Good morning, afternoon evening,

Elisa, Silvia, Michela, Michele, Federica, Marco, Manuela, Francesco, Loretto, Sara, Daniele B., Daniele L.

this is London once more!

After gliding over it, http://connecting-the-dots.com/13-blog/71-gliding-over-london.html, this is another opportunity to know something more about the capital of U.K.

What is your experience of London?

What did you like most of the city?

How many different English speakers did you have the chance to speak to? 

Do you have any special memories about any of them?

Let us know here as a comment and in class, when back with your mates.

Enjoy your English!

Federica: so good of you telling us about your son's experience in London. Plan to go there you too, maybe gliding over it. See the article on page 6, "London gliding" plus "Wow, London skyline", and of course "The Shard" on page 3 of the Archive.  Come to class ready to speak. The same invitation to have a look at the articles is for all of you reading. 

Marco: quite an enjoyable experience yours, discovering what a city is like while walking and seeing all important places to visit. I class we'll exploit it asking you questions. Be ready!

Silvia: it would be nice planning a visit to London together. In class we have expert visitors to consult. Start doing it!   

Manuela: problem solved, you exist here too! Thank you for writing. When writing, think of very simple sentences, so to avoid mistakes. Subject, verb, complement. With attention to formal correctness and accuracy in writing and speaking, your English will improve fast. In class we'll speak more widely about that.

Michele: so busy days, Michele, that you made us miss you last time. Good idea going back to London once more, after experiencing English with the group. We'll speak of all your productions in class as a team work, trying to reciporocate finding mistakes. 

Michela: good attempt your writing.An allotment is a portion of land/city/garden, to be used, either free or rented.

Eli: if you are interested in American English, read this page on the blog and leave your comment.

http://connecting-the-dots.it/13-blog/125-american-english.html

It will be a pleasure reading it!  

After reading all your comments, I think we have to stimulate and develop in class the right approach to pay great attention to any writing of yours. If you want to be sure there are no mistakes in your productions, build short sentences using subject, verb, complement. Read a lot to let your mind be engaged with English. Results will surface even when unexpected. 

We'll see in class in more details what mistakes can be avoided paying just a little more attention.

All of you, have a look at your writings  when uploaded and see if there are mistakes you can correct by yourself. I do think so. 

And be ready for next time to speak one minute of fluent English about the subject you chose, after practicing at home. Remember your mates will ask you questions.

Once more, enjoy English! 

Anna  - Coordinator

Source: Speak Up September 2018

Good morning, afternoon, evening,

we asked the students what they thought of the experience of welcoming Mediterranean cruise passengers in Livorno to practice their English.

In addition to say that the approach at school is too theorethical, they spoke about feeling free in the open air, practicing English without thinking of any marks but instead being encouraged by the context and the "coach".

The classroom is less stimulating because all of them are Italian, they said, they feel themselves judged by the teacher and classmates. Performing is just for a mark. Such a natural approach to the language makes it much more interesting..   

Sara: beautiful and very interactive experience. I didn't expect this course to be so funnny and engaging. Thanks to it we had experiences that do not happen every day.

Tommaso: useful experience because even if you believe you can't do anything, you unlock yourself and understand English by means of meeting people from all over the world; 

Matteo:  these laboratories unlocked me with the language. It's not true that I didn't know anything, I've seen I can speak. The environment is so different from the school's one. We are encouraged to speak English. If I had to recommend it to someone, I would;

Cristian: more than improving your English these labs make you want to talk. In the preparatory classrooms too this approach unlocks you and can be a method to encourage to study instead of the traditional lessons;

Maikol: a nice experience to speak English better. I enjoyed meeting new classmates. It was a pleasure meeting new ones and with them giving a new face to Livorno. 

Virginia: useful experience because I devoted myself to speak English while in my daily routine I don't;

Carolina: experience that has helped me a lot because it makes you face people from other countries and speak English. If you think you do not really know a way to make yourself understood you find it. I made myself understood while I'm not so good at speaking English;

Giada: positive experience never made before. New because I had already done a Cambridge English course but with no real contact with people. There is no enough practice in the classroom. It's necessary a real contact to understand what your level is, to compare and improve it if you want to talk to people;

Jasmine: useful experience because it has opened me to talk to people who speak English. My English has improved as well, while before I couldn't even speak. 

