Summer Nights is a song from the movie musical called "Grease" which is set in the 1950s in New York City. The song is a duet.

The Beatles were an incredibly popular British group beginning in the 1960s. Norwegian Wood is about a meeting between two people that only lasts one night.

Yellow Submarine is a silly song that also inspired a movie. You can find clips here.

Relationships

MP3 to listen and fill in the blanks.

Full story and other exercises are here.

What do you think of this story?

Slam Poetry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7An4hEmRHTk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnEfq5jYDto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_KKyw8V-l0

The past

Even though we learn the present tense first, when we speak, we usually are talking about the past or the future. Let's practice talking about the past more. Try these games, videos, and exercises.

Irregular past tense

More irregular past tense verbs

Past continuous

YouTube
A Quiz
Fill-In-The-Blanks
More Fill-In-The-Blanks

Baboons! Soccer! Oh my!

Listen to this story about baboons and the World Cup in South Africa and fill in the missing words. The story is from Breakingnewsenglish.com. See the link for this website on the right.

Save Adult ESOL Classes

Please sign this petition to preserve funding for ESOL classes and prioritize spending in New York City. The mayor wants to cut vital services to avoid unpopular tax increases. As the survey indicates, the proposed taxes are mostly trivial, such as taxing dry cleaning and increasing the fee for birth and death certificates.

Please tell the city to maintain or increase spending for adult literacy/esol classes for immigrants. Although all the proposed cuts would be detrimental to certain populations, the amount of money that would be saved is not proportional to the effect that such a cut would have on our students and their families. One of our students typically represents a change in life and opportunities for their entire family. Sometimes their communities.

Here's the petition.

Here's the survey.

Please forward to other NYC constituents.

Rubin Art Museum Trip

Some students had already left by the time we took this picture at the end of the night. What did you think of the museum?

Videos to Prepare to Visit the Rubin Museum

These are episodes from the BBC's Himalay series with Michael Palin.

Trailer

Nepal episode 3

Lhasa, Tibet episode 4

Gorges of the East episode 5

Bhutan episode 6

Rubin Museum & Cribbage

Here is the website for the Rubin Museum.

Please answer these questions:
1. What is the address of the museum?
2. What exhibitions will we be able to see on May 14? (There are 5.)
3. Although we will be going on a Friday, so it will be free, what is the normal admission fee for the museum?
4. What do you most want to see at the museum?

Here is the website for cribbage. By learning to do something, in this case play a card game, we learn to use English with a purpose. Read the instructions and play the game until you understand the how to play the game. We will play tomorrow in class. The rules of the game are here.

No Reservations!

We often have our most lively discussions about food in class. The Travel Channel has a show called No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain which shows Anthony experiencing the culture of different places through food and meals with local people.

Most of the students in our school come from three countries: Ecuador, Colombia, and Mexico. Let's learn about them. Watch each video and after each one, then we will discuss it.

Guayaquil, Ecuador

Cartegena, Colombia

Puebla, Mexico

See if you can find a video about food from your city or country. Post the link in the comments section.

First Computer class for Level 3

Hello class,

Today is the first class in the computer room. Find out which intelligence in you is strongest by going to this website and taking the quiz.

Then you can practice your modals.

Remember! May and might are possibility or a request for permission. Should is a suggestion or expectation. Must is an obligation or requirement.

Learning

Learning English requires time, perseverance, and practice. Everyone knows that. What else is important when you want to learn English?

This week we will be talking about learning. People prefer to learn things in different ways. For example, some people prefer to read. They can take their time and read information as fast or as slow as they want. Other people prefer to learn by doing things. Some people like to listen to music. Some people like to study with friends.

Today we will talk about multiple intelligences and jobs that people will like.
Tuesday we're going to find out how we learn best by taking a quiz online.
Wednesday we will look at the creative way people teach different students who have different learning styles.
Thursday we will talk about how we can learn English better by considering our learning styles.

Welcom to Level 3!

It was very nice to meet you yesterday and get to know you by playing the variation on Bingo.

