Infonews n°257 du 06/11/2005

Rosa Parks died last week : even if you have missed the date, there will be other opportunities this year to talk about her, so here are many documents to work from. I also read in an article in the NYT that she refused to leave her seat because she was thinking of Emmett Till : so I researched about him, and discovered his story and two documentary films and the fact that the judgement of his murderers will be revised. I also had to give you some documents about Guy Fawkes : this year was the 400th anniversary of the event!
After those three big special reports, find some resources for primary and secondary school, and information about web tools, especially the blog ( for beginners) and internet security (for specialists). Then in the "teaching practice" section, you'll find the good news in the last Lettre Flash, but also information about how to evaluate a US privatized school (when is it really worth the money invested?) and how to deal with behavior problems in class. And two sites to visit and get involved : the blog of the Café Pédagogique and Barbara Dieu's exchange project.

Have a nice week!
Christine Reymond

Sommaire

Rosa Parks

Cartoons
Videos
Audio files
Newspapers
Articles
Special Reports
Photo Essays
Worksheets and lesson plans

Emmett Till

An article in the New York Times
The story of Emmett
Songs, blogs and poems
Documentary films
Lesson plans

Guy Fawkes

The story from the Guardian
Article
Videos
Drama
General links
Game
Lessons and handouts

Resources for Primary School

Online games for beginners

Resources for Secondary School

Einstein's Big Idea ( from [LII New This Week] October 13)
ReliefWeb: South Asia: Earthquake - Oct 2005 ( from [LII New This Week] October 13)
DOE Launches "Energy Hog" Energy Efficiency Campaign ( from [LII New This Week] October 13)
Brain research : a call for skepticism (from PEN Weekly NewsBlast for October 14)

Internet Tools

Definitions of new tools ( from [LII New This Week] October 13)
Blogs

Teaching Practice

Speak up on the Blog of the Café Pédagogique!
Reporter's guide to privatization (from PEN Weekly NewsBlast for October 14)
Techniques for working with behavior challenges (Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Wednesday, October 19th)
Lettre Flash Langues

Project Dekita : P2P corresponding


Rosa Parks

She died and was buried last week, but Montgomery, Alabama will celebrate the 50th anniversary of her action on December 5th this year. Remember also MLK day is in January and that February is Black history month, so there will be many opportunities to study the subject. You can also link Rosa Parks to Emmett Till (see below), whose trial will be revised this year and whom she had in mind when she refused, or to the poem "Strange fruit" (see infonews n° 250), or to MLK and Black History: http://perso.numericable.fr/~dreymondch46/infonews/themes/martinlutherking.htm
Here are some documents you can use about Rosa Parks:

Cartoons

http://cartoonbox.slate.com/hottopic/?image=2&topicid=59
http://cagle.msnbc.com/news/RosaParks/7.asp

Videos

- the CNN video about Rosa Parks, with interviews : a bit long, but just the beginning is enough (thanks to Gilles Siche on eteach)
http://mfile.akamai.com/12942/wmv/vod.ibsys.com/2005/1025/5171098.200k.asx
- from Democracy Now : the journalist present her life and you can hear her April 1956 report of the event while watching her picture. But her voice is not very easy to understand and the video/audio file is very long. this video is for advanced students : there is almost no redundancy between the pictures and the script : when you see interesting pictures, the sound is just a song, and when there is the interview, there are too few images to illustrate what she says.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/25/1412239
you can read the transcript, watch the video or download the MP3 file.
- the National Geographic also features an interesting video, with references to the Jim Crow Laws and redundant images (thanks to Françoise Peyrissat on eTeach). There is no script.
Note : You will be able to transfer this video to a memory stick or burn it on a disk by researching a video file with the name "rosa" on your hard disk where it is saved after you downloaded it once.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1025_051025_rosa_parks_video.html
also at:
http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/enseign/ticetravauxstagiaires/videos/rosa_parks.asf

