ESL etc.

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I just became aware of A Young People’s History of the United States,a version of Howard Zinn’s classic targeted towards younger readers. I haven’t seen the book myself yet, but I suspect that it would work well with English learners, too.

Howard Zinn passed away on Wednesday. He is one of my favorite authors and educators, and he will certainly be missed.

Recently, Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change launched the Zinn Education Project, a collection of resources for teaching A People’s History of the United States. There are tons of great materials here for introducing issues of race, war and labor rights. I’ve used excerpts from this book in my classes over the years, and I’ve always found it to be a welcome contrast to typical history books.

The Guardian has a visual representation of the words used in Obama’s 2010 State of the Union Address, as well as visualizations of earlier States of the Union. It’s interesting to see how things have changed over time. One obvious thing is how much more “America” and “Americans” feature in recent speeches, compared to earlier days.

This could be a good way to bring the State of the Union into a political unit. You could follow up by having students make their own Wordle using some other text.

Thanks Chris

Larry Ferlazzo recently posted two Christmas themed infographics. The first focuses on the economy. The second looks at a broader range of statistics. Either (or both) could be used to introduce a variety of global issues around the holidays.

A couple of weeks ago, George Monbiot wrote the speech that Obama should give at Copenhagen. Needless to say, that speech was not given. Still, it could be used as an interesting way to bring the failed climate summit into a class. It could even be a way to practice should + have + past participle.

Perhaps it’s just the collapse of Copenhagen, but this slideshow seems quite relevant this time of year. It addresses the consequences of travel, trees, gifts and food, among other things. Strangely, though, the food section does not mention anything about eating meat.

Sorry to be a scrooge!

Thanks Larry

I just saw this photo essay looking at farming in America. It was done as a Thanksgiving piece in the New York Times, and looks at a variety of food-related issues, albeit in a fairly simple way. I like the fact that it focuses on students, though (including a neat project called The Edible Schoolyard). It is a way to introduce a variety of issues, and it comes with some nice pictures.

Eating Animals, the new book by Jonathon Safran Foer, is a very engaging, and wide ranging, look at the ethics of eating animals. He does a great job of exploring the various issues without reducing things to exaggerated extremes. He is a wonderful writer, and I think this book would be a very interesting read for advanced ESL students. One excerpt in particular I think would work well is Chapter 3 (Words / Meanings), which is set up as a glossary.

If my students were immigrants, I would also consider looking at the factory farming industry in terms of its treatment of workers, many of whom are immigrants.

Here are a bunch of quick links that I have been meaning to post for a while:

Strange Maps is a great blog that features, well, strange maps. The pictures are really interesting, and the accompanying text is usually informative. A Road Map to Success and Bridge to Nowhere: a Map of Golden Gate Jumpers are examples of maps that I think could be good class prompts. (Thanks Anne)

This infographic from the New York Times shows how different groups of American’s spend every minute of their day. It can be broken down by race, age and gender.

Here is a list of the 15 best websites to get free documentaries. (Thanks Nik)

I found this series of activities on bartering, money and community currency when I was writing about a guy that has been living without money.

Is the World Getting Better or Worse? is a great infographic that combines trends on a number of issues. Basically, it shows that things have improved for most people over the last couple of decades, with the exception of war and the environment. While this is a pretty predictable conclusion, it’s nice to have a variety of issues graphically represented in one place. My one critique is that the range of time covered is so small. Most of the trends are measured by comparing 1990 and today. I would like to see a longer view.

(Thanks Larry!)