Infonews n°277 from 21/05/2006

This is the last Infonews for this school year.

A la Une, a funny song from Jibjab, about losing jobs because of outsourcing, in the news, the football world cup, then a long list of end of the year activities (including a press project which will keep them busy even after the end of school!); three sites for kindergarten and primary school; two sites packed with resources for middle school; and lots of different sites in the resources for secondary school : sites to learn how to write (with useful prompts), articles about the strange names some parents give their children and advices to choose the right name, an article about anti-social behaviour in the UK, another one about an exhibition about Modernism at the VAM in London, a webquests about the rights of the European Citizen, information about commencement in the US, a method to find lost objects, a guide to find a summer activity or camp, a news article about breathalyzers in US schools, another one about Mexican workers in Washington farms, and videos about new programs, games and devices from the Electronic Entertainment Expo. in "Teaching Practice" find tips and advices to new teachers, and documents about the Common European Framework of Reference : how to understand it, and how to implement it in our classes....

I wish you all lots of courage for the end of this school year and the exams, and pleasant and relaxing holidays afterwards.

amicalement,
Christine Reymond

Sommaire

A la Une : Big Box Mart on JibJab

Outsourcing song on JibJab

In the News : the Football World Cup

easy and ready to use
Official FIFA site
Other sites

End of Year Activities

How to Survive 5th grade?
Who's in the Bag? (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Friday, May 19th)
End of the year Refreshers (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Friday, May 19th)
Learn to the last minute activities (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Friday, May 19th)
*** Printing Press online (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Thursday, May 11th)
In the Archives

Resources for Primary School

Tips for using picture books in kindergarten (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Monday, May 15th)
Organise an Odor Day (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Monday, May 15th)
e-Learning Kids Foundation
Flashcards

Resources for Middle School

Road Safety
One Stop English

Resources for Secondary School

Writing Skills (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Thursday, May 11th)
What's in a Name?
Anti-social behaviour
Modernism at the VAM
Webquest about People's Rights in the EU
Commencement and graduation in the US
Method to find lost objects (from [LII New This Week] May 18)
Allen's Summer Guide (from [LII New This Week] May 18)
Breathalyser in schools
Under Two Flags: Mexican Workers in Washington Fields (from [LII New This Week] May 18)
Electronic Entertainment Expo 2006

Teaching Practice

Advices to New Teachers
CEFR / CERL
A lire

A la Une : Big Box Mart on JibJab

Outsourcing song on JibJab

JibJab is a site with funny animation films presenting traditional songs turned into a sharp comment on current issues. "Big Box Mart" features an American enjoying the cheap prices of good from China at his local supermarket, and ending up losing his job and pension (because of outsourcing) and scrubbing the toilets in this same supermarket : bargains have a price!
There is no script for this song, but it is easy enough to understand for upper-intermediate or advanced students, and is then a good starting point for a discussion.
Not that all animations on JibJab are not suitable for the class.
http://www.jibjab.com/Home.aspx

In the News : the Football World Cup

easy and ready to use

a short and easy dialogue ( audio, script and quiz) for lower intermediates, and a lesson about how to order adjectives. In the series from the BBC for Learning English, the Flatmates, the topic this week is the World Cup : Tim has tickets and they can't decide who's going to accompany him.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/flatmates/people.shtml
[ this text is a bit artificial, but it could be an introduction to the topic, for beginners or weak students.]

Official FIFA site

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/
with lots of videos
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/p/video/index.html
and a "fun and games" section with trivia
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/e/

Other sites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_World_Cup_2006 (with flags of all the teams and the location of the matches in Germany)
http://active.typepad.com/world_cup/ ( a US fan blog)
http://www.worldcupblog.org/ ( a European blog)
http://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/cgi-bin/sos/jsp/home.do?lang=en&site=ZZ6V&hNav=show&navMeta=HOME (a charity)
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,2142,8053,00.html ( Deutsche Welle German TV in English)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2006/default.stm( the BBC)
http://worldsoccer.about.com/od/2006worldcup/ (about.com)

End of Year Activities

How to Survive 5th grade?

