Modern Family

Do you ever feel like you have a crazy family?  Do you ever feel like other people would never understand how your family works?  Well, have I got the show for you! Modern Family is a TV sitcom in its third season on ABC.  The sitcom is based on a blended family that lives on the same street.  Phil and Claire are parents to teenagers Haley, Alex and Luke.  Claire's father, Jay, lives next door and is married to Claire's stepmother Gloria, who is around the same age as Claire.  Also living on the block, are Claire's brother Mitchell and his partner Cameron. Mitchell and Cameron are proud parents to their baby girl Lily, who they adopted from Vietnam.  Week after week, millions of people tune into this comedy at nine o'clock to watch the funny cast of characters living their lives in suburbia.  This TV show seemed to be popular right from the beginning of the series.  I would say that is because while everyone might not have a same-sex marriage in their family or step-parents or step-siblings, everyone can relate to how the family relates to one another and is always there for each other.  So when you are feeling like your family could not get any crazier, tune into Modern Family for a good laugh.  It might just make you feel better.

Vocabulary:

1) sitcom: TV comedy

2) season: year of a television show

3) blended: mixed, combined

4) stepmother: when your father remarries, his wife is this to you

5) adopted: a child who gets new parents, different parents from their birth parents.

6) suburbia: towns outside or surrounding a big city

Cloze Activity:  Complete the following sentences by filling in the blanks with a vocabulary word from above.

1) I have a large ____________ family because both my parents remarried after their divorce.

2) The TV show Friends ended after its tenth _____________ on the air.

3) Deer Park, North Babylon and Dix Hills are all towns in ______________.

4) How I Met Your Mother is another popular ______________.

5) I now have a _______________ because my father remarried.

6) My brother and his wife ___________ a baby boy named Ryan from China.

Grammar Point

Question Marks are used when writing a question.  A question is a statement that is seeking information. If the statement is not a question, we use a period or sometimes an exclamation point.

Grammar Activity

Read the following phrases and determine if it is a question or a statement.  If it is a statement, put a period.  If it is a question, write a question mark.

1) When does the TV show start__

2) My favorite TV show is Modern family__

3) What is your favorite TV show__

4) What channel is your favorite TV show on__

5) I like to watch TV with my family__

My Embarrassing False Cognate Experience

I grew up speaking English with my family.  When I was in the seventh grade, I chose to study Spanish as my foreign language requirement for graduation.  During my senior year at Ward Melville High School, I decided that I wanted to pursue a career in teaching Spanish.  After graduating from high school, I went to SUNY Cortland and majored in Adolescent Education in Spanish.  While in my junior year there, I decided to study abroad in Salamanca, Spain.  While I was studying Spanish there, I lived with a family.  I had my own room in their apartment, where I slept and would eat three meals a day with Beni, my host mother and José, my host father.  One morning, I woke up late for class.  I got dressed quickly, grabbed my bag and headed out the door.  As I was hurrying down the street, I dropped my notebook.  Some very nice strangers helped me gather my papers.  After saying thank you, I began walking quickly in what I thought was the direction of school.  After a couple of blocks, I realized I was heading in the wrong direction and that I was going to arrive even later to class.  When I finally reached my school, I ran up the stairs and arrived at my classroom.  As I was rushing up the stairs, I was rehearsing what I was going to say to apologize to my professor.  I knew I wanted to say I was sorry and that I was embarrassed for being late.  As I sprung open the door, I announced "Lo siento, estoy embarasada."  What I had intended to say was that I was sorry and embarrassed for being late.  I received a very strange grin from my teacher and a few weird looks form my classmates.  As I found a seat, another American student leaned over to me and said "Doesn't embarasada mean pregnant?" Instead of saying I was embarrassed, I announced to the whole class that I was pregnant.  Now, I was really embarrassed!  This is an example of a false cognate.  A false cognate is a word in one language that looks or sounds like a word in another language and has a DIFFERENT meaning.  Cognates are words that sound or look alike and have the SAME meaning.

Vocabulary:
1) requirement: something that you have to do
2) pursue: choosing to do or follow something
3) graduating: completing high school
4) majored: what you choose to study in college
5) gather: to bring to together, collect
6) blocks: parts of streets, from one corner to another

Cloze Activity: Fill in the following blanks with one of the above vocabulary words.
1) The school is four ___________ away from my house.
2) You must complete the foreign language _____________ in order to graduate.
3) Please ___________ your belongings and meet me in the office.
4) After _____________ from high school, the students will continue to college.
5) While in the college, the teacher ____________ in education.
6) The student wants to ____________ a career in politics.