We will be reviewing this week. We started with a review of simple present with this exercise:

Examples:
A: What do you like to do on the weekend?
B: I like to read.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A: What does Ron like to do on the weekend?
B: He likes to go to the mall.

Exercises:
1. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson? watch TV
2. Tom? play basketball
3. Sally? go to the beach
4. you and your friends? chat online
5. your grandmother? go hiking

REMEMBER!
he/she/it likes + infinitive
I/you/we/they like + infinitive

Last Class

Thank you Level 5 students!

Your perseverance and enthusiasm made the classes wonderful. It's so great to see students graduate with the confidence to speak English and how it changes them. You worked hard and practiced. I hope your new English skills will make your life easier and better. I'm also happy that you made new friends and built relationships while you were students here at Queens Community House. I hope you all keep in touch. You can always reach me through this website and don't forget about our Facebook group for Queens Community House English School.

Green Agenda Meeting and Immigration Reform Rally in Washington, D.C.

Green Agenda Meeting
This was a very active weekend for Queens Community House. We went to the meeting in the Renaissance Charter School for the Green Agenda for Jackson Heights on Saturday where we talked about 7 different topics:

• transportation, parking, & traffic
• garbage & recycling
• ?
• green jobs
• equality
• housing
• parks

I participated in a group with students Rene, Guillermo, Fabricio, teacher Bruce, and director Mary talked about equality in Jackson Heights.

Immigration Reform Rally
We also had about 70 students travel to Washington, D.C., accompanied by Anna Dioguardi, Farzana Morshed, and Adam Skarbinski to rally for immigration reform*. The weather was beautiful this weekend, which helped 200,000+ people voice their demand for their rights. President Barack Obama told us by video that he supported us. Let's make sure he doesn't forget us! Although it was wonderfully inspiring to see so many people together for such an important cause, I sincerely hope that we don't have to do it ever again because our goal of legalization and rights will have come true.

*I was there drumming with Minkwon Center, after having spent Saturday night in Fairfax, Va.

After Level 5 and other Resources

For some of you this will be your last time in the computer lab. You can always come back to this page to find more ways to improve your English and also resources about different things, even after you finish your time at Queens Community House.

Check the links on the right under "Education" and you'll find schools and classes with more advanced levels than we have here.

This week we talked about jobs and worker's rights.

You can look for a job, an apartment, and used stuff (and a lot of other things) on Craig's List.

You can find out more about the women in Made in L.A. on that website.

Worker's Rights and International Women's Day

Worker's Rights and International Women's Day are linked and today we watched a film that drew the lines between them. Made in L.A. is about 3 immigrant women who each grow in different ways while also leading a boycott against the clothing store, Forever 21.

We had a short discussion before watching the film. While watching, students were to try to understand the vocabulary words on this handout.

The movie introduces the topic of worker's rights which we will learn more about using Right to Work Understanding Immigrant Employment Rights from the New York City Human Rights Commission.

1. Listen to this news story about the Mediterranean Diet and fill in the blanks
   

   People who follow a Mediterranean diet _______________ happier in life. This is the conclusion of a new report published in the journal ‘Archives of General Psychiatry’. The study’s authors say a diet _______________ vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains and fish seems to make people less likely to develop depression. This _______________ people who live in Mediterranean countries are _______________ than other Europeans. There are fewer mental disorders in Mediterranean countries and scientists believe _______________ because of the diet. The new research supports previous studies that suggested olive _______________ depression. No Italian, Spanish or Greek meal is complete without olive oil.

   Researchers from Spain’s University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the Clinic of the University of Navarra, Pamplona asked 10,000 _______________ track of what they ate. The scientists _______________ habits and instances of depression for four years. They discovered there was a thirty per cent _______________ developing depression in people who stuck to the Mediterranean diet. The research team says _______________ why this diet reduces the likelihood of depression. They said the diet could _________________ performance and increase the body’s efficiency to produce oxygen. Both these things make the brain and heart perform better. If our mind and body are healthier, it _______________ will be happier.

2. Do this quiz about the story.
3. Practice phrasal verbs by clicking on the EFLNet.com link on the right.

Three kinds of phrasal verbs

You can find all the phrasal verbs we studied in class here.