Use this creative idea for any grade level, and have your students work in groups to create a joint book if you don't want to do individual projects. Expand upon the theme for older students, putting in an advice column, suggested rules, how-to's, etc.
http://www.theteacherscorner.net/seasonal/end-of-year/survive.htm
[ The basic idea is simple : invite your students to put together material that will help the students coming to this class next year. This can be practical tips about how to go faster through the lunch queue, or advices to how each teacher like to work, or documents containing the basics of a subjects : the must know to begin the year.... ]

Who's in the Bag? (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Friday, May 19th)

Consider adapting this lesson plan to an end of school year activity, whereby students must collect three or four items of work they have completed during the school year, put them into a paper bag, and say something about what made the project special or what they learned.
http://www.col-ed.org/cur/misc/misc05.txt

End of the year Refreshers (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Friday, May 19th)

While students (and teachers) see the end of the school year in sight, lessons and testing might need an extra injection of creativity. Here is just the site to find such ideas; try one or two and see if they don't add some life to your classroom.
http://www.teachnet.com/how-to/endofyear/052498.html

Learn to the last minute activities (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Friday, May 19th)

As your school year moves into the last weeks, students' minds are often occupied by warm weather and all the promises it brings. How can you maintain their attention? Find some suggestions here for inspiring activities.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/instructor/learningtilllastmin.htm

*** Printing Press online (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Thursday, May 11th)

What would you like to create? A flyer, a booklet, a student newspaper, or a brochure? Follow the directions here to create your own publication; try assigning students a finished publication for an end-of-year assignment.
http://interactives.mped.org/view_interactive.aspx?id=110&title=
[ the perfect tool to get the students motivated for a project that will keep them working to the last minute....and even after it if need be! ]

In the Archives

lots of end of year activities are available online. See the archives of the Café pédagogique n°63, 51, 52:
http://www.cafepedagogique.net/disci/anglais/63.php
http://www.cafepedagogique.net/disci/anglais/52.php
http://www.cafepedagogique.net/disci/anglais/51.php

Resources for Primary School

Tips for using picture books in kindergarten (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Monday, May 15th)

Are you using your story time to full advantage, and encouraging literacy skills in the process? Find some great tips here to help you use picture books with preschool students.
http://www.rif.org/parents/tips/tip.mspx?View=61

Organise an Odor Day (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Monday, May 15th)

Invite your students to explore and use their sense of smell : as explained in this activity, almost everything has its own peculiar odor, and you can take advantage of that feature by having an "odor day". Go out for a walk and make collections, then sort your various objects onto category tables and invite everyone to come on up and sniff.
http://www.ghbooks.com/activity/activity.cfm?bookid=10243&page=72

e-Learning Kids Foundation

interactive (Flash) exercices and lessons for English speakers aged 5 to 12, in maths, english language, language skills and science. I think we can use it to teach English in primary school (or teach science in English, or encourage the students to learn by themselves).
http://www.e-learningforkids.org/
- In the English language section, you find very easy animations : dialogues with sound. the easiest, for young beginners, is just about hello and good-bye. In the highest level, you find a longer dialogue that you first hear, and then you choose the right answer to fill in the blanks in the sentences. You can then hear the dialogue sentence by sentence. A good comprehension exercise for lower intermediates.
- In the language skill section, you find a presentation ( a bit long, but interesting comprehension exercise for lower intermediates) and then short quick exercises about compound words ( cupcake, bedroom, etc.)
- in the science section, the girl presenting the exercises speaks faster and is more difficult to understand, but the exercises can be interesting for children aged 5/9 : they just have to associate an animal and its habitat. Older children will enjoy trying to understand the comments when they make a mistake...
Thot Cursus recommends it this week:
<http://thot.cursus.edu/rubrique.asp?no=24176>http://thot.cursus.edu/rubrique.asp?no=24176

Flashcards

Thot Cursus also recommends this site of pictograms presenting English words and some actions. For example in "animals" you find cat, dog fish, cat food, dog food, etc but also a pictogram for "feed the cat". All pictos can be downloaded for free, and you can print them on hard paper and make flash cards or use them to illustrate documents.
http://www.sclera.be/English/index.htm
http://thot.cursus.edu/rubrique.asp?no=24190

