This Valentine’s Day activity from Teaching Tolerance provides insight into Valentine’s Day’s roots as a holiday of resistance. It also highlights the injustices that can occur during this holiday — “moments of exclusion and ostracism, assumptions of a heterosexual norm” — and draws a parallel between the ban on gay marriage and the ban on […]
Entries Tagged as 'speaking'
Valentine’s Day activity from Teaching Tolerance
February 6th, 2014 · No Comments
Tags: blog · bullying · global issues activities · global issues resources · human rights · k-12 · lesson plans · LGBT Issues · poverty & wealth · racism · speaking
eLesson Inspirations by IATEFL’s Global Issues SIG
January 23rd, 2014 · No Comments
IATEFL’s Global Issues Special Interest Group just added a great new feature to their website: eLesson Inspirations. These inspirations take of the form of video clips, each accompanied by several ideas for how they could be used in a class. Five videos have been posted, and they will add new ones every Saturday. One that […]
Tags: blog · ESL activity · global issues activities · lesson plans · listening · poetry · speaking · the environment · video · visual prompts · vocabulary · writing
Message in a Bottle (and other materials from Yes! Magazine)
November 1st, 2013 · 3 Comments
YES! Magazine just added a great new activity based on the above picture to their curriculum section. It would work well in an ESL or EFL classroom. It’s simple, it requires critical thinking, and it makes a great speaking or writing prompt. First, show students the above picture and ask them what they notice. Then, […]
Tags: blog · global issues activities · global issues resources · human rights · pictures · politics · protests · reading · speaking · Turkey · visual prompts · writing
The Story of Bottled Water
July 25th, 2013 · No Comments
The Story of Bottled Water is a video by Annie Leonard and Free Range Studios (of The Story of Stuff fame) on the issue of bottled water. It is relatively short (about 8 minutes) and the language is fairly accessible. They also offer an annotated script that students could read along with. Anthony Lavigne (LinkedIn) […]
Tags: blog · consumerism · ESL activity · global issues activities · listening · reading · speaking · the environment · video · visual prompts · water · writing
New Internationalist Easier English Wiki
December 5th, 2012 · 1 Comment
Two English teachers (Linda Ruas and John Shepheard) have launched a new wiki featuring simplified versions of articles from the New Internationalist, a magazine focused on promoting global justice. Their intention is the make these articles more accessible for English language learners. As of today, the New Internationalist Easier English Wiki features modified articles from […]
Tags: blog · global issues activities · health · human rights · lesson plans · politics · poverty & wealth · reading · speaking · writing
The Simplicity Exercises: A Sourcebook for Simplicity Educators
September 17th, 2012 · No Comments
The Simplicity Exercises is a free PDF full of lessons that engage students with the concept of simplicity. Produced by the Simplicity Institute, it covers areas such as mindfulness, the environment, money and time, asking students to consider simplicity and sufficiency. Some of the activities are experiential. For example, a lesson called Silence and Solitude […]
Tags: blog · books · consumerism · global issues activities · global issues resources · happiness · health · lesson plans · listening · reading · simplicity · speaking · the environment · vocabulary
BART Symposium 2012 Presentation – From Awareness to Action: Engaging Students in Environmental Issues
June 2nd, 2012 · No Comments
Here is the slideshow I just gave at the third annual BART symposium. It’s a modified version of the presentation I gave a couple of months ago at TESOL. Within the slideshow, there are links to PDF versions of some of the handouts. If you’d like DOC versions to adapt for your own use, you […]
Tags: blog · climate change · conferences · consumerism · global issues activities · lesson plans · listening · presentations · professional organizations · reading · speaking · the environment · writing
TESOL 2012 Presentation – Offering Options: Activities That Raise Awareness of Local Environmental Resources
March 29th, 2012 · No Comments
For those who both were and were not able to attend my TESOL 2012 presentation, here are the materials I referred to. The overall focus of my presentation was using local environmental resources as a way to both raise student awareness of environmental issues and to offer them opportunities for positive action. One emphasis I […]
Tags: blog · climate change · conferences · consumerism · global issues activities · greening an IEP · lesson plans · listening · presentations · professional organizations · reading · speaking · TESOL 2012 · the environment · visual prompts · vocabulary · writing
Happiness and English language teaching
April 13th, 2011 · 3 Comments
My wife went to the recent TESOL conference in New Orleans, and one of the sessions she went to was a talk by Marc Helgesen on language teaching and positive psychology. Positive psychology is a relatively new movement in psychology that basically looks at the science of happiness. On his website, Helgesen shares a variety […]
Tags: blog · global issues activities · happiness · health · lesson plans · listening · reading · speaking · visual aids · writing
Got Coal? • Teaching About the Most Dangerous Rock in America
March 24th, 2011 · No Comments
The latest issue of Rethinking Schools features a description of a great activity by Bill Bigelow (of Rethinking Globalization) teaching students about coal mining. Bigelow’s activity starts with a game created by the coal industry, asking students to mine cookies for chocolate chips. Students buy a cookie and a mining implement (paperclip, toothpick, etc.), then […]
Tags: blog · climate change · global issues activities · lesson plans · listening · speaking · the environment