BR1-4: Egyptian Adventure

The people put their hands together and raised them in the air. Then they sank down on their knees. "They are bowing to us," said Chip. "They must think we're important." "How strange!" said Nadim. The people were not bowing down to the children. They were bowing to Floppy.

Egyptian Adventure is a book in the Oxford Reading Tree series. It is a Stage 8 book. In the story, the children have just made a model sphinx and pyramid when the magic key takes them to ancient Egypt. They become slaves for a while, and Floppy is worshipped by the Egyptians. It seems that they have some kind of legend of a yellow dog.

Oxford Reading Tree is the most popular series of books in UK primary schools. They teach us about lots of countries and periods of history.

Hunt, R. & Brychta, A. (2003). Egyptian adventure. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

(137 words)

Liverpool

In the Premier League this year, Liverpool are not doing so well. They lost their match against West Bromwich Albion yesterday, and now they are in 8th place. Many fans are very disappointed, but a good point in their season is that they have already won the Carling Cup, and they are also in the FA Cup Final. So if things go well, they may end up with two trophies at the end of the season. But next season the owners will probably demand that Liverpool ends in the Champions league positions, i.e. the top four.

Yesterday's defeat was particularly bad news because West Bromwich Albion's manager is Roy Hodgson, who was Liverpool's manager last year but was booed by Liverpool's supporters and was fired from his job.

(127 words)

The Hunt for Gold

"Gold!" he yelled. "We've found gold." He picked up a big nugget of gold and jumped up and down. Everyone ran to see…"Hooray!" shouted Luke's mother. "We have found gold at last," she said. "I thought we'd never find any."

The Hunt for Gold is in the Oxford Reading Tree series. It's a Stage 7 book. It's part of the Magic Key series. The children go back to the time of the Gold Rush (1848-1855) and look for gold. It's a fun story and it teaches us about this interesting period in American history. I recommend reading all of the Magic Key series!

Hunt, R. & Brychta, A. (2003). The hunt for gold. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

(115 words)

The Motorway

Gran told people in the village about the motorway. Everyone was upset. "We don't want a motorway here. We must stop it," they said.

The Motorway is a book in the Oxford Reading Tree series. It's a Stage 7 book. The children and Gran are playing in the fields when they find out that a motorway is planned for their village. But they are not happy about it, and they set out to stop it. Will they be successful? Read it and find out!

Hunt, R. & Brychta, A. (2003). The motorway. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

(94 words)

Premier League and Champions League…and more!

The end of the Premier League season is getting ever closer. Everyone had assumed that Manchester United were safe at the top of the table, but, after leading 4-2 against Everton, they drew 4-4 yesterday. Manchester City won, so now Manchester City is exactly 3 points behind Manchester United. Manchester United will win the championship if they win their remaining games, but one of those games is against Manchester City. If Manchester City win that game, the two teams will be level on points, but Manchester  City's goal difference is better than Manchester United's. So if Manchester City win their remaining games including the match against Manchester City, they will be champions…for the first time in many, many years.

As you probably heard, Barcelona lost their Champions league semi-final first leg against Chelsea, and then they lost their La Liga match against Real Madrid. It is unusual for Barcelona to lose two matches in succession, so many people are wondering whether they are too tired to do well in the Champions League. Anyway, we'll find out soon!

(177 words)

BR 1-1: The Sky's the Limit

"Oh, please stay," said Angela. "I don't see you a lot these days. And the children don't see you at all." "I'm sorry, Angela," said Max. But it's an important dinner. I must go."

The Sky's the Limit

I read The Sky's the Limit. It's a Heinemann Guided Reader. It's about a man called Max, who is poor but then finds a job at a company called Friendship Services International. He is ambitious and he becomes more and more distant from his friends and family.

Whitney, Norman. (1992). The sky's the limit. Oxford: Heinemann.
(91 words)

More on the Premier League and F.A. Cup

As I mentioned earlier, the FA Cup is also reaching its climax in England now. The semi-finals were held yesterday and the day before. In those semi-finals, Chelsea beat Tottenham, and Liverpool beat Everton. The matches were especially interesting because they were both local derbies (Chelsea and Tottenham are in London, and Liverpool and Everton are both in Liverpool). The final between Chelsea and Liverpool will be held at Wembley on May 5th.

