Entry #12 Death penalty

Video " Jeremy Irons talk about death penaty"

Key Words:

• Crime
• Death Penalty
• To punish
• Crime rates
• To abolish
• Legal counsel
• Capital punishment
• To be executed 
• Child offenders
• Innocents
• Human rights
• Imprisonment
• Revenge
• Deterren

Key Phrases

• Those without the capital get the punishment
• Everyone has the right to live and no one should be subject to torture
• It is not a deterrent against the crime that it punishes
• To plunge into criminal chaos
• The death penalty targets the economically disadvantaged 
• The right to life is inalienable: it cannot be given and it cannot be taken away

Jeremy Irons expresses:

• Death penalty does not prevent high crime rates 
• Good legal counsel cannot be afforded by the poor people 
• Death is irreversible 
• Death penalty is not acceptable even if it means killing both an innocent or a criminal 
• Death penalty kills people but also tortures them psychologically when having to wait for death 
• Human rights apply to all human rights 
• The right to life cannot be taken away

Entry #11 Yoko ono´s letter

2o years after John Lennon´s death ,Yoko Ono decided to write a letter in response of the possible release of his husband´s murderer.

 After reading the letter we can outline 5 main points:

1- John´s death changed the lives of everyone who knew him

2- Yoko Ono tries to look to the future but the memory of that awful night still haunts her

3- Yoko Ono believes that John would have changed his position with his murderer to be able to keep on living, writing songs, hearing the voice of the people he loved. 

4- The widow believes it is no fair for the murderer to be released

5- She also thinks it would not be safe for her or John if the murderer was to be released; She claims it would not also be safe for the murderer himself since there are many people who are strongly distresed for what he has done.

Entry #10 Steps in teaching argumentative essay

Steps in teaching argumentative writing

Jennifer Gonzalez is a certified teacher who claims that teaching students how to write is what she prefers the most; She loves to teach students how to write. In this podcast she gives us tips on how to teach argumentative writing.

Step 1: “Show them how it is done”
Provide the students with mentor texts. Ask the students to read the texts, to compare them, to compare its strategies. Ask them if the authors have made clear the thesis statement. This step shows the students the different models within the genre.

Step 2: “Verbal arguing”
Provide the students with a crucial topic such as abortion or women´s right and make them say why they agree or disagree. The aim of this step is to show them they do this all the time, they argue with a teacher, with their parents and explain them that they just need to learn to transfer all that into writing.

Step 3:“Informal writing: not so freestyle”
This step is basically the same as the previous one but with much more time for them to make some research on the topic so that they agree or disagree based on real evidence

Step 4: “The assignment”
To explain them what they are going to do, what the teacher expects them to do and how they would be scored. It is advisable for the teacher to teach the students high quality online research so they would not rely on sources that are not reliable.


Step 5 “Building the base”

To make them realize if they have a solid plan. Students must make a draft so that they can plan their essay

Step 6 “Writer´s workshop”

To spend some time showing them how to choose credible, relevant evidence, how to cite sources, how to consider the needs of the audience and once it is all clear and carefully planned tell them to start writing. The aim of this step is for the final copy to be close to meeting the standards.


Step 7 “Final assessment”

Students’ essays are already familiar to the teacher who encourages the students to revise their copies and to resubmit them for a higher grade.

Entry 9 How to write an effective essay

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