Infonews n°326 from 02/03/2008
Budget travel resources for travellers in Europe
How can you use it in class?
NYT Article and lesson plan
One page of the comic book
Debating about the book
Special days and events in March
Women's History
Women's scientists (from [LII New This Week] February 28)
Council of Women World Leaders (from [LII New This Week] February 28)
St Patrick's Day
Beware of riling France's President
For US News : videos and transcript
"The moment art changed for ever"
Songs to Learn
Phonetics in Posters
Who are you thinking of?
Sayansi : sustainable development game
Ralf Nader : An Unreasonable Man (from [LII New This Week] February 28)
Organ donation
Expressions and their equivalents
Music : UK Garage, Flowers
Cyberfax ! Devenez critiques de cinéma
APLV : enquête sur le DNB
2008, International Year of Languages (from [LII New This Week] February 28)
Budget travel resources for travellers in Europe
[LII New This Week] from February 28 recommends this site is a "budget
travel resource aiming to help make travelers' time in Europe affordable and
memorable. [It offers] professionally written budget travel advice and recommendations
written by [a] team of seasoned travel writers," and has an emphasis on
reviews of budget hotels. Also includes information about European transportation,
city guides for over a dozen cities, and a budget travel blog.
http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/25492
http://www.eurocheapo.com/features/cityguides.php
Don't stop too soon, it isn't just a hotel finder : this site (and especially
the city guides) offers budget tips (I don't know why New York is there...),
and advices about how to get around and where to stay for a reasonable price.
How can you use it in class?
This sight can be the starting point for virtual trips. Invite your students
to choose their destination, and then decide what they will see, where they
will eat, how they will get around, and manage the budget you decide for all
of them. Then they will present their planning to the class, and the class
will give prices : the cheapest, the most culturally interesting, the most
unusual, etc.
You can complement this site with other online city guides like this one
http://www.cityguide.travel-guides.com/city/
NYT Article and lesson plan
The NYT offers a lesson plan called: "Drawing on History : Analyzing
the Use of Graphic Novels and Comic Books to Study History and Literature".
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20080229friday.html
based on the article : "No Laughs, No Thrills, and Villains All Too Real" written
by Mickael Kimmelman onFebruary 29, 2008, presenting a comic book in which
an old lady tells the story of her life during the holocaust to her grand son.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/books/27holocaust.html?_r=1&oref=slogin (with
illustrations)
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/20080229friday.html
One page of the comic book
You can download one page of the comic book in English ( with the policeman
who gives Esther the choice of staying or joining her parents)
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/02/26/arts/27holo_ca2ready.html
Debating about the book
More about the book, from the Boston news, the Telegraph and Deutsche Welle
(in English). You could plan to give those articles to your students according
to their level : students level A2 or lower can read the page from the comic,
students level A2/B1 can read the first two articles, and the more advanced
can read the article from Deutsche Welle which is longer and more complex,
but an excellent basis to start a debate.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2008/02/01/germany_launches_comic_book_on_holocaust/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/01/wholocaust101.xml
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3102723,00.html
Read also this article from Australian newspaper Sunday Mail "Cartoon
Hitler to teach German Children forgotten history"
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23147815-5013016,00.html
Special days and events in March
Sue Lebeau is a teacher trainer for primary and lower secondary school in
New Jersey, US. She has prepared this page about special days and events and
several links for each. For March, follow the links for Women's history (the
whole month), Dr Seuss Birthday (March 2nd) , Alexander Graham Bell's Birthday
(March 3rd), international women's day (March 8th), Einstein's birthday (March
14th), and St Patrck's day (March 17th).
http://www.suelebeau.com/march.htm
Women's History
[LII New This Week] from February 28 suggests this site with lesson plans
for the whole month : for example the role of the first ladies in the White
House, or the battle for voting rights. (level B1 and above)
http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/25518
http://edsitement.neh.gov/tab_lesson.asp?subjectArea=3&subcategory=27
Women's scientists (from [LII New This Week] February 28)
I Was Wondering ... A Curious Look at Women's Adventures in Science
This site, inspired by a biography series for middle-school-aged students,
is "intended to showcase the accomplishments of contemporary women in
science and to highlight for young people the varied and intriguing careers
of some of today's most prominent scientists." Features background and
suggested experiments related to 10 recent women scientists (such as a robot
designer, gene hunter, and space geologist). Includes links to related sites.
