The 2019 Booker prize has been awarded to two authors: the established star Margaret Atwood for The Testaments and the first ever black woman winner Bernardine Evaristo for Woman, Girl, Other. Atwood’s long-awaited sequel to A Handmaid’s Tale seemed a shoe-in for the prize (although another literary icon, Salman Rushdie was also on the short-list). … Continue reading “Two Books for the Booker”
Not enough time in class to work on pupils’ language skills: grammar, vocabulary and phonology? Our Pump it up work books allow pupils to work at their own pace and are perfect for blended learning. There are two levels: A2>B1 and B1>B2. Each contains 25 grammar lessons, 10 vocabulary lessons plus phonology activities to work … Continue reading “Pump up Pupils’ Language skills”
The Dream of Being an Artist is an exhibition in Lille’s Palais des Beaux Arts until January 6 2020. With over a hundred works from different areas and spanning several centuries, the exhibition questions the way artists have been considered in society and perceive themselves. It includes several works by contemporary English speaking artists. The … Continue reading “The Dream of Being an Artist”
The cinema industry has long had a love affair with vampires, most often Dracula, based on Eastern European legends and Bram Stoker’s eponymous book. An exhibition at the Cinémathèque in Paris is a great opportunity to revisit the fascination with the undead across the arts: literature, painting, TV and film. It’s also an opportunity to … Continue reading “Vampires from “Dracula” to “Twilight””
Tate Liverpool is running an exhibition of Keith Haring’s iconic street art, which will then transfer to Bozart in Brussels. We’ve concocted activities to work with Haring’s art at different levels from A2 to B2. It would be interesting to compare Haring with another street artist from a different generation and continent: Banksy, the subject … Continue reading “Keith Haring Street Art”
Ken Loach is famous for his socially committed films, and his new film, Sorry We Missed You, is no exception. Loach brings the kitchen-sink drama bang up to date with this indictment of the gig economy in the UK with a family struggling to survive in the modern world of work. The gig economy, or … Continue reading “Ken Loach Takes on the Gig Economy”
Anyone who has read The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings knows that JRR Tolkien was a past master at creating astonishing worlds and civilisations. A new exhibition in Paris shows that his published work was merely the tip of the iceberg. Detailed maps, chronologies, and dozens of illustrations give a glimpse of the … Continue reading “Tolkien’s World”
There has been talk of impeaching President Trump practically from the day he took office in 2017, originally over alleged electoral irregularities. But on 24 September, impeachment proceedings were actually launched in the House of Representatives, although they have little chance of being approved by Congress. What exactly is impeachment? “The President, Vice President and … Continue reading “Word of the moment: Impeachment”
We always love to read students’ work. Here are some poems pupils wrote as their final task in a sequence from Shine Bright LLCER: File 5 War Will Not Tear Us Apart. In this sequence for Première LLCER, in the theme Rencontres Axe 1 L’amour et l’amitié, students considered how World War I intensified human … Continue reading “Your Students Have Talent: War Will Not Tear Us Apart”
Robert Wilson’s new stage adaptation of The Jungle Book will be on in Paris, Aix-en-Provence and Clermont-Ferrand over the next few months. The visually striking production combines dialogues in French and original songs in English. Wilson created the show with Cocorosie, a music group composed of two American sisters based in France. The show follows … Continue reading “The Jungle Book on Stage”