Nonseparable Phrasal Verb Exercercises

Here are the exercises for nonseparable phrasal verbs that we worked on this week.

Phrasal Verbs and Nutrition this week

Last week we started to talk about phrasal verbs.

Phrasal verbs have two or more words, usually a verb and a preposition. Together they may mean something quite different from each word separately. For example, "look up" means "research; it does not mean look at the sky or ceiling.

The first group we learned about was separable phrasal verbs. This group needs to separate the verb from the preposition when a pronoun is used. For example, call up, call him up. When a noun is the object, it can go in the middle or after the the phrasal verb. For example, call up John or call John up.

Here's a dictionary of phrasal verbs.

We also started to talk about nutrition by speculating about some facts and playing a game.

Rhymes and pronunciation

Today we looked at rhyming words and saw how the same sounds can be spelled in a lot of different ways in English, but by using a rhyme scheme, we can guess the pronunciation of new words. Here's the rhyme scheme for Janie's Got a Gun by Aerosmith.

Janie's Got A Gun lyrics
Dum, dum, dum, honey what have you done?
Dum, dum, dum it's the sound of my gun.
Dum, dum, dum, honey what have you done?
Dum, dum, dum it's the sound

Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Her whole world's come undone
From lookin' straight at the sun
What did her daddy do?
What did he put you through?
They said when Janie was arrested
they found him underneath a train
But man, he had it comin'
Now that Janie's got a gun
she ain't never gonna be the same.

Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Her dog day's just begun
Now everybody is on the run

Tell me now it's untrue.
What did her daddy do?
He jacked a little bitty baby
The man has got to be insane
They say the spell that he was under
the lightning and the thunder
knew that someone had to stop the rain

Run away, run away from the pain yeah, yeah yeah yeah
Run away run away from the pain yeah yeah
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Run away, run away, run, run away

Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Her dog day's just begun
Now everybody is on the run

What did her daddy do?
It's Janie's last I.O.U.
She had to take him down easy
and put a bullet in his brain
She said 'cause nobody believes me.
The man was such a sleeze.
He ain't never gonna be the same.

Run away, run away from the pain yeah, yeah
yeah yeah yeah
Run away run away from the pain yeah yeah
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Run away, run away, run, run away

Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Everybody is on the run

Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Her dog day's just begun
Now everybody is on the run

Because Janie's got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Her dog day's just begun
Now everybody is on the run
Janie's got a gun

Domestic violence

This week we will be discussing domestic violence.

We will begin by talking about this video and song.

On Tuesday a representative from Safe Horizon will be coming to our class to talk to us.

On Wednesday we will be watching the movie, Precious.

health

This week we talked about health related things.
We discovered what we can do to communicate better with our doctors and about prescription and over the counter (OTC) drugs.
Now we're going to learn how we can find more information about health using the website WebMd.

We also learned when to use infinitives and gerunds and had a quiz about the first two groups.

Saturday Classes begin this week

Reminder that Saturday classes begin this week, February 20.

Students must sign up with their weekday teachers to enroll in this class.

Former students can contact Craig to enroll if they attended weekday classes between September 2009 and now.

There will be 4 levels.

Classes will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. until the end of June.

What a week! February 12-17, 2010

Friday- Lincoln's Birthday: Abraham Lincoln is on the penny and the $5 bill because he is remembered as one of the most important presidents. He faced the biggest crises in American history for the country when the southern states wanted to separate from the country and become independent in order to continue the practice of using slave labor. The American Civil War kept the country in tact.

Saturday- Lunar New Year: Celebrated in China, Korea, Mongolia, Tibet, and Vietnam, Lunar New Year is a major holiday for people from those countries. In New York City, big parades and other festivities in Flushing and Manhattan mark the beginning of the Year of the Tiger.

Sunday- St. Valentine's Day: Known for the day to show your sweetheart how much you love them with candy, flowers, balloons, and greeting cards, this holiday has an interesting history. Watch a video about it from the History Channel.

Monday-President's Day: There's some debate about this federal holiday.

