Infonews n°271 du 26/03/2006

A la une this week, April Fool. Last year, I tried the mock test*** where they have to read it to the end and do nothing, and it worked! If you feel like doing something different, you will find here resources to study the history of the day, different jokes, pranks and hoaxes, and you can also read those university research papers about American humor. Primary school teachers will find interesting resources in the sites of this week : MES and Nancy-Metz. For secondary school, discover scripts for short plays, videos, grammar quizzes, a site about baseball uniforms and another about the history of London Bridge. For students in technology, here are three useful sites about how things are made. Then read the reviews about the film Truman Capote, try a quiz generator, and find ideas for teaching practice, including a very intriguing list of does and don'ts...an April Fool?
Have a nice week!

Christine Reymond

Sommaire

A la Une : April Fool's Day

Where does April Fool come from?
Quizzes and Tests
World's media plays the April Fool
Practical jokes and Pranks
Hoaxes
Links
American humor for advanced students

Resources for Primary School

MES English
Site de Nancy-Metz
Four Season Class Mural (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Friday, March 10th)

Resources for Secondary School

Reader's theater and scripts for immediate use
UK Public Information films
Grammar Quizzes
Dressed to the Nines: A History of the Baseball Uniform ( from [LII New This Week] March 9)
History of The London Bridge (from [LII New This Week] March 9)

Science and Technology

How Smart watches work
*** How Products Are Made
Instructables (from [LII New This Week] March 9)

Film : Truman Capote

Internet Tools

Quiz Maker

Teaching Practice

Take Five ( from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Wednesday, March 8th)
Inviting/disinviting comments, behavior, and signs
Teachers Network ( from The Scout Report -- March 24)


A la Une : April Fool's Day

Where does April Fool come from?

- History of the day (complete, with links)
http://www.usemb.se/Holidays/celebrate/april.html
http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/Holidays/celebrate/april.html (the same)
http://newsinjection.ihug.co.nz/April02/aprilfools.htm
http://wilstar.com/holidays/aprilfool.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aprilfools1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fool's_Day (including several hoaxes)
- Short presentations of the day
http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/society/A0804428.html
http://www.bartleby.com/65/ap/AprilFoo.html (very short!)
http://www3.kumc.edu/diversity/other/aprlfool.html
http://www.geocities.com/atine6/ ( plus vintage postcards, including this one from which you can teach may, might, etc.:
http://www.geocities.com/atine6/cards/07.jpg )
- Longer ones
http://www.snopes.com/holidays/april/aprlfool.htm
http://pressroom.hallmark.com/april_fools.html (around cards and pranks)
http://www.kidzworld.com/site/p593.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aprilfools1.html
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/aforigin.html (ancient, medieval roots, etc.)
http://www.2camels.com/destination44.php3
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/5365/fool.html (plus ideas of how to turn the prank on the kids; and learn "short sheeting"= lit en portefeuille.)
- How different countries celebrate it
http://www.calendar-updates.com/Holidays/Canada/aprilfools.htm
http://holidays.mrdonn.org/aprilfools.html
http://homepages.tesco.net/%7Ederek.berger/holidays/aprilfool.html (poems, suggestions, voc.)

Quizzes and Tests

http://homeschooling.about.com/cs/hisholidays/l/blquizholapfool.htm (about the history of the day)
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/tests/afquiz.html ( a written test : is it true or is it a hoax. real jokes from the newspapers)
http://www.quizarama.com/afanswer.php (same type, interactive)
http://www.ilovethatteachingidea.com/ideas/010402_april_fools_day_quiz.htm (a classic, how to without the text)
*** http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachingandlearning/assemblies/index.cfm?mode=searchdisplay&id=34&history=keyword (the same, with the text of the mock test)
http://www.virtualgravy.com/cards/aptest.shtml (online test : in two click, got ya!)
http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa040198.htm (spot the language mistakes. very difficult. for advanced students)

World's media plays the April Fool

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/monitoring/media_reports/1254570.stm (several stories published in the papers)
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa040201a.htm?terms=April+Fool+Gags (id, plus links)

Practical jokes and Pranks

http://www.kidzworld.com/site/p1939.htm
http://www.scatty.com/ (jokes for children, by categories, including the famous knock-knock ones...)

