify words and expressions that we can use in our writings on Wednesdays.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: Unfortunately this week we have lost a lesson, but we have started to explore how our experiences impact the way we express ourselves. Looking at five famous characters, we started discussing which traits correspond to people and we investigated their lives to see how we could better describe them. Finally, we explicitly reflected on how people may feel after a certain accomplishment.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: who are the characters we have encountered? What kind of people are they? How would one feel after achieving an important goal? What is needed to achieve such a goal?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: During this week we have continued the work on El coronel no tiene quien le escriba and we have started to become more independent in analysing a literary work. On top of this, students have started journalling: an exercise that is useful to improve their focus, language, and self-awareness.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: what are the themes of the book so far?

Week of January 22nd

Grade 9A / B  French: This week we have checked students' progress against the AERO standards, put our listening skills to the test and discussed how we can revise more efficiently. Finally, on Wednesday, we have sat the mid-year exam focusing on reading.

Grade 10A / B  French: This week we have checked students' progress against the AERO standards, sat the mid-year exam focusing on speaking and we have looked at our books considering the progress we have made and how we can showcase it.

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: We have started our sessions on Monday and Wednesday. The reading comprehension will be tailored to the levels of individual students and on Wednesday we started our productions with writing, the skill that students are most familiar with.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: This week we have marked together the exams, we have considered what went well and what could be improved for next time.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: what is one thing that your child will do better and differently next time?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: This week we have marked together the exams, we have considered what went well and what could be improved for next time. Furthermore, students have been given agendas to write their own diary entries: it is just one page a week, and they will have to show that they have done it, but I will read it and mark it only if they want me to.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: what is one thing that your child will do better and differently next time?

Week of January 15th

Grade 9A / B  French: During exam week, we continued our learning to describe our families and family members.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: in your culture, do you have different names for relatives depending on the side of the family? How far removed is a cousin no longer a cousin? I consider my father cousin still my cousin, how would you call that in your family and culture? Do you have a term that translates "in law"? Ask your child about French culture!

Grade 10A / B  French: During exam week, we continued our learning to describe our families and family members.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: in your culture, do you have different names for relatives depending on the side of the family? How far removed is a cousin no longer a cousin? I consider my father cousin still my cousin, how would you call that in your family and culture? Do you have a term that translates "in law"? Ask your child about French culture!

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: Due to exams, we did not have any lessons.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: Due to exams, we did not have any lessons. Next week we will reflect on the results and what we can learn from them.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: Due to exams, we did not have any lessons. Next week we will reflect on the results and what we can learn from them.

Week of January 8th

Grade 9A / B  French: This week we talked about origins and where we are from. Besides learning the vocabulary and grammar needed to express where we come from, we looked at French-speaking countries, where they are in the world and why some of them are still considered francophone even though very few people actually speak the language. Finally, we discussed the concept of Third Culture Kids (TCK) and how it may apply to us: "where are you from?" might have been an easy questions for our parents or grandparents, but things are changing for newer generations, especially in an international context.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: where would you parents say that you are from? What makes you say that? How does it change for your children? How many languages are spoken by your family? How many cultures mix in your family? And in your circle of friends?

Grade 10A / B  French: This week we talked about origins and where we are from. Besides learning the vocabulary and grammar needed to express where we come from, we looked at French-speaking countries, where they are in the world and why some of them are still considered francophone even though very few people actually speak the language. Finally, we discussed the concept of Third Culture Kids (TCK) and how it may apply to us: "where are you from?" might have been an easy questions for our parents or grandparents, but things are changing for newer generations, especially in an international context.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: where would you parents say that you are from? What makes you say that? How does it change for your children? How many languages are spoken by your family? How many cultures mix in your family? And in your circle of friends?

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: This new term we will need to find a different date for our classes. I look forwards to restart the course and interact again with the students.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: This week, on the topic of routines, we exercised the four key skills: reading, listening, writing and speaking. We highlighted the importance of deducing meaning and information even if they are not explicitly present in the texts and of knowing synonyms to improve both our production and comprehension.

While working on these skills, students were invited to reflect on their own routines and how they could improve it to achieve a better work-life balance. 