As teachers, or better those adults who accompany students to experience English, we thank and invite them to upload their final work, so to say directly what they think of the whole experience.

Enjoy your English

Anna - Coordinator

Source: own photos taken with all students' parents' permission. many thanks to the Chinese cruise passenger from Holland and all the others who helped and wanted to be pictured with the students. 

aaGood morning, afternoon, evening,

a few sunny hours were enough this mornig to allow Elisa, Carolina, Maikol, Mitia, Virginia, Manuel, Giada, Linda, Tommaso and Sara to deal with this new experience for all of them, meeting Mediterranean cruise passengers to share a talk and so practice English welcoming them to Livorno.

Once more an international city, to welcome people and give students the chance to acquire communication tools for their future. 

Good practice; there's no a better one to acquire English as a second Language.

With all students' families permission a few photographs were taken, showing how crowded the square was, shuttle by shuttle, passengers getting off and being offered services in Livorno, being addressed both to the Tourist Information Office and the places they were meant to go.

Acquiring English is a matter of experiencing it, and meeting people offers that unvaluable chance to know better the self due to the way time by time you cope with the experience itself.

At the beginning of the morning everything seemed difficult, then it wasn't any more, because you students are better then you think you are, but unless you try and "behave" English,  you can't have any proofs of that. 

Next time it will be the opportunity to get great advantage of this fruitful morning.

See you then while, in the meantime, I am waiting for your comments here. I will reply.

How did you cope with this experience? Did you like it? Why?

Anna - Coordinator

Source: own photos, taken with all parents' authorization

Hello everybody!

Matteo, Lorenzo, Gianmarco, Sara, Tommaso, Jasmine, Carolina, Teresa, Giada, Irene, Elisa, Alice, Mattia, Alessio, Linda, Martina, Gabriele, Virginia, Manuel, Cristian, Giulio, Guido,

this is one more in-itinere test for you as an encouragement to develop interest, collaboration, comprehension and production skills.

1. First read the questions below, so to know what you have to pay attention to, while reading the article-

2. Then read it individually

3. Form small groups so to have each one of you the possibility to express exhaustively your ideas

4. Do not hesitate to ask each other questions in order to comprehend better everyone's opinion if necessary

After appointing a coordinator for each group, make him/her speak on behalf of the whole group interviewing him/her with questions in class. 

Topic of your questions will have to be kindness in using social media.

Then reply as groups to the following questions in writing:

A. Do you ever recommend kindness in using social media?

B. What do you think of an actress as young as Millie Bobby Brown using them to ask for kindness?

C. What is the main message of the article according to you?

D. Do you use the social media?

E. How often do you use them?

F. What do you use them for?

See you in class

Enjoy your English

Anna - Coordinator

Source: Speak up May 2018

Good morning, afternoon, evening everybody,

our workshops with children intend to offer an experience to solicit their potential for attention, dedication to a task, so creating a first link with what will be an additional identity in their future, also being speakers of English.

--- B English 2! ---

It is important in this first phase of a structured approach to the language that children perceive it as a friendly reality, which in its various stages of growth, will continue to have its time and space for dedication.

The tasks assigned to the children are varied, among which coloring the English letter of their name, listening to and seeing the story of the Gingerbread Man, counting the pictures of a puzzle and saying their names in English, coloring stencils, listening to stories from Pop Up books, singing and acting nursery rhymes, replying to simple questions. . .

Once the context has been created, English must be simple to be understood naturally and so it happens. Children naturally accept communication in another language.

Performing activities is essential for the Language to be perceived as real, effective, meaningful. Focus is on understanding the message and performing the task it proposes.
.
If a positive precedent is created, the relationship acts on several levels, including those of non-awareness that remain subtended, and then surface when stimuli occur.

It is important that no discomfort is perceived, or inadequacy, but instead a pleasant relationship and fun.

Introjected the perceptions, whenever in the future children find themselves to relate to English, it will always be an outpouring of positive nuclei that can be skillfully put in relation with each other and with the interlocutors to restart activating any single moment the process of language acquisition.

Consuelo, thank you for your comment. For sure languages can open up horizons able to offer children a different destiny, always better. Lucky children, yours!

