Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Hello all and welcome back!

For today's lesson, I'm going to ask you all to do a written task. I can't be available this morning, but I am going to be available during our last classes on Thursday where I hope to discuss what I am asking you to do today.

We have skipped two weeks of class for three main Italian holidays:

• Easter 
• April 25th
• May 1st

These are not necessarily commonly celebrated holidays in other parts of the world. Therefore, I would like to ask each of you to write a text (200-400 words) in your learner diaries on Google Docs on one of these holidays. Here are the types of things you could write about:

• Easter: Why it's an important holiday in Italy and what the traditions are (using lots of present simple); what you did during the Easter holidays (using lots of simple past).
• April 25th and May 1st: Why are these national holidays in Italy? What do they symbolize? (using a mix of the general, factual present simple and simple past to talk about the history) or What did you do for these holidays and how is this part of Italian tradition? (again a mix of the present simple and simple past)

Please pay close attention to:

• sentence structure: Subject + Verb + Object + ...
• vocabulary (use word reference)
• verb tenses (make reference to the work we've done and to Learning Links)
• (and if you are in the classroom together, please help one another!)

I will correct your texts on Wednesday and then we can discuss them together on Thursday.

I will be online later in the day tomorrow so please don't hesitate to write me an email or make a comment to the blog if you have questions or are confused.

I look forward to reading your texts!

Sarah