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: how to you organise your day? How do you ensure that you perform at work while prioritising your loved ones?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: This week we have started working on "El Coronel no tiene quien le escriba" with a focus on the author and the context of the book (the history and weather of Colombia, "realismo mágico" and "peleas de gallos"). We then looked at the first chapter of the book discussing how it reveals the cultural background in which the story unfolds, while depicting the life of the Coronel and his wife.

Week of January 2nd

Grade 9A / B  French: This week, due to the high number of absentees, we have focused on reviewing what we have done so far. We have also started asking ourselves what we would like to do in the future and what traits are important in that line of work or life-style.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: share with your children the traits and qualities that you value in your colleagues, employees and managers; which qualities and values are crucial for you and your family?

Grade 10A / B  French: After some revision, we have started considering traits and qualities that we would like to demonstrate in the future. We have seen how being organised and resilient is important in any path of life and how the traits that we try to foster at ASB could be useful in our adult life.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: what qualities do you appreciate the most in your children? How would they like to be in the future?

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: This new term we will need to find a different date for our classes. I look forwards to restart the course and interact again with the students.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: Following from where we left before the break, we discussed conflict resolution and behaviour for learning before revising the vocabulary and structures done so far. With a focus on reading skills, we have seen how we can create good paragraphs to describe our routines.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: what approach to conflict resolution are we going to use in our classes? How realistic is the concept of "misbehaviour"?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: Considering it was not done during the break, this week we have dedicated our hours to read El coronel no tiene quien le escriba. Students are asked to complete the reading by next week.

Week of December 11th

Grade 9A / B  French: This week we have focussed on the completion of the AERO standards. Students have a portfolio where they collect evidence of their work against the standards and we check it three times in the year to foster their independence and familiarise them with self-evaluation and evidence collection. We have also worked on the physical description of people and on our writing skills, so hats off to our Grade 9 for the amount of writing they have done in few days!

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: what qualities do we appreciate in people around us? What accent we put on "brother", "father" and "mother"?

Finally, allow me to take this chance to wish you all a relaxing break time, a good end of 2022 and an even better beginning of 2023!

Grade 10A / B  French: This week we have focussed on the completion of the AERO standards. Students have a portfolio where they collect evidence of their work against the standards and we check it three times in the year to foster their independence and familiarise them with self-evaluation and evidence collection. We have also worked on the physical description of people and on our writing skills, so hats off to our Grade 9 for the amount of writing they have done in few days!

I have to say that this Grade 10 class is really a close-knit, welcoming, kind community and this week we had to say "see you soon" to a member of this group. If your daughter came home teary, you know why! We wish this student all the best for her future - she will surely be missed at ASB!

Finally, allow me to take this chance to wish you all a relaxing break time, a good end of 2022 and an even better beginning of 2023!

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: This week I had the chance to focus on one specific student and we worked on reading comprehension. The texts used for reading exercises are a great starting point to plan for our own writing and speaking!

Finally, allow me to take this chance to wish you all a relaxing break time, a good end of 2022 and an even better beginning of 2023!

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: During this last week of term, we continued working on the topic of routines and on verb conjugation. We also took the time to evaluate our behaviour for learning and our subject knowledge. After the break the course will become more challenging and a more conscientious attitude will be required by some of us, so we can start from now to think about the new expectations we will be setting for ourselves, strategies we can implement to improve our vocabulary retention and which system we can adopt to schedule our work.

Finally, allow me to take this chance to wish you all a relaxing break time, a good end of 2022 and an even better beginning of 2023!

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: In the only lesson we had this week we explicitly looked at grammatical definitions and at how knowing different categories of words can help us improve our work.

I have encouraged students to read our first book over the holidays and I hope they will enjoy it.

I would like to take this chance to wish you all a relaxing break time, a good end of 2022 and an even better beginning of 2023!

Week of December 4th

Grade 9A / B  French: This week we have finalised the assessments retakes and we have started learning how to describe the people around us both for their character and physical appearance. 

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: what qualities do we appreciate in people around us?