Hoaxes

http://www.april-fools.us/
See especially the GM carrots, or the tax on pets, there is also a list of pranks...
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/
Read about the spaghetti tree, and some other hoaxes. the top 100 hoaxes of all time.
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/virushoax.html (Urban Legends and Virus Alerts)
and when you mention hoax, don't forget to encourage your students to go and check the current hoaxes on hoaxbuster.com before they forward an alarming message to all their friends!
http://www.hoaxbuster.com/

Links

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/aprilfools/aprilfools.asp
http://www.2meta.com/april-fools/links/ (to humor sites and newspapers, etc.)
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/categories/category/April%20Fool's%20Day/ (stories of hoaxes and pranks)

American humor for advanced students

This site features a selection of essays that appeared in the journal Studies in American Humor from 1974 to 1994. Topics include Mark Twain, immigrant stereotypes 1880-1900, "Catch-22" and angry humor, Will Rogers, S. J. Perelman, and New Yorker cartoons. From a retired editor of the journal.
http://www.compedit.com

Resources for Primary School

MES English

Laure Peskine recommends this site for young ESL learners. You will find there precious resources for young ESL learners and even for intermediate students. MES stands for Mark's English School and the author is Mark Cox, an American pharmacist who moved to Japan and opened a language school. He wants to share his resources with other ESL teachers, so he grants you full permission to reproduce, copy and distribute the documents to your students. Here are some of the resources you can find there:
- free flash cards : fruit, clothes, chores, jobs, phrasal verbs, etc.
http://www.mes-english.com/flashcards.php
- the phonics section : with flash card and hand out to study specific sounds (like the silent 'e') or to memorize words and sound as is (Dolch Sight words)
http://www.mes-english.com/phonics.php
- the Virtual key Pal and projects page
http://www.mes-english.com/vkeypals.php
- for grammar discover the grammar comics
http://www.grammarmancomic.com
http://www.grammarmancomic.com/spectrelesson.html (with the comic to read online, and a lesson plan for the teacher to use it in class.)
and play the games
http://www.marks-english-school.com/games.html
I found the present perfect game disappointing : the sentence 'I haven't visited China three times' is wrong because you were supposed to select 'five times' instead of 'three'!!!!!!! But I enjoyed the preposition basketball game : the students have to wait between the questions, but it allows them to memorize or writen down the sentence;
http://www.marks-english-school.com/games/b_prepmed.html

Site de Nancy-Metz

Bookmark this site! You will find lots of resources there, but the originality is that they are ordered by objectives: counting from 1 to ten, meeting someone, asking a question and answering, quoting ten parts of the body, etc.
http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/enseign/anglais/primaire/primaire.htm#metz
Those objectives have been chosen according to the auto-evaluation grid designed by Orleans-Tours
http://www.ac-orleans-tours.fr/anglais-liens/sitepedago/primaire/evalcm.htm

Four Season Class Mural (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Friday, March 10th)

Now that the spring season is just around the corner, try this lesson plan for discussing what kinds of characteristics are associated with the season. Then brainstorm and create your own class mural, according to the directions given at this site.
http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=5624

Resources for Secondary School

Reader's theater and scripts for immediate use

Béatrice Monnier on e-teach recommends this site of free scripts for lower intermediate students. They use a simple vocabulary, the sentences are short and easy to memorize, they stories are rather for primary school children, but some older students may have fun acting them. And it is a nice way to encourage them to learn some English.
http://loiswalker.com/catalog/guidesamples.html

UK Public Information films

Jenifer Tranier discovered this page on the BBC website and recommended it on e-teach. The page features several historical public information films from the past 60 years. They are excellent teaching material, since the films have purposefully pictures redundant with the comment in the sound track. They may look old, but the messages they convey are always interesting.
Some can be used in primary school, with beginners or lower intermediates ( <http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/in_depth/uk/2006/public_information_films//nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_4740000/newsid_4744800/nb_rm_4744802.stm>Rap warns of road dangers , or <http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/in_depth/uk/2006/public_information_films//nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_4740000/newsid_4747500/nb_rm_4747544.stm>Sharing the burden of being bullied ), and even advanced students will enjoy commenting on some of those films, like the advices in case of a nuclear attack ( there is a warning siren just like during WWII and another for the "end of danger" sign, and if you were outside during the attack, remember to brush off all dust from your clothes before you go inside a building!), or the <http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/in_depth/uk/2006/public_information_films//nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_4690000/newsid_4693300/nb_rm_4693366.stm>'It won't take us long to find you' a film parody of the detective TV series of the 60s.
the page announcing the competition
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4743380.stm#competition
the page with all the films
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/in_depth/uk/2006/public_information_films/nb_rm_default.stm