Audio files

- *** the best, from the BBC, short but efficient : the audio file and the script
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/2005/10/051026_parks.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/ram_files/wo051026.ram
- a report from the journalist of the Guardian (clear, but no script)
"Our New York correspondent explains how one woman's refusal to give up her bus seat shaped America's civil rights movement"
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-audio//Guardian/news/2005/10/25/251005younge.mp3
- the facts told by the journalist and then by Rosa Parks herself (from Christine Silvestri on eTeach) : it is not the same script as the other interview, but you have to pay for this one!
http://www.pacificaradioarchives.org/
listen : http://64.27.9.54/archive/index.php?l=8&p=Pacifica_Archives/RosaParks.mp3&m=1
- another interview of Rosa, complete with sound, video (just her speaking) and the transcript (thanks to Alain krizic on eTeach)
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0int-1
- an article read by Sean Banville, our colleague who writes the Breaking News everyday, and the script and lesson is below.
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0510/051026-rosa_parks.mp3

Newspapers

Alyne Piazza had the excellent idea to make her students discover the event by working from the front pages of several newspapers. And the website she worked from : Today's Front page from the News Museum had the super idea to archive those pages (they knew we would need them!) and leave them online. **** So you can access 455 front pages from 47 countries presented alphabetically and just make your choice ( I printed 17 different front pages for each student in a half class (module de seconde sti) to work on a different, authentic and colour document.)
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/archive.asp?fpArchive=102505
you can find in her blog the worksheets she prepared for her students (collège)
http://sallaumines.over-blog.com/

Articles

easy and short:
- Scholastic http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/news/archive.asp?archive=102605
- Time for Kids http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/news/story/0,6260,1122822,00.html
- from Time Magazine in 1956 : the end of the boycot
http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,867481,00.html?internalid=related
- from Time magazine 1999, when she was among the 100 leading figures of the century
http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,991252,00.html?internalid=related
longer, a deeper reflection ( from M.J.Paulet on eTeachNet)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/31/AR2005103101387.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/31/AR2005103101869.html
from the Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1607192,00.html

Special Reports

NYT:http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/national/25parks.html?ex=1145851200&en=4b6bd4603f35dfef&ei=5087&excamp=OVGNrosaparkshistory
BBC : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4402064.stm# (with several videos of the burial and many related articles)

Photo Essays

picture Tribute from the BBC : http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/tx/gallery/rosa_parks.shtml?select=10#main (excellent for beginners, or just to make students talk).
Photo essay from Time-Life Magazine : http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/rosa_parks/

Worksheets and lesson plans

- Teaching from original documents from the US National archives ( her arrest report)
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/rosa-parks/
[ authentic and interesting, but not very exciting]
- lesson from Breaking News (although I don't like his mentioning she was suffering from dementia...even if it's true, there are more useful things to mention).
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0510/051026-rosa_parks.html
- the page from the Académie de Paris
http://lve.scola.ac-paris.fr/anglais/rosaparks.php

Emmett Till

An article in the New York Times

August 28 2005 marked the 50th anniversary of the lynching of Emmett Till in Mississippi.
Read this article from the NYTimes, “How photos became Icons of the Civil Rights Movement “dealing with how the photo of Emmett Till’s body has raised public awareness of racism, and started the civil rights movement.
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20050829monday.html
and discover this lesson plan about the impact of photo journalism and the civil rights movement:
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/20050829monday.html
To complement the article, here are some links to the resources quoted:
- the PBS “Eyes on the Prize” program, the video is to be bought but there are interesting ideas and links :
http://pbsvideodb.pbs.org/resources/eyes/index.html
- the book by Chris Metress (editor) "The Lynching of Emmett Till"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/081392121X/104-3401721-3313531?v=glance
- the book written by Emmett’s mother "Death of Innocence"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1400061172/104-3401721-3313531?v=glance

The story of Emmett

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till
http://www.heroism.org/class/1950/heroes/till.htm
http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/early-civilrights/emmett.html
http://afroamhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa021703a.htm
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=503323 (longer, more details)
the complete story with a link to Rosa Parks "The only thing Rosa Parks thought about was the boy, Emmett Till."
http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/emmett_till/
the story in pictures, with short captions (nothing gore)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/gallery/2004/03-09-till/flash.htm

