Infonews n°298 from 18/02/2007

A la Une this week, discover some online games for American children, and then some flash card to trains children to remember words. In the secondary school section, find this week a page suggesting activities for each day of the month, a rather comprehensive page about bullying with testimonies and links, a complex page about dress code and gangs, and some new resources for Black history month, including the remarkable work of our colleagues who managed to adapt English subtitles to the video of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech. Further down find three sites for vocational or technical students, concerning mobile phones, catering and fashion, followed by two sites full of resources for math, physics and biology teachers. At the end of the letter, three sites for advanced students, about prohibiting English words in French language, organizing sensible the use of new fuel and cars to reduce pollution, and designing.

I'll be on holidays at the end of next week, and for the following two weeks, so you'll receive Infonews n°299 on March 18th.

Until then, enjoy your holidays too!

Christine Reymond

Sommaire

A la Une : online games

Enlighten Me!
- Solve the mystery
- Download guide books
Activities from the US Mint

Resources for Primary School

Dolch sight word flash cards

Resources for Secondary School

Daily teaching ideas and essay prompts (from The Classroom Flyer, Thursday, February 15th)
Why Kids are Afraid to stand up to Bullies (from Educational CyberPlayGround K12)
Dress Codes, Character Education, Recommended Resources (from Educational CyberPlayGround K12)
Resources on Black History month
'I have a dream" with subtitles

Resources for Vocational Schools

New recyclable mobiles
Video exercises about catering
British Vogue Fashion Shows (from [LII New This Week] February 15)

English to Teach Another Subject (DNL)

Virtual Courseware in Sciences (from The Scout Report -- February 16)
Online Mathematics Textbooks (from The Scout Report -- February 16)

Resources for advanced students

English words in French language
Ending Oil Dependence (from The Scout Report -- February 16)
Educator Resource Center from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (from The Scout Report -- February 16)

Teaching Practice

Conférence sur le CECRL de M.Goulier à Reims
Appel à contribution de l'APLV


A la Une : online games

Enlighten Me!

I explored this site for young US children, and selected two activities, an online mystery to solve, and three books to download. You can invite your students to visit them on their own, or do it as a whole class activity with an overhead projector.
http://www.superpages.com/enlightenme/

- Solve the mystery
The mysteries are rather long to solve, and there are many characters, but our students like online game, so they may get really involved. You can hear some of the pages as you read them. There are 8 different mysteries to solve, but they all take place in the same town, so players have access to all the characters each time. To solve the mystery, their first task is to choose who is relevant and who is not. Then they select the phone number of one character and call him : you can then read the answer which contains a clue...
have fun!
http://www.enlightenme.com/enlightenme/superthinkers/pages/selectmystery.html?name=d

- Download guide books
Download or just read online these books which explain in easy English how to make a book, a movie or a jigsaw puzzle. Those guidelines will help children make their own creation, but there are no programs to make them online : the books and puzzles are handicraft made on paper and cardboard, and the film is real one, made with a video camera and edited on an "easy to use" editing program (no program is recommended). Those books are meant for US under-tens, but you can study them with lower intermediate students or adapt the ideas for older students.
http://www.superpages.com/enlightenme/superthinkers/pages/book.html?

Activities from the US Mint

The US Mint offers several online games and activities for children.
http://www.usmint.gov/kids/
Some games are very basic and uninteresting, but some others contain interesting information (a coin memory game, find out which president is on the coin) although some of those might be a bit difficult for lower intermediate students (time machine) . As always, there is a big gap between the games (dress the soldier, catch the balls, etc.) and the content of the games, such as information about how many copper coins you needed to make a silver during the secession war (after all, it's the site of the Mint!) or how many time Washington crossed a state... explore the site and find out for yourself:
Coin memory game
http://www.usmint.gov/kids/games/coinMemoryGame/
Identify the presidents
http://www.usmint.gov/kids/games/presidentialPortraits/
Time machine
http://www.usmint.gov/kids/timeMachine/
Lesson plans (that you can link to president's day)
http://www.usmint.gov/kids/teachers/lessonPlans/
Resources for Presidents' Day
http://www.usmint.gov/kids/
Cartoon : birth of a coin (without sound, unfortunately!)
http://www.usmint.gov/kids/cartoons/birthOfACoin/