Grammar Point- The Present Progressive:
The present progressive is a way to express something that is occurring in the moment, or happening right now.  To form verbs in the present progressive, you must add -ing to the end of the word.  For example, the verb graduating is the verb graduate plus the ending -ing.

Grammar Exercise:
Write the following verbs in the present progressive:

1) Follow _________________
2) Study __________________
3) Learn __________________
4) Reach __________________
5) Speak __________________

Dancing With the Stars

It's that time of year again!  Back to school and one of my favorite reality television shows has begun!  Dancing with the Stars is a dance competition that features many different types of celebrities.  Each celebrity is paired with a professional dancer and together they perform a new ballroom dance each week on live television.  The dances performed so far have been the Jive, the Quickstep, the ChaCha and the Waltz.  This year celebrities include former talk show host Ricki Lake, Los Angeles Lakers player Ron Artest, reality television stars kristin Cavallari and Rob Kardashian, actresses Chynna Phillips and Elisabetta Canalis, actors David Arquette and J.R Martinez, U.S. World Cup Soccer Team goalie Hope Solo, talk show hosts Nancy Grace and Carson Kressly and LGBT activist Chaz Bono.  After each performance in their glittery costumes and ballroom shoes, the celebrities and their partners fall victim to the the criticisms of the three judges, Carrie Ann Inalba, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli.  Celebrities must wait with co-host Tom Bergen while they hear the judges' critiques of their performances.  They are then sent backstage to be interviewed by co-host Brooke Burke and to receive their scores.  Each judge gives a score of one to ten with the best possible score being a thirty out of thirty.

Vocabulary 

1) competition: contest between performers
2) celebrity: famous person
3) professional: an expert, or someone who does an activity for work
4) ballroom: a large space where dancing is done in groups of two or partners
5) criticisms: what the judges think of the dancers
6) interviewed: to be asked about

Cloze Activity


1) The news reporter _______________ the winning team and asked them many questions about the game.
2) Justin Bieber is a famous ________________ because he is known around the world for his singing career.
3) This weekend, there will be a dancing _______________ and all are welcome to compete.
4) You should take dance lesson from Stephanie because she is a ________________ and knows what she is doing.
5) The contestants need to listen to the judges' _______________ and improve their dancing if they want to stay on the show.
6) I arrived early to the ________________ for my dance lessons with my new partner.

Grammar Point
Proper Nouns- We have learned that a noun is a person, place, thing or idea.  There are also proper nouns.  A proper noun is a name of something or someone.  For example, in this paragraph, the ChaCha, the Quickstep and the Jive are all proper nouns.  They also all have capitol letters because names are capitalized in English.

Grammar Assignment
Can you identify the proper names from the list?  On the lines that follow, write P for a proper noun and C for a common noun (which is a regular noun, not a name of something or someone.)

1) Ricki Lake ________________
2) the judges ________________
3) the celebrities _____________
4) Carrie Ann Inalba __________
5) the Waltz _________________

The First Day of School

On September sixth, I, like many teachers and students around the country, started the school year.  This is my fourth year teaching at Robert Frost Middle School in Deer Park.  I jumped up out of bed around 5:30 am, which I had not done since June.  I jumped into the shower and got dressed.  I ate my breakfast, prepared my coffee with french vanilla creamer and I was out the door.  Even though I was dragging my feet when I first woke up, as I started my commute, I felt lucky.  I felt lucky to have a job and especially one that I was just as happy to go to in the morning as I am leaving in the afternoon.  As I walked into my building, I saw many familiar faces that I had not seen all summer.  After many hellos and last minute decorating, the bell rang and I was ready to welcome this year's students.  I hope I can inspire them to learn and to care about their education like so many great teachers have inspired me.

Vocabulary:

1) prepared: got ready
2) dragging my feet: moving slowly
3) commute: car ride to work
4) lucky: better off
5) familiar: people I know
6) inspire: to make someone want to do something


Cloze Activity: Fill in the blanks with the correct vocabulary word from above.


1) I hope to ______________ the next generation of children to become caring adults.
2) I was ___________________ to science class because I knew it was going to be boring.
3) I feel ______________ because I have lunch with all of my friends.
4) I am ________________ for today's test because I studied all night.
5) I live very close to my job so I do not have a long ____________.
6) My teacher looked so ______________.  I think I met her last year.


Grammar Point:
Adding the suffix -ed to a verb makes the verb in the past tense.  This is called the regular past tense.  For example, the phrase "I prepare," indicates the present tense or something that is happening right now.  When -ed is added to "I prepare" it becomes "I prepared". "I prepared" means that I got ready in the past.

Grammar Assignment:
Can you change "learn" into the past tense?  Write the verb ______________________.  Now, write a sentence using the verb in the past tense. __________________________________________________