CAN YOU DEVELOP ENGLISH THROUGH LEARNING ABOUT ART: How to start.

Posted on 15/03/2019 by bwernervocalise

HOW TO START A MODULE ABOUT ART

The History of art in 3 minutes
What are elements of art.
What are principles of art.
How to look at art.

HISTORY OF ART (in 3 minutes)

WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF ART watch a video by btsanglais

THE PRINCIPLES OF ART (by Lisa Marder ThoughtCo.)

or use the image of both by Beata

HOW TO LOOK AT ART

Analyse this fantastic infographics by Grant Snider.

check this worksheet here

or use the visual by Beata

Watch and learn how to look at art with Khan Academy:

Use a presentation

[embeddoc url=”https://bwernervocalise.edublogs.org/files/2019/03/art-28s1bka-u69afi.pptx” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

“DRIVING QUESTION” – CAN IT DRIVE YOU UP THE WALL??????

Posted on 14/03/2019 by bwernervocalise

Sophieja23 / Pixabay

DRIVING QUESTION

“Start your Project Based lessons with a good driving question” – this is what you will find in every resource on PBL. Hard as it might be to create, the driving question is paramount for project based learning as it provides its purpose and sets its context. So, ask yourself, what you will be focusing on with your students. Is it trying to find the best solution to the problem? If yes, is it abstract and academic or practical and concrete? Is it provocative and leading to discourse? Is it expected to inspire discussion or present and/or establish claim? Will it be one question for the whole class/team or a number of individual questions related to individual projects?

Researching materials on PBL and the Driving Question might prove a really daunting task. So, for a start, why don’t you check out the the ones I found particularly useful, not too lengthy and really inspiring.

AN ONLINE COURSE: A couple of years go I completed a PBL course with School Education Gateway. Although the course concluded, you can still use the resources HERE.
A WEBSITE: An absolutely fantastic website You for Youth with tonnes of information about PBL, rubrics, worksheets and tools of different kind.
AN ARTICLE: An article “In search of the driving question” by Andrew Miller on Edutopia investigating a number of types of driving question and what we should remember about while creating it.
A CHECKLIST (an many more) which you can find on Tony Vincent’s fantastic blog.

Have a look at the visual which, hopefully, will help you remember what a good driving question should be like.

GOOD WEBSITES FOR READING

Posted on 16/02/2016 by bwernervocalise

Rushay (RUSH) Booysen via Compfight

http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/reading.php

B1+ level reading texts covering a range of topics eg. Martin Luther King, Climate change or Health tips, accompanied by short reading comprehension tests

http://literacynet.org/cnnsf/archives.html

An excellent collections of stories covering areas such as Adventure, Crime, or Health, all in two formats – full and abridged. Some stories are accompanied by an audio file. Each story has a collection of online vocabulary and comprehension activities. There is also a “Your turn” area with a follow-up writing activity.

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/

Just 5 topics but accompanied by very good pre-reading vocabulary activities, comprehension and practice exercises. 6 different levels including advanced. Additional Grammar page.

http://www.5minuteenglish.com/reading.htm

Intermediate+ reading. New vocabulary introduced. Each reading accompanied by a comprehension test.

http://fiction.eserver.org/short/

A collection of short fiction FOR FREE!!!! You’ll find Dahl, Grimm brothers, E.A. Poe to name a few.

MANY THINGS for your ESOL students ….. and not only :)

Posted on 09/04/2014 by bwernervocalise

MANYTHINGS

This web site is for people studying English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL). There are quizzes, word games, word puzzles, proverbs, slang expressions, anagrams, a random-sentence generator and other computer assisted language learning activities. Even though the primary focus is for ESL, native English speakers may also find some interesting things on this site. This site is non-commercial and has no advertising. TESL/TEFL teachers may want to recommend this site to their students.