Resources for Primary School

Dolch sight word flash cards

What is this method? "The Dolch words are the 220 most frequently found words. Students who learn these words have a good base for beginning reading. Many of these words cannot be sounded out because they do not follow decoding rules. These words must be learned as sight words." (quotation from the second site below).
"Use the first link underneath for the Dolch word list on printable flash cards. The 2nd link offers a beautifully illustrated word list, also on printable flash cards, while the last link provides a pre-test vocabulary quiz along with numerous flash cards." ( from The Classroom Flyer, Tuesday, February 13th)
http://www.kizclub.com/teachers/sightword.pdf
http://www.janbrett.com/games/flash_card_dolch_word_list_main.htm
http://www.mrsperkins.com/dolch.htm
[ this seems to be based on the global reading and memorizing of words....we know it is no longer allowed in French schools to learn how to read and write French, but I don't think there is any regulation concerning English...or is there? ;) ]

Resources for Secondary School

Daily teaching ideas and essay prompts (from The Classroom Flyer, Thursday, February 15th)

This interactive calendar offers ideas for each day of the month : what happened on that day, a quote of the day, and several essay prompts for all levels. A page to bookmark!
http://www.everydayteaching.com/

Why Kids are Afraid to stand up to Bullies (from Educational CyberPlayGround K12)

http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/safe.html
Ken Rigby and Bruce Johnson's research document bullying at schools; and children serve as passive bystanders to bullying. Why don't they intervene and when it's appropriate for them to do so?
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/greatergood/current_issue/rigbyjohnson.html
[ with videos, links and students who explain what they felt. for intermediate students.]

Dress Codes, Character Education, Recommended Resources (from Educational CyberPlayGround K12)

Bastards of the Party: The Evolution of Bangin'
It documents how the CRIPS and Bloods emerged from the ashes of the Black Panther Party and how the closing of the 14 largest factories in the LA area took the hope of unskilled workers and handed it over to offshore drug dealers and onshore programs that kept money for counseling/intervention for themselves and was used as an excuse for class division along racial lines.
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/dresscode.html
[ these documents are not meant for students' use, and are rather difficult to read, but the information and the links are worthwhile : they examin the topic of dress code in depth and from all perspective, including historical.]

Resources on Black History month

Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer offers a lot of interesting and useful resources in its newsletter from February 16th. Just have a look there and make your choice:
http://www.riverdeep.net/portal/page?_pageid=338,1&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL#3

'I have a dream" with subtitles

Our colleagues Yvan Baptiste and Laurence Bernard have worked a lot to produce this online version of MLK's famous speech, with English subtitles appearing at the right moment all along. Congratulations!
http://www.absolutenglish.org/file/smil/mlkstreamsmil/ihaveadream.smil
Another colleague, Séverine Magnin, has put online the worksheet she made for her students to help them understand the text (use it with the subtitles for very weak students, but this worksheet is more efficient with the video without subtitles)
http://perso.orange.fr/ririne2/1erelv1/i-have-a-dream-co.pdf

Resources for Vocational Schools

New recyclable mobiles

On e-teach, Sylviane Vialaneix recommends Antenna, this online exhibition from the London Science Museum:
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/
You can for example discover everything about recycling mobile phones in Dead Ringers. The game is uninteresting, but the various information are fascinating : do you know that we will soon compost our mobiles, battery included?
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/deadringers/
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/deadringers/blingbling/146.asp
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/deadringers/phoney/122.asp
The site offers several small articles, each about a specific topic. You can invite your students to visit this site from the computer room, and then report their findings to the class, or hand you a written report.
*** And there are also some audio files with interviews of users. You see the person, hear his or hear words and you can also read it. Short and useful to train students to aural comprehension!
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/deadringers/voxpops/index.asp

Video exercises about catering

Our colleague jean Le Mauff has made for his catering students several hot potatoes exercises based on videos. They can also be used by other type of students, because many of them can get interested in learning about the tasks of a bartender or a fast food cook...
http://lemauff.jean.free.fr/catering/

British Vogue Fashion Shows (from [LII New This Week] February 15)

Photos from the fashion shows of major fashion designers in London, Paris, Milan, and New York. Includes news updates and photos from key collections of women's ready-to-wear and menswear back to the autumn/winter 2001-2002 season. From British Vogue.
http://www.vogue.co.uk/Shows/
[ there is also a 'celebrity' section
http://www.vogue.co.uk/Gallery/Baftas_2007/Default.html
and a blog section called 'Camilla says...' with Camilla Morton's impression on the last shows, parties or other events going on. It is too difficult to understand for even upper intermediate students, but teachers may find there interesting information and useful links to other sites.
http://www.vogue.co.uk/blog/camilla-says/

English to Teach Another Subject (DNL)

Virtual Courseware in Sciences (from The Scout Report -- February 16)

