Relative Clauses

Defining Relative Clauses

1. tell us some essential information that help us understanding what the speaker is refering to.

• Ex: the papper that Raquel is using is soft (if we just say "the papper is soft" and ignore the words in bold, the other people wouldn't understand which papper we are talking about)

1. Relative clauses begin with relative pronouns:

• who (for people)
• which (for things)
• that (for people and things)

1. The relative pronoun can be the subkect or object of the clause:

• Ex1: The papper which is in Raquel's right hand is soft ( the relative pronoun is subject of the clause)
• Ex2: The papper that raquel is using is soft ( the relative pronoun is object of the clause)

1. We can often omit the relative pronoun when it's the object:

• Ex: The papper (that) we're looking at is soft

1. Defining relative clauses are not used between commas

Photos

Here are some photos of the Connecting World's Campaign and Círculo de Leitores...

me and Inês painting the head. This was done with a balloon: The balloon gave the form and plaster was attached to its surface. Then we painted it in yellow and after we painted two hypnotised eyes and a diagonal line to the mouth, which makes us understand that he his confused.

Here we have Zé Diogo and Tomás working very hard to build the frame, ahah, painting it in pink.

This is me sticking the letters of the slogan (Forget the malls) in the frame and Pedro focused in his fight with this object whoose name I don't know, but it's something that is used to draw circles, for example. This was funny

This is pretty much the final result and our technical problems hanging it! Fortunately we had Carlos's help, we didn't even know him and he was very nice to the two of us, me and Inês!

This is the entire group of readers, we are at the superior right corner (me, Inês, Tlaloc and Norman)

This was a brilliant momment. I don't remember how do we say "lingua gestual" but that's what the girl on the left was doing while the girl of the middle was reading in Portuguese. I loved it (more in the rehearsal because I saw it well). The girl on the right read in German, if i'm not wrong.

This is me reading my poem written by Eugénio de Andrade. It was brief but beautiful and was read in Portugues by me, in english by Inês, in Spanish by Tlaloc and in German by Norman.

This was a momment I really liked because I loved hearing to this boy reading, that's why I was looking so amazed, behind. He was really good!

And finally the little boy that touched every girls heart reading a well known Brasilian poem named Garota de Ipanema. He was cute!

Semana das Línguas

I would like to say a few words about these two days we had where the Semana das Línguas's activities took place. I thought it would be difficult for me to put myself into the activities because I don't have much time and I must keep the work I've been doing in the other subjects but the true is that I really liked to participate. It was an excellent oportunity to have more contact with some of my classmates and to show that we can do a lot of things together.
I enjoyed doing the Connecting World's campaign, I volunteered myself because I knew they needed help and, even knowing that I was not envolved in the project, I liked doing it. But still I would like to keep my individual work in the lessons because I get a lot more focused and I enjoy it.
About the Círculo de Leitores project I must say I loved it! The energy was perfect, the music sounded really soft and pure... And I think everybody did very well!
Now I need to replace the time I used to these activities with some of mine's, but that's ok because it worthed it! (Does worthed exists? I'm trying to say "valeu a pena").
Well, see you!

Learning Journal 8

It seems that when I came back from Christmas Holidays I was still in holidays! So my attention and focus were lost and i needed to restart. Since the group work about the city was not very good, I think I'll have to work a lot now.
We are now working in the project Conectando Mundos, in which we work with students from other countries, all with the same objective. This seems to be a very good experience, however, I think it will be very difficult to conciliate this project with the grammar exercises that we will have to do and the work of other subjects, because the tasks of Conectando Mundos seem to require a lot of dedication and time. So I think the tasks should be very well divided.
Today we started by choosing the slogan for our campaing and I was a little bit disappointed because I think that Forget the malls! it's not for sure the best slogan, but it's ok. I was more interested in the one that my group proposed: Forget advertising, read a book! because it appeals to intelligence. We should read a good book instead of reading pink magazzines or paying attention to ads. Anyway, Forget the malls! it's ok. After choosing the slogan, five coleagues went to the library to build a text that should explain and justify the slogan we choose. The others stayed in the classroom and made a vocabulary worksheet which I found not very easy to do (especially without the dictionary...) but with a lot of helpful vocabulary to the vocabulary records we need to do.