Resources for Middle School

Road Safety

[LII New This Week] May 18 recommends this "How Not to Get Hit by Cars" site, with drawing depicting situations and an interesting list of advices.
"Tips for bicyclists for avoiding collisions with cars. Discusses headlights (for night riding), honking and yelling, riding positions, using handlebar or helmet mirrors, passing cars, choice of streets, and related topics. Includes diagrams showing typical interactions between cars and bicycles on the road. From CICLE (Cyclists Inciting Change Thru Live Exchange), a bicycle advocacy group based in Los Angeles."
http://www.cicle.org/cicle_content/pivot/entry.php?id=528
[ to find more documents on this topic, don't forget the excellent "THINK" from the UK government, including the pages for children "hedgehog" with songs and animations, and the "arrive alive" cycling advices site from THINK and the "cycle smart" site from Disney Channel (flash, with cartoons and real stories to read).
http://www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk/
http://www.hedgehogs.gov.uk/main/main.html
http://www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk/arrivealive/cycling.htm
http://www.disney.co.uk/DisneyChannel/cyclesmart/main.html
and the page of video, audio and printed media to download for free
http://www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk/mediacentre/mediapage.htm

One Stop English

Isabelle Destat recommends this site of resources on e-teach : you have to register, but then you can access lots of the resources for free, including some audio files.
http://www.onestopenglish.com/Skills/Listening/Archive/index.htm
For example, CAroline Bouron has found a lesson about James Blunt's "You're beautiful" song and clip,
http://www.english-4u.com/index.php?module=pagesetter&tid=1&tpl=search
lesson : http://www.english-4u.com/lp/reg/YOU_ARE_BEAUTIFUL_TS.pdf
On the student's worksheet:
- Listening comprehension
- Grammar (asking questions)
- Vocabulary (expressions with 'like')
http://www.english-4u.com/lp/reg/YOU_ARE_BEAUTIFUL_SS.pdf
the clip : http://www.jamesblunt.com/video.html
the lyrics : http://www.jamesblunt.com/songs/beautiful.html
you can also find the lyrics, a simple worksheet and two *** superbe .pdf documents in the shared document section of e-teach
http://teachers.domainepublic.net/documents.html
the lyrics and 2 worksheets are in the "chanson" section, the .pdf documents in "préparation de cours".

Resources for Secondary School

Writing Skills (from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Thursday, May 11th)

- A picture is worth a thousand words : So what exactly is happening in this painting by British artist Frederick Cotman's, "One of the Family"? Your students will probably have widely varying interpretations, which they are encouraged to write about in this narrative lesson
plan for grades 6-8. Use the 2nd link for a writing rubric.
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=116
http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson116/NarrativeRubric.pdf
- great leads for beginnings : Very often, students have the hardest time in writing just getting started. It may help to review some truly great leads, both inspiring your own class and showing them how to do it right. Try this site for great beginnings.
http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson16/greatleads.pdf

What's in a Name?

Discover this surprising article from the New York Times : "And if It's a Boy, Will It Be Lleh?", By Jennifer Lee, May 19, 2006. The article is short and easy to understand, the lesson plan " Exploring The History of Names Through Creative Writing" can be useful.
- article: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20060519friday.html
- lesson plan: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/20060519friday.html
Suggestion to start your lesson:
- you can use the title "And if It's a Boy, Will It Be Lleh?" or an extract from the article : " In 1999, there were only eight newborn American girls named Nevaeh. Last year, it was the 70th-most-popular name for baby girls, ahead of Sara, Vanessa and Amanda." to see if the students will notice that those two names are just Hell and Heaven spelt backwards.
- or you can start with a brainstorming about the most popular names and why parents choose them.
Then the students will read the text and answer questions like those suggested in the lesson, then go on to the meaning of their own name, or to a discussion about how much freedom parents should have to choose the name of their child.
to go on with this topic, have a look at this British article from Junior Magazine ( "the world's most famous parenting magazine") which gives useful advices to future parents about how to choose a name and what mistakes to avoid.
http://www.juniormagazine.co.uk/module-pagesetter-viewpub-tid-5-pid-91.html
and you can then go on with this article on a blog (with several comments) comparing the law about giving names in different countries.
http://thebabynamewizard.ivillage.com/parenting/archives/2004/11/my_baby_my_name_choice_or_not.html

Anti-social behaviour

Weekenders from BBC Learning is about anti-social behaviour in the UK. You can download the MP3 audio file and the transcript of the program. Remember that it is a program for adults learning English : the program is rather long, the main ideas are reformulated by a different person and the vocabulary said by a male and a female voice is explained in English in the middle of the program. there are also questions imbedded in the programme to encourage the listener to concentrate on a part of the speech.
If you plan to use it in class, it'll need some editing, but it'll be a good starter for a discussion with upper intermediate students.
http://www.bbclearningenglish.com/radio/specials/1412_weekender/

