Infonews n°208 du 15/02/2004

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A la Une this week, a documentary and an article from the NYTimes,
with two suggestions of activities : one about film making, and another
about commuters. Then you'll find two more activities for Black History
Month, three sites of activities around math, for primary school, and
several activities for secondary school in science (ice), economics
(globalization), amazing talks about literature, plus two special sites: a
poem about misspelled words and one presenting various ad campaign in the
US (with history, videos and posters). At the end, go through several sites
of teaching practice : discover the jigsaw class, how to motivate students,
prevent them from cheating, read about merit pay for teachers in the us,
and two French sites : la revue Alsic and "les amphis de la 5ème".
Next week, I'll be on holidays. Infonews n°209 will be released on
March 14th. Until then, enjoy your holidays!

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A la Une : "Ferry tales" and commuting
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NYT article : "Sisterhood in a Floating Powder Room"
The film : "Ferry tales"
- Synopsis
- Trailer
- Nomination
- Contact the director
Class activities
- making a documentary
- what is commuting?
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black history month
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A puzzle (difficult)
Four Scavenger Hunts (and the answers)
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Resources for Primary School
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Comparison online activities
Shape and colors
Counting and numbers
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Resources for Secondary School
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**Poem of the week (from Susanne Pratcher, Spring Teacher from Vienna)
Ice Hotel
World Bank: Globalization
***Ad Campaign histories
Modern Language Association: What's the Word?
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Teaching practice
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The Jigsaw class
How to motivate students
Classroom Connect #212: Student Motivation
Merit Pay in the US
Curbing Cheat
Online video about teaching languages (in French)
Revue ALSIC

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A la Une : Ferry tales and commuting
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NYT article
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The New York Times offers a lesson plan based on the article
"Sisterhood in a Floating Powder Room", By Nancy Ramsey,February 13, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20040213friday.html
The article describes the making and the outcomes of a documentary filmed
in the powder room of the 8:15 Staten Island ferry to Manhattan in the
summer of 2001. The setting in itself is culturally interesting: you can
have your students look into commuters' life, and the links that get
created between people who travel together every day.

The film
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- Synopsis
"FERRY TALES is about the secrets of the Staten Island Ferry Powder Room.
It is a place where women of different ages and backgrounds gather every
day. As they put on their make-up and prepare themselves for Manhattan,
they are transformed from housewives to business women, from mothers to
lawyers, from sisters to socialites. "
from http://www.mediarights.org/search/fil_detail.php?fil_id=05635
- Trailer
You can view a trailer on the film's site
http://home.si.rr.com/catchcom/
- Nomination
The film is nominated in the documentary category for the next Oscar
ceremony which will take place on February the 29th.
http://www.oscar.com/nominees/nom_33112.html
http://kmctemp.killermovies.com/o/oscars/articles/3577.html
- Contact the director
You can contact the director Katja Esson by mail to ask her questions:
ESSONKATJANYC@cs.com

Class activities
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- making a documentary
The lesson plan invites the students to look into their everyday life and
find out what mundane event could become special when well filmed.
lesson plan:
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/20040213friday.html
Through this lesson, the students will be invited to talk about the
documentaries they have seen, use film vocabulary (edition, footage, etc.)
and, if you are courageous, you can make them realise their own film, or at
least the script and the story board.

- what is commuting?
You can also start from this article to make the students reflect on
commuting. Here are some articles:
commuting by train to Boston (Amtrack shuttle)
http://travel.mainetoday.com/news/031215downeaster_r.shtml
http://www.seacoastonline.com/2003news/04132003/news/22809.htm
advices to drivers communting to Bangkok
http://www.learningplaceonline.com/living/commentaries/driving.htm
a site to encourage people to commute on a bike
http://roadbikerider.com/commuters.htm
commuting to Santa Barbara by car
http://www.newspress.com/commutersnightmare/commuting.htm
students commuting to university founded the "Non-Resident's Association"
http://clubs.calvin.edu/chimes/2001.11.09/fea2.html
a joke : SCUTA ( Self Contained Underwater Transportation Arteries)
http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/SCUTA#1029784022

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black history month
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A puzzle (difficult)
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/strategy/strategy023.shtml

Four Scavenger Hunts (and the answers)
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson052.shtml
[ the questions to print, and a list of addresses to visit for each
questionaire.]

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Resources for Primary School
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Comparison online activities
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http://akidsheart.com/threer/lvl1/compare.htm
very easy notions for pre-schoolers : big or small, bigger or smaller,
short or long, few or many, with images, the word written, and coloring
pages to fix the notion.

Shape and colors
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http://www.saxonpublishers.com/activities/games.jsp?grade=0
several activities, including a shapes and color matching game. Ideal to
practice in class with a small group.

Counting and numbers
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http://www.syvum.com/squizzes/preschool/
there again, several activities around color recognition, counting or
numbers. Just chose what you need!