As I mentioned earlier, the Champions league semi-finals are also fast approaching!

(84 words)

BR 1-1: Goldilocks and the Three Bears

"Someone has been sleeping in our beds!" said Papa Bear and Mama Bear. "And someone is still in mine!" cried Baby Bear.

I read the Scholastic version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Maybe everyone knows this story, which is originally from Tolstoy. It's about a girl who goes into the bears' house when they are out, and eats and drinks their food and drink, and sleeps in their beds. She is very rude!

Findley, Violet. (2006). Goldilocks and the three bears. New York: Scholastic.

Premier League and Champions League

These days, the Premier League is rather exciting. Although it seems fairly clear that Manchester United will win the championship, the difference between them and Manchester City is not so big now. The fight for 3rd and 4th place is also quite intense. Although now Arsenal is in 3rd place, Tottenham and Chelsea are close behind. And Chelsea appear to be in good form now, so probably it won't be decided until the last week of matches. 3rd and 4th places are very important because 3rd place means automatic qualification for the Champions League, while 4th place means qualification via playoffs.

The Champions League is also exciting this year. The semi-finals feature Chelsea against Barcelona, and Real Madrid against Bayern Munich (Munchen). Both should be exciting matches, because the opposing teams have a history of rivalry. The Chelsea semi-final is made even more interesting by the fact that Chelsea yesterday won another semi-final, the FA Cup match against Tottenham.

Hi everyone!

Welcome to the Writing 3 course! Last week, we did the Typing homework, and I hope you mastered the method of opening the Word document sent to you by Mr Tomei, pasting your typing into it, and then saving the document and attaching it to your reply to Mr Tomei.

This week, let's talk more about the syllabus. But before that, let's try Juppun ha Juubun and book reviews!

(68 words)

Football, football, and more football!

As I mentioned yesterday, there is lots of football going on all through the winter holidays in the UK, and this includes not only the Premier League but also the F.A. Cup and the Carling Cup (formerly the League Cup). I watched some soccer news on TV this morning, and I heard that the Japan Under-23 team will be playing a match on February 5th, and then two more matches soon after that

Things to do on January 17th and until the final exam

1. Work on improving movie essays
2. Recording
3. Blog stats (word count) posts
4. Check your tags (labels)
5. Adding books to Booklog
6. Typing homework
7. Book reviews
8. General blogging (increase words)

Mr Tomei is doing a special course from this week until the end of January for students who need to write more words to pass the course. If you are in this situation (fewer than 10,000 words as of today), please go to his computer classroom at 11:40 today to sign up and get details. Don't miss this opportunity to pass this year rather than taking the course again next year!

If you have a class in today's second period, please email him to tell him you want to take part.

Football during the holidays

Christmas and the New Year are big times for football in the UK. Most teams play a match on Boxing Day (December 26th), and then another 3 days later, and then another immediately after the New Year. The fatigue affects teams quite heavily, and there are many surprising results. This winter, the two leading teams in the Premier League, Manchester City and Manchester United, lost some matches. With Tottenham drawing, and Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool all getting poor results, the race is wide open. Many people think now that Manchester United's superior experience may seem them through to the championship.

Premiership race

The Premiership race is heating up. Traditionally, it is said that the team at the top of the league on New Year's Day is likely to end the season as champion. Because Manchester City lost last week, the gap is now very small, and many people say that Alex Ferguson's superior experience will allow Manchester United to overtake Manchester City. Spurs have a few key injuries, and Chelsea find it difficult to be ruthless in putting away weaker teams, and Arsenal and Liverpool are a little behind and losing games here and there.

12 dancing princesses

[117 * 2 = 134 words]

Remember that, if the number of words in your podcast script is 125 or lower, you should multiply by 2 to get the nominal word count.

