Activities  

WRITING ACTIVITIES: 

Suggestion Box:  At your job, there is an anonymous suggestion box in which you can suggest ways for the company to improve its performance and its office culture.  Write a list of improvements that you would make and submit it to management.  You can write in the conditional, imperative, or indicative, or even interrogative.  (the more varied, the better) - constructive criticism

Email an old friend: Send an email to a friend or cousin or someone you havent seen in a long time.  Catch them up what’s going on in your life, and ask them about theirs.  Try to use all 7 sentence structures, even the negative adverbial and indicative with a tag.  

14 sentences about 1 topic (choose from 3) Choose one of them and write 14 sentences about it.  (2 of each type of 7 sentences)

Write a Movie Review / Restaurant Review Write what you have liked about the experience of seeing the movie (acting, special effects, storyline, cinematography) or eating at the restaurant (quality of food, prices, ambience, service).  Don't forget to recommend it (or not) to people, explaining your reasons why.  

Write a letter of complaint.  Imagine that you have had a terrible experience at an establishment of your choice (Restaurant, AirBnB, hotel, cleaning service, car rental, etc).  Write a complaint to the management and suggest ways to correct the service.   Perhaps you want your money back? 

Write a Cover Letter. You've seen a job posting for the job of your dreams.  What is it?  Write a cover letter to the potential employer.  

Create a character.  it can be a character based on yourself, or a completely fictional character.  Describe what this person is like physically, and some of their emotional motives.  Tell a few details of their backstory.  What kind of family did they grow up in?  What are the experiences in their life that marked them/ that make them the way they are now? Create a basic plot for the character.  Does he/she fall in love?  Does he/she go on a great adventure?  start a new job?  save the world?   

SCENARIO: You're alone in the woods.  You must survive. What do you do?  Do you try to make fire? Do you try to find your way out of the woods?  Where would you put your 

People You Should Know (PYSK).   Think of someone well-known or semi-famous whom I may not know (or who may not be known to everyone) and  prepare 5-6 sentences about them.  Why are they special/famous?  Why do some people not know them? Why should everyone know about them?  If you could meet them, what would you say? 
Longer version:  Present a roster of 10 PSYK candidates -  your "dream team" of important and influential people either: 1) in your own life, 2) to the identity of Spain, or 3) for the world at large.   It can include people throughout history (alive or dead) or just contemporary people. 

Write a short letter of recommendation for someone
if you were asked to write a review for someone, or a letter of recommendation, 

but thankfully you werent asked to seay much, just maybe 20 words, a couple sentences

about the person. 

who could you do it for, and what would you say? 

exercise is basically giving your accolades to the people in your life in short descriptions.  

Conditional Perfect Narratives

Start with one thing in the past:  If it had happened, or if it had not happened, how would the cause-effect lineage have changed?  what details in your life would have been altered? 

Create a Fictional Utopia

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?

HOW DO PEOPLE BEHAVE?

HOW IS SOCIETY STRUCTURED?

WHAT IS DIFFERENT THAN THE WORLD WE LIVE IN?

Laying down the rules

imagine you’re meeting someone for the first timei and 

laying out your personal rules.  

describe 10 do’s and 10 dont’s

Aways tell me the truth. 

Don’t stand close to me. 

Don’t yell at me.  

EMAIL AT WORK

you need the client to send you some documents.  It is 10 oclock am.  You need them by 1 oclock this afternoon.   The client seems more relaxed about it than he/she should be.   

You need to apologize for something rude you said at a meeting the other day.  

You want to ask your supervisor for some days off to take a trip.  

You want to ask your boss for a raise in person, but you wanted to give him a “primer” in email form before you do. 

You want to report harrassment or some kind of misbehavior by a coworker to HR.  

write past facts.  then relate them with connectors. 

dont try to write it in an essay form. 

just a list of the various things that happened. 

later, 

use the connector list or think of your own connectors

in order to linnk the facts and create the story.  

SFDFASDFSDAF

tell me about your best friend. 

tell me about one of your parents. 

tell me about a sibling. 

Tell me about your favorite possession. 

Tell me about your favorite place to spend summers. 

Tell me about a place you would like to visit and why. 

this past weekend
last week
Navidad
last summer

Pick an image from this random list of images from the internet
and let it inspire you to write a few questions and statements,  or one of each type of sentence.

•indicative
•indicative with question tag
•yes or no question
•Wh-word question
•imperative
•exclamation
•negative adverbial

Make  a list of activities you miss.  

Make a list of activities you are looking forward to. 

Make a list of actions you appreciate

Make a list of activities you like

Make a list of actions you are afraid of
Make a list of actions you regret

GERUND PHRASES, OR NOUNS.  

turn any remaining nouns into gerund phrases.
EX:

I miss the beach  -> I miss walking on the beach in the morning. 

I miss my cat ->  I miss playing with my cat.  

teachers - Who are the ones you remember the most?
mentors - Which people have guided you most through your life?

parents - How is your relation with them? What wisdom did they impart to you?

friends - Who are your closest friends?  Who are your friends for life?

siblings - Which of your siblings are you closest to?  Which are most important to you?

bosses - How have your bosses affected your outlook on your career and work?

children -  how has having children affected your worldview and outlook on life?