Grade 10A / B  French: This week we have finalised the assessments retakes and we have started learning how to describe the people around us both for their character and physical appearance. We have also started to discuss what qualities we appreciate in people around us.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: how can we describe someone else? How can we express how likes/dislikes?

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: Due to sport trials we weren't able to meet this week. I can only wish our young athletes to be selected for the teams!

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: With the assessments almost behind us and having welcomed two students to our class, we have started a new theme, new topic and new unit! We are now discussing the theme of "Experiences" and in particular our daily routines. This will enable us to learn more verbs and work on their conjugation.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: why are single words not an effective way of communicating? How do our experiences impact the way we communicate?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: This week we have concluded the assessment cycle. The results have been overall positives, but the most important lesson has been learning about the exam, its difficulties and the challenges presented by some exercises.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: which one of the four skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) they feel that needs the most work? Which type of exercise was the hardest in their reading and listenting tests?

Week of November 27th

Grade 9A / B  French: This week has seen the beginning of our new unit about the people around us. We are going to talk about our family members and friends, we will learn how to describe them and how to say whom we like and why, what are the qualities we look in people and which traits we do not appreciate. Finally, throughout the unit we hope to reflect on the impact that our words may have on ourselves and others.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: how can we speak the truth, without being offensive? Is it the same in different cultures and in different languages? How do we say "I get along well/badly with ... " in French? How do we spell the nouns for our immediate family members?

Grade 10A / B  French: This week has seen the beginning of our new unit about the people around us. We are going to talk about our family members and friends, we will learn how to describe them and how to say whom we like and why, what are the qualities we look in people and which traits we do not appreciate. Finally, throughout the unit we hope to reflect on the impact that our words may have on ourselves and others.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home: how can we speak the truth, without being offensive? Is it the same in different cultures and in different languages? How do we say "I get along well with my brother because he is kind" in French? How do we spell the nouns for our immediate family members?

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: This week we worked on general revision of what done so far in preparation for the writing assessment. It is important for students to develop accuracy as well as an understanding of the different text formats and conventions. To this end, some materials have been posted in the google classroom.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: An eventful week, full of assessments. Reading, Speaking and finally a real-life Listening assessments have been the challenges that our students have had to face. What have we learnt from it? Time management is crucial! Moving forwards, it is crucial for students to have a calendar for revision with their deadlines and upcoming events.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: An eventful week, full of assessments: Writing, Reading and Listening assessments in the exam format have been the challenges that our students have had to face. What have we learnt from it? Text formats are a fundamental piece of understanding that we must acquire (to this end, the material on google classroom will prove invaluable!), time management is also a key factor in determining our success.

As mentioned during our meetings, exam skills are as important as the knowledge of Spanish and with time we will definitely improve!

Week of November 20th

Grade 9A / B  French: It has been a true pleasure to finally meet you this week! If for any reasons we did not get a chance to meet or if you would like to discuss certain elements more in detail, please contact me via e-mail and we will a time to talk!

With the class, we have now finished the first big topic. Next week we will have retake sessions for the students who were absent during the assessments and we will move on to our next topic: family and friends.

Grade 10A / B  French: It has been a true pleasure to finally meet you this week! If for any reasons we did not get a chance to meet or if you would like to discuss certain elements more in detail, please contact me via e-mail and we will a time to talk!

With the class, we have now finished the first big topic, school. I look forwards to a productive work next week when we will start the topic of friends and family, reflecting on what are the traits that we like in those around us.

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: This week I helped the students preparing for their speaking assessment. Considering the familiarity of the vocabulary, we focussed on fluent and natural-sounding answers.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: It has been a true pleasure to finally meet you this week! If for any reasons we did not get a chance to meet or if you would like to discuss certain elements more in detail, please contact me via e-mail and we will a time to talk!

We have started official assessments on the theme of Identity - a theme is made up of various topics and in this case they include: family and friends, food and healthy lifestyle. I look forwards to a productive and fruitful work next week, when the students will face reality-like tasks for their listening, speaking and reading assessments.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: It has been a true pleasure to meet you this week! If at any point you feel the need to discuss any specific aspect, please do not hesitate to contact me. I know this feeling is reciprocated and I thank you for that.

