Infonews n°200 du 30/11/2003

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Sommaire
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First, let me thank you for supporting me all these years, and
reading Infonews every week : for you and with your help, I've reached
n°200 in 6 years, and you are now 800 members, from all over the
world....and you all seem to like it so much that I really feel like going
on! ;)
A la Une this week, everything to prepare a week-end in London
or a virtual visit : discover a super online unit from the BBC, and several
sites of webquests. As Christmas is coming, find here a list of other
celebrations which also take place in December. Then find resources for
teachers : charities for Christmas time, poems, a site of signs in New York
and a site about the Kennedys by CBS. Then three sites about safety, the
new SAES site for teaching exams, where to register for Spring Day 2004,
and ideas and tips to organise an efficient correspondence.
Have a nice week!
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Sommaire
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A la Une : Visit London
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Welcome to London (from BBC)
online webquests
- From colleagues in France
- From One Stop English
- From the US
- From other ESL teachers in the world
- for a business trip to London
- to widen the search
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Holidays in December
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- Advent (dec 1st to dec 24th)
- Saint Nicholas (Christian, north of Europe, dec 6th)
- Bodhi day (Boudhist, dec 8th)
- Human rights Day and "1000 Lamp Mandala Ceremony" (dec 10th)
- Saint Lucia ( Sweden, dec 13th)
- Hannukah, Chanukah ( Jewish, dec 19th to 26th)
- Christmas
- Kwanzaa (African American, dec 26 to jan 1st)
- Ramadan
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Resources for teachers
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Charities
Teacher Xpress
How-to-write-poetry Class (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer,November 28th)
The Kennedys ([LIIWEEK] November 27)
Favourite Poem
New York City signs (from The Scout Report -- November 26)
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Safety
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Holiday fire safety
Toy safety
Food safety
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Teaching Practice
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Finding correspondents
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Concours
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Site SAES
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Project
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Spring day 2004 is on its way!


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A la Une : Visit London
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Welcome to London ( discovered by Sarah Rapnouil from e-teach)
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Discover this online course from the BBC.
"Welcome to London' is an intermediate English language course allowing
users to practise their reading, listening and pronunciation skills. It
follows two characters, John and Fiona, through a series of situations as
they arrive and settle down in the city.So, if you are coming to visit, or
live, in London or you want to find out more about what the city has to
offer - then this course may be for you. " (from the site)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/multimedia/london/index.shtml
This flash course is made of 6 units. In each, you find short texts to
listen to, interactive exercises, texts to read with a comprehension
exercise, and even a "speak" section, where you can practice specific
sounds. in the first unit, they will reflect on, the schwa sound:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/multimedia/london/unit1/speak1.shtml
It includes the main topics your students need to be able to talk about
when they come to London : transports, hotel, shopping, going out, etc.
The dialogues are short, and can be practiced by students who have already
learnt English for two or three years (à partir de la 4ème).

If you want to make your students do a webquest to organise a week-end in
London, you can use some of these online webquests.

- From colleagues in France:
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/infonews/themes/weekendengland.htm
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/absolutenglish-972/notes/webquest/page1.htm

- From One Stop English:
http://www.onestopenglish.com/Culture/Web-Quest/webquestlon.htm
with a worksheet ready to print:
http://www.onestopenglish.com/Culture/Web-Quest/elt-webquest-pdf/elt-londonquest.pdf

and a London quiz (also ready to print), with questions about British
culture at large:
http://www.insideout.net/warehouse/worksheets/may/IO098S-londontour.pdf

- From the US:
http://www.kwhittington.homestead.com/webquest.html (from an American
elementary school, with four different roles to take : excellent!)
http://ideanet.doe.state.in.us/olr/grantprojects/BTD/webquest.html (for
American primary school)
http://www.ncs-nj.org/vain/London%20Vacation/vain_london/intro.htm (for
American 7th graders)

- From other ESL teachers in the world:
http://www.geocities.com/eimarjke/webquest/index.htm (from Finland, with an
excellent page of links to work from:
http://www.geocities.com/eimarjke/webquest/credits.htm )
http://www2.yarden.ac.il/english/oldarchives/london/new-intro.htm (from Israël)
http://weib.caib.es/Recursos/london_webquest/index.htm (from Spain)
http://212.72.50.55/engels01/ (from the Netherlands)
http://www.pronett.nl/Members/studentje/Project/Pronett%20WQTemplate%20(1%20HTML%20page)/view
(also from the Netherlands : very comprehensive.)
http://www.wagner-juergen.de/englisch/quests.htm (from Jürgen Wagner in
Germany : choose among several webquests. I loved the design of "the dungeon":
http://www.thedungeons.com/ )

