What changed since Lesson 1
In Lesson 1 you described a five-minute walk with no preparation. Say, in one sentence, what you would do differently today.
One question before the assessment.
1. The A2 can-do for this unit is: describe where you live, give simple directions, and say what you can and can't do there. Which part are you least sure of?
A hundred words, written
Model — 98 words
I live on a short street about ten minutes from the station. There is a bakery on the corner and, two doors down on the same side, a launderette. Opposite them there is a small park with a playground.
At the end of the road there is a chemist, and the bus stop outside it is for the 42, which goes to the station in fifteen minutes. There are three or four shops on the main road.
You can walk almost everywhere. You cannot park during the day without a permit, and there is nowhere safe to cycle.
Compare this with Rui's spoken tour in Lesson 7.
1. What happened to Right, so I am starting at my front door?
2. What happened to the joins — Out of the door and left, Then take the first right?
3. The last paragraph is two sentences of can and cannot. Why keep that?
Spoken tour → written description
What changes
| Spoken tour | Written description | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Right, so I am starting at… | I live on… | No walk to start |
| Out of the door and left… | — (cut) | Layout, not sequence |
| and… and… and… | and · but · which | Written English varies its joins |
| you know, sort of, about | — (cut) | Fillers go |
| It is a loop, I finish back here. | — (cut) | Only a walk can loop |
| There is a chemist. It has a bus stop. | There is a chemist, and the bus stop outside it is for the 42. | Sentences combine |
Match each spoken feature to what happens to it in a 100-word written description.
A hundred words is about seven sentences. You cannot fit your whole neighbourhood, so choosing what to leave out is part of what is assessed.
Count as you write. Ninety to a hundred and ten is inside the target.
The two pieces
Task card · Assessment · Portfolio
A hundred written words about your neighbourhood. Then a spoken tour of someone else's, from three photographs.
The written piece plus the Lesson 7 voice note go in your portfolio. The photo task is assessed live and is deliberately unprepared.
- Part 1 (12 min). Write 90–110 words. Written register: no joins, no fillers, sentences combined. At least four there is/are and two can/can't.
- Part 2 (8 min). Your partner hands you three photographs of their neighbourhood. Describe what you see, guess what kind of place it is, and ask them four questions to fill the gaps.
- Then (2 min). Count your words and write the number at the bottom.
Before you hand it over, proofread. These are the five errors this unit has been about — check for each in your own text, then fix these.
1. In my street have three shops.
2. There is two cafés on the square.
3. You can to walk to the station.
4. My flat is in front of the park, across the road.
5. There are a lot of traffic in the morning.
Against the can-do statements
A2 can-do — CEFR 2020 Companion Volume, adapted
| I can… | Not yet | With effort | Comfortably |
|---|---|---|---|
| describe what exists in my neighbourhood | □ | □ | □ |
| give directions a stranger could follow | □ | □ | □ |
| say what people can and cannot do here | □ | □ | □ |
| use prepositions of place precisely enough to be drawn | □ | □ | □ |
| write 100 words in written rather than spoken register | □ | □ | □ |
Mark yourself, then compare with your teacher. The rows where you disagree are the interesting ones.
1. Directions a stranger could follow —
2. Prepositions precise enough to be drawn —
3. The photo task, with no preparation — how did it compare with your own tour?
Into the portfolio. Two files: the Lesson 7 voice note (take two) and the 100-word text. Label them Unit 2 and date them.
Term 1 ends after Unit 4, with a five-minute speaking interview. Units 1 and 2 are two of the three written pieces that go into it.
Into Unit 3
Eight lessons, four rules. Match each to the lesson that taught it.
Unit 3 — Where I'm From. The past tense arrives. You will talk about places that mattered to you and journeys you took, and the -ed ending gets its full treatment — the one you have been stopping short since Lesson 2.
Before Lesson 1 of Unit 3: watch one Modern Family episode with subtitles and note five past-tense verbs. Do not study them. Just collect them.