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”
If you are studying Much Ado About Nothing with your LLCER students, or anything about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, you’ll want to download this long-form interview with actor-director Kenneth Branagh from BBC Radio 4. In the first of a new series called This Cultural Life, presenter John Wilson had a 45-minute conversation with Branagh … Continue reading “In Conversation with Kenneth Branagh”
The Walk with Little Amal project aims to raise awareness of the plight of refugees and particularly refugee children. As Amal makes an 8,000 km journey across Europe on foot, the project hopes to help other children think about the issue, and they’ve provided lots of educational tools to help teachers explore the topic in … Continue reading “Teaching about Refugees”
Drawing or writing self-portraits is a classic activity for the beginning of the school year when teachers are getting to know their pupils and vice versa. But how can it be adapted to mask-filled classrooms in the Covid era? Nathalie Legendre tested a masked self-portrait activity in collège. Mme Legendre teaches in Collège Barbey d’Aurevilly … Continue reading “Back-to-School Masked Self-Portraits Activity”
26 September is the Day of European Languages, celebrating all the diversity of languages across the continent. For the 20th anniversary edition, there are some great teaching resources. The general theme of the resources is interesting quirks and facts about the different languages, starting with a downloadable poster called “20 Things You Might Not Know … Continue reading “European Language Day 2021”