- for a business trip to London (from Germany, for business students)
http://www.e4b.de/WebQuests/business_trip_WQ.html

- to widen the search : a webquest about Britain for American 5th graders,
with specific roles for Mom, Dad, the daughter and the son, and a good
assessment grid:
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~ktnelson/Webquest/

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Holidays in December
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In December, there is Christmas, of course, but also some other festivals
from different countries and religions. It might be interesting to give the
students a complete scope of what people celebrate at the time of the year.
You can find information on all Hannukah, St Lucia and kwanzaa in Infonews
n° 101 from dec 2000 (some links might be broken)
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/infonews/archives/101.htm#Festivities%20in%20December
And here are the dates and some other addresses:

- Advent (dec 1st to dec 24th)
http://www.advent-calendars.com/
http://www.earth-dancing.com/adventcalendar.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/lincolnshire/interactive/advent_calendar.shtml (with
an idea everyday)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/northamptonshire/christmas/advent/index.shtml
handicraft : how to build an advent calendar :
http://www.readersdigest.ca/christmas/decoration/kids_advent_calendar.html

- Saint Nicholas (Christian, north of Europe, dec 6th)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas

- Bodhi day (Boudhist, dec 8th)
http://67.120.246.148/traditions/columnists/chodon/buddhism/buddhism4.asp

- Human rights Day and "1000 Lamp Mandala Ceremony" (dec 10th)
http://www.religioustolerance.org/tibet_pe.htm

- Saint Lucia ( Sweden, dec 13th)
http://www.scandinavica.com/culture/tradition/lucia.htm (to read)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/10_12_01/thursday/info2.shtml (to hear)

- Hannukah, Chanukah ( Jewish, dec 19th to 26th)
http://www.etni.org.il/holidays/hannukah.htm
http://www.holidays.net/chanukah/
http://www.zigzagworld.com/draw/

- Christmas
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/infonews/themes/christmas1.htm
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/annie.gwynn/festivals.htm#Christmas
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/theixans/noel.htm/
http://www.ac-versailles.fr/pedagogi/anglais/civi/christmas.html
Gingerbread houses:
http://www.algonet.se/~bernadot/christmas/23.html
http://www.texascooking.com/features/dec2001gingerbreadhouse.htm
http://holidayorganizer.com/food/gingerbread.html (with photos and how to.)

- Kwanzaa (African American, dec 26 to jan 1st)
http://www.holidays.net/kwanzaa/

- Ramadan is now finished, but I think it is important to include it with
the other celebrations. The Scout Report offers a number of links to
discover Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr :
http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/ScoutReport/2003/scout-031126-inthenews.php#1

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Resources for teachers
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Charities
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Christmas is a time for giving. Most students in France are not used to
giving to charities or doing anything that can help others. Here is an idea
generator :
http://usaweekend.com/diffday/ideas/idea_generator.html
and here is a list of charities, suggested by Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer:
http://www.thehungersite.com
http://www.greatergood.com/newsroom/ths/FamilyHomePage.html
http://www.therainforestsite.com/
http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/
http://www.thechildhealthsite.com/
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/
http://www.dameunacasa.com/index2.html
some of these sites are "click and give" which means that students just
have to visit the site to give, they don't need to use their money, just
giving a thought can help....

Teacher Xpress
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http://www.teacherxpress.com/
a page of precious links to bookmark : links to all the newspapers, the
encyclopedia, maps and directories, and addresses of search engines to find
references (Google, Ask jeeves, Kids Click...).

How-to-write-poetry Class (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer,November 28th)
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http://www.poetryzone.ndirect.co.uk/resouce.htm
A very interesting page to make your students write poetry, from primary
school upwards. Discover different poetry genre, like limericks and so on.
Find also worksheets and brilliant ideas to link poetry with everyday life
in class by suggesting students to write poems about bullying or feelings.

The Kennedys ([LIIWEEK] November 27)
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This site is a companion to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) American
Experience program about "America's most famous political family and their
repeated pursuit of the presidency." The site includes a timeline, a family
tree, a photo gallery, and information about specific family members
and events featured in the program, such as Joseph Kennedy's relationship
with the FBI. Also includes a program transcript, teacher's guide, and
related books and sites.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/kennedys/index.html

Favourite Poem
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http://www.favoritepoem.org/
"Since its launch, the Favorite Poem Project has been dedicated to
celebrating, documenting and promoting poetry's role in Americans' lives."
You find there a poem data basis (to read)
http://www.favoritepoem.org/poems/index.html
videos of (mainly young) people reading poetry, including classics by
marvell or Frost (to hear the poems)
http://www.favoritepoem.org/thevideos/index.html
and several lesson plans for all level, starting at primary school:
http://www.favoritepoem.org/forteachers/lessonplans.html

New York City signs (from The Scout Report -- November 26)
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http://www.14to42.net/
this site allows the students to see real signs that are in the streets of
New york, like coffee shop fronts and old adverts on house walls : the
emphasis is on vintage signs, but there are some modern ones too.