Write or Prepare something to say about why they are your favorites, what they mean to you, how they help to describe who you are and in what part of your life they were/are significant.  

Recommend (or not) a restaurant in the city.   Consider the following factors:  location, ambience, food quality/quantity, service, price, accessibility, good for families?  good for dates? etc.   Talk about your experience(s) there.  

Access these pages:  Expressions, Connectors and choose 5 expressions to use in sentences of your own creation. 
EX: "the cherry on top" - How and when could this be used metaphorically?

People You Should Know (PYSK).   Think of someone well-known or semi-famous whom I may not know (or who may not be known to everyone) and  prepare 5-6 sentences about them.  Why are they special/famous?  Why do some people not know them? Why should everyone know about them?  If you could meet them, what would you say? 
Longer version:  Present a roster of 10 PSYK candidates -  your "dream team" of important and influential people either: 1) in your own life, 2) to the identity of Spain, or 3) for the world at large.   It can include people throughout history (alive or dead) or just contemporary people. 

Write 6 sentences about a person you know.  Make the first sentence with the person's name, and the next 5 sentences using the appropriate pronouns.  

Ex.  Paula / she / her / her / hers / of hers

Paula is my girlfriend
She is a marketing manager.
I love her very much.
Her favorite sport is tennis.
The blue Honda in the parking lot is hers. 
A friend of hers is famous. 

OPTIONAL: Do this again for another person who knows the first person.  Then write a few sentences about the relation between the two people, how they interact, what they share, etc.

OPTIONAL:  Do this for a HE, SHE, WE, THEY, IT  from your life.    

Write about one of your earliest memories.   How did you feel?  How do you feel now looking back on it?   How do you wish it had been different?  Set the scene:  talk about the who/what/when/where/why of the memory.  (when the event took place, where you were, whom you were with, what you were doing, and why you were doing it.)

Choose from the following examples, or you can suggest your own:

when you learned to ride a bicycle 
a time when you got in trouble
a time when you got into a fight
a time when you got into an accident
the first time you drove a car  
your first kiss
graduating high school
first cell phone
your first job promotion
your wedding
your first child
an achievement that was rewarded

In your version of an ideal world, what would be different?   Write 10 or 20 sentences in the conditional tense, describing what you WOULD change about the world IF YOU COULD.   Your suggestions for a better world can be realistic or fantastic.  

Examples:
In an ideal world, we would have flying cars.  
In an ideal world, animals would not be mistreated at factory farms. 
I would prohibit the sale of umbrellas.
I would legalize all drugs. 

Create 3 sentences for each verb on THIS PAGE using Present, Past, and Participle. 
EX:  Take:  Take, Took, Taken
I prepare lunch in the morning and take it with me to the office.
I took my child to school this morning.
I have taken the Ave only twice.  

When did you first discover this artist or piece of art?
How is this artist or piece better than others in its genre?
How does it make you feel?
What does it inspire you to do, or to think about?
Is there anything you would change about it?
Would you recommend it to everyone, or only people of a certain taste? 

FITB gerund
FITB .... etc

FIX THE SUBJECT

FIX THE EMBEDDED QUESTION

FIX ´HACE TIEMPO´ PRESENT PERFECT STATEMENTS

Pick 5 idioms you like from the page 377 Idioms, and write five sentences using them in context. 

Choose one of the actors interviewed at this page.  Read the interview and report back with something you learned about the actor that you didn't know before.  

investigation project:  find an new English-speaking Youtuber whose videos you like and would recommend.  

sewing, fishing, FILMING

giving money

paying money

zipping lips

V (victory? peace sign?)

spok

fingers crossed

CONDITIONAL PRACTICE

two columns:  If X had happened...

match with something in the other column:  X would have happened. 

HEROES
WHO ARE YOUR HEROES?  

MAKE A LIST. 

(who do you relaly respect? who do you wish you could be more like?  Who would you love to meet? )

MINE: 

Unmesh Dinda

Clare Daly

multiple choice as a channel for ny creativity in writing and story building. 

four situations, for example, in which only one is correct for the use of “in the nick of time”

 NEGATIVE SUPERLATIVES AS EUPHEMISM

ex: I don’t have the fullest head of hair.  

speaking activity:
CORRESPONDENTs. from your areas.  i can report on Israel Gaza. 

someome else can report on soccer.  Alba maybe you knwo more about the acting world.  

last week or a couple weeks ago it was quarter finals in soccer?  

SOMETHING FUN ? IMAGES, PHOTOGRAPHS. MEMES. 

doubt is a seed. 

trust is a cliff. 

lesson to do, diy metaphors.  

metaphor FITB with your own

Love is a _______

______ship

(then they have to add the reason for the metaphor)

A ship can capsize if it is reckless.

A ship must weather many storms but a good one lasts through them.  

elegant variation:

vaccinated people

those who have recieved the shot the jab

recpients of the medicine

etc

write 3 sentences that include the subject in question , either as subject or object.  

Homework idea

INVESTIGATE: FIND a twitter acct or Facebook or instagram act where they talk about something you like and follow. 

Health and diet, or interior design e.g.

You’ll find phrases and words that you may not understand and we can discuss them in class.  (Phrases and words that wouldn’t otherwise come up in class)

write a set of questions about an enigmatic title , whether its of a News Story or a Book or a Film.  What questions does the enigmatic title inspire?