A Thanksgiving intergenerational project in the U.S.A. would make an excellent language activity anywhere. StoryCorps is an innovative oral history project that has been recording ordinary Americans having conversations with people they love since 2003. The concept is simple: the mobile StoryCorps recording booth sets up in a town. Anyone who wants to can come … Continue reading “Thanksgiving Stories”
It’s Anti-Bullying Week in U.K. schools from 15 to 19 November. The theme is kindness, how saying one kind word can potentially break the cycle of bullying. It lends itself well to a language activity on expressing kindness. There are lots of teaching tools on the Anti-Bullying Alliance site. The secondary school lesson plan is … Continue reading “Anti-Bullying Week”
The This is England short film festival in Rouen has a specific programme of short films for lycée classes covering topics from ballet to hip hop, flat earth theory to fox hunting. If you sign up for a lycée showing, your students will see ten films ranging in length from 1m30 to 16 minutes. There … Continue reading “Short Films with your Lycée Students”
To “remember, remember the fifth of November”, as a children’s rhyme says, A1+-level pupils can watch a slideshow about Bonfire Night. At A2-A2+, useful links can be made with the history curriculum It’s worth giving pupils a few basic facts about the failed plot and the annual celebrations. This Powerpoint presentation from the UK Parliament … Continue reading “Guy Fawkes Webpicks”
The Earthshot Prizes website has great short videos on the five ecological challenges the prizes aim to tackle. They are perfect for class use, either picking a theme or having groups work on different videos and share information. The British Royal Foundation is awarding five prizes a year till 2030 for innovative ideas to help … Continue reading “The Earthshot Prizes: Working with Videos”
The This is England short-film festival in Rouen has a specific programme of short films for collège classes covering topics from food poverty to sharing, coming-of-age to fossil hunting. If you sign up for a collège showing, your students will see eight films ranging in length from 1m30 to 19 minutes. There’s one animation, one … Continue reading “Short Films with your Collège Students”
Halloween is a popular celebration with pupils, and it can be a great way to introduce some English-speaking culture. In the U.S.A., a major Halloween tradition is Trick or Treat for Unicef, a fundraising campaign for the United Nations children’s fund. Unicef has lots of teaching resources about the campaign. This is Unicef U.S.A.’s main … Continue reading “Halloween with Unicef Videos”
The Extinction Rebellion ecological movement first came to prominence in 2019 when after 11 days of protests it persuaded the British government to declare a state of ecological emergency. This twelve-minute-long film starring Emma Thompson is a fiction based on real events and was shot during the 2019 protests in an eco-friendly sustainable way. It … Continue reading “Extinction Rebellion Short Film”
This Netflix adaptation of a book for teenagers uses all the Halloween paraphernalia: pumpkins, witches and monsters, among which the vile Grand Guignol is planning to steal children’s nightmares to unleash them upon the world. But the members of the Order of Babysitters are determined to stop him. When young Jacob is kidnapped by the … Continue reading “A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting”
This year marks the 250th anniversary of author Sir Walter Scott’s birth, on 15 August 1771. Our Biobox video quiz will allow you to familiarise your students with Scott’s life from A2+ level. You can download the MP4 file below to use in class.