Songs, blogs and poems

The lyrics of the song by Bob Dylan
http://bobdylan.com/songs/emmetttill.html
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1151.html
- A blog, with interesting information from various reliable people:
http://emmett-till.blogspot.com/
- PBS has two sites packed with interesting documents: one about Jim Crow and the Jim Crow Laws, and another one about Emmett Till (companion site to the film):
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/index.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/
Emmett Till’s story on Jim Crow History website
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/lessonplans/hs_es_emmett_till.htm
a short history of the lynching, and several other article : read “a coming of age”
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAtillE.htm
two poems on NPR: “Marilyn Nelson, the poet laureate of Connecticut, has written a narrative poem, A Wreath for Emmett Till, especially for young readers. Nelson spoke with Farai Chideya about her provocative poem, and about the lingering effect Till's murder still has had on the American psyche."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4818586
Poems written by US teenagers
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/sfeature/sf_students.html

Documentary films

There are two documentary films about Emmett Till’s murder:
- Stanley Nelson, whose film “The Murder of Emmett Till” came out in 2003
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0342800/
- Keith Beauchamp whose documentary “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till” was released this summer in the US,
http://www.emmetttillstory.com/
and they seem to have contributed to the reopening of the case, as we can read in this article:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/culture/articles/040524/24emmett.htm
information about the film and a trailer
http://www.humanarts.org/projects/seven.html
information about the film, with a video and transcript
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/15/1345228
a short critic of the film
http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/article_574.shtml
a sound file and a trailer from NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1969702

Lesson plans

about the film “The Murder of Emmett Till”
http://www.facinghistory.org/facing/fhao2.nsf/all/Till+Overview?opendocument
http://www.facinghistorycampus.org/Campus/reslib.nsf/0/a62c14412227f2a585256f8900648896?OpenDocument
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/
about the poem “A Wreath for Emmett Till”
http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/readers_guides/nelson_wreath.shtml

Guy Fawkes

It was last Saturday, and it was the 400th anniversary of the event (November 5th 1605).

The story from the Guardian

pictures and captions:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/flash/0,5860,1605605,00.html

Article

Here is an article for you to read, and a comment from Sarah Rapnouil on eTeachNet:
"I thoroughly recommend reading the article here by Professor Ronald Hutton:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/monarchs_leaders/gunpowder_hutton_01.shtml
Easier article on the same theme here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4398844.stm
Rather difficult for lycée students (a few extracts maybe, if you're working on "If" sentences and "would" + conditional?), but take a few
minutes to consider the tremendous consequences on British history if there hadn't been a few cases of bubonic plague in London in October 1605. A London 9/11 Ground Zero, no roundhead/cavaleer civil war, no Cromwell republic, a popular protestant King Charles I (instead of a Catholic beheaded one!) maybe even a protestant Ireland...

Videos

a reconstitution of what the bast might have been like:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/31102005/356/tv-mock-shows-terror-gunpowder-plot.html
an article about the dangers of fireworks with a video (from Linda Legrand)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3539880.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/video/39925000/rm/_39925226_fireworks06_carslaw_vi.ram

Drama

listen to the audio drama 'Gunpowder women' on the BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/drama/

General links

from Linda Legrand on eTeach
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/news_and_events/events_bonfirenight.shtml (bonfire night food ideas)
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Guy.html (basic information).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A199488 (simple information about the history of Guy Fawkes)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/monarchs_leaders/ (full history of the gunpowder plot)
and of course:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Guy_Fawkes_Night&oldid=27237165

Game

An interactive game to check what students know about the story
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/games/gunpowder/index.shtml