Tuesday- Mardi Gras: French for "Fat Tuesday" this day is the last before the Catholic season of Lent which is similar to Ramadan in Islam. Instead of having a marking the end of the month of fasting, Catholics try to indulge in everything before the month by partying. In Latin America and some European countries Mardi Gras is known as Carnival.

Wednesday- Ash Wednesday: Christians mark the beginning of Lent with Ash Wednesday. People go to church and have ashes of burned palm leaves put on their foreheads, exactly in the same spot as Hindus wear their bindis. It signifies the cycle of life and death because the priest says, "You are made from dust and to dust you will return" as he puts the ashes on their heads.

Homework

CTC Day

Hello class,

Please try these exercises.

Kris

ESL Tower
Gerund and Infinitive Quiz
About.com quiz 1 and quiz 2

Tuesday and Snow Day

Hello class,

Sorry I was absent Tuesday but you had an excellent substitute, right? I heard that you watched this video and discussed it with Rachid.

Then we had an unexpected day off because of the snow.

Gerunds and Infinitives

Yesterday we discussed these sentences and learned the rule for when to use an infinitive and when to use gerunds. This is the rule.

The form of the verb depends on the verb that comes before it.

Gerunds and infitives and doctor's appointments

We looked at and talked about this cartoon about a doctor's appointment. Tomorrow we will role play the patient's, doctor's and woman's dialogues.
____________________________________________________________________


Sometimes we use two verbs in a sentence.

to + verb = infinitive example: I want to eat a sandwich.
verb + ~ing = gerund example: I enjoyed eating the sandwich.

You have to remember which verbs use infinitives and which verbs use gerunds.

verb + to + verb (infinitive group)	verb + verb + ~ing (gerund group)
agree decide expect hope intend know how learn need offer plan pretend promise refuse want would like	avoid can’t help consider enjoy finish get through go (fishing, shopping, swimming)* insiste on keep on look forward to postpone put off suggest think about be tired of be used to *a gerund is often used after go when the second verb refers to a sport or fun activity.

CTC Exercises

Here are some games and quizzes to help you remember money idioms.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire-type game.

Multiple Choice Flash Game

Idioms Quiz

This is the group exercise we did in class. Do you remember all the answers?

Bills, bills, bills

I hope yesterday's talk about tax filing was helpful and interesting.

The links here right include the list of places where people can have their taxes prepared for free and the ITIN application and instructions. Google "1040" for the other forms I gave you. More information about the Earned Income Credit is available on the City's website.

Don't forget we also have a free Financial Coaching Services on Wednesdays.

Today we will be discussing bill payments.

Money idioms and speed dating

Yesterday I gave everyone one page of money idioms. Today we will use it for our conversation practice.

Yesterday the 8:00 class did a variation on "speed dating" that the 6:00 class will get a chance to do today. Listen to the BreakingNewsEnglish.com article.

We will also be talking about tax filing and ITINs.

Money and Taxes

Americans value money more than most other people. We say "time is money" and praise the "almighty dollar".

We will be looking at some American idioms about money, talking about tax filing, and discussing money this week.

We will be focusing on speaking this week by talking about money.

Monday- Money Idioms, the Dollar as World Currency
Tuesday-ITIN and Tax Filing, Taxes and Government Services
Wednesday-Writing Checks, Paying Bills, and Sending Money, Banking
Thursday-Debt, Credit Cards, Credit scores, Saving Money

Whose Relative Clauses?

WHOSE

When two sentences talk about the same person, and the second sentence has a possessive form of a word in the first sentence, we can use whose to connect the two sentences.

I know the boy.
The boy's mother works at the YMCA.
I know the boy whose mother works at the YMCA.

I know the boy.
My cousin works with the boy's mother.
I know the boy whose mother my cousin works with.

The painter is Monet.
I really like the painter's work the most.
I painter's whose work I like the most is Monet.

------------------------
8:00 more practice with Relative Clauses

1) The car is old. I like my car.
The car that I like is old.
The car which I like is old.
The car I like is old.

2) Poland won the World Cup. The World Cup was in 1940.
Poland won the World Cup which was in 1940.
Poland won the World Cup that was in 1940.

3) Students studied relative clauses. Relative clauses are confusing.
Students studied relative clauses which are confusing.
Students studied relative clauses that are confusing.

4) Students studied relative clauses. The students were confused.
Students who were confused studied relative clauses.
Students that were confused studied relative clauses.

5) Banks went bankrupt. Banks made bad loans.
Banks that made bad loans went bankrupt.
Banks which made bad loans went bankrupt.

Omitting relative clauses with 'to be'

When the relative clause has the construction

relative pronoun + 'to be' + ~ing verb

or

relative pronoun + 'to be' + past participle

the relative pronoun and the 'to be' verb can be omitted.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Examples

relative pronoun + 'to be' + past participle
People that were bitten by mosquitoes should be tested for malaria.
She was wearing a dress which was covered in blue flowers.

relative pronoun+ 'to be' + ~ing verb
Anyone who is smoking will be expelled from school.
----------------------------------------------------------

Here are the sentences that we did for dictation at 6:00.

Try to decide if the relative pronouns and 'to be' verbs in the relative clause are optional or not. If they are, put parenthesis around the words which can be omitted. Number 1 has been done as an example.
1. I talked to the man (who was) standing in front of the supermarket.
2. I asked the boys that were playing tennis what the time is.
3. Have you seen the movie that tells the story of the Titanic’s maiden journey?
4. The Chinese restaurant that is near my house has great egg drop soup.
5. We chose three of the sandwiches which were on the table.
6. He was talking on the phone when someone knocked on the door.
7. I always mix up words that are spelled “ei” with words that are spelled “ie”.
8. Plants that can stand hot, dry summer grow well in this area of the country.
9. Only two of the boys wanted to work overtime were able to do it.
10. The child who is playing with the cat is my little sister.

Relative clauses Exercise 8 & Cinderella

Grammar
The worksheet that the 8:00 class got as homework and the 6:00 worked on today can be found here.

Cinderella
Here is one sample of the many variations of the traditional fairy tale, Cinderella. We will use it today to help our writing.

We will be finishing the writing that we did about Cinderella or the stories that we started on Monday. Tomorrow we will be posting some of the writing online.

Relative Clauses worksheet

Here's the worksheet that I handed out yesterday with the exercises on relative clauses as objects.

The relative pronoun is optional if it is the object of the sentence.

The chef changed the recipe that the customers said was too spicy.
The chef changed the recipe which the customers said was too spicy.
The chef changed the recipe X the customers said was too spicy.

If the relative clause has a subject that is not the relative pronoun, it is an object relative clause.

The cat that Martin saw killing the mouse is orange.

Main sentence: The cat is orange.
Relative clause: that I saw killing the mouse
Subject of the main sentence: cat
Subject of the relative clause: Martin

If the relative clause does not have a subject, then the relative pronoun is the subject of the clause.

The mechanic fixed the car that was in the accident in ten minutes.

Main sentence: The mechanic fixed the car in ten minutes.
Relative clause: that was in the accident
Subject of the main sentence: mechanic
Subject of the relative clause: that

Fairy Tales

This week will be doing something much more whimsical in addition to more work on relative clauses.

Do you know a folk story or a fairy tale? In all cultures there are stories, tales, and myths. For the first time we will be doing some longer writing. We will start by telling stories today. Tomorrow we will be watching a fairy tale that most people are familiar with, Cinderella. On Wednesday we will write either our stories or Cinderella. On Thursday we will use Word to write our stories and publish them here.

Discrimination Slide Shows by Level 5

Today we learned how to brainstorm and create slide shows using PowerPoint. Here are the presentations you made to illustrate the concept of "discrimination". Great job everyone!

6:00 class
Jorge Moreno, Maria Irma Blanco, Alajandro Sarango, and Gabriela Lopez.
Joel Ponder, Raquel Nunoz, Rosa Maria Perez, Laura Morales
Adela Rosas, Fernando Orozco, Lajanny Lara, Miriam Galarza
Sara Vallejo, Ana Tepan, Maria Palomares

8:00 class
Zebun, Miguel, Ali, Shamsudeen
Omaira, Yovany, Mario
Marcela, Josue, Modesta
Miguel, Mateo, Jaquelina
Benigno, Martha, Fredy, Fernando
Elena, Derek, Zakir

More Subjects, Slavery, and Discrimination

Hello students!

Grammar

We learned that relative clauses add at least one more subject and verb to sentences.

Slavery and Discrimination
Then we saw the slide show with pictures showing how life was segregated or divided in the American South before the Civil Rights Movement. I thought that your pre- and post-Civil Rights Movement skits were wonderful! Wasn't it interesting to be white and Black for a few minutes? I hope your reaction at see these signs, especially the one that said "White's Only No Spanish or Mexicans", reminds us that a struggle for justice and equality is one that we all should be fighting.

Today we will be watching another slide show about slavery and then we will be making one ourselves about discrimination. We will brainstorm about discrimination, find images of discrimination and create PowerPoint slide shows.

Relative Clauses Exercises and Segregation Slide show

We are doing Exercise 1 and 2 in class today.

Then we are watching this slide show and doing some role playing.

For homework the 8:00 class got this assignment.

African American History and Relative Clauses

Here are the readings from yesterday.

Slavery Timeline
The Civil War
Jim Crow
Malcolm X
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Civil Rights Movement




Relative Pronouns
Who (used with people)
Which (used with things)
That (used with people and things)
Whose
Which

Relative Clauses combine two sentences; one modifies the other just like adjectives modify nouns.

Census

In March 2010 questionnaires will be mailed out for the 2010 census.

Look at the website to find out:

• Why we have a decennial census
• How to fill out the form
• What questions are asked
• If your privacy is at risk
• When is the form due back
• The relationship between the Census Bureau and USCIS

Subordination, Slavery in the the U.S., Civil Rights Movement and MLK, Race in 2010

Grammar
Now that we know what subjects and predicates are, we will be learning about writing that will be more interesting because we will add subordinate clauses and modifying phrases.

Slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, and Race Today
This week, inspired by the observance of the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we will be exploring the history of race relations, the Civil Rights Movement, and the current state of race relations in the United States. We will specifically be discussing African American history in this country.

Some things to think about this week:
What do you know about the history of Black people in the United States?
What do you know about legalized and de facto racism in the U.S.?
What are your opinions about Black people in the U.S.?
How is the Civil Rights Movement related to other struggles in the U.S. and the rest of the world?

Here's what we will do this week:
Tuesday- Readings and presentations about slavery and the American Civil War, Jim Crow, MLK & Malcolm X
Wednesday-Theater of the Oppressed: Living in the Jim Crow South; the South After the Civil Rights Movement; Racism Today; Race 2070 100 Years Later
Thursday-Creating Powerpoint slideshows about Racism and Discrimination Around the World in the computer lab

Blog and Facebook

Today we finished our discussion about the Feminism article and then we went to to the computer lab where I showed you this blog, facebook, and gave you this crossword puzzle with computer vocabulary to work on. After you finish it, you can find the answers on the second page.



The 6:00 class got the subject and predicate worksheet to do this weekend. Here are the answers for the 8:00 class who got the same assignment yesterday.



P.S. Here is the link for the QCH English School Group on Facebook.

Subjects and Predicates, Feminism

I hope that you found our second class interesting. Post comments and questions.

GRAMMAR
We began learning about subjects and predicates. We did this worksheet in class. The 8:00 class also got this for homework. The 6:00 class can do it for optional practice if they want. I will post the answers tomorrow night.

READING
We read about feminism in this article and answered questions about it. Tomorrow we will finish discussing the article.

Hello Level 5!

Hello class!

We started our classes yesterday. This is the blog that I told you about. You can write anything to me here. Please always remember to tell me your name when you write so I know who it is. I will always write what we did that day in class. You can ask me questions about today's lesson, give me your opinion about the class, or offer suggestions.

Remember this is public and everyone can see it. Please be respectful to me and your classmates.

I hope we have a great level 5!

Kris