We have finally presented our work on students' wellbeing to Mr Juan and the SLT and what a good work they have done!

I now look forwards to a productive week, completing our assessments round and focussing on the new topic.

Week of November 13th

Grade 9A / B  French: Again a week of assessments and assessment preparation.

For the listening task, students imagined they were moving to Martinique with the family and that you were letting them choose their next school. Searching the web they came across an introductory video and they had to identify and deduce information from the video to decide if it would be the right fit for them.

Writing preparation is another focus of this week and the key point here is: take it slow! Starting from the success criteria students take their time to figure out exactly what needs to be done and how to achieve it. The urge of starting to write is so engrained that we really need to make a conscious effort on this task.

Feel free to continue the conversation at home by asking what makes for a good writing!

Grade 10A / B  French: Again a week of assessments.

For the listening task, students imagined they were moving to Martinique with the family and that you were letting them choose their next school. Searching the web they came across an introductory video and they had to identify and deduce information from the video to decide if it would be the right fit for them.

Writing has yielded impressive results! They were tasked with creating a web page for the school giving various information. It is clear that all students have understood the assessment criteria and how to achieve good marks.

Once again, well done on them!

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: This week I helped the students preparing for their upcoming writing assessment. Breaking down the criteria, we tried to understand what we need to focus on to achieve good marks.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: This week we worked on the oral language, both for speaking and listening. Through various exercises we explored what makes for a good speaking, how we can engage the audience in a presentation and/or a conversation and how we can engage with different ideas.

Please feel free to continue the conversation at home: what different types of introduction are there? What should we make sure we do in a speaking assessment?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: Due to various factors, the presentation of the Wellbeing project has been postponed to next week. Students are ready and I can only wish them to impress Mr Juan and our senior management in the same way they have impressed everyone with whom they have collaborated so far.

This week we wrapped up the theme of Identities and Cultures underlining three factors which are fundamental for the exam:

1. Link the topic at hand with the bigger questions of the overarching theme.

2. Presenting a balanced point of view (evaluating one position, but also the opposite one).

3. Reflecting upon and using the work completed in the past to inform our speaking or writing.

We have settled on two titles for the literary component of the course: El coronel no tiene quien le escriba and Campos de fresas. Through these works, we will come back on the theme of Identities and Cultures in these two years, but we most certainly have just concluded the first of five big steps that will take us to the final exam.

Week of November 6th

Grade 9A / B  French: Our assessment projects have started! For the reading, the students have been asked to look at the website of a private French school and find key information like the school fees, uniforms, subjects and boarding options. Through this task, they had to demonstrate their ability to understand and deduce information, understand specific text types and interact with the information in the text.

Well done on them! It was not an easy task!

Grade 10A / B  French: Our assessment projects have started! For the reading, the students have been asked to look at the website of a private French school and find key information like the school fees, uniforms, subjects and boarding options. Through this task, they had to demonstrate their ability to understand and deduce information, understand specific text types and interact with the information in the text.

Thursday we had our speaking assessment: pretending to be heads of school, the students gave a tour of the school to pretend perspective parents answering their questions.

Well done on them! They worked really hard to do their best in both tasks!

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: This week we have reviewed what we do in our free time or after school. After this, they had their speaking test. Since this has been recorded, students will ask for the video, so that we can work on it in the future and understand how to improve even further.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: Continuing from last week, we have expanded our grammatical understanding with the use of past present and future tenses. Through repetition and reading exercises, we developed more mastery of food-related vocabulary. Finally, students are developing a more acute sense of grammatical accuracy: adjectives in Spanish must "agree" with the noun they describe and it is not second nature to do so correctly, but with time and focus, the students are improving!

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: The presentation is ready! The students have worked on everything, preparing their speeches and thinking about how to gain a good grade while making a good job when talking to our senior management. They have consulted various teachers in school (and I received positive feedbacks about our students' conduct!) and they now have a clear idea of what to do and how. Next week we will have our general rehearsals before the assignment! Wish them good luck!

Week of October 30th

Grade 9A / B  French: Our upcoming writing assessment is the creation of a page for the school website in French. This week, we met with our marketing manager,  Ms Amal to understand quality of work required. Once again we reviewed how assessments work and the importance of the evidence portfolio to show how we have met the AERO standards.