As part of a collaborative project between faculty members at the California State University-Los Angeles and the National Science Foundation, the Virtual Courseware website brings together a number of thematic instructional resources for science educators. Some of the resources include activities that deal with earthquakes and global warming. Within each
module, visitors will find a number of self-guided tutorials and explanatory materials for instructors to use in their classrooms. One real gem here is the “Virtual Dating” section, as students and educators will get the opportunity to learn how geologists and archaeologists determine the ages of rocks and ancient artifacts. The site also makes the module on earthquakes available in Spanish, titled “Terremoto”. With a mix of activities, assessment exercises, and instructor materials, this website will be a great find for science teachers working with college or high school students. [KMG]
http://www.sciencecourseware.org/eecindex.php
http://www.sciencecourseware.org/eec_main.html
[ interesting for all autonomous transcurricular tasks (TPE) or for teachers who teach physics, biology or geography in English. From the home page about "global warming" click on "tutorials" and then choose whichever interests you. I found "greenhouse effect' and carbon cycle' especially well made and convincing:
http://www.sciencecourseware.org/eec/GlobalWarming/ ]

Online Mathematics Textbooks (from The Scout Report -- February 16)

More and more instructional materials in the field of mathematics can be found online today, though for several years, it was difficult to find high-quality textbooks in their entirety. Fortunately Professor George Cain of the Georgia Institute of Technology has created this website to remedy that situation. As Professor Cain notes on his site, “The writing of textbooks and making them freely available on the web is an idea whose time has arrived.” Here he offers links to sixty-five different textbooks, including those that deal with multivariable calculus and several introductory texts on probability. Overall, the site is a fine resource, and it will be of use to both budding math scholars and those who teach them. [KMG]
http://www.math.gatech.edu/~cain/textbooks/onlinebooks.html
[ an impressive and precious resource for those who teach math in English : free textbooks online!]

Resources for advanced students

English words in French language

Advanced students will enjoy discussing this text, presenting a French MP who wants to ban all English words, like web, business or newsletter from the French language. Read the text and listen to his interview (in English, of course!). I suppose students will react to phrases like : "we French have been imperialists long before them" !
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/2007/02/070209_frangliase.shtml
You can download the transcript, the audio file, and access other articles on the same topic.

Ending Oil Dependence (from The Scout Report -- February 16)

Concerns about the United States’ dependence on oil are nothing new, and various policy solutions have been around for decades. A number of scholars and experts have been attempting to address the subject, and one recent paper from The Brookings Institution offers a number of thoughtful ideas on this important concern. Released in January 2007, this 25-page paper written by David B. Sandalow offers a number of ambitious proposals aimed at reducing oil dependency in the US. Some of his proposals will sound familiar, as he includes references to the inherent possibilities in widespread adoption of biofuels, the adoption of smart growth policies, and the potential benefits of plug-in hybrid engines. Sandalow also offers some more specific details on how the auto fleet might be transformed over time, and also how the fuel supply might be transformed as well. It’s a thoughtful work, and one that will be of interest to policy analysts and others who are concerned with this vexing issue. [KMG]
http://www.brookings.edu/views/papers/fellows/sandalow20070122.pdf
[ very comprehensive report offering real solutions in all the fields : the auto fleet, the fuel supply and the protection of the environment.]

Educator Resource Center from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (from The Scout Report -- February 16)

The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum has come up with a new resource for educators that go beyond a number of the traditional disciplinary boundaries. With interactive modules and learning activities that place a premium on inquiry and project-based learning and critical thinking skills, these resources make it easy to see how architecture, graphic, and media design can enhance the teaching of subjects that include mathematics, language arts, and environmental studies. These resources are designed for use by grades K-12, and visitors can search all of the lesson plans by subject or grade. The “Resources” section also contains links to external resources, curriculum guides, and videos from public programs. Additionally, educators can also offer their own ratings and assessments of the various educational materials they find on the site. [KMG]
http://www.educatorresourcecenter.org/
[ for teachers and advanced students in design, more orientated towards clothing or environmental design (not industrial design). You can find lesson plans and videos, but the videos are mainly for educators and are actually videotaped conferences (university level)
http://www.cooperhewitt.org/EDU/ ]

Teaching Practice

Conférence sur le CECRL de M.Goulier à Reims

Emmanuelle Bogé nous informe que la conférence sur le CECR donnée par Francis Goulier à Reims en Septembre dernier est en ligne. Vous pouvez voir un résumé ou la vidéo complète découpée et organisée sous formes de questions auxquelles il apporte des réponses.
http://www.ac-reims.fr/datice/langetrangeres/cecr_portfolio/cecr.htm
[ la page propose aussi des liens pour aller plus loin.]

Appel à contribution de l'APLV

Les « Langues Modernes » lancent un appel à contributions :
"Le Cadre européen commun de référence pour les langues et le Portfolio européen des langues : où en est-on ?"

Lire les détails sur le site de l'APLV-Langues Modernes
http://www.aplv-languesmodernes.org/article.php3?id_article=245


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