From the National Academies.
http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/25472
http://iwaswondering.com/
[ attractive sight, with audio features and interesting information, like the
presentation of the woman who invented the robot Kismet.]
Council of Women World Leaders (from [LII New This Week] February 28)
The goal of this "network of current and former women presidents and
prime ministers" is "to promote good governance and enhance the experience
of democracy globally by increasing the number, effectiveness, and visibility
of women who lead at the highest levels in their countries." Includes
a members list and descriptions of initiatives in the areas of health, environment,
and education. (Some areas of site are under construction.)
http://www.womenworldleaders.org
[ you can also work from the list of the members and invite your students to
present each of them and what they did.]
http://www.womenworldleaders.org/members
St Patrick's Day
On e-teach, Yoann Panier recommends this page from the BBc and the British
Council about St Patrick.
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/plans/patrick/patrick.shtml
Beware of riling France's President
This article from this week's Time magazine comments the last words of Mr
Sarkozy : his insult to a man who "rebuffed [him] during a round of glad-handing".
In the article you can read that his blunt speech is now qualified as
"intemperate, belligerent and undignified". Read also at the end
his suggestion about how to teach the Holocaust.
This article can help us go through the vocabulary used to describe those events.
In the title I discovered "rile" ( close to "roil") explained
by the Webster as irritate, upset, disturb.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1716957,00.html
For US News : videos and transcript
On e-teach, Yoann Panier reminds us of this special feature for teachers on
CNN : the news, simplified and explained, plus quizzes, and also the full transcript
online for seven days on the site.
http://edition.cnn.com/studentnews/
You can easily download the video with download helper, an add on to Firefox.
http://www.downloadhelper.net/
"The moment art changed for ever"
If you happen to go to London, may be you'll like the new exhibition at the
Tate Modern presenting rather unsettling works of art by Marcel Duchamp, Man
Ray and Francis Picabia who "were at the cutting edge of art in the first
half of the twentieth century, and made a lasting impression on modern and
contemporary art. Duchamp invented the concept of the ‘readymade’: presenting
an everyday object as an artwork, Man Ray pioneered avant-garde photographic
and film techniques and Picabia’s use of kitsch, popular or low-brow imagery
in his paintings undermined artistic conventions.
Their shared outlook on life and art, with a taste for jokes, irony and the
erotic, forged a friendship that provided support and inspiration. At the heart
of the Dada movement and moving in the same artistic circles, they discussed
ideas and collaborated, echoing and responding to each other’s works. Duchamp,
Man Ray, Picabia explores their affinities and parallels, uncovering a shared
approach to questioning the nature of art." (from the site of the exhibition)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/duchampmanraypicabia/explore.shtm
You can also read this review of the exhibition in Time Magazine: "Marcel
Duchamp, anything goes"
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1717550,00.html
You could use those sites to prepare a unit about modern art for students level
B1+ at least, interested in art or in debating. This unit could lead to a presentation
of different artists to compare their styles, followed by a debate about what
is art, how far can an artist go, and so on.
About other artists, here are some suggestions:
Basquiat http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1039743,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-bottom
Roy Lichtenstein (who also painted the Cathedral of Rouen)
http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/exhib_detail.asp?id=172
http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org/
pages for teachers and students from the Whitney Museum in New York
http://whitney.org/learning/
and pages from the MOMA in New York (with the online exhibition, games for
primary school or high school students (RED), and resources for teachers (Modern
teachers)
http://www.moma.org/education/multimedia.html
Wikipedia's page about modern art, with useful links :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_art
Songs to Learn
To a colleague asking for easy songs or activities to learn prepositions,
Michelle Henry replied by pointing at her thematic pages and the page about "there
is/are"
http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/enseign/anglais/Henry/maison2b.htm#homesong
http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/enseign/anglais/Henry/there.htm#song
Discover all the stunning resources she found, interactive, dynamic and motivating!
Phonetics in Posters
On e-teach, our colleague Yoann Panier shares with us a page from the BBC
and the British Council's excellent site "Teaching English"
offering for free "A4 size classroom posters of phonemic symbols with
examples" to download. A good idea to decorate the class and always have
to signs at hand:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/download/phonemes.shtml
Who are you thinking of?
Christine Minetto reported on e-teach that she had just found this interactive
game where students could practice understanding questions. She tried Sherlock
holmes, and it worked. I was thinking of Eminem, but I answered yes by mistake
to the question about whether his skin color was black, so I got 50 cents.