Content wise we worked on being able to tell the time and we have started to explore the vocabulary needed to describe the school uniform.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! Do they have any doubts about what is expected of them for the assessment and for the portfolio? Have they started the portfolio yet? Are the assessments' deadlines clear?

Grade 10A / B  French: This week, Mr Juan has given us a tour of the school. Pretending they were parents, the students had the chance to experience how the tour is conducted and they asked various questions taking note of Mr Juan's answers. All this work has been done to prepare students' speaking assessment, which they are taking very seriously.

We confronted our notes on Mr Juan's tour, we discussed what other assessment there will be and what is going to be expected of the students for each assessment.

Content wise we worked on being able to tell the time and we have started to explore the vocabulary needed to describe the school uniform.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! How many assessments do they have? Are the assessments' deadlines clear? What will the students have to do in the assessments?

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: Due to events linked with well-being week, we have not been able to have our Sunday class this week.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: The focus of this week has been the exploration of a written text. We have seen how understanding all of the vocabulary is not necessary to answer exam stile questions, we have worked on identifying new vocabulary and how to learn it and we have started to reason on how to exploit a reading exercise to increase the complexity and quality of our productions.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! What are five new words that they have learnt this week? How can they narrow down the key words to learn in a text?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: Our project is almost reaching completion: students have researched possible solutions and have prepared their presentations. Finally the have contacted Mr Juan to fix an appointment with him, while sharing with the counselors and Ms. Radia the English version.  

Please, feel free to continue to conversation at home! What has been the most challenging part so far? Are they ready for the presentation to Mr Juan, knowing that it will be assessed as a speaking?

Week of October 23rd

Grade 9A / B  French: With more summative assessments coming up, this week we have focused on independent learning, mastery and listening skills.

At the beginning of the week, students have been able to quickly create their own sentence builder, we then did a running dictation to work on accuracy and retention and we worked on improving our listening skills with lyricstraining.com. After this we focused on writing and quality paragraphs to prepare for our assessments.

In this process we benefitted from the support of Ms Julie, a French native speaker who will be visiting our Thursday classes during this month.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! Can they list 5 places in school? Can they show you how lyricstraining works?

Grade 10A / B  French: With more summative assessments coming up, this week we have focused on independent learning, mastery and conversation.

At the beginning of the week, students have been able to quickly create their own sentence builder and we then did a running dictation to work on accuracy and retention. Focussing on the upcoming assessments, we have looked at the questions that you parents usually ask to our admissions team. Having selected a few questions, we started preparing possible answers.

In this process we benefitted from the support of Ms Julie, a French native speaker who will be visiting our Thursday classes during this month.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! Which questions have they selected? Do they have any answer yet?

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: This week we started working on the topic of relationships. Recycling the vocabulary about family, we have started to say with whom we get along and why. Since on pomoja, students have worked on comparisons, we have tried to create more complex sentences and include "more/less... than" in our sentences,

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! What are the traits of people we get along with? What traits are important to us?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: This week we have started to learn the vocabulary about food and drinks while looking at how we can increase the complexity and variety of grammatical structures. We have started to use modal verbs to create sentences with two or more verbs and connectives to extend our texts. Finally we have looked at how we can express our own beliefs and habits talking both in the present and in the past.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! How is food related to our identity? How do we communicate what we can and cannot eat or drink?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: This week we have administered the questionnaire to G11 students and we have collected the results to identify areas for improvement in the school. We have considered what other schools have done about it and we are now moving to the final part of our presentation, where we will propose some ideas.

On top of this we have also started considering the theme of social organization and the role that law and rules play in shaping our society.

Please, feel free to continue to conversation at home! What are the main areas for improvements from the students' perspective? What have other schools and institutions done about it?

Week of October 16th

Grade 9A / B  French: Coming back from the holidays we spent the week to refocus on our objectives in languages. At the beginning of the week we looked at the AERO standards and our evidence portfolio - definitely something that will challenge students organizational skills and independence. After some revision, we worked on our first collective writing; I'm not going to say more about it, but please ask your children about the success criteria!

