Why do People Migrate?

A British Council TEFL Immigration Resource 

• to help build up empathy and understanding of  immigration issues 

• to develop vocabulary, reading and listening comprehension skills, sentence formation and knowledge of articles of grammar (adjectives)  

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/freetime/video-zone/why-do-people-migrate

After I had published the blog about immigrants to New York; I found this resource. It develops an understanding of the issues of migration and associated vocabulary. It is broad in it's perspective and sensitively written. 

There is a vocabulary definition exercise, a video, a matching exercise matching individuals to different reasons for moving, true/false questions, an opportunity to order words in sentences and a gap fill exercise using adjectives.

It is probably a simpler resource so it could be tackled first to build up an understanding of the main issues. Some students may want to just tackle this resource on it's own.

Go to Communicative Resources Page

Billy Elliott - The Book, Film and Musical!

Billy Elliott

An Introduction 

A wonderful short story about a boy with a special gift for Ballet Dancing. A brilliant book written by Mervyn Burgess; expressing solidarity, friendships, relationships, gender and social class issues.  The story has also been made into a film and a West End show  

Billy Elliot is a short story and is classified as a 'Quick Read' in my local library in the UK. It is therefore suitable for Intermediate Levels of TEFL Students. It is an excellent story for students showing how one very unique and ordinary boy followed his dream and succeeded in what he wanted to do. The book has been made into a show which has been on the West End and Broadway and has been hugely successful. It has also been made into a film; the trailer can be seen on You Tube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoiVEyCosEE

Go to Communications Resource Page

British Museum Images

Quality Digital Images For TEFL Learners to Describe Museum Objects

http://www.britishmuseum.org/

To get images of museum objects from the British Museum follow the use digital image button with some of the objects (unfortunately not all yet) and register and order just follow the process through.  The British Museum will forward the digital image to your in box.  They allow teachers to use images for educational purposes.  You need to abide by the copyright terms. I am not sure about publishing on the web so I have not incorporated photographs.

You could laminate the images and then students can physically match simpler or more elaborate descriptions depending on their level.  I often stick things on the wall with blu tack and then students are active whilst they are investigating and matching the description to the object. This mingle type of activity generates a lot of discussion (in English of course)!

Special Objects and Belongings

Describing the Belongings Of Some Immigrants to NYC

This worksheet is a really good follow on activity from the museum posts I published earlier today. It carries on with the theme of descriptions. They are suitable for Upper Intermediate and Advanced learners and are based on a photo article from the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/nyregion/27belongings.html

TEFL Communicative Resource Page

Online Tours at the British Museum

Practise TEFL Reading and Listening Skills. 

A good selection of tours  from different time periods and different geographical locations. Full of images and quality information from experts.

TEFL Communication Resources

Are you a budding archaeologist or historian?

An Online TEFL Tour at the British Museum

Find 5 objects from around the world in the British Museum on line collections and improve your English at the same time

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Learn to ask and answer questions with yes/no or true/false or simple sentence answers if you are elementary to intermediate level; or describe the objects in more detail to your friends using your own words if you are an intermediate to advanced learner. 

With each exhibit there are a selection of exercises graded at different levels:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/galleries.aspx

TEFL Communication Resources

Welcome to the Online V&A Museum

Have You Got an Eye for Objects of Art?

20 Great Reasons to Visit the V&A Museum, London

http://www.vam.ac.uk/channel/things/art/20_great_reasons_to_visit_the_victoria_and_albert_museum/

For tips on describing objects of Art go to TEFL Communicative Resources

British Council Museum Activities

Do you enjoy Museum Visits?

A series of 2 lessons that use video, listening and reading resources to open up the topic of Museum Visits. From the Knowledge is Great Series. Learn English, British Council Website.

Practice gapfills, phrases