If you plan to organise a guessing game of this type in class with students
level A2, this site could help students find questions, as long as they understand
that they accept to go beyond the game itself.
http://www.akinator.com/aki_en/index.html
Sayansi : sustainable development game
Thot recommends this game in French and English, resembling the strategy
games our students know so well. The game here consists in organising life
on an island after a disaster destroyed everything. For students level A2 and
above.
http://thot.cursus.edu/rubrique.asp?no=27334
Ralf Nader : An Unreasonable Man (from [LII New This Week] February 28)
Companion website to a 2007 Independent Lens documentary about consumer activist
and politician Ralph Nader. Website features cover Nader's life and career,
legislation attributed to Nader's work (such as the Motor Vehicle Safety Act,
Consumer Product Safety Act, and Whistleblower Protection Act), the state of
democracy in the U.S., presidential candidacy, and related material. Includes
a large collection of related links. From Independent Television Service (ITVS).
http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/25545
Organ donation
Michelle Henry, our marvellous colleague from Nancy Metz, has prepared a
page of links to documents, facts, pictures, animations, games and activities
about this very touchy subject, upon which I think students should have reflected
at least once in their life. There are also some useful material for a debate,
level A2 and above.
http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/enseign/anglais/Henry/organ.htm
Expressions and their equivalents
On eTeachNet, Isabelle Destat recommends this site that she found in "le
Monde de l'éducation". This site was designed by the "Centre collégial
de développement de matériel didactique" in Canada. [ You can use the
index to browse the site by language (French, English and Spanish), category
(nature, animal, anatomy, etc.) or enter a word and you get the expression,
with an explanation written and read aloud, and you can also get its equivalent
in another language.
http://www.ccdmd.qc.ca/ri/expressions/
Or you can use the activity section, which contains cartoons illustrating some
expressions (on the theme of the circus, and some are more efficient than others),
and several exercises like riddles, fill in the blank or matching. This could
help students level A2 and above memorize those expressions, or discover some
fun expressions.]
Music : UK Garage, Flowers
BBC Learning English features this article about a music style: Uk Garage,
with a comprehension quiz, an interview, a reflection on the words.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/multimedia/musicdirectory/ukgarageindex.shtml
You can also listen to people giving their opinion on an extract from "Flowers" by "Sweet
Female Attitude". Then you can hear the audio on their My Space profile:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=167899210
or see the video on You Tube (here a stick men film explaining the lyrics)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWKf6R0qjFc
and here are the lyrics for Flowers
http://www.anysonglyrics.com/lyrics/s/sweetfemale/flowers.htm
Cyberfax ! Devenez critiques de cinéma
"Le 4 avril, Cyberfax !, le magazine junior international sur le web
lancé par le CLEMI, consacrera un numéro spécial au cinéma. Ecoliers, collégiens
et lycéens de tous pays sont invités à
venir dire leur amour du cinéma, à témoigner de leurs pratiques de cinéphiles
et à proposer leurs critiques de films. De janvier à avril, regardez les films
et le monde du cinéma comme un critique cinématographique.
Les articles devront être envoyés du 2 au 4 avril 2008. " (info présentée
sur le site de l'APLV, du Clemi et du collège organisateur.)
http://www.aplv-languesmodernes.org/spip.php?article1502
http://www.clemi.org/fax/calcyberfax.html
http://www.clg-mignet.ac-aix-marseille.fr/cyber_cinema/
[ Participez à ce nouveau projet coordonné par Roland Camboulives qui a animé des
Printemps de l'Europe et d'autres projets européens.]
APLV : enquête sur le DNB
"Suite à l'enquête organisée par l'APLV les documents suivants viennent
d'être mis en ligne :
1) une synthèse des réponses ;
2) une analyse de cette synthèse ;
3) des "propositions" aux fins de concertation et d’action commune
avec les autres associations et syndicats ;
http://www.aplv-languesmodernes.org/spip.php?article1555
Il est possible d'intervenir sur ce sujet grâce au forum attaché à cet article
(cliquer sur "répondre à" en bas de l'article)"
(message de l'APLV : )
2008, International Year of Languages (from [LII New This Week] February 28)
Website for this 2008 United Nations program "to promote and protect
all languages, particularly endangered languages, in all individual and collective
contexts." The site provides a list of programs arranged by theme (such
as the endangered languages of Hawrami Kurdish and Bakthiari from Iran and
intercultural dialog) or by geographical outreach. Also includes articles from
a UNESCO publication and related material. From the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/25513
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lycée Blaise Pascal, Rouen, France
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