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! How are they doing with their evidence portfolio? Do they have a schedule for completing it?

Grade 10A / B  French: Coming back from the holidays we spent the week to refocus on our objectives in languages. At the beginning of the week we looked at the AERO standards and our evidence portfolio - some of us have made a very good start. After some revision, we worked again on a collective writing: students are developing their ability to work in groups and the quality of the results is increasing too!

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! How are they doing with their evidence portfolio? Do they have a schedule for completing it? What do they have to prepare for the upcoming assessment?

Grade 11A / B  French Ab Initio: Coming back from holidays we recycled the previous vocabulary to make comparisons and increase the complexity of our sentences. It is now clear that students have understood the method we use and their mastery is developing. Mastery is the ability on the short term to understand reproduce information and it is the first step towards proficiency (the ability to do it on the long term and spontaneously).

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! What expressions have we learnt to say "more... than", "less... than" or "as... as"?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: Coming back from the holidays we spent the week to refocus on our objectives in languages. Looking at the work they produced during the holidays we considered again the success criteria and we have begun to think about the relationship between our identity and culture and the traditional food of various countries.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! What resources can they use to develop their listening skills?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: The project on students wellbeing as officially started! The survey has gone out to all G11 students and we have started creating the presentation talking about what research tells us about students' mental wellbeing in general. I have to admit that this week I have seen students work at an unprecedented level and I even told her that it felt more like working with colleagues than guiding learners! A welcomed change!

Please, feel free to continue to conversation at home! What have been the challenges so far? What made them improve their work ethic so much?

Week of October 2nd

Grade 9A / B  French: This week we worked really hard on independent learning and students' agency! The students have been with us for more than a month and we are about to go on break. Have they learnt how to learn a language?

As usual we started the week with a new sentence builder, but rather than being told what to do, students were asked what the first steps are (meaning check, sound check, quick translations, echo, etc.) and we pointed out the importance of focusing alternatively on form and meaning. Then we moved on to sentence level and students have created their own collective narrow reading prototype while focussing once again on the writing success criteria.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! Ask them about the exercises I mentioned before. Why is it important to go back and forth between form and meaning? How are they doing with their evidence portfolio? Is there anything enjoyable they could do over the break?

Grade 10A / B  French: This week we worked really hard on independent learning and students' agency! The students have been with us for more than a month and we are about to go on break. Have they learnt how to learn a language?

As usual we started the week with a new sentence builder, but rather than being told what to do, students were asked what the first steps are (meaning check, sound check, quick translations, echo, etc.) and we pointed out the importance of focusing alternatively on form and meaning. Then we moved on to sentence level and students have created their own collective narrow reading prototype while focussing once again on the writing success criteria.

Then we took a step back. We looked at what "verbal deficit" is and how we can plan our work more effectively. The final work? Please ask them, I am not spoiling this!

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! What is verbal deficit? How does it impact us when communicating in another language? How are they doing with their evidence portfolio? Is there anything enjoyable they could do over the break?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: This week we worked really hard on independent learning and students' agency! The students have been with us for more than a month and we are about to go on break. Have they learnt how to learn a language?

We started the week with some reflection on their first summative writings and on the importance of sentence builders. We then moved on to working with a new one: first at words level and then making sentences.

We concluded the week looking at a letter about someone's family and replying talking about our own.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! How do culture and language shape one another? Do the students have a specific and clear idea of what is needed to improve their writings?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: This week we started an ambitious project. Considering the topic of mental health and how this may affect us and our studies, we have decided to involve the student council and seek their support to ask all G11 students about their wellbeing. We will gather the data and present a project to Mr Juan, Ms Radia and the Counselors to illustrate how students feel, the strengths and areas for improvement of the school. At the moment students are working on the writing of the questionnaire for G11 students and reading Spanish sources to gain a better understanding of what impacts students' mental health.

Please, feel free to continue to conversation at home! What part of the project are they working on? What are the obstacles they foresee? Can they prepare for them?