Learning Journal 7

Today we started with the Group Work Assessment. I'm very happy with my 18 and the general marks of the group. I hope we'll keep up the good work at the following tasks! After that we read Chinua Achebe's text and we analysed it. Actually I didn't analyse anything because I was speaking all the time. I need to focus, I need to pay attention to the lesson... "Otherwise I'll fall", as I said at my first message. Anyway, I'll try to be focus next time. All in all, the lesson was normal and Friday we'll have more! See you

I have a suggestion...

First, the video campaign. Then, a simple magazine. Two little things that made me think.

I am very interested in helping people, giving something to this world, being aware of what's happening out there, opening my mind (!)... so I registered myself on the Amnesty International's site. I like to go there and read some interesting things, some powerful histories...but my real wish is to do something. I want to get up, to stand up, to convince people, to try hard to make my message heard. And so I would like to make a suggestion. At 10th of December the 60 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are marked. The Amnesty gives a lot of ideas and activities for us to use at the school, in order to give importance to the Human Rights and this remarkable date. One of them was to show a movie related with that and I thought that we could see GoodBye Bafana, which is about Nelson Mandela. I bet that many people have no idea who he is and what he did and I think it was very interesting to do something like this. Probably the program is too extensive and we can't "waste" time with this things but... asking is trying. And I like to try :)

Learning Journal 6

Today we did some interesting things. The lesson started with some noise: my classmates were discussing the strikes that have been happening lately! Very good topic, I think, but not the best moment to discuss that. Some expressed theirselves, some didn't, but we will have the opportunity to debate that another day and I hope so. Then we did the Group Work Assessment. I actually didn't understand that we were supposed to deliver it last lesson, so we were one of the groups that didn't do it at the time. But we did it today and now we are curiously waiting for the teacher's assessment. Then we had some time to do some excercises about Reported Speech. My group didn't work very well today, we were always talking. I don't feel able to shut up the girls, sometimes I say things like : "come on, let's do it". But the conversation continues and I love talking, so I let myself go and I don't do the exercises. I need to avoid those situations. We corrected the worksheet and then we read an extract of the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Abebe which I found a little bit difficult, honestly. But I liked it.

Thank you for the feedback!

As soon as I can, I will make sure all the corrections are done and I'll post my texts. It seems that the Portfolio has been stopped but it's just now, during the first round of tests. Thank you for all the suggestions and the motivation you keep giving to me. I really appreciate that. :)

Learning Journal 5

Today we corrected the exercises of Amartya Sen's autobiography and Linking Words. I actually dind't like the autobiography, it was boring, I didn't like Amartya's writing. I liked a few moments at the lesson in which we gave our opinion (I actually didn't but my classmates did...) about English as being an important subject for us, for example, and i liked it. The lesson was normal, there's not much to say. I realized that maybe I'll have to make an effort in order to participate more. I usually want to but... I think I feel shy. Whatever, I'll try!

Learning Journal 4

This is the Learning Journal of the last lesson which was yesterday, 7 November.

In the begining we talked about where we would like to go in a study visit (is study visit correct? I don't think so) and i could see a lot of expectations. We would love to go to England but that is not an easy thing to organize, at all. Anyway, wherever we'll go, we'll enjoy it, I believe. Then we did an exercise which was a biography of Martin Luther King and after that we were supposed to read Amartya Sen's autobiography and answer some questions, but I forgot to print the text and the worksheets and so we did another task related with Linking Words. Despite the problem of not having the worksheets the group has worked well and followed the alternative task. In a general way I think our class is going very well and I hope we'll keep up the good work.