Grammar Quizzes

The Internet TESL Journal features this page of grammar quizzes. Each quiz has 10 to 100 questions, Hot Potatoes style. Each question appears in turn, and you get your score immediately for this question. If you chose the wrong answer, the right one appear immediately and you are invited to do the question again. They are ordered from easy to difficult. Some of the difficult ones are training for the TOEFL and "particules in conversation" where students have to choose the right preposition to write after a verb. The easy one are exercises like "choose the right verb form" where the students can practice irregular verbs, use of do, did, does, and choose the correct tense according to the markers in the sentence.
These exercises require students to have a minimum knowledge of basic grammar. They will be very useful from intermediate level upwards and can be excellent for students who are motivated to improve their grammar skills. They can be used for relaxed last minute revisions for an exam (bac or above).
http://a4esl.org/q/j/ck/mc-vf02.html

Dressed to the Nines: A History of the Baseball Uniform ( from [LII New This Week] March 9)

This exhibit examines the history of baseball uniforms from the mid-1800s to the 21st century. Features an illustrated timeline, essays on parts of the uniform (such as caps, jerseys, numbers and names, stockings, and shoes), a database of uniform designs, and activities for children. From the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/exhibits/online_exhibits/dressed_to_the_nines/
for more links about baseball, go to :
http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/20681
[ for students interested in baseball, but also all those who like to analyze the side effects of a sport. The testimonies about how kids felt in their uniform when they wore it for the first time can be transferred to several other fields (school uniform, army uniform, horse-guards, belonging to a team, etc.) They may also enjoy the logic games around the mix-and-match flipbook:
http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/exhibits/online_exhibits/dressed_to_the_nines/activity_2.htm ]

History of The London Bridge (from [LII New This Week] March 9)

This essay called "History of The London Bridge and Lake Havasu City" describes the events surrounding the 1971 move of the London Bridge to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and the bridge's subsequent reconstruction. Includes brief history of the bridges that spanned the River Thames in London, and details about the man who won the bid to bring this bridge to Lake Havasu City when the British government put it up for sale in 1962. From Lake Havasu City Chamber of Commerce.
http://www.havasuchamber.com/lbridge.htm
An illustrated history and timeline describing "all the bridges that have been known as London Bridge over the past 2000 years." Includes discussion of Roman bridges to cross the River Thames in London, the effects of the Great Fire of 1666, and of the bridge that was moved and rebuilt in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. From the London Bridge Museum and Educational Trust.
http://www.oldlondonbridge.com/history.shtml
[ when you visit London, you may want to see London Bridge, the one from the song. Well, Tower bridge is there, but London Bridge was moved to the US in 1971. Read the full story! The second site offers beautiful documents, and an interactive history and timeline. ]

Science and Technology

How Smart watches work

How Stuff Works presents the Smart watch : "There's no doubt that with the popularity of devices like Blackberrys, Palm Pilots and Treo, the trend in technology is to get more and more "connectivity" into smaller and smaller packages. The next step in this technological evolution is the Smart Watch." You will read how it is linked to the internet and also see the detail of its components (second address)
There's no doubt that with the popularity of devices like Blackberrys, Palm Pilots and Treo, the trend in technology is to get more and more "connectivity" into smaller and smaller packages. The next step in this technological evolution is the Smart Watch.
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/smart-watch.htm
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/smart-watch4.htm

*** How Products Are Made

two newsletters this month feature this excellent site. here are their reviews:
from [LII New This Week] March 9 : "Detailed explanations for "the manufacturing process of a wide variety of products, from daily household items to complicated electronic equipment and heavy machinery." Includes an illustrated overview of the assembly and the manufacturing process, a description of how the item works, a list of raw materials used, and related information. Products include air bags, artificial snow, popcorn, television, and much more. From Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation."
from The Scout Report -- March 10 : "In a world that has the capability to create infinitesimally tiny machines, it may be hard for some to understand how the most basic products are created. This website attempts to answer some of those questions, beginning with information on how accordions are made, and ending with a discussion on the creation of zirconium. For each item, visitors will have the opportunity to learn about the processes involved with their manufacture and assembly. Perhaps users have wondered how the tiny candy corn is manufactured? They need wonder no more after taking a look at this site. The site also takes on more complex items, such as the camera lens and the nicotine patch. Overall, the site contains dozens of such detailed descriptions, and can be enjoyed by persons of all ages and interests. [KMG]
http://www.madehow.com/
[ no animations, but the production process is described in much more details than on http://www.howstuffworks.com . A useful resource for all those studying manufacturing and engineering design.]