Modernism at the VAM

The BBC offers an audio file and transcript about a New Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum (VAM)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1446_entertainment/
Students in architecture and design will enjoy this exhibition :
http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1331_modernism/home.html
and expecially the page of links
http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1331_modernism/resources.html
or discover he VAM and download the VAM student's guide
http://www.vam.ac.uk/files/file_upload/21754_file.pdf

Webquest about People's Rights in the EU

Upper intermediate and advanced students will enjoy discovering and discussing the rights and privilege of the EU citizen through this webquest in English designed by our Polish colleague Bozena Stepien and based on several pages of the official EU site. Too many students don't have a hint of what's in those pages : this webquest is an excellent opportunity to invite them to get familiar with the EU from a citizen's point of view.
http://republika.pl/european2005/rights_and_privileges_of_the_eu_.htm

Commencement and graduation in the US

the Scout Report features articles about commencement speeches and graduation ceremonies in the US.
http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/ScoutReport/Current/inthenews.php
[ for advanced students.]

Method to find lost objects (from [LII New This Week] May 18)

Practical and fun ideas for locating lost objects. Describes principles such as "It's Not Lost -- You Are," "Domestic Drift," and "The Camouflage Effect." From the author of a book on finding lost objects (and several other books) and self-described "findologist."
http://www.professorsolomon.com/12principles.html
[ the pictograms for each principle can be quite fun to encourage students to talk, at any level.]

Allen's Summer Guide (from [LII New This Week] May 18)

This website "provides information about many different kids and teen summer camps and travel programs. These are all structured group programs. ... Allen's Guide does not manage or book any of the programs but links you to the operators' web sites." Includes listings for children's residential and nonresidential summer camps, and specific types of camps, such as academic, arts, self-improvement, religious, sports, and special needs. This site is supported by several summer camp providers.
http://www.allensguide.com
[ a guide to summer camps and travel programs, with links. For cultural information or to find a program for your students.]

Breathalyser in schools

see this video and news article about breathalyzer in school, to prevent drink and drive accidents and provide youngster with the help they may need.
http://www.wcnc.com/news/topstories/stories/051806cckrWcncSchoolAlcohol.55c73dd3.html

Under Two Flags: Mexican Workers in Washington Fields (from [LII New This Week] May 18)

"This four-part series [from 2000] chronicles the lives of Mexican farmworkers in Eastern Washington and explores the underground economy that supports Washington's agricultural industry." Articles and photos portray the experiences of individual migrant workers whose lives and families are split between the rural communities of Toppenish, Washington state, and Pajacuarán, Mexico. From the Seattle Times.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/mexico/
[ interesting site about Mexican workers in the US.]

Electronic Entertainment Expo 2006

HowStuffWorks went to the Los Angeles Convention Center to check out the incredible array of interactive entertainment products showcased at E3 2006. Representatives from more than 400 companies and 90 countries displayed nearly 1,000 new games and products in 540,000 square feet of exhibition space.
Watch Marshall Brain's video tour of the latest games, hardware and peripherals:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/ref/e3-2006.htm?cid=e14
for more videos about the expo:
http://www.e3insider.com/video/
but forget about the games trailers : most of them are in Japanese!
[ no scripts, but interesting videos about the last videogames or the new devices. Technicians and all those interested in computers and computer games will enjoy these information.]

Teaching Practice

Advices to New Teachers

Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Thursday, May 18th features two sites of advices to new teachers:
- New Teacher's Guide Book
How do you grade your various class projects? Do you have a solid and effective classroom management plan all set up? Do you need some ideas to help you get organized and started? Find ideas here for all of the above, as well as a sample first day schedule to help you prepare for your own entry into the classroom.
http://hannahmeans.bizland.com/
- A primer on behavior management
There are four stages of being a teacher: the Shiny New one, the Shell Shocked educator, the Discipline Dictator, and the skilled, caring teacher. With its share of humor and wit, cartoons, quotes, and exercises, find some advice here on behavior management in the classroom.
http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/pub/eres/EDSPC715_MCINTYRE/Primer.html

CEFR / CERL

A lire

Laure Peskine nous recommande de lire l'intervention de Christian Puren du 22 mars à Grenoble :
« COMMENT HARMONISER LE SYSTÈME D’ÉVALUATION FRANÇAIS AVEC LE CADRE EUROPÉEN COMMUN DE RÉFÉRENCE ? »
qui est en ligne sur le site des Langues Modernes :
http://ww2.mayeticvillage.fr/languesmodernes-aplv
Rubrique *Matière à discussion*

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