Week of September 25th

Grade 9A / B  French: Remember how last week the challenge was to create a text describing ourselves and someone else? Well, this week we have sat our first summative writing! We have also expanded our skills working on speaking, identifying mysterious objects in a box and listening to an authentic video about "la rentrée", going back to school.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! What skill have they found more challenging? Do they know a way to practise that specific skill?

Grade 10A / B  French: Building on last week's learning about what is important when writing a text, this week we have faced our first writing summative. We have also expanded our skills working on speaking confidently, identifying mysterious objects in a box and listening to an authentic video about "la rentrée", going back to school.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! What skill have they found more challenging? Do they know a way to practise that specific skill?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: This week we have enriched our vocabulary with adjectives describing our character and appearance. We have also started looking at different grammatical structures. With this in mind and having learnt last week about the writing marking criteria, this week we have sat our first summative assessment, hopefully it went well!

Please, feel free to continue to conversation at home! What skill have they found more challenging? Do they know a way to practise that specific skill?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: This week we have continued to work hard on text types and conventions. The main focus of our work has been to identify key ideas and understand how we can back up the main points of our written and oral productions.

We have also worked on a revision schedule that should help students across different subjects and hopefully help them be more on top of their work in Spanish.

Please, feel free to continue to conversation at home! How is the revision schedule working? Are they able to keep on top of their work for Spanish? Should they make any adjustment?

Week of September 18th

Grade 9A / B  French: Moving on from classroom routines, we have learnt how to introduce ourselves and someone else presenting simple information (name, age, birthday). We can now understand written texts about where people live and we can identify correct spelling and basic information. The biggest challenge of the week has been creating a text that would describe us and someone else.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! Ask them about the echo and zombie-reading, why are they useful? If you speak some French, your children should be able to tell you about their class mates.

Grade 10A / B  French: Moving on from classroom routines, we have learnt how to introduce ourselves and someone else presenting simple information (name, age, birthday). We can now understand written texts about where people live and we can identify correct spelling and basic information. We have also started to work on how to write a text: giving relevant information is surely important, but there are other factors to consider (text format, register and tone, etc.). 

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! When could they use "if you don't mind" in class? What can your children tell you about their classmates in French?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: This week we have been focussing on developing familiarity and confidence with the structures that we could use to introduce ourselves and others (giving information such as name, age, birthday, where we live, where we come from). We have looked at the marking criteria for writing and we have marked some works together. In this way students can start to develop an understanding of what is expected from them at the exam and how they can do well.

Please, feel free to continue to conversation at home! Referring to the links shared with you by the homeroom teachers you can ask them what the criteria for a writing are and how they could score well in this part of their exams.

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: The introductory period has definitely ended for our Spanish B course and our students are now working with difficult texts and are asked to present their ideas in an adequate format. The challenges started at the beginning of the week with the oral presentation about languages and identity; we saw how an oral production would be graded in the exam and how we could improve. We then moved on to the topic of subcultures with a focus on text types. The ability to recognise and recreate a particular text type is a crucial skill for the Language B course.  As discussed on Tuesday, this week's work has highlighted the necessity for students to improve their vocabulary working on more advanced texts that could also reflect Spanish-speaking cultures

Please, feel free to continue to conversation at home! What types of texts do your children usually read? Text messages, e-mails, ads, online articles? Do they read them in Spanish or in English? Could they do it in Spanish? What characteristics do these texts have?

Week of September 11th

Grade 9A / B  French: During this second week, we have learnt sentences needed for classroom exchanges. In the first half of the week we have worked on sentences like "how do you say ... in French?" and "how do you spell it?" and in the second half we have seen how we can ask for permission or help. We have used "sentence builders" to develop confidence, accuracy and fluency and as these improve, we will rely more on memory. 

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! How can we use sentence builders to create accurate sentences? What exercise of the ones we did in class made them speak the most? What is the sentence that they have repeated the most this week (besides "ça va")?