Anna - Coordinator

Source - Own photos taken with parents' permission

Good morning, afternoon, evening everybody,

on Day 3, students in groups wrote their comments about the previous experience and simulated, in writing and speaking, dialogues with tourists. First aim was communication, then formal correctness. 

The reply is group by group.

Group 1. Thank you Tommaso, Desiré, Sara, Giulia, Rubith. Questions and material aimed at the objectives of these labs are on page 1 of "IIS Vespucci Open Air Labs". If you are eager to accelerate your training before meeting English speaking people, tell the class your own ideas. It will help. You can do it here too, contributing to everybody's training.

Edoardo and Tommaso, the two coordinators. Divide your mates in small groups and encourage them to be productive and keep a record of what they do, so to came to class with their own productions. 

Examples: using the material you've been given in class, i.e. a map of Livorno with information for tourists and a guide, design new itineraries to accompany your mates outside,  role-playing tourists and guides; draw a new logo for the project's visit cards. We'll need them when meeting people. If you like the previous itineraries you can find on page 1, locate them on the map and come to class ready to talk about them.

Replying to group 1's observations, a general questionnaire is aimed at stimulating the development of perceptions and framing the new context of a class for a new teacher. An opportunity to experience how many different approaches, perceptions, levels, skills, needs there are for any individual, so to be able to give each one the possibility to feel at ease, partecipate and improve.

Group 2. Thank you Leonardo, Rachele, Edoardo, Martina.   Very simple dialogue, you'll become more and more curious about cruise passengers time by time, the same is or group one.

Group 3. Thank you Vanessa, Lorenzo, Gianni, Melissa, Matilde. You too performed a nice and simple dialogue. Start thinking how to enrich it with information from the material you have, putting yourselves "in the cruise passengers' shoes".

Group 4. Thank you Selene and Desiré. Good dialogue, You too think of the "big picture" when meeting people from  so many different countries.

When cruise passengers disembark in Livorno and stay for a day in Tuscany, so many of them want to visit cities of art such as Florence, Pisa, Lucca. Tours are included in the cruise fare, but so many of those who get off the shuttles in Piazza del Municipio need information on how to catch a train to go and visit them. Others stay in Livorno and would like to know what's worth visiting. Have a look at the itinerarties your mates designed last year on page 1 and in case create new ones.

Be interested in passengers' places of origin! States, Australia, North Europe, New Zealand, South America, India, Japan, China, English speaking people come to Livorno from all over the world via the Mediterranean  and they are very pleased to interact with students eager to know about them!

The worksheet at the left top of the page has suggestions for asking questions to cruise passengers. Change the questions as you wish and give answers as cruise passengers. Tailor it on yourselves!

So much to know, such a human and cultural experience just welcoming them in the open air!

Keep an eye on the blog, post your comments, visit the pages about the previous labs e.g. the one mentioned above. Answers will be posted. 

Enjoy your English and feel at home wherever it's spoken

Anna - Coordinator

Source: Giovanni fattori "Diego Martelli a Castiglioncello" from "I Macchiaioli" Opere e protagonisti di una rivoluzione artistica 1861/1869 - Pagliai Polistampa 2002

Good morning, afternoon, evening

Rubith, Selene, Desirée, Lizeth, Leonardo, Edoardo, Martina, Nicole, Vanessa, Lorenzo, Giulia, Tommaso, Desiré, Matilde, Melissa, Gianni, Rachele, Sara

and everybody,

on day 2, the same pairs exchanged paper boards and read aloud the answers. Inaccuracies and mistakes were occasions to improve the text with everybody's contribution. Focus was on communication and formal correctness.

1. All students are now asked to write a very brief comment about the experience and all the answers, so to practice once more written English. 

2. Two class-coordinators were appointed, Edoardo and Tommaso, to help having smooth the work of the class. Aims: to welcome cruise passengers, represent the city and the entire country, give them the information required, offer them a choice of itineraries to visit Livorno.  

 Whoever wants to post a comment is very, very welcome, either to practice the language or to let us know what they think.

Anna - Coordinator

Good morning, afternoon, evening everybody, 

1. this is a first page for Desirée, Martina, Gaia, Vanessa, Edoardo, Lorenzo, Selene, Nicole, Rubith, Rachele, Gianni, Melissa, Matilde, Tommaso, Leonardo, Lizeth, Desiré, Giulia, Sara of IIS Vespucci Livorno, the school that this year is partecipating in the first Open Air English Labs and for whoever is willing to join us and practice English. 

2. We are planning activities in class before going outside to meet Mediterranean cruise passengers and  welcome them to Livorno. Next pages will be updated to coordinate all work to be done in class by these students eager to improve their competence in English communication.

3. On day 1, after forming pairs, students answered the questionnaire shown below - worksheet one - meant as a general survey on the students' relationship with English and their knowledge of the language. On paper boards onto the walls they all could write standing. Good job. 

4. You can find below - worksheet three - possible questions by cruise passengers; we'll work together to get information from the material you will be given in class. Your own research will be very welcome.

5. Paper number two is the text of the song Vincent, that's going to be useful for one more English exercise: match the lines of the lyrics with the reproductions of Van Gogh's paintings you have had in class since day two. Number the paintings clockwise starting from the door. Acquire new vocabulary and expressions. Find out on the Internet what Loving Vincent is and tell the class.

6. On worksheet number four there are three possible itineraries designed by students of previous editions' open labs. This year we could visit all shops along the way, present them the project and ask if they like offering a discount to customers showing them a card we'll make ready in time. 

7. It means we'll have to design a logo for this year's project, print visit cards to inform about it and leave  contacts.

8. Do not hesitate to use this space to practice English. You can ask questions, write comments, propose ideas. Everything will be useful to enrich our English training and consolidate our skills in English communication. Your two teachers will reply.

9. Feel free to contribute to our labs the way you prefere with your ideas. Astonish us with your talents! 

Enjoy your English  

Anna - Coordinator

Source: our own production worksheets and Van Gogh's paintings reproductions from calendars

Good morning, afternoon, evening everybody,

just for those who come across this web site for the very first time, all the blog is an invitation to practice English in case you want to improve it, or use your Language as a speaker of English if you want to help.

We would be so glad if you partecipated! English can be an opportunity for all of us to communicate the worl over enriching our identities with one more to fell equal and willing to share and promote the same rights and opportunities.

There'll be a reply each time you write, either as a teacher or as a friend.

It was 2010 when I read The Museum of Innocence, a novel by Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Prize for Literature, a story of romantic love in a haunting novel with unexpected turns and fascinating insights.

I didn't know that a real museum was being created, aligning itself with the writing of the novel, a museum inside and outside the story. 

Little objects as memories of the beloved one, of what happened between the two lovers, Kemal and Fusun, the male protagonist's will to keep with all them, the memory of his only love.

Now part of the original museum from Istambul, after being exibited in Oslo and London, is in Milan,  until June 24th.

I'm going to visit it, since there's such a strong bond between the books you adore and anything happening around them. I might visit once the original places where the novel has been set up, by now I'm going to Milan, at Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, one visited by the protagonist in the novel.

The author's voice accompanies the visitors among the 29 showcases of the museum.

In Istambul, for those who had the book, there is no entrance ticket to pay at the museum. 

Who has read The Museum of Innocence? In any language, sure.

Here's the cover of my copy, the English translation of the novel that mesmerized me. And I'm sure the museum will do the same.

We should appreciate more artists like Orhan Pamuk, capable of conceiving ideas exceeding expectations,  devoting them the quality of their mind and time, their feelings, so much of their life. 

What do you know about him?

Have you ever visited the places mentioned in the novel?

Keep the bond tight, write and we'll reply.

Enjoy your English

Anna - Coordinator

Source: Cover of my copy of The Museum of Innocence published by Faber and Faber, England, 2009 

Good morning, afternoon, evening

Elena, Gianna, Daniele, Loretto, Simone and whoever's reading ,

after Norway, this is one more trip of one of our students, Simone, to Thailand.

These are just a few of the photos he's sending us, to show the beautiful places he's visiting.

All of you who are reading, wherever you are, can say

1. what your experience with Thailand is

2. what you know about this country

Upload your comment, we'll reply

Anna - Coordinator

Thank you Daniele for your comment. Next time with classmates we'll talk about it. See if there's anything you can change after our last class.

How mny and which other countries have you visited in addition to Norway?

Sara, you're quite good at making readers perceive tha beauty of places.you describe. Remember to chack go + to, plurals, pepositions. Take your time to talk about places too, catch the opportunity to have a class that wants to listen to you!

Source: Simone's own photos