Instructables (from [LII New This Week] March 9)

This site provides "a step-by-step collaboration system that helps you record and share your projects with a mixture of images, text, ingredient lists, CAD files, and more." Includes instructions for hundreds of projects, many that are technology related (such as making a robot from a computer mouse and building a portable light) and others that are not (such as constructing a marshmallow gun from plastic pipes.) From an engineering design and technology innovation company.
http://www.instructables.com/

Film : Truman Capote

This film has just received an Oscar. See the full list of the winners:
<http://film.guardian.co.uk/oscars2006/story/0,,1724519,00.html>http://film.guardian.co.uk/oscars2006/story/0,,1724519,00.html

Read some reviews of the film in French
<http://www.cahiersducinema.com/article673.html>http://www.cahiersducinema.com/article673.html
http://cinema.telerama.fr/edito.asp?art_airs=WEB1002381&sru[...]
<http://cinema.nouvelobs.com/info_film.php?id_film=FI9254369>http://cinema.nouvelobs.com/info_film.php?id_film=FI9254369

and reviews in English ( and watch the trailers):
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379725/>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379725/
http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/50/capote.htm
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2006/02/20/capote_2006_review.shtml>http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2006/02/20/capote_2006_review.sh[...]
http://www.timeout.com/film/83038.html
<http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/capote>http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/capote
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capote_(film)

Internet Tools

Quiz Maker

Prongo is a site which offers, for the moment, some interesting free features. You can use the ready-made quizzes (I like the one about the inventors, as a tool to end a unit about inventors and inventions)
http://www.prongo.com/quiz.html
You can also make your own quiz (registration is free for the moment...)
http://www.prongo.com/quizstation/

Teaching Practice

Take Five ( from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Wednesday, March 8th)

Look for a fun and creative variety of sponge activities listed at this site. Keep your list handy for those extra five minutes before the bell rings, when all other work has been completed.
http://www.teachnet.com/powertools/take5/index.html
[ interesting ideas to keep the students active during the last minutes of a lesson, and even send them home with a question in their head, the solution of which will be discussed in class at the next lesson "what inventions are foot operated?". They might like it better than learning a lesson.]

Inviting/disinviting comments, behavior, and signs

Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Tuesday, March 7th recommends this site because : "Fully forty comments are listed here to help you focus on positive verbal communication with your students. Also included are negative comments you should avoid, along with suggestions for printed signs and inviting environments."
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/40succes.htm
[ Some will find these lists very funny. Some may find it quite interesting from a cultural point of view because it lists not only inviting and disinviting verbal comments ("I'm impressed!" is inviting, "You can't be that dumb." is disinviting), but also behavior ( Gawking at an accident or littering are disinviting...) , environment (insects like flies and roaches are disinviting, as well as dead plants and bare walls) and even signs ( "No Shirt, No Service" is disinviting whereas "Pardon Our Dust" is inviting.). Have fun! ]

Teachers Network ( from The Scout Report -- March 24)

Based in New York, the Teachers Network is an alliance of education professionals dedicated to disseminating best-practices throughout the world of public school education. On the homepage, visitors can click through a selection of lesson plans, essays by current teachers on their own experiences, and also read a list of grants available to those working in a number of disciplines, including social studies, language arts, and the sciences. The “How To” area is one that will be most helpful to new teachers, as it provides resources on managing a classroom, working with students’ families, and teaching literacy. The lesson plans area includes a nice search feature which allows users to search by subject and grade level, along with offering them the option to view the most popular teacher-created lesson plans. Some of these favorites include “What Makes a Good Friend?” and “Breads Around the World”. For educators and those with an interest in
researching the realm of curriculum and instruction, this website is a real find. [KMG]
http://www.teachnet.org/
http://www.teachersnetwork.org/ntol/ntol_how_to.htm


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