1917

Posted by Speakeasy News > Friday 31 January 2020 >

The new World War I drama from director Sam Mendes, 1917, unfolds in real-time, tracking a pair of British soldiers as they cross the Western Front on a desperate rescue mission. Soldiers Blake and Schofield  must travel nine miles across the treacherous war zone to deliver orders to stop a regiment attacking enemy lines within … Continue reading “1917”

William Blake: Visionary

Posted by Speakeasy News > Friday 20 December 2019 > Ready to Use Shine Bright Lycée

The Tate Britain exhibition on William Blake explores this talented 19th century artist whose poems and paintings are strikingly modern and pregnant with meaning. Differentiated activities from A2+ to B2 will allow you to add Blake to a sequence on the Gothic or the Romantic movements, for example Shine Bright 1ère Advanced File 1 “Freaky dreams”. … Continue reading “William Blake: Visionary”

The New Face of Congress

Posted by Speakeasy News > Wednesday 18 December 2019 > Ready to Use Shine Bright Lycée

A young Latina woman from the Bronx, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shatters our traditional vision of Congressional Representatives. This article explores her life, both private and public, from the Bronx to Washington, D.C. after the recent midterm elections: how can “one of us” sit in Congress at barely 29 and champion the average working class person’s rights? … Continue reading “The New Face of Congress”

Discovering Tolkien’s World

Posted by Speakeasy News > Friday 22 November 2019 > Ready to Use Shine Bright Lycée

A review of the Tolkien exhibition currently on at the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris is the occasion for pupils to learn more about the author of The Lord of the Rings and the extraordinary universes he created with languages, maps and illustrations. This B2-level article and its B1 satellite columns can be used for two different … Continue reading “Discovering Tolkien’s World”

The Dream of Being an Artist

Posted by Speakeasy News > Friday 25 October 2019 > Ready to Use

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”

On Route 66 Poster

Posted by Speakeasy News > Thursday 08 August 2019 > Ready to Use

Celebrate the Mother Road festival in September with this illustrated Route 66 poster has lots of interesting landmarks to be found along “American’s Main Street”. You can download it for class use.   To download the poster, just click on the link below.

Rip van Winkle

Posted by Speakeasy News > Friday 19 July 2019 > Ready to Use

This A2 activity is based on a short presentation of Washington Irving’s short story Rip Van Winkle,  which was first published in 1819, two hundred years ago. Although it was inspired by a German traditional story, Irving gave it a clearly American context as the eponymous Van Winkle magically falls asleep for 20 years, completely … Continue reading “Rip van Winkle”

The Mouse Mansion

Posted by Speakeasy News > Wednesday 26 June 2019 > Ready to Use

“The Mouse Mansion” is a sequence for 6e pupils based on the children’s book of the same name by Karina Schaapman, and on the DIY video tutorials on her website. Author and artist Schaapman spent years building and furnishing the Mouse Mansion, an elaborate doll’s house, out of cardboard boxes and papier-mâché, and writes books … Continue reading “The Mouse Mansion”