ESL etc.

First time? Check out the site overview.

The International Network Archive at Princeton has an interesting collection of Infographics. These six “maps” depict statistical information in a variety of striking graphical ways. The one pictured here is on transportation, and I think the ones on weapons and water could also be useful in a global issues ESL class. Personally, I’m a big fan of visual prompts for speaking / writing exercises.

eslflow.com has a good-sized collection of environmental activities for the ESL / EFL classroom. Topics include climate change, pollution and transportation. The materials look to be mainly vocabulary exercises and readings. Let us know in the comments if you find any particularly good ones.

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In this podcast I talk about what I’ve been doing for the past several months. I talk a bit about my time at Dancing Rabbit, an community based around environmental sustainability with a website full of photos and articles. I also talk about two online jobs, as a tutor for TalkBean.com and as a rater for the iBt TOEFL exam.

I next talk about my new job as the Technology Coordinator for the English Language Institute at the University of South Florida. Check out the new website I’ve been working on.

Finally, I talk about a low-prep job interview discussion activity that I recently did. We began by brainstorming questions as a class, going over vocab and grammar as needed. I also taught some terms related to benefits, and also told students about certain topics (age, marital status) which were illegal to broach in America. I then had students do interviews in pairs, and wrapped up with a class discussion about “difficult” questions — What is your biggest weakness? Why did you leave your last job? etc.

The last thing I mention is a new planner made for teachers interested in social justice.

If you have any questions, or other low-prep activities that work well with all sorts of classes, please let me know.

FreePoverty is a new site similar to FreeRice. Students go through a geography quiz, with correct answers raising money for water donations to developing countries. Currently, I haven’t seen any third party validation of the site, so I’m not sure if it is legit or not. The quiz is pretty fun, though. They give you the name of a city or landmark, and you try to place it onto a world map. The closer you are, the more cups of water are donated. If it’s for real, I would certainly recommend it to my students as a way to practice country names.

via Larry Ferlazzo’s blog

“Dancing Rabbit is an ecovillage set amid the hills and prairies of rural northeastern Missouri. Our goal is to live ecologically sustainable and socially rewarding lives, and to share the skills and ideas behind that lifestyle.”

I spent three weeks at Dancing Rabbit, and had an amazing time. Folks were very welcoming, and I learned a lot about both sustainable and communal living. Their website offers a ton of resources that could be used in class for activities to do with sustainability or environmental issues.

Their newsletter is full of short articles that discuss a wide array of issues in personal ways that I believe would be engaging for students. There are also videos which introduce some techniques for sustainable living and natural building. A section of the photo tour could be useful as a discussion or writing prompt.

When I resume teaching, I am planning to use some of this material for global issues activities. One article in the latest newsletter that caught my attention is Yoga Offsets. It could be used as part of a unit on climate change or in a health and fitness class.

After my three week stay at Dancing Rabbit (which I loved) I moved to Tampa, where I will be the new technology coordinator for the English Language Institute at the University of South Florida. First order of business — redoing their website. After that, I’ll have a bit more time, and I have been informed that I can work on ESL etc. as part of my professional development. So.

I’m not sure if I will start podcasting again, but I will be taking over responsibility for TELL@ELI, an electronic newsletter featuring practical articles written by ELI teachers. Perhaps we will develop a podcast as part of that. In the past, it has had a heavy CALL focus, but I’m hoping to bring in more content-based / project-based / global issues themes. We’ll see.

“Take your TV, your DVD player, your video iPod, your XBOX 360, your laptop, your PSP, and say goodbye to them all for seven days.”

Mental Detox Week invites people to unplug for a week. Formerly known as TV Turnoff Week, it is promoted by Adbusters and makes an engaging topic for discussion and journaling activities. The Mental Detox Week website includes articles, posters, videos and links to other resources.

Coincidentally, I’m heading to Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage for a couple of weeks on the 21st, unplugging myself almost entirely.

I was just going through some files, and I found a bunch of links to ESL / EFL activities and materials that deal with global issues. Some are electronic textbooks, while others are in article form. I also added all of these to the global issues activities page in my collection of links for teachers.

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.

Time Magazine has a slideshow showing photos of 15 families alongside a week’s supply of food. Each pictures is accompanied by information about the country in which it was taken, the amount of money that the family typically spends on food per week, and a favorite recipe of two. The images are taken from the book Hungry Planet.

Either the book or the slideshow could be used as part of speaking or writing activities on issues such as food, health and wealth. For example, students could look through the pictures to find the one that most resembles their own family, and contrast it with some of the other photos.

via Larry Ferlazzo’s blog

In Feed,M. T. Anderson describes a dystopic future, in which the majority of Americans are continually online, via neural implants. The feed supplies a constant stream of advertisements and entertainment options, while keeping tabs on the users consumption patterns.

The story follows two high school students, one of whom (atypically) questions the value of the feed and follows news reports that are absent from the mainstream media. While the satire is not subtle, it is accurate and heartfelt. I really enjoyed the book and, afterwards, noticed that it was written for “young adults”. Thus, it may be appropriate for advanced English learners.

In addition to offering a chance to read about and discuss global issues in an interesting way, Feed,also features interesting language. Anderson’s characters use a variety of fictitious slang words. The roots of many of these are readily apparent, and could lead to discussions on how language changes over time.

In addition, I think students might enjoy seeing the playful, creative aspect to language. This book could lead to discussions of the fact that there isn’t an absolute right and wrong when it comes to grammar and vocabulary. At the same time, some students might get frustrated with the unfamiliar words and see no point in learning terms that don’t exist outside of the novel.