Grade 10A / B  French: During the second week, we have learnt the sentences needed for classroom exchanges. Our aim is to be able to use only French in class and we want to achieve if as soon as possible. We focussed on asking for information, permission and help with both simple and more complex sentences and in both formal and informal contexts. We have also seen how we can use online resources to find the information we need and once again, we have learnt to appreciate the importance of context.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! What exercise got them to speak the most in class? Which exercise has been the most challenging for their memory? How could they use "if you don't mind" in a variety of way depending on the context?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: In this second week, we have seen how demanding the Ab Initio course can be in terms of the volume of vocabulary and structures that we need to acquire. Self-management skills are crucial for the success of our learners and we have seen how these can be applied in organising independent learning and revision. We continued to develop the language necessary to introduce ourselves and someone else and students have faced their first "narrow reading": researching information among few texts of very similar content.

In these early days we are still developing the routines that will allow to work as one class and progress at a good pace. Rather than simply establishing a list of rules, we have looked at some aspects of language acquisition and how we need to act to support our own and our peers' learning.

Please, feel free to continue to conversation at home! Do we have a revision plan? How does it look like? Why is it important that we hear correct pronunciation? Why is repetition so important in language acquisition? What information can we give about ourselves and others in Spanish?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: During the second week we have considered the relationship between languages and identity. Watching videos on the topic, we analysed how an oral presentation should be: the message should be supported with evidence, our points should be explained giving examples and details, we should carefully consider our audience, context and purpose when structuring our speech, etc.

Please, feel free to continue to conversation at home! How much do languages contribute to our identity? If you happen to watch or hear a speech (a ted talk, the news, a radio talk, etc), how was the speaker influenced by purpose, audience and context? We all know that the news have a particular style that is different from listening to two people talking over the radio, but what are the distinctive elements of these different communications?

Week of September 4th

Grade 9A / B  French: In the first week of school introductions are in order! We used this great opportunity to know more about one another and to introduce the key concepts of the language course: audience, context, meaning, linguistic variants and purpose. These are the key elements of any communication and its success can be affected by many factors; we started exploring two: format and pronunciation. We have seen how to organise information to facilitate our learning and we have started to try out some of the activities we will use throughout the year. The repetition of correct sentences will enable us to learn accurate use of language and a focus on phonics will build a solid base and foster confidence.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! How do we communicate with one another? What strategies can we use to learn the correct pronunciation of words and build sentences?

Grade 10A / B  French: In the first week of school introductions are in order! We used this great opportunity to know more about one another and to introduce the key concepts of the language course: audience, context, meaning, linguistic variants and purpose. These are the key elements of any communication and its success can be affected by many factors; we started exploring two: format and pronunciation. We have seen how to organise information to facilitate our learning and we have started to try out some of the activities we will use throughout the year. Thanks to the students' motivation and abilities, we have even started to work on oral production.

Please, feel free to continue the conversation at home! How do we communicate with one another? What techniques can we use to learn languages more effectively? How do we introduce ourselves in French?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish Ab Initio: In the first week of school introductions are in order! We used this great opportunity to know more about one another and to introduce the key concepts of the Language Acquisition course: audience, context, meaning, linguistic variants and purpose. We applied this knowledge to our first theme: identity. The result has been a very challenging task in which students had to answer a not-so-simple question: "Who am I?". I look forwards to reading their answers on google classroom and to hear about the difficulties they experiences (both the linguistic and conceptual ones). The linguistic obstacles will be addressed and are a fantastic chance for them to know more about my pedagogy and for me to plan better the coming weeks. The conceptual challenges will further fuel our inquiry.

Please, feel free to continue to conversation at home! What defines us? What simply describes us? How do we communicate these pieces of information to others?

Grade 11A / B  Spanish B: In the first week of school introductions are in order! We used this great opportunity to know more about one another and to introduce the key concepts of the Language Acquisition course: audience, context, meaning, linguistic variants and purpose. We applied this knowledge to our first theme: identity. The result has been a very challenging task in which students had to answer the not-so-simple questions of "Who am I?", "What is my identity?" "Is it my culture?", "What is a culture?". Luckily, no exhaustive answer has yet been found, and so we continues to investigate the topic looking at how our core concepts are used in an article on the links between language and identity.

Please, feel free to continue to conversation at home! How do we communicate with one another? Isn't it fantastic that we can understand each other, different ideas and cultures? How does this shape our identity, our sense of community and belonging?