I recently attended a webinar by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. The webinar introduced some new teaching materials aimed at helping students understand how they could take productive actions related to climate change. I like this approach, as I’ve found in my own teaching that simply teaching about problems can […]
Entries Tagged as 'global issues activities'
Beyond Doom and Gloom: Including Solutions to Climate Change
March 23rd, 2017 · No Comments
Tags: climate change · global issues activities · lesson plans · listening · reading · slideshow · video
Quick Activity About Privilege
November 24th, 2014 · No Comments
This is a great (and quick) activity to highlight how privilege works, and how it can be largely invisible to those who enjoy it. The short version: Students are instructed to ball up a sheet of paper. Next, the teacher puts the recycling bin in the front of the classroom, and tells them that, in […]
Tags: blog · global issues activities · 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
New Internationalist Easier English Wiki – Update
July 7th, 2014 · 1 Comment
I first posted about the New Internationalist Easier English Wiki about a year and a half ago. Since then, they’ve added a lot of great materials to their site. The New Internationalist is a magazine focused on promoting global justice and, through their easier English wiki, they make articles more accessible to English language learners […]
Tags: blog · climate change · consumerism · cultural issues · environmental justice · fair trade · finance · food and hunger · global issues activities · global issues resources · human rights · infographics · lesson plans · peace and war · politics · poverty & wealth · protests · the environment
The Myth of Human Progress and the Collapse of Complex Societies
May 1st, 2014 · 1 Comment
This transcript of a speech given by journalist Chris Hedges offers a very powerful look at our current state of affairs. The introduction of the article draws parallels between our self-destructive path and the novel Moby Dick, which opens the door to using this article as part of a unit on literature, as well as […]
Tags: art as activism · climate change · consumerism · finance · financial crisis (2008) · global issues activities · history · listening · natural disasters · poverty & wealth · reading · the environment · video
The #GlobalPOV Project
April 18th, 2014 · No Comments
The #GlobalPOV Project is an initiative by the Blum Center at the University of California, Berkeley that addresses poverty and inequality through innovative digital media. Their videos are extremely visual, and are thus a good way to communicate complex ideas to English language learners. As an example, “Can Experts Solve Poverty?” would be a great […]
Tags: blog · fair trade · global issues activities · poverty & wealth · video · visual aids
TESOL 2014 – Fostering Sustainability: Bringing the Environment into the Language Classroom
March 27th, 2014 · 1 Comment
This session is the first of two offered this year by the TESOL Environmental Responsibility Forum. If you’re a TESOL member and you would like to join the forum, please email me your name and member ID and I’ll add you to our list. In this session, eight presenters shared activities for bringing the environment […]
Tags: blog · global issues activities · TESOL 2014 · TESOL Environmental Responsibility Forum · the environment
Dale Hansen on Michael Sam Coming Out
February 25th, 2014 · 2 Comments
Michael Sam, a University of Missouri student who is expected to be drafted in the NFL, recently came out. Public reaction has been mixed, with some NFL personnel saying that they wouldn’t be comfortable having a gay player in the locker room. This video, featuring Dallas sportscaster Dale Hansen, offers a powerful response to these […]
Tags: global issues activities · LGBT Issues · listening · video
Valentine’s Day activity from Teaching Tolerance
February 6th, 2014 · No Comments
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 […]
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