Lessons and handouts

- see the third handout on this site : it offers a letter with mistakes, and two sites to check the facts and correct the mistakes. (For intermediate students)
http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/conference/speakers-mats/jasper-handouts.doc
- Annie Gwynn offers this ready to use hand out with questions (a short webquest), a crossword and a glossary
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/annie.gwynn/festivals.htm#guy_fawkes
- the British Council suggests this jigsaw reading as an activity for the assistants:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/languageassistant-bonfire-night.htm#tsk2
- Links from the académie de Paris
A Treasure Hunt for lower intermediates upwards
http://lve.scola.ac-paris.fr/anglais/guyfawkesTH.php
an article for upper intermediates
http://lve.scola.ac-paris.fr/anglais/guyfawkes.php

Resources for Primary School

Online games for beginners

Our colleague Sylvie Marc on eTeachNet recommends these two site for beginners : an illustrated vocabulary, with interactive hot potatoes exercises, and a hangman:
http://users.skynet.be/providence/vocabulaire/anglais/menu.htm
http://www.hangman.learningtogether.net/

Resources for Secondary School

Einstein's Big Idea ( from [LII New This Week] October 13)

Companion website to a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Nova program about "the story behind the world's most famous equation": energy equals mass times the speed of light squared (E = mc²). The site features an essay explaining this 1905 equation that "says that energy and mass (matter) are interchangeable," information about scientists whose experiments paved the way for Albert Einstein, an audio clip of Einstein explaining the equation, links to related sites, materials for library activities, and much more.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/
To Begin: Find out All About Einstein
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Music/musicsmarteinstein.html

ReliefWeb: South Asia: Earthquake - Oct 2005 ( from [LII New This Week] October 13)

Updates on relief efforts related to the major earthquake that struck in Pakistan-administered Kashmir on October 8, 2005, and affected
India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Includes information about rescue efforts and relief, assistance from other countries, and extent of damage. Also includes links to maps. From the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/doc108?OpenForm&emid=EQ-2005-00017

DOE Launches "Energy Hog" Energy Efficiency Campaign ( from [LII New This Week] October 13)

In March 2004 the DOE "launched a national public service advertising campaign designed to make children and their parents aware of
energy efficient behavior. ... [The campaign] features a reprehensible new villain -- the energy-wasting Energy Hog. ... The centerpiece of the campaign is the new Energy Hog Web site, which is aimed at children." Includes a link to the Energy Hog site. From the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
http://www.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=6719

Brain research : a call for skepticism (from PEN Weekly NewsBlast for October 14)

"Brain research" is everywhere these days. Teachers are bombarded with claims about "brain-based learning" at conferences, where they are regularly invited to view photo imaging of cerebral blood flow. Gender differences in learning are explained by variations in the cortical
activity of boys and girls. And typically this research, or so proponents claim, can lead to clear implications for teaching. It often seems a short step from blood-flow studies to single-sex schools, writes Thomas Newkirk.
Citing "brain research" can perhaps give researchers and advocates the veneer of science; it can make us feel we are in contact with something solid. But Newkirk suspects it only makes us look foolish in the eyes of actual scientists. At worst, it overstates differences and
looks for causes in all the wrong places.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/10/12/07newkirk.h25.html
How the Brain Works from the first years and onward
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Teachers/brain.html

Internet Tools

Definitions of new tools ( from [LII New This Week] October 13)

This site is not very attractive or easy to read, but you find there definitions of the latest trends in communication through the net and more:
Podcasts, Blogs, webcasts, audiocasts, audioblog, RSS, wiki,smart mob, folksonomy
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/podcast.html
This site also provides a page of tools (including :
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/Tools.html
and the most advanced will enjoy this page about internet security, which tells everything about the way we are watched (interesting article about Echelon) and how we can try and protect ourselves.
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/securityTools.html
You will also find a page of free tutorials for specialists ( to learn how to use XML, PHP, Java or Cold Fusion....)
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/apps.html