Book review script

The twelve princesses in this story like to have fun. When their father finds out they've been sneaking off at night to go dancing, he's furious. But can he stop them?

     Every night, the King locked the tower door, so that the princesses couldn't sneak out. One day, the maid went to the princesses' room, and she noticed their shoes were lying in a wet pile on the floor. The shoes were worn out. When the king heard about the shoes, he was very angry. Then he had an idea. He decided that the first man to discover where his daughters went each night could marry them. Who can find the princesses' secret?


(117 words)

A sample book review

[Thanks to Kana]

Princesses are supposed to be quiet and well behaved, but the twelve princesses in this story like to have fun. When their father finds out they've been sneaking off at night to go dancing, he's furious. "Dancing is banned!" he declares. But will that stop them?

     This story is about the twelve princesses' dancing. Their father, the king, was a grumpy old man who didn't believe in having fun. He believed that princesses should be seen and not heard. The princesses strongly disagreed. Their father hated dancing, but the princesses loved it, so whenever he wasn't looking, they danced anyway. The girls slept in a tall tower with their beds side by side. Every night, the king locked the tower door, so that they couldn't sneak out. One day, the maid went to the princesses' room, and she noticed their shoes were lying in a soggy pile on the floor. The shoes were worn out. When the king heard about the shoes, he was furious. Then he had a brilliant idea. He decided that the first man to discover where his daughters went each night could marry of them. Posters went up across the land. Who can find the princesses' secret?


(205 words)

The process of writing and recording a book review

1. Read a book!
2. Write a book review and post it to your blog (Use the Books or Book reviews tag.)
3. Edit your book review to make a shorter version (preferably fewer than 100 words). Post it on your blog with the Scripts tag.)
4. Practice reading the shorter version aloud. Key points are volume, going down and then pausing at periods, and differentiating content from function words.
5. Record your short book review, using the Audioboo app.
6. Upload to Audioboo, find the recording on Audioboo, and embed it into your blog. Use the tag My podcast. If the number of words in your podcast episode is 125 or fewer, multiply by 2 to get the official word count for the post.
7. Listen to the recording! Make sure that your volume and intonation are OK.

Notice how the word count works in this process. My book review was 205 words, my script was 117 words, and my recording itself was calculated as 117 words, multiplied by 2:

205
132
234
TOTAL: 571 words for 1 book review with recording

If you work efficiently, it may be possible for you to do 2 book reviews in 1 class, which would mean about 2400 words in these Monday and Tuesday classes, in addition to Juppun ha Juubun.

Remaining Writing 4 classes

After the classes on December 19th and 20th, there will be a long break. During that time, your main job is to finish writing your two movie review essays. (The deadline to submit the first draft is January 11th. See my earlier post for details.)

The next two classes are on January 16th and 17th, and those will be the final classes of the semester. Much of that time will be spent on movie review essay corrections, so I recommend that you try to finish off your 12 book reviews before the winter holiday.

Note that the minimum number of recordings this semester is 3, but I recommend that you do more than that, because reading aloud and recording book reviews improves your intonation and pronunciation. Also, remember that the official word count for a recorded book review is double the number of words actually in the script.

At the bottom of the post with your recording, use this format for the word count. (Imagine that your script has 90 words.)

[90 * 2 = 180 words]

Club World Cup

As you may know, yesterday was the final day of the FIFA Club World Cup. I didn't have time to watch the 3rd place playoff, at 4 pm, but I did watch the final, at 7 pm. It was between Santos, the South American champions, and Barcelona, the European champions. The commentators were very excited about a matchup between Barcelona's top star, Lionel Messi, and Neymar, Santos's Brazilian forward.

In the event, both players looked really good, but Barcelona had around 73% of the possession, so Neymar had few chances on the ball. Barcelona were much stronger as a team, passing the ball around quickly and not giving the Santos players many opportunities to attack. Messi was on top form, making several long dribbles past 3 or 4 Santos players and scoring 2 goals. Xavi and Cesc Fabregas also scored a goal each, for a final score of 4–0.