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Collins Cambridge IGCSE English as a Second Language

Student Book

Chapter 1
1.1

Where do you save your lesson plans, quizzes or tests when you’re working on them? Do
you save them locally on your home computer? Then they aren’t available when you need
them at school. What if you’re at school? Are they saved on the school network? But then if
you need them when you’re at home, you’re out of luck. Maybe you save the file and then
back it up on a flash drive or even email the file to your personal email for later use. Seems
like a lot of hassle and extra steps that would be unnecessary if you used eBackpack.
eBackpack will save you time, worries and money. Just save all of your files to your
eBackpack and have access to them from anywhere. eBackpack saves your files on multiple
safe and secure servers. All of your files are accessible 24/7 from anywhere with internet.
You can also share your files with other teachers and students. Students and other users are
also able to submit files back to you by using your homework dropbox. eBackpack has many
other fantastic features. Use it as an eportfolio for students and allow them to save their
educational works as they progress through school. Use it for easy and quick collaboration.
eBackpack saves each version of a file for you and allows for commenting between others.
Now you can easily assign a task to a student, allow them to turn it in, grade it and provide
comments and return back to the user. Drop in material from your favourite sources, such
as Quixlet, TedEd and Wikipedia to make homework engaging. Parents can even access
eBackpack to keep track of their childrens' assignments. With eBackpack, the possibilities
are endless. Start your free trial today.
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1.2

Mrs Chan: [calling out] Edmond! Edmond! Where are you? Your dinner is on the table,
going cold.

Edmond: [replying from another room] I’ll be right there Mum, I am … er … just
finishing up some school work.

Mr Chan: [calling out] Edmond, you’ll do as you’re told, immediately! [talking

normally] Maybe he can’t hear you, darling. Probably has his headphones
on!

Edmond: I can hear you! Just a few minutes Dad … I have to send off these emails to
my teacher and chat to my friend about our drama presentation tomorrow.

Mr Chan: I really don’t believe that you’re doing schoolwork all the time, Edmond. In
my day, we didn’t have to chat to our friends and listen to music to get
homework done! Come and have your dinner at once please. Don’t keep
your mother waiting – it makes me very cross.

Edmond: No one understands how busy I am! I’ve got Drama, History and English to
do and it’s all online. I’m supposed to work with other students.

Mr Chan: Well, being on the computer all day, dead to the rest of the world, and not
tidying your room does not indicate that you’re busy, young man!

Edmond: Dad, honestly, I need my computer for schoolwork!

Mr Chan: Really? Well, how come your grades are not showing evidence of all this
work? The last time I checked, your report card didn’t say, ‘Edmond is a
hard-working boy…’. In fact, it said something like, ‘Edmond needs to
improve his concentration in class and must hand in his homework on time!’

Edmond: Well, that was only some teachers, and besides, not all the teachers like me,
it’s not my fault!

Mrs Chan: Well, we’re going up to the school tonight for the parent–teacher meetings.
Let’s see what they have to say. Now please come and eat your dinner!
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Edmond: [now in the same room] Oh no! Well, don’t believe everything they say at
school! Great, pasta – my favourite!

1.3

Teacher: Hello Mr and Mrs Chan, lovely to see you again.

Mr Chan: Hello Ms Burroughs.

Mrs Chan: It’s nice to see you too. I’m glad we’ve got an opportunity to speak, because
we’ve been very worried about Edmond’s progress … not just in your
English class, but across the board. He’s not doing very well, is he?

Teacher: Well, I must admit I have some concerns about Edmond. He seems to have
lost interest in my subject and is tired and sleepy in class. I’m afraid
homework isn’t always in on time and he tends to avoid coursework
completely, and this counts for 50% of his final mark, so it’s a little
dangerous.

Mr Chan: Oh dear! We’ve suspected that he’s been up late gaming and chatting online.
Goodness knows what else he has been up to – there’s a lot of inappropriate
stuff online.

Mrs Chan: Now, John, this doesn’t happen every night, but I must admit he is online
longer than he should be and is certainly up a lot later than us. We’re not
sure what to do about it. We both go to bed and he claims he still has work to
do.

Teacher: Hmmm… I suspect it is not always schoolwork, so I am worried. Last term he

was scoring high Bs and even a couple of As in English literature, and this
term there have been nothing but Cs and quite a few Ds. As you can see, it’s
time we did something or he could perform very badly in the mock exams
that are coming up in January.

Mr Chan: I reckon it’s a mistake to allow students to have their own laptops. But when
the school posts homework online, and asks students to log on to check
emails from teachers and do homework on blogs, how can we restrict his
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internet use at home? We have no way of monitoring whether Edmond is

doing homework or if he’s playing games or chatting.

Mrs Chan: Well, I know it’s now school policy – it’s certainly a useful way to teach and
communicate with students. I can see that it has its benefits, Ms Burroughs,
but my husband is right, it makes it very difficult for us to restrict Edmond’s
time online. Schoolwork is the perfect excuse to stay online!

Teacher: I understand. As a teacher, I find the internet has many benefits for both
teaching and learning in the 21st century. Students are certainly widening
their horizons through having access to the world wide web. It’s very
convenient and enables them to keep in touch with teachers and friends, but
I can see how this could become a distraction to students like Edmond, who
might get carried away online. May I make a few suggestions that might help
both you and Edmond?

Mrs Chan: Please, go ahead … we’d appreciate that.

Teacher: I would suggest that you move Edmond’s homework area into a common
area of the home, like the living room or dining table, where you can keep an
eye on his computer use. If you can’t do that, pop in once in a while to see
what he’s up to on his computer. This way, he’ll be less tempted to give in to
distractions.

Mr Chan: Yes, good idea – no more shutting his room door! We need to look in every
now and then to see what he’s doing. At fourteen, you feel like you need
privacy all the time!

Mrs Chan: Perhaps it’s better that I did this, John. You two are sure to get into an
argument and you know he hates being policed!

Mr Chan: Well, he’s doing so badly at school it’s time we started doing that! I’m afraid
he’s going to have to lose some privileges.

Mrs Chan: Yes, I know, but I would like to hear what other suggestions Ms Burroughs
has for us. Do go on.

Teacher: Well, another thing you could do is to set a clear homework time and keep
track of what Edmond has to do. This should typically be about an hour and
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a half to two hours of work on a school night. Some of this might indeed be
online. But you could restrict his internet access to homework times and
separate it from social time.

Mrs Chan: That sounds reasonable. That way we can reward him for good behaviour
and using his time effectively.

Teacher: Absolutely! At bedtime, I suggest you turn off his access to the net and
password protect it so that he can’t log on again. It seems a bit harsh, but I
find that it works well for my kids and helps them sleep well.

Mr Chan: Good idea. I know how to block him from going online.

Mrs Chan: Well, yes, I think this would work, but John, we have to do this gently.

Mr Chan: Okay, okay, I don’t want to upset the boy. Thank you for your useful
suggestions. We’ll certainly try them out. In the meantime, could you keep us
informed of how he’s doing? I would certainly like to know how often he’s
sleepy in class.

Mrs Chan: Absolutely! Do feel free to ring or email us. Thank you, Ms Burroughs. Good
night.

Teacher: Yes, I’ll be in touch. Good night!

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