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Resources for Secondary School
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Poem of the week (from Susanne Pratcher, Spring Teacher from Vienna)
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26936-2004Feb9.html
Lots of short poems, which can be used by all type of students. I
particularly enjoyed the poem about the spell checker called "Eye Halve a
Spelling Chequer" which will make students go through the dictionary....
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/stories/poem_act/spelling_checker_poem.html

Ice Hotel
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http://www.riverdeep.net/current/2001/01/013101_icehotels.jhtml
http://www.icehotel-canada.com/en/index.en.php
"If you know someone who thinks they have tried it all, then ask them if
they have ever stayed at the ice hotel in Quebec, Canada. Rates at this Ice
Hotel can run upwards of $1000.00 per night, and there's no guarantee
you'll be warm. Learn about the unique artistry and craftsmanship in
possibly the most extreme hotel on Earth, and teach your students about
hypothermia, electricity flow, and insulation and conduction. Students
studying Paulsen's "Hatchet" should try the resources on how to build an
igloo and a snow cave, located on the side bar under "Hypothermia".
Use the 2nd URL above for the correct link to the Ice Hotel. ( comment from
Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer February 13th)
[ the hotel in itself is just a starting point to reflect about insulation
and such subjects. Excellent support for a TPE or any transcurricular
project between physics, biology and science.]

World Bank: Globalization
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http://www1.worldbank.org/economicpolicy/globalization/
The Scout Report from February 13th recommends this very comprehensive
resource. You will find there lots of video and audio files of speeches and
interviews ( with a summary of the content but no script) and .pdf files of
reports.
[ for advanced students learning economics.]

Ad Campaign histories
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http://www.adcouncil.org/campaigns/historic_campaigns/
Discover the history of some of the most famous ad campaign in the US. Very
useful from a cultural point of view: you find some of the slogans which
are familiar to most Americans, such as Smokey Bear's "Only You can
Prevent Forest Fires" and "Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk".
You can also use those ads ( posters in .pdf and videos) inside a thematic
unit. Some of their themes are:
- Drunk Driving Prevention
- Seat Belt Education
- Crime Prevention ( with McGruff the Crime Dog)
- Child Abuse Prevention
- Pollution: Keep America Beautiful ( with native American Iron Eyes Cody)
- AIDS Prevention
- Domestic Violence
- I am an American ( to unite the nation after September 11th)
[ the site is an excellent resource for teachers looking for material, or
students working autonomously ( in the class or in transdisciplinar
projects like TPE) ]
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Modern Language Association: What's the Word?
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http://www.mla.org/radio
"Sponsored by the Modern Language Association, the What's the Word? Radio
program was first broadcast in April 1997, and is now aired in thirty
states and carried overseas by Armed Forces Radio and Radio New Zealand.
The aim of the program is "to show how the study of language and literature
enriches people's lives." Visitors to this site can browse previous
programs by date,
or by the last name of participants on the show over the past few years.
The shows themselves have quite interesting themes such as those past
programs on coming-of-age narratives, Anglophone Canadian writers, movie
versions of Hamlet, and food in literature. The list of participants from
past programs is quite impressive, and has included such luminaries as
Robert Scholes, Angela Y. Davis, and Houston Baker. (comment from The Scout
Report -- February 13)
[ For advanced students and teachers. Listen to many programs in which
participants discuss the portrait of Dorian Gray, King Arthur and the Monty
Python, the movie versions of Hamlet, the American Road, how writers use
the Bible, American Musicals, etc.
But there is no transcript.]

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Teaching practice
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The Jigsaw class
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It is a way to make the students work in groups of peers. The goal
is to make them learn to work collaboratively and recognise each member of
the class as a valuable partner, whatever his differences or problems. The
method aims at accepting cultural diversity, reducing competition between
the students and creating a cooperative spirit.
in short :the jigsaw class in 10 Easy Steps
http://www.jigsaw.org/steps.htm
implementation tips (how to include any type of student)
http://www.jigsaw.org/tips.htm
the method (in 59 .pdf pages)
http://www.jigsaw.org/basics.pdf

How to motivate students
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http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/motivate.html
An interesting article for teachers and student teachers, to change the
class atmosphere and the relation to the teacher and to the tasks. you'll
discover suggestions to:
- incorporate instructional behaviors that motivate students
- structure the course to motivate students
- de-emphasize grades
- motivate students by responding to their work
- motivate students to do the reading

Classroom Connect #212: Student Motivation
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find the above addresses and some more in Classroom Connect -- Library Hot
Five from Thu, 12 Feb 2004
http://www.classroom.com/community/email/archives.jhtml?A2=ind0402&L=hot5&F=P&S=&P=195

Merit Pay in the US
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26936-2004Feb9.html
Read the article to see how it works there....

Curbing Cheat
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Cheating has become a famous sport in many classes. Go through those sites
and discover what you can do against it.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/strategy/strategy023.shtml

Online video about teaching languages (in French)
--------------------
http://www.canal-u.education.fr/canalu/affiche_programme.php?programme_id=985141766&vHtml=1
La 5 propose aux enseignants et aux étudiants en didactique des langues un
cours sur "méthodes et méthodologies pour l'enseignement des langues
étrangères" par Philippe Blanchet. (pas de script)

Revue ALSIC
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le dernier numéro dela revue Alsic est en ligne, avec une introduction de
Françoise Demaizière, et de nombreux articles très intéressants, tel que
celui sur le chat pour pratiquer une langue.
http://alsic.u-strasbg.fr/Num11/alsic_n11-som1.htm

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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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