This new research-based teacher’s guide helps students develop English language skills through highly engaging real-world investigations of current global issues. Designed for intermediate-level English language learners and striving readers, Making Connections combines language learning with opportunities for students to think critically about sustainable solutions for community development, environmental issues, quality of life, and more. Aligned with education standards, this 352-page guide includes nine chapters with lessons that have been reviewed and field tested by content experts, teachers, and students. Throughout the teacher’s guide, ideas for differentiated instruction make this text applicable for student levels ranging from beginner to advanced.

The table of contents, chapter 1, and chapter 3 are available to download if you’re interested in checking it out.

One thing that I really like is the fact that the lesson plans include Civic Integration Activities and Home Support Activities, encouraging students to get involved and take action both in their community and at home. If I were doing a unit on waste or consumption, I would certainly look in this PDF for some lesson plans.

Via Larry Ferlazzo’s blog

Some Peace in the Classroom by Fiona Eastley – This lesson plan asks students to reflect on a time they felt happy and peaceful while practicing their storytelling and listening skills. The lesson plan also asks students to think about how to make their life more peaceful and gives them a chance to put their thoughts into action.

Global Awareness Games in the Language Classroom by Armene Modi – Two games (Gender Issues Snakes and Ladders / EcoQuiz) for raising student awareness of contemporary issues. There are also some follow-up activities.

Adult Learning Activities from the California Distance Learning Project. This site contains a collection of news stories, complete with a variety of exercises. A typical story consists of a short reading (which is also provided as an audio file) followed by a review of the pronunciation of some of the key vocabulary words. Next, students are asked to spell those words, and finally match them with their definitions. There are many, many readings here, including a whole section on nature. Some are also accompanied by video.

Environmental education resources for multi-cultural education – Two free textbooks made for both teaching English and raising environmental awareness. Both are available as .PDFs.

LaRue Environmental Exercises – A collection of environmental exercises aimed at ESL learners. This site includes both reading and listening activities dealing with waste and recycling.

Many of the materials fit US national standards and free registration is required to access the downloadable curricula.

via the World 727 email list

1. The Learner as Ethnographer
2. Cultural Values and Attitudes
3. Challenging Stereotypes
4. Critical Readings of Culture
5. The Media

I like the fact that the authors’ treat the students as researchers. I have had luck with that approach in my own teaching. Check out the activities, and let the authors know what you think.

via IATEFL GISIG

via the World 727 email list

I start by introducing a roleplay in which students were asked to imagine what they would do if their boss pressured them to do something illegal or dishonest. As an example, I told them a story about a student at another university who worked as a tour guide over the summer. His boss asked him to tell customers that the river they were visiting was clean and safe to drink from, despite the fact that it wasn’t. The guide did as he was told, even though he refused to drink the water himself.

Next, I talk briefly about how I handled a textbook dialog about Tiananmen Square.

I then discuss several textbooks that I have used bring global issues and activism into my English classes.

	In the Global Classroom is a great book full of activities that could be used with language learners. The activities cover the whole variety of language skills are a wide range of issues.
For writing classes, Reading, Writing, and Rising Up has some great ideas, mainly using poetry and personal essays. It has a lot of student writing in it, which could be really engaging for English learners. Here is a review I wrote of it as part of my MA degree.
	Rethinking Globalization is another interesting book from Rethinking Schools. It is full of readings and other activities introducing some of the difficulties associated with globalization. I really like the materials, but a lot of the readings are probably too difficult for most language learners.
The Future of the Earth is a neat way to give students a quick overview of a wide variety of issues. It is a coffee table book of aerial photographs showing natural disasters, war, pollution and other global issues. Each photo is accompanied by a few paragraphs of information on the issue, including some interesting statistics.
	I also briefly mention two ESL-specific global issues books: Global Issues (RBT) and Linking Language and the Environment The former is a short book with a collection of handouts and activities, while the latter is an interesting book for teachers interested in bringing environmental language activities into their classroom.

In this week’s podcast, I talk about oral English week, a special week at my college where students have English classes all day long. I talk about the methods that are being used, and the exams that are being given. In doing so, I try to shed a little light on what it is like to be an English teacher at a college in China.

I then mention this review by Alex Case of the book Taboos and Issues. It sounds like a book I’d like to check out, bringing a lot of controversial topics into the language classroom. Alex has an interesting and active blog (TEFLtastic) over at TEFL.net. There’s another review of the book here.

Eventually, I’d like to put a textbook review section up on the website, so if you know of any good ones, let me know.

I also mention Mozy, a free online backup service that I just started using.

The interview with Kira about her secondhand gift exchange is still forthcoming but, in the meantime, the activity has been updated with new information and materials.

Finally, I talk about our plan to have a meeting for ESL / EFL teachers interested in global issues using PalTalk. The way we’re thinking about it right now, we’d basically get together once a month or so (using the voice / text chat capabilities of PalTalk) and talk about materials, articles, teaching techniques and so on. Between meetings, we could use an email list or message board to share materials and other readings. Please email me if you’re interested, and I’ll keep you up to date. The first meeting will happen in September at the earliest.

If you’d like to subscribe to the podcast, here is the feed: podcast feed: feeds.feedburner.com/ESLetc/

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or want to share some ideas of your own.