It’s Fairtrade Fortnight, la quinzaine du commerce équitable, in France from 12 to 27 May. Products with Fairtrade or Max Havelaar certification have been produced by workers who receive a fair price for their products. These are essentially basic food commodities: the top six are bananas, sugar, cocoa, coffee, other fresh fruit, and tea. However … Continue reading “Join the Fairtrade Movement”
2018 marks the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of Frankenstein, a novel which has gone on to occupy a unique place in the collective imagination. In this A2+ article, your pupils will discover Mary Shelley, the teenage author who lived an exceptional life. These documents about Mary Shelley could be part of a larger … Continue reading “Mother of Frankenstein”
Civil-rights leader Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on 4 April 1968. To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of King’s death, this B1 sequence will allow pupils to explore his life and legacy. After briefly sharing what they already know about this inspiring figure, students will watch a video and learn more … Continue reading “Martin Luther King Slideshow”
Professor Stephen Hawking, possibly the most famous modern scientist, has died at the age of 76, after beating enormous odds to survive and work for 55 years with the debilitating motor neurone disease. Hawking had an exceptionally brilliant mind. He became the prestigious Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University at just 35. But by … Continue reading “Stephen Hawking: Death of A Scientist”
On the occasion of the death of Professor Stephen Hawking, we’ve updated this B1-level article, which we published for his 75th birthday in 2017. Students will learn about Hawking, one of Britain’s most famous scientists, who had a brilliant career in spite of a terrible neurological disease. The film The Theory of Everything , released … Continue reading “Stephen Hawking: a Unique Scientist”
On 26 January every year, ceremonies are held all over Australia to welcome new citizens as part of Australia Day celebrations. But the 2018 national day was overshadowed by debates about citizenship, and about finding a date for Australia Day that is less offensive to Aboriginal people. Citizenship was a major issue in the Australian … Continue reading “Australian Identity Crisis”
This short video of a NASA astronaut on the International Space Station discussing how he is going to celebrate Thanksgiving is a great way to introduce or revise this American holiday as well as food vocabulary. ISS Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA explained how he and fellow American, Peggy Whitson, were going to … Continue reading “Thanksgiving Dinner in Space”
If you live in the centre of a desert in Australia and you want to create an annual festival to collect money for charity, what do you do? Start a boat race, of course! Henley-on-Thames in England has a famous annual regatta. Henley-on-Todd’s version is a little less elegant! On the third Saturday of August … Continue reading “Only in Australia: Boating in the Desert”
It was the British equivalent of making an announcement during the halftime break in the U.S. Superbowl game. Immediately after the 2017 Wimbledon men’s final the BBC revealed what the entire U.K. seemed to have been waiting for… that the next actor to portray the lead in sci-fi series Dr Who would be… a woman! … Continue reading “Doctor She”
These three videos associated with Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets provide plenty of opportunities to get pupils talking on a film many will have seen. This teaser trailer is almost without dialogue or voiceover, so it’s a great place to start, and can be used at all levels, with pupils commenting according … Continue reading “Valerian: Teaching with Trailers”