I do recommend the site with a range of reading texts with audio files READING TIME 🙂

GLOBAL WARMING and GREENHOUSE EFFECT

Posted on 26/06/2013 by bwernervocalise

[mediacore height=”315px” public_url=”http://edinburghcollege.mediacore.tv/media/global-warming-a-video-by-nasa” thumb_url=”http://cdnassets.mediacore.tv/sites/8595/images/media/524368m-8DLL1yjl.jpg” title=”Global Warming A video by NASA” width=”560px”]

RESEARCH: GLOBAL WARMING and GREENHOUSE EFFECT

DESCRIBING A PROCESS – HOW TO MAKE A MUMMY

Posted on 24/06/2013 by bwernervocalise

Describing a process – why don’t you try the video clip HOW TO MAKE A MUMMY ?

Use the attached worksheet if you wish HOW TO MAKE A MUMMY describing a process Int2 plus

OTHER IDEAS:

LISTENING and WATCHING : GLOBAL WARMING CHEESE MAKING HOW TO MAKE POTATO CHIPS (no words, more difficult)

VOLCANO ERUPTION (and other natural disasters on the menu on the left-hand side)

READING: POTATO CHIPS ESL Worksheet Describing a Process How to Decorate an X-mas Tree

FOR BUSY TEACHERS – YOU CAN’T MISS IT!!!!

Posted on 23/02/2013 by bwernervocalise

Do you want to start your lesson with something different? Something that everybody is talking about? Something that everybody should know? Do you need to find information quickly?

REFDESK.COM REFDESK.COM might be very useful . It can be accessed via computer or smartphone. It gives you:

Site of the day – for example Earth Cam. I’ve just seen what’s going on in Bangkok. Live! Good for DESCRIBING PICTURES.

Fact of the day – I’ve just learnt that many historians believe football (European version) originated in China around 1000 B.C. Good for DISCUSSION about – football, China, other inventions, you name it.

Thought of the day – “Better to be occasionally cheated than perpetually suspicious.” – B.C. Forbes, hmmm, I don’t know, I guess so. But I’m not going to tell my students!

This day in history – “The first American attack on Japanese soil during WWII, the Battle of Iwo Jima(…)”. No, I’m not choosing that. The page gives me other option for example BBC. So, I’m choosing 25.02 – well, well – 1982: Parents can stop school beatings: The European Court of Human Rights rules corporal punishment in Britain’s schools is a violation of the Human Rights Convention. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/25/default.stm) Good for COMPARING and CONTRASTING different school systems, CHATTING about school days; USED TO etc.

In the news – DISCUSSING CURRENT EVENTS

Article of the day – homework: READING COMPREHENSION; WRITING A SUMMARY

Today’s birthday – good for WRITING A BIOGRAPHY; PRESENTATIONS

Today’s pictures – One of my favourite – stunning images, shocking images, informative images, street photography, political images, etc. Good for SHORT TALKS or DESCRIBE THE PICTURE activities.

Word of the day – Love it! Every day – a new word. Today – a stalking-horse.

Dictionaries of different sorts (visual, talking, technical), translators and many, many other things which can be used easily and fast.

This website is a real gem for busy teachers. A real time saver!!!! And excellent for LEARNING ON THE GO!!!!

LINGRO – THE “WOW!!!!!” DICTIONARY

Posted on 03/02/2013 by bwernervocalise

Go to http://lingro.com/ and paste the web address into the box and LINGRO

Choose the language options (there are 11 languages available, including German, Polish, Spanish Russian, Dutch and Chinese) and click

The webpage will open. Click on any word that you don’t know and read the meaning. You can add your translation and you can make your own vocabulary list.

From the creators of LINGRO:

“Knowledge and information essential to human communication and interaction should be free and accessible to everyone. This is why we created the most comprehensive set of free dictionaries available under open licenses so that anyone can contribute, download, redistribute, and modify the dictionaries for their own needs. These licenses guarantee that they will always remain free and useful to society.”

25 JANUARY – RABBIE BURN’S NIGHT

Posted on 20/01/2013 by bwernervocalise

ð You have to check this out!!!!! Robert Burns INTERACTIVE – good for listening and not only http://www.scotland.org/burns-night/interactive/ –

ð MY LOVE IS LIKE A RED, RED ROSE and many more, all in audio and video http://www.robertburns.plus.com/voicemyluv.htm

ð http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/robertburns/burns_night_running_order.shtml – a collection of wonderful resources – articles about Burns, video clips, Brurns’ poetry etc.

