'Morning, Afternoon, 'Evening, 

Benedetta, Ilaria, Christian, Filippo, Matteo, Robin, Vincenzo, 

this is homework for you before our next class and for whoever wants to practice their English at elementary level.

Write short sentences, subject, verb, complement, and present your best friend. When in class, your mates will ask you about him/her. Is that fine?  Use the page from the text book as a guide to reply to questions and write your text. 

There are so many songs about friendship, this one I invite you to listen to and sing is called You've Got a Friend, and connects generations  - that is you and me - as you can see looking at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHhjKQ8L_iU.

We'll sing it in class, after studying the text. I'm expecting you to come to class ready to speak and interact with your mates! See you there

Anna - Coordinator

Source: New Headway Pre Intermediate OUP 2006

Benedetta: you're doing very well at school, feeling so committed to the task of practicing English we encourage with activities. Continue working so to consolidate the language and get all the possible occasions to practice it. 

Vincenzo: English is a language you can acquire the way you did with Italian. Patience, practice, interest, motivation and commitment. You've got the right approach, continue this way, thinking a little more before writing and speaking so to avoid mistakes and build your own phrases to convey what you wish.   

Good morning, afternoon, evening,

a very important English translation of the Divine Comedy is the one by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882), an American poet, author of classics like Evangeline.

After the tragic death of his wife, who died of burns due to a domestic accident, Longfellow sought solace in translating into English Dante's masterpiece.

A significant coincidence with the painful authobiographical circumstances Luzzi speaks about in this interview.

Here you have a few questions about the article you can reply to as English practice.

1. Is Joseph Luzzi an American or Italian author and teacher?

2. The book he wrote was recently published in Italy or in the US?

3. Does he believe that Dante in the US is videly or rarely read outside of an academic context?

4. In the interview, does he say that modern or medieval Tuscan is very precise and musical?

5. Did he first discover dante or Shakespeare while in Italy?

6. Where did his illiterate uncle quoted Dante's Divina Commedia?

7. Is Dark Wood the title of one of his lectures or books?

8. What does the selva oscura refer to, in Luzzi's opinion?

9. According to Luzzi, which one between the Divine Comedy and De Vulgari Eloquentia is about landing in crisis and finding your way out? 

Liliana: thank you for your comment. So nice reading about your experience. Dante is one of the pillars we can bear on all the times we need to understand the human nature, the way only classics can let it happen. 

Also I remember illiterate elderly people capable of quoting entire passages from classic authors. Also their lives and constant advice were inspired by classics, since everybody knew about them, either they had had the chance to go to school or not. Just and wise people, our ancestors. What about us? 

See you in class,

Anna - Coordinator

Source: Speak Up, January 2016

Good morning, afternoon, evening,

this is an  easy article about a nice subject: the very well known After Eight chocolate mints.

Also the Elementary Students can reply correcting these sentences as a comment. Choose a few of them with the aim of practicing formally correct English.

First say no and what's wrong, then write what's right. Very short sentences, subject, verb, complement.

1. After Eight is the name of a famous milk chocolate.

2. It's an afternoon chocolate dessert.

3. Most British people have finished dinner by 7 o'clock.

4. In a box of After Eight you will find individual round slices of dark chocolate.

5. The ads for Efter Eight emphasize the idea of an ordinary product.

6. After Eight was invented by Nestlé in 1962.

7. Rowntree has also developed more exclusive products such as Kit Kat and Smarties.

8. Melted After Eight make a freat topping for successful cakes.

Do you know any other famous chocolates useful to practice English? Why?

Eleonora: After Eight capital letter; of the advertisements. 

See you in class

Anna . Coordinator

Source: Speak Up, January 2016

Good morning, afternoon, evening Camilla, Greg, Gabriel and families,

these are the first pages of the adventure book our young pupils are reading, from last to first page. 

As homework for all of you and whoever wants to participate, here's the beginning of a parallel story we decided to invent to see where it may lead.

Don't forget, what works with children works with adults too! Also Prof. Simon Sweeney from the University of Leeds says that. 

Then the children started their adventure story:

"Camilla, Greg and Gabriel are sitting around the table in Gabriel's kitchen.

Suddenly the clock on the wall stops; then the hands run faster than before and they break the glass to start running on the table.

"We are tired of turning, we do not want to continue!".

