I just read this account of an English teachers experience participating in a conference session using Reacting to the Past. Reacting to the Past is an approach to teaching history and critical thinking skills using historical roleplays. From their pedagogical introduction: Reacting games last from four to fourteen class sessions, although most games are in […]
Entries Tagged as 'ESL activity'
Reacting to the Past
April 3rd, 2015 · 1 Comment
Tags: blog · books · cultural issues · ESL activity · history · human rights · lesson plans · poverty & wealth
Black Friday, Consumption, and Buy Nothing Day 2014
November 14th, 2014 · 1 Comment
As Black Friday approaches, I thought I’d share this collection of activities that Krista presented last year at a BART event. For those looking for still more ideas, here is a post from 2012 on teaching about Black Friday / Buy Nothing Day, and here is one from 2007. Target audience: EAP students, high intermediate […]
Tags: blog · Buy Nothing Day · consumerism · ESL activity · global issues activities · poverty & wealth · reading · video
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
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
BART Summer Symposium 2013 – Feeding International Students with the Language they Need
June 7th, 2013 · No Comments
I’m giving the presentation I did at TESOL this year on providing international students the food-related language they need at the BART Summer Symposium. My premise is that we focus on the language for expressing preference, describing cultural foods, and understanding recipes, despite the fact that these are not the most pressing food-related needs that […]
Tags: BART Symposium 2013 · cultural issues · ESL activity · food and hunger · global issues activities · health · presentations · reading · the environment · vegetarian / vegan
TESOL 2013 – Feeding International Students with the Language They Need
March 21st, 2013 · No Comments
Here are the materials from my TESOL presentation on giving international students the food-related language they need. My premise is that we focus on the language for expressing preference, describing cultural foods, and understanding recipes. In fact, these are not the most pressing food-related needs that our students have. I propose that food lessons should […]
Tags: blog · cultural issues · ESL activity · food and hunger · global issues activities · health · presentations · reading · the environment · vegetarian / vegan
TDD Summer 2011 Presentation – Global Issues Poetry Activity
July 20th, 2012 · No Comments
In preparation for an office move, I’ve been going through my files. I found a presentation I gave last summer that I wanted to share. It’s on a global issues themed poetry activity. I’ve done it with both intermediate and advanced students. The first iteration of this activity was done as one of the activities […]
Tags: art as activism · blog · consumerism · ESL activity · fair trade · global issues activities · greening an IEP · human rights · lesson plans · poetry · poverty & wealth · presentations · racism · reading · the environment · writing
Clean Up Your Mess: A Guide to Visual Design for Everyone
April 12th, 2011 · No Comments
Visual design is a component to many class projects. I always require a visual aid for presentations, be it a poster, powerpoint, website or something else, and even traditional research papers have an important visual element. Clean Up Your Mess is a very accessible website on the basics of visual design. As you might expect, […]
Tags: blog · ESL activity · presentation skills · visual aids · writing
TDD Summer 2010 Presentation – Creating “Safe Zones” for LGBTQ ESL Students
August 4th, 2010 · No Comments
At our last teacher development day, my wife gave a presentation on helping LGBTQ students and instructors feel comfortable and respected in our classes, and in our program as a whole. Below, you can find PDFs of the different materials she used. Her presentation was based in part on USF’s Safe Zone program. We started […]
Tags: blog · ESL activity · global issues activities · human rights · LGBT Issues · presentations · reading · vocabulary
How I Plan a Lesson
July 1st, 2010 · 3 Comments
I was recently asked in an email how I approach planning a lesson. At first, I struggled to put it into words. I don’t really think there is any one right way. For me, I usually approach lesson plans the same way I approach planning courses. I start from the big picture. What are our […]
Tags: blog · ESL activity · lesson plans · reflection · theory