Back at the beginning of the school year, we launched three pupil competitions. The A2-level competition was to write a 10-question “Who Am I?” quiz about a famous English-speaker. We were absolutely inundated with replies for the three competitions. Please apologise to your pupils for the delay but we finally have the winners of the … Continue reading “Who Am I? Competition Winners”
International Safer Internet Day on 5 February encourages everyone to learn good online habits. A downloadable activity from Microsoft is perfect for language learning. It combines arts and crafts, English and Internet safety in one simple package. The activity involves downloading and printing out what they call a “chatterbox” — also called a fortuneteller, or … Continue reading “Safer Internet Day Communication Activity”
In this A2 article your students will learn about the population of New Zealand and its national day, Waitangi Day on 6 February. You can decide to work on it either at the beginning of February to match the celebrations or as part of a unit devoted to national days in English-speaking countries. Although this … Continue reading “Waitangi Day, New Zealand’s National Day”
This A2 article about musicals and the tradition of high school performances in the USA should be of particular interest to those among your students who may have seen the exhibition in Paris, but also to any student with a taste for films or music. As usual, the document is but a starting point for … Continue reading “Musicals”
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”
The Magna Carta is the foundation of British democracy, with its limitations of the power of the monarchy and the guarantee of habeas corpus, the right not to be imprisoned without a fair trial. Some simple resources from the British Library can introduce your pupils to this important cultural concept. The British Library has provided … Continue reading “Teaching Democracy: The Magna Carta and Habeas Corpus”
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”
If you’d like to discuss the American midterm elections with your classes, we have selected some great teaching resources. This 1’30” video from Voice of America News is short and to the point. It’s usable for written comprehension (there’s no voiceover or dialogue). Usable from A2. This BBC video is 2’25” and is a simple-ish … Continue reading “Talking About the U.S. Midterms”