Back at the beginning of the school year, we launched three pupil competitions. The A1+ level competition was to write a 50-word text about a special image, like “The People’s Portrait” we featured in September. We were absolutely inundated with replies for the three competitions, which we are slowly working through. Please apologise to your … Continue reading “Pupils’ Portrait Winners”
This A1+ level article is an opportunity to introduce Christmas from the perspective of the up-coming release of the new version of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas!, one of the much-loved books by The Cat in the Hat author Dr Seuss. Vocabulary: Christmas emotions months locating expressions Grammar: simple present and preterite the indefinite article … Continue reading “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”
St Andrew’s Day, 30 November, is the Scottish national day. It’s a time to wear some tartan, listen to some bagpipes playing “Oh Flower of Scotland”, dance a Highland fling and eat some haggis and shortbread with a wee glass of malt whisky! A typical Scottish expression at this time of year is, “The nights … Continue reading “Go Scottish for St Andrews”
If you’re working on the theme of heroes, why not take some advice from the late Stan Lee, co-creator of a dizzying number of superheroes for Marvel Comics from Spider-man to the Black Panther and The Fantastic Four. This TedX Talk Lee gave in 2013 is really clear and can be used from B1, or … Continue reading “Talking about Superheroes”
Raise awareness about bullying in November. On the 8th, it’s Anti-Bullying Day in French schools. And it’s Anti-bullying Week in the UK from 12 to 16 November. We look at some student-produced anti-bullying videos and apps that are helping fight the problem. This is the video for the 2017 anti-bullying week but it works better … Continue reading “Students Against Bullying”
If you teach in collège, you might like to sign your pupils up for an original multilingual story competition. It asks classes to write a story using elements of languages other than French. The winners will be revealed during the Semaine des langues vivantes in May. You need to sign up by 22 October 2018. … Continue reading “Multilingual Story Contest for Classes”
The Johnny English films are a great way to get pupils to think about the clichés of the James-Bond-type spy film. English, created and played by Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean) is the perfect parody of 007. The third film in the series, Johnny English Strikes Back, is no exception. As the leaders of the G12 are … Continue reading “Teaching With Trailers: Johnny English”
Pourquoi un calendrier interactif ? L’idée même du calendrier n’est pas de moi. Project Britain, site très apprécié des professeurs d’anglais en collège, en propose un depuis des années. Récemment, certains éditeurs de manuels ont élaboré des posters ou des agendas à destination des enseignants. C’est une conversation sur Twitter avec une collègue d’anglais de l’académie … Continue reading “Interactive Calendar”
The House with a Clock in its Walls is a new film adapted from a classic of American children’s literature. This sequence uses one of the film’s trailers to work on Halloween vocabulary and revise clothes vocabulary with A1+ students. Language and structures : a/an plural of nouns pronunciation of the plural “s” ending invariable adjectives … Continue reading “The House with a Clock in its Walls”
The Ocean Cleanup non-profit organisation is hoping to remove vast quantities of plastic pollution from the oceans. Here are some articles and videos you could use to introduce your pupils to this topic. To set the scene, and with lower-level pupils, there is an article provided at A1+, A2 and B1 levels about Ocean Cleanup … Continue reading “Ocean Cleanup Webpicks”