Blogs

here is a list of blogs created by colleagues for their students:
- Barbara Dieu
http://6eme05.blogspot.com/
you can read her interview and how she does it on (in French)
http://www.cafepedagogique.net/disci/pratiques/54.php
- Alyne Piazza
http://3l-blog.blogspot.com/
http://6i-2005.blogspot.com/ (with lovely poems)
http://sallaumines.over-blog.com/ (cahier de texte en ligne)
and also an article in le Café
http://www.cafepedagogique.net/disci/pratiques/65.php
- Frédéric Bricout
http://hmblog.over-blog.com/ (for teachers)
If you're looking for a place to host your blog, here are some addresses to explore (some are free, others are paying), recommended by our colleague Olivier Colas, who also recommends to read this guide first (it is in French)
http://www.droitdunet.fr/telechargements/guide_blog_net.pdf
http://www.20six.fr
http://www.blogg.org
http://www.blogger.com
http://www.bloghotel.org
http://www.canalblog.com
http://www.hautetfort.com
http://www.instant-blog.com
http://www.monblogue.com
http://www.neufblog.com
http://www.tonBlog.com
http://www.typepad.com
http://www.u-blog.com
http://www.viabloga.com
http://www.vnunetblog.fr

Teaching Practice

Speak up on the Blog of the Café Pédagogique!

Le Café Pédagogique is a newsletter like Infonews, but much larger and also very active on its website. It aims at all teachers and deals with all subjects, including teaching practice and the teaching institutions. Several public consultations have been led by the government about how the teaching (and learning?) system in France can be improved, but most of us, teachers, felt frustrated with the conclusions, which often seemed written in advanced to fit new changes which had already been planned.
Le Café is independent, and all those who write there are teachers who work just to help their colleagues and provide useful tips and tools to make teaching more lively and efficient. It now launches a new operation : a blog where all those interested in improving the education system offer their point of view and suggest solutions. In March, all those contributions will be analysed by the team of the Café with the help of Philippe Merieu, a famous researcher in education sciences, and published as a book. Maybe this will really help things to change!
http://www.cafe-leblog.net/
The blog has several entries, and one "quelle ouverture sur le monde?" is also about what, in the teaching practice of other countries, could help France improve its language teaching system. It would be very useful if those of you who know and/or live in a different teaching system (I know some of you are from Germany, Israel, the Netherland, etc.) could tell us what they find good and efficient in their system.
http://www.cafe-leblog.net/index.php?2005/10/29/13-quelle-ouverture-sur-le-monde
Note for our foreign colleagues : you can contribute in English if you don't feel comfortable in French.

Reporter's guide to privatization (from PEN Weekly NewsBlast for October 14)

Education Writers Association is pleased to release its newest publication, "Public Schools, Private Markets: A Reporter's Guide to Privatization," to its membership and the public. This 20-page book by Scott Elliott of the Dayton Daily News tackles key elements of the
privatization movement: Charter schools; Vouchers; For-profit education companies; and State-sponsored tutoring. The report is designed to help journalists judge the effectiveness of privatization, scrutinize how tax dollars are spent, discover the impact on traditional public schools, and measure whether school privatization provides access to quality education for all students.
<http://www.ewa.org/desktopdefault.aspx?page_id=120&news_id=1735>http://www.ewa.org/desktopdefault.aspx?page_id=120&news_id=1735

Techniques for working with behavior challenges (Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Wednesday, October 19th)

Thirteen strategies are selected here to help you focus on distinct student behavioral and emotional challenges, helping you to handle those problems directly and promptly.
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/page/7242.html

Lettre Flash Langues

Lisez cette lettre Flash, vous y trouverez le calendrier des réformes prévues, et Hourra! en 2006 est prévu d'alléger les terminales technologiques (STG, STI, etc.) et professionnelles. Une bonne nouvelle!
http://www.education.gouv.fr/lettre_information/lettre_flash/lettre_flash_3.htm

Project Dekita : P2P corresponding

Our Colleague Barbara Dieu from Brazil offers your students to meet other students from the whole world and find a partner toi discuss and learn together, or just discover how someone their age lives in another country. Have a look at the site, register your students, and get into the project:
http://dekita.org/exchange
If you have questions, don't hesitate, write directly to Barbara : bwjdieu@terra.com.br
you can also find interesting resources in her other sites:
http://dekita.org
http://members.tripod.com/the_english_dept


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