English – Summer Assignment
1) Your first task is to understand the real goal of this assignment: it is NOT a punishment, nor a moral lesson because you might not have worked
sufficiently during the school year; it is a way for you to get ready for next year because some of the skills you need to master for 5th grade are not mastered. Take it as a chance (= an opportunity) to start off next year the best way.
If you want to optimize the effectiveness of this assignment, don’t do all the tasks at the end of August. It is important that you work regularly, some hours every week.
2) British Council language test
Take the test on the following link and send me your result (through screenshot or copy-paste). https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/
This webpage has excellent vocabulary + grammar exercises and many suggestions to improve your English (audio, video, texts, etc.)
3) Reading task (+ listening + speaking + writing)
1. Read the 6 short stories (Circus Escape, Little Red Riding Hood, Much Ado About Nothing, Paul Bunyan, An American Tall Tale, The Happy Prince, The Boarded Window) on the following page.
https://www.fluentu.com/blog/english/easy-english-short-stories/
First, read the introduction (especially ‘what’s a short story’ and
‘how to use short stories to improve all 4 skills’)
Then, about every week, read one of the 6 short stories.
Make a glossary of the 10 most important words in the text (the words you did not know and you thought they were necessary for a good understanding of the story). Try not to look up for words in the dictionary when you don’t know their exact meaning, as long as you understand the whole sentence thanks to the context it is ok.
After reading, listen to the story read by an actor, first with the text, then without the text.
After reading and listening, when the glossary is finished, send me (on
Samuel.toledo@saintdominique.be ) an audiofile or a videofile where you summarise the story orally, starting with phrases like: it’s the story of… / xxx tells the story of…
Send me the glossary too and any text you wrote related the reading.
I will check my email box every two weeks in July and every week in August. I would like to follow you work during the whole summer so I will reply then. Make sure you use my corrections & comments then and not at the very end of the summer.
On the same website, there is a link to 19 other short stories. If you are super motivated, you can read some of them too and let me know about it, about which one you preferred, etc.
4) Writing task
Write 2 texts, one at the end of July, on at the end of August. In each text, write about what happened to you (+ your family, your friends and the word if you wish) during the 30 previous days and what you expect from the 30 next days. Send me these texts on my e-mail address on the above- mentioned periods. Normally you should use past tenses and future tenses in both texts.
If you have doubts about the grammar, you can check your textbook or this page https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/tenses. There are also many videos on tenses on Youtube.
5) Oral task
Basically it’s easy: you have to try to speak every day. It doesn’t have to be long (5 minutes would be great). It can be online too.
By the 15th August, you have to send me a video review on a film or on a series that you saw and liked during the summer.
Your review must mention: info on the film/show (date of release,
directors/creators, actors, country where it was made, etc.), synopsis, why you’ve chosen that film/series, the good points, the bad points, why you like it.
6) Task on a song
Learn the lyrics by heart and send me a video in which you sing the song (without reading any lyrics). It can be a cappella or in a karaoke version.
Make a PERSONAL (I insist on this point) translation of the song.
So you need to check all the words, etc.
Prepare a songfacts document with :
Artist(s), kind of music, kind of song, different instruments that were used, year or decade of release, different themes/topics in the lyrics and YOUR PERSONAL interpretation of the lyrics (i.e.
what the song lyrics mean for you and why it was written, what did the composer want to express).
Send me the document on my e-mail address.
7) British Council language test (again)
At the very end of the summer, take the test again and compare the result with the first time you made the test. Send me the final result too.