ð The Address to A Haggis a video clip http://www.robertburns.plus.com/voicemyluv.htm

ð ROBBIE BURNS on ESOLcourses – lots of online activities for different levels – pre-intermediate http://www.esolcourses.com/content/lifeintheuk/scotland/burns-night/lesson-activities.html and intermediate http://esolcourses.blogspot.com/2010/01/january-25-burns-night-english-lesson.html

PLUS

ð Masses of materials for interactive white board on http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-gb/Search/resources/language/english/?Keywords=Robert+Burns&SortField=relevance&ViewType=ListView

ð A new documentary presented by David Hayman will exclusively unveil what Scotland’s most famous poet, Robert Burns, really looked like. In Search of Robert Burns is set to air on STV on January 22 at 8pm. http://entertainment.stv.tv/tv/208687-stv-goes-in-search-of-robert-burns-to-reveal-the-face-of-scottish-poet/

NB: all the pictures come from my private collection, you can use them freely

IDEAS FOR 15 JANUARY – MARTIN LUTHER KING’s birthday

Posted on 13/01/2013 by bwernervocalise

An excellent listening and reading comprehension activity. Finding the differences between the text and Martin Luther King’s speech, spelling exercises etc. http://michel.barbot.pagesperso-orange.fr/hotpot/mlk/dream1.htm

Considered to be the best speech of the 20th century, “I have a dream” – video http://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/#/i-have-a-dream-martin-luthe/4567647625

Listening, reading comprehension and vocabulary materials – Martin Luther King http://www.eslholidaylessons.com/01/martin_luther_king_day.html

Various resources at different levels : http://www.esolcourses.com/topics/martin-luther-king.html

“Our Town Stories (Edinburgh)” Number 1 choice

Posted on 10/01/2013 by bwernervocalise

Next to Bobby – with my Dad

I have just discovered an absolutely fascinating website http://www.ourtownstories.co.uk/ exploring Edinburgh’s history through Stories, Images and Historical Maps from Edinburgh Libraries.

Ideas for activities:

“Greyfriars Bobby trail” – learners can do it independently in class or at home. They can read the story page by page. Every page features a picture/pictures of Edinburgh from the 19^th century shown simultaneously on the Google map plus pictures of people involved in the story. My favourite is the one showing Bobby sitting on the chair beside the kids of Mr Traill, who kept feeding and looking after him till Bobby’s death. http://www.ourtownstories.co.uk/#page1 There are other stories including stories of remarkable women from Edinburgh or Robert Luis Stevenson.

“Now and Then” – by moving a slide learners can compare images of the same place from now and fifteen decades ago. Excellent for compare and contrast activity.

Stories, timelines, images, you names it – everything working perfectly well provided that you have the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari.

World Religion Day – 21 January 2013

Posted on 09/01/2013 by bwernervocalise

21 January is the World Religion 2013 Day. As stated on the Education Scotland website, “the aim of World Religion Day, (…) is to promote inter-faith understanding and harmony.” My NC 4 ESOL for Employability students are preparing a collaborative project on different religions using resources from http://www.worldreligionday.org/

I am also going to use the three beautiful interactive resources from http://www.bl.uk/learning/cult/sacredbooks/sacredintro.html. The 1^st one “Sacred texts” allows you to read and listen stories from Buddhist, Muslim or Christian texts. You can explore twelve animated stories from six different religions. The 2^nd, animated site as well, lets you investigate a range of religion or faith issues from the perspective of faith leaders, educators, young people, theologians and an atheist philosopher. Finally, the 3^rd one “provides background and contextual information for each of the abrahamic faiths”. This can be done in class or can be set up as a self-study activity.

All the copyrights rules are described on http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/terms/copyright/index.html in case you want to publish/copy any material.

VOCALISE

Category Archives: ESOL READING