Finally, the sketches! (LJ 3)

I must admit: I've been wishing for today's lesson for a long time! First of all, because we worked so much on the sketch that we only wanted to do it once and for all; then because I was completely curious about the other group's sketches! I felt very happy when I saw that every group had the work done at the time and, especially, with so much interest in it.
I really enjoyed doing my sketch because, at the begining, things were not going very well. I was always saying that the idea was good but there was something missing! And then Raquel had the brilliant idea of doing, instead of only the 7 sins, the 7 sins of the XXIº Century. And that's when things started to move on! So, in the end, I felt extremely happy because everything was fine and we did a good job. I'm very proud of my group because we all worked together and we overcomed all the problems. Filipa did a very good job speaking english, as well as Monica. Me and Raquel were more confortable speaking, bue we gave our contribution by giving some good ideas and details to the sketch.
I have no words to describe how happy I am! Very different from the last year, isn't it?

P.S - I also would like to say thank you to Norman because without him we couldn't have the beggar! Thank you, thank you, thank you! :)

Arranged Marriages

The world is too big to have only one culture, at least in our times, in which man is not able (yet?) to accept the difference. So we live in a planet full of many people, many places and dominant cultures very different from one another.
That's why problems like arranged marriages come up, and I say "problem" because in my society, in my culture, it really sounds like a problem.
In the West, marriage has undergone a lot of changes along History. There were times in which arranged marriages were used for many reasons. It could be like a mechanism for someone to ascend into a higher status in society, for example. Anyway, the course of things changed. Marriage started to be much more human than a political or religious mechanism. In other words, people are now married because they love the other person, instead of being married because of political reasons or other things. And this happens because people in the West have enough freedom to do that.
I strongly believe, to sum up, that this is the right way to do things. People should have the power to decide, because in fact it's their lives that are at stake.

Learning Journal 2

Today we did a written test. I think I did well. I just need to organize the time better and, of course, next time bring the dictionary! The sketch is also doing well. Tomorrow we'll meet each other to conclude it. I personally think that the work will be very good. We'll see!

Learning Journal 1

Group Working is not beiing easy. We need to build the sketch and we try to focus on that, but we have different ideas and it's very dificult to reach an agreement. That usually sounds good, but in this case it's not exactly good because the only one who desagrees it's me! I don't have any problem in accepting the ideas of the others, but I think they feel ofended by me, because I don't say "yes" all the time. We are working with an ideia which is cool, but I still think that it could be much better. Anyway, we are working and the sketch will be good. It doesn't need to be perfect, I must understand that.
Today I was the leader and I think I did well. Here are some things that I think I should do better:

• Insist with the group to speak always in English
• Always pay attention to what people suggest
• Motivate the group to overcame their problems

This is it, about today. I will start posting Own Messages, Gammar Points and Vocabulary Records soon.

Learning Journal 0

Today we started the lesson by seeing a video campaign of the International Amnesty which I thought absolutely brilliant. It is only made of images and some sad music, there is no text (only in the last second), not even people appearing. This actually gives a tremendous power to the campaing. I'm sure you're curious, you can see it here if you want.
After discussing some main ideas about the video, we read a speech by Muhammad Yunus and I found some very good points of view that I would like to share. He says that "poverty is a threat to peace" and with so big differeces on the income distribution, in which more than a half of the world population lives on two or even less than one dollar a day, there's no "formula for peace". He also mentions the Millennium Development Goals, that seemed to be a bit forgotten because of the big BOOM of terrorism with the 9/11, and then the Iraq war. But I totaly agree when he says that "putting resources into improving the lives of the poor people is a better strategy than spending it on guns", and I hope that more people around the world thinks this way too.
Anyway, we started doing the worksheet but of course there wasn't enough time, so we are now supposed (supposed, is this correct?) to deliver our work done next Wednesday. This was more or less what we did today. Now, time to work on the sketch! Bye :)*

Intro:

I know I need to do it,
I'm just wondering how to.
(Deadlines are coming)
Too much pressure,
Too little control,
I must do something
Otherwise I'll fall.
I know I need to do it,
just don't have the idea
(Yet!)
Because my brain switched on,
ideas came,
now I'm writing,
this is like a little game.
My message starts here,
Begining my portfolio,
Everything will be written by me
As simple as it should be.
It will have many topics,
you can explore them any time,
I'll make sure
That they will be at least fine.
I'm not experient,
I'm playing with what i got,
But I'm confident enough to know
That my bottle will not stop.
Time to say goodbye,
I hope you like it.
I liked it anyway,
So see you another day.