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Safety
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Holiday fire safety
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about the dangers brought by Christmas trees, electric lights and candles
http://www.usfa.fema.gov/public/factsheets/holiday.shtm

Toy safety
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http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/toy_sfy.html
Some toys can kill. Find .pdf files about which toy is appropriate for
which child, and the various dangers coming from toys. Read also online the
safety shopping tips:
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/grand/toy/toysafe.html

Food safety
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http://www.foodsafety.gov/~fsg/holiday.html
discover several links, including the kids section:
http://www.foodsafety.gov/~fsg/fsgkids.html
and this food safety quiz for young children
http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/kids/html/wash__hands.htm

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Teaching Practice
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Finding correspondents
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The method I favour to learn a language with a correspondent is the Tandem
method
http://tandem.ac-rouen.fr
because of its reciprocity : each students is a native from the country of
the language the partner wants to learn, and learns the language of the
partner, so their working time is devoted equally to each of them, and they
cooperate together, helping the other and making their own decisions for
themselves.
But for it might be difficult to establish this reciprocity with some
languages, or difficult also to find partners who learn your language.
there are also some other way to correspond all in English, or work
collaboratively on a subject, using the language as a communication tool.
You will find useful information on these different methods and also
examples of what colleagues have done at these addresses:
http://ak1.apinc.org/wikini/wakka.php?wiki=CorresEL
http://www.ac-orleans-tours.fr/anglais-liens/sitecontacts/corres/cor/corres.htm
For those who are still using pen and paper and want to offer their
students a traditional letter exchange by post, you can use the People to
People site:
http://www.ptpi.org/programs/pen_pals.jsp
and they also offer correspondence through email and class exchanges.
And, of course, don't forget :
Pen Pals, where you can request for a class and present your project to
find partners:
http://www.epals.com
EUN, to find European partners for your projects, or to find a project for
your classes:
http://www.eun.org/project/patrner_found/submit_exange.cfm?cpt=1&oid=669&id_area=76&row=1&id_template=669

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Concours
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Site SAES
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Pour trouver des infos sur les concours, allez voir le site de la "Société
des Anglicistes de l'enseignement Supérieur" qui était hébergée par
l'Université de Poitiers:
http://www.mshs.univ-poitiers.fr/saes/saes.htm
et se trouve maintenant avec un tout nouveau site hébergé par l'unviersité
de Pau:
http://www.univ-pau.fr/saes/
vous y trouverez dans la rubrique "Concours" des annales, des rapports de
jury, et les instructions officielles pour l'agreg.
Et pour échanger et travailler avec des collègues, pour ne pas vous sentir
seul lors de vos préparations, n'oubliez pas le forum sur le site Agreg Ink:
http://agreg-ink.com

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Project
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Spring day 2004 is on its way!
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the first Spring Day took place last year and met a tremendous success with
over 5.000 european schools who registered. You can see the site for Spring
day 2003 at:
http://futurum-21.eun.org/index_spring.cfm
and you can also visit the site built by an Austrian colleague, Susanne
Pratscher, who was a member of the Spring Team last year and is a member of
the team organising it again this year:
http://www.univie.ac.at/Romanistik/Sprachwst/site/spratscher/
She suggests a variety of very interesting activities, including a poetry
page where your students can post their work:
http://www.univie.ac.at/Romanistik/Sprachwst/site/spratscher/vbs_myEurope_spring2004_activities.htm
if you want to take part, register now on the European Schoolnet site:
http://futurum2004.eun.org
You can also find information in the EUN news page, including a newsletter
presenting various other projects from schools in Europe:
http://futurum.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/SpringSite_News/entry_page.cfm?id_area=520
Spring Day is a wonderful opportunity for your students to discover the
European countries and talk, in English, to students from unknown eastern
countries like Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia, and even from Turkey.
Register now, and discover soon the addresses of all the other registered
schools and how to get in touch with them!

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Une compilation réalisée par :
Christine Reymond
lycée Blaise Pascal, Rouen, France
E-Mail: Christine.Reymond@ac-rouen.fr
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