To start the time again they have to be replaced and ....................."

How would you continue the story? Bear in mind it is an adventure!

Adults can contribute to children's work with their ideas.

And you, children, everybody is waiting for your story to read!

We are also continuing the story with Jill and Ahmed, of course. 

See you all next week,

Anna - Coordinator

Source: Young ELI Readers Granny Fixit and the Pirates 2009

Good morning, afternoon, evening,

this is the page for the Elementary groups that we started studying in class and we didn't have time to complete.

Please for next time read it carefully and write a similar letter to someone you know, speaking about your class.

Divide your writing into paragraphs and make them correspond to Danka's letter.

It will be easier for you to be formally correct. Then read it aloud and start telling it without reading any more.

As far as we are elementary students, it's much better to follow patterns, and Danka is exactly like us, a student of English as a second language; her English is perfect.

Do the same to become familiar with the language and develop your writing skill time after time so to consolidate your competence and have the capability of reemploying it also orally. 

Ask any questions you may need and upload your letter as a comment.

We will reply.

See you in class to continue working together

Anna - Coordinator

Source: Headway Elementary - Digital - OUP 2010

These days I'm going around with copies of the "Squirrel" mentioned below, in my car, in case there's someone who wants to support our NPO and its projects, offering the book as a present to a friend or anyone else.

Anna

Massimiliano: very good job! in a class, singular; thirty students; they are all Italian; I live with my wife in Cecina.

Francesca: very good email! English and all nationalities need capital letter; at UP, no article; psychologist then punctuation; safety, I, subject pronoun, always capital letter. 

Gianluca: very nice letter! Nationalities with capital letter; at Università Popolare, capital letters, no translation; Silvana is a ...Safety technician; Francesca has a cat, his/its name's; remember punctuation, including commas.

Annapia: my suggestion to everybody is to follow a pattern, i.e. Danka's letter above, for an English-style writing. You can adapt the pattern to your situation.

Christmas holidays plural, they pronoun, aren't going well.  

Rest/stay calm, live peacefully; is this fine to express your ideas?

It won't last forever. These ideas are too difficult at our level, use present simple and focus on formal correctness and accuracy.

I can't understand this last line, I present etc. The tense should be present continuous, we haven't studied it yet. 

Soon, adverb, not son noun; greeting etc is a translation from Italian, but it is not English. Have a look at Danka's letter again. 

When speaking and writing at elementary level, you should be like English people at that level. Use your elementary English studied so far to be like them. 

Fabio: I'm writing, present continuous, a tense we haven't studied yet. Danka writes, here  is an email etc; because; my English isn't enough, refers to quantity; you can say my English isn't good enough, referring to quality; she's very nice and a very good teacher, using the indefinite article for countable nouns; small; greeting dear embrace, have a look at what I wrote to Annapia; use simple English expression to close an informal email.

Silvana: UP no article; he is plus indefinite article for a countable noun; after exciting, punctuation; some restaurants are expensive; walking.  Good job!

Pina: very well done! Continue, choosing another page on the blog and writing other comments!

Nicola: very nice email! Except for a few/very few; he works for a computer company that makes...; Cecina is a small town. 

Annapia: I heard you are not feeling well; your daughter will care well; I will tell the teacher and the class about you. Best wishes to recover soon to Maria Grazia then, by all of us!

Vincenzo: you've done a very great job, Vincenzo, the same you're doing in class. Continue practicing, paying attention to any single detail, and I'm sure you won't have problems any more with your English very soon! 

Do not forget, nationalities need capital letter, then Italian; she is no apostrophe, or contracted, she's; because I am not very good at.... speaking, performing, English, or my English isn't very good. I wouldn't say that, continue choosing another page and upload your comment replying to the questions.

See you in class!

Anna

Good morning, afternoon, evening,

this is a page for those students who have to prepare the First, the level B2 examination developed by Cambridge English Language Assessment, part of the University of Cambridge. 

To spend on targeted purposes the time between classes, we selected a page from the teachers' handbook to practice writing. 

The assessment scales consist of four subscales, namely

Content, how well the candidate has fulfilled the task;

Communicative Achievement, how appropriate the writing is for the task and whether the candidate has used the appropriate register;

Organization, the way the candidate puts together the piece of writing, that is to say if it is logical and ordered;

and Language, vocabulary and grammar. 

Write your essay and answers here as a comment to let us read them before our next meeting.

When in class, we'll compare your written productions with the ones in the handbook, reading the examiners' comments.

There is also an article from Speak Up, the magazine for students of English we hope can meet your interest.

This is written comprehension, reading, before listening to the English speaker in class reading it. We'll talk about the main points.

See you in class then,

Anna - Coordinator

Source: Cambridge English Language Assessment, First, Handbook for Teachers

Speak up, November 2015

Eleonora wrote what she was asked for a pre-intermediate test:

Test A.

1. When specifying something you need the definite article

2. Write short sentences with subject, verb, complement, then start a new sentence.

3. When connecting sentences with linking words, e.g. but, keep in your mind the coherence of your text.

I met, past simple, but I didn't know her yet?

4. Giving simple information: she was in ih the third year at university

5. Our friendship

Test B.

1. On plus date. Why choosing last?

2. The professors Definite article here, those ones not in general.

3. In which .... go plus to, believe plus object.

See you in class,

Anna

Good morning, afternoon, evening,

this is English practice for everybody, including beginner students, making buiscuits too.

It is a page for families, children and adults to have fun together.

Never forget that what works with children works with adults too!

First: if you do not know the story of the Gingerbread Man, find it on the Internet and listen to it watching the videos. There are American and British versions. Then remember it.

Second: write it down as a comment using only present simple, subject, verb, complement, and come to class ready to say it with your mates.

Third: read the recipe to make a Gingerbread Man.

Fourth: make your Gingerbread Man very expressive the size you like, deciding the best position of its head, arms, hands, legs, feet.

In class we'll paint it with chocolate, according to each one's fantasy, and the best buiscuit will win a prize. 

We will decide together when coming to class with all our buiscuits. We will take a photo of all of them, when painted.

Have a look also at page 3 article number 8 about chocolate, a very interesting subject.

See you in class, enjoy your English!

Anna - Coordinator

Source: The Gingerbread Man, Windmill Readers, Raffaello Editrice, 2000

Eleonora: information singular, an old woman prepared, her husband, when she baked it object pronoun, the gingerbread man (it subject pronoun), jumped.  

As you can see from these photographs, everybody, children and adults, enjoyed themselves painting the Gingerbread Men with chocolate and eating them.

In the class for adults, two painters are decorating the biscuits, while in the one with children, Gabriele and Camilla, both nine, are  doing an excellent work with the well shaped, little biscuits baked by Camilla's mother.

Thank you all for your contribution and never forget that the more you behave a language, the more real it is and becomes yours, one more identity to be added to the one/s you already have.

Annapia: finally you did it!

Francesco: is it? 

See you in class, Anna

Shop now: thank you, unfortunately we can't meet in class, you could be helpful. Anna

Good morning, afternoon, evening,  

this is a new page for all the students who are coming to class next week. 

Have you ever thought to resemble some wild animals?

Is there a wild animal whose characteristics you like for any special reason? 

Here there are a few exercises for you to do, replying as a comment, paying great attention to formal correctness and accuracy:

Which animal

1 is very clean?

2 likes people who give it food? 

3 likes to look good?

4 doesn't live in Britain now?

5 likes to live in a big group?

6 can't remember where its food is?

Continuing talking about the animals in the article,

1 Which of their features are positive and which are negative?

2 Which lifestyle attracts you most? Why?

3 Talk about your family and your friends. Which animal are they like?

Compare this page with the one about "Wolves and a richer life", going to page 4, article 11.

Let's talk about all possible wild animals your mates resemble according to you, see you in class

Anna - Coordinator

Source: CULT 1 DeA Scuola 2015

Vincenzo: so unexpected finding out what animal you think you resemble. I will better ask you in class. 

I subject, capital letter. Correct short answer, Yes I have. Before a vowel the article a becomes an. Because it has, it is the pronoun for animals, unless they are domestic animal. In this case, if you think you are like an elephant, the pronoun could exceptionally be he. The Owl has a good  eyesight. Britain capital letter. But it did in the 1800s. The wolf likes living in a big group (in this case the group is called pack). The fox lifestyle  attracts me because it lives in small families.

Vincenzo, I dare say you worked quite well, thinking a lot, and writing very interesting comments. Continue your job. The more you practice choosing what you like doing,  the better your writing and speaking skills will be. 

The animal inside: thank you for this very interesting comment! I read the book many years ago. Plural of woman is women, who read, found. Punctuation helps the reader, after woman, period. She has the same character as, third person simple present with s, Jungian analyst, how women period. In "Women who etc" since it is the title of a book. 

Anna 

Good morning, afternoon, evening,

archaeology is within us as a great resource to explore.

If we don't know what happened before us we can't know what we are.

Food too is included, we are what we eat, aren't we?

The more we know about food, the more we know about ourselves.

What is your favourite dish?

How often do you have guests at home to share meals with?

What is a successful menu of yours?

This book - we translated - is about Romans' empire, civilization, culture, society and cookery.

Interesting texts, beautiful pictures, delicious recipes, elegant design. 

Be curious, find it on the Internet and study it, then offer your guests unusual recipes.

The two ones you find here and you can try are a possibility to create a connection between you and a people who influenced also British developement. So many remains are in the language too. 

Can you think of Latin in the English language?

How many samples do you know? 

Why don't you write them down here with your comment?

Thank you for contributing to our "language excavations" in addition to the gastronomic ones you can read about on the book.

See you in class, enjoy your English

Anna - Coordinator

Source: Taste Archaeology, Pacini Editore, Pisa, 2015, a project to support the renovation of the Archaeological Museum Palazzo Bombardieri, Rosignano Marittimo, Italy

Thank you Giuseppe for your contribution, we are going to invite a few more students to partecipate in giving the answers. We'll see what happens.

Good morning, afternoon, evening, 

do you have any special eating habits?

What is the role played by food in your life?

What do you love eating?

What is the role of food in a healthy lifestyle, according to you? 

What type of food should you eat? 

Have a look at these two pages and reply to the questions as a comment. 

We will talk about that in class; after reading write down notes, come ready to talk and ask questions. Pay great attention to formal correctness.

Anna - Coordinator

Source Cult DeA Scuola 2015  

Hello to everybody, 

this is the third stage of our work on the website. Replying after your comments. Please consider that what is said referring to a comment and that is in common with others, is not going to be repeated, so to encourage you to read all comments and take advantage of your mates' writings. 

Emiliano:  check singular and plural, tenses, think English and simplify your writing. Be concise and direct, aiming at formal correctness with just subject, verb and complement. Check prepositions. Adjectives before nouns in correct order.

Nicola: would you correct...when speaking in general, no article before nouns. Types of food... in a balanced diet, countable noun; first subject pronoun, capital letter, I. 

Maria Luisa: please write down a little more. 

Fernanda: prepositions, pay attention to..., comparative with short adjectives adding er, easier, playing a role in, better no possessive adjectives when speaking in general.

Paola: of all foods; when referring to daily habits, the tense is present simple; use punctuation and start frequentely new srentences; Orange jam is marmelade in English; you eat bread and drink milk, you have both; Before singular countable nouns,indefinite article; food is an opportunity, creates the opportunity, gives you the ...; position of adverbs, I especially like...; role in a healthy lifestyle; in my opinion is quite formal, I think is more informal; check orthofraphy.

Sergio: possessive adjectives are very common in English when speaking about ourselves, my family;       like plus ing form; without exceeding; rich in; animal protein, when nouns have the role of adjectives are singular. 

Claudia:  In Italy lunch time is also the occasion; Mediterranean capital letter.

Lucia:  great! 

Giuliano: answer 2, check the subject.

Francesco: pay attention to prepositions and tenses.

Emiliano: I subject pronoun, capital letter; choose between for and two, not together; English and all nationalities capital letter; movie, no double o; it is, subject needed if referring to English Extra, otherwise other subject; four guys, plural, no s with the verb; together spelling mistake; short is an adjective, no s for plural; actors plural subject no s with the verb; easy is an adjective, easily is the adverb; funny's? Thank you spelling mistake.   

Vincenzo: 1. I subject pronoun, capital letter; a, singular, with habit, singular. 2. I drink much water; 4. eating many. 

After reading Francesco's comment, what do you think of the role each one can play to resolve the planet's problems?  

Thank you all for contributing with your very useful comments.

Come to class next time ready to tell us quite briefly about fish & chips.

Choose a page you like on the blog among the so many there are, and start preparing a very short speech, 60 '' to present it and say your own ideas.   

See you in class, Anna