2024 marks the centennial of the birth of James Baldwin, novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, civil-rights campaigner and social critic, as well as self-proclaimed American “Native Son”. Born in 1924 in Harlem, New York, Baldwin grew up in poverty, the eldest of nine children. Harlem was home to many black families who had moved from the … Continue reading “James Baldwin Centenary”
Our resource for Shine Bright 2de accompanies File 4: “Mysteries in the Countryside”. You can find the illustrated map “Spooky Britain” in the textbook. This A2+-B1-level resource will guide your pupils to find out more about the locations on the map from a promotional text. A group activity aimed at enriching pupils’ vocabulary to help … Continue reading “Spooky Britain”
For the second of our series of feelgood songs, we’ve crossed the Atlantic to the UK, 1967, and The Kinks’ classic “Waterloo Sunset”. Which gives plenty of scope to work on emotions, and London landmarks Waterloo Station and the Thames. Pupils can start by watching a Biobox about the year 1967 in music before going … Continue reading “Feelgood Music 2: “Waterloo Sunset””
We always love to read students’ work. Here are some poems pupils wrote as their final task in a sequence from Shine Bright 2e: File 1 United Colours of Harlem. In this sequence, in Axe 3 Le village, le quartier, la ville, students discovered Harlem and considered what makes it such an inspiring neighbourhood. As … Continue reading “Your Students Have Talent: United Colours of Harlem”
The 2019 film adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel If Beale Street Could Talk, a love story set in 1970s Harlem, makes an excellent complement to Shine Bright 2de File 1 “United Colors of Harlem” or Shine Bright 1re File 8 “African-American Art” . This video can be used in class to introduce the film and Baldwin. … Continue reading “James Baldwin: Love in Harlem”