1. Reading a book and writing a Book Review

One of the most important activities in learning English Block is reading. You must try to read a book every week and write a review of it.The review will go in your Personal File and will be read by the other members of your group.

For the first two terms of the second year you should read mainly the books in the Junior Library. These are, for the most part, easier to read than the books in the general library. It is important that you read fast and acquire the habit of reading a lot. By reading a lot of books you will learn a lot of new things. It is one of the main ways you will increase your vocabulary. You will also find reading enjoyable.

Read all kinds of books - Novels, Short Stories, Biographies, History Books, books about Travel, books about Science and so on. Get to know as many of the different kinds of books as you can.

When you read books with new words in them, it is not necessary to make lists of the new words. By reading a lot you will learn the new words without writing them down. Words are like people. The more often you meet them, the better you will know them.

Writing a Book Review

After you have read a book, ask yourself what you have learnt from it. Think about what the book was about. Think about whether you liked the book or not and why.

When you write, begin by saying what it was about. Don't write a summary of the whole book - five lines are enough for this part. Then write about what you thought of the book. This is the most important part of the review.

When you are writing, think about the other members of your group. What would they like to know about the book? Can you persuade them to read it? Remember, you don't want to tell them the story. That would make it unnecessary for them to read the book. They will be more interested to know whether you thought it a good book or not and your reasons.

2. Story writing

Each week you must write either a story or a dialogue. A Short Story is a made up series of events about people. It has characters; it has a setting. Both have to be described so that the reader knows as much about them as you want him to know. A good story tells us a lot about both characters and setting. Make the events of the story interesting. If the reader can say to himself: "I know what will happen next and how it will end", he won't want to read any further.You must keep him wondering about the next stage of the story.

You can get ideas to write stories from the set of pictures and first lines. When you want to write a story, take a picture. Look at the people in it. Make them come to life in your imagination, give them names, make them talk to each other,imagine what they are thinking about and what they are doing. Tell all this to the reader.You can take a first line and continue it, making up a story to follow.