ESL etc.

Af-flu-en-za n. 1. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses. 2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the American Dream. 3. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth. 4. A television program that could change your life.
Affluenza is a […]

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The Institute for Humane Education has a great collection of activities, many of which could be used with English language learners. Most of them are aimed at younger learners, but many could also be used effectively with adults. I haven’t yet had a chance to go through the whole site, but I took […]

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I just saw this photo essay looking at farming in America. It was done as a Thanksgiving piece in the New York Times, and looks at a variety of food-related issues, albeit in a fairly simple way. I like the fact that it focuses on students, though (including a neat project called The […]

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Eating Animals, the new book by Jonathon Safran Foer, is a very engaging, and wide ranging, look at the ethics of eating animals. He does a great job of exploring the various issues without reducing things to exaggerated extremes. He is a wonderful writer, and I think this book would be a very […]

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ACT Responsible is a Swiss non-profit that attempts to use the talents of advertisers to address environmental sustainability and social responsibility. Their gallery is full of images and short videos that could be great visual prompts for activities on a wide variety of issues. For starters, check out highlights in The Best Adverts […]

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I was recently asked for suggestions for materials that could be used with younger learners. Here are a few of my favorites.

Facing the Future has a collection of activity-based, global issues lesson plans for students of all ages. In addition to the great stuff they offer for sale, they have a ton of […]

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Worldmapper has a large collection of world maps that display various issues in a simple yet effective way. They expand each country to illustrate their share in a given issue. For example, the map below illustrates each country’s proportion of the world’s child labor.
Worldmapper has maps on many, many topics, including poverty, gender […]

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Bloom offers a collection of actions that individuals can take to reduce their contribution to climate change. It’s visually interesting, and features actions in categories like food, shopping, travel and water. The language is fairly accessible, although some of the action explanations are not as clear as they could be. This would […]

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As Earth Day approaches, one topic that is often left out of the discussion is environmental racism. Teaching Tolerance has three lesson plans designed for different grade levels.

Fair is Fair (K-5) is a good introduction to the concept for children.
Progressive City Planners (6-8) puts students in the role of urban designers, and includes some […]

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In The Startling Effects of Going Vegetarian for Just One Day, Kathy Freston gives a variety of interesting statistics on the consequences of all Americans not eating meat for just one day. Any serious discussion of climate change has to include diet, and this short article could be a great starting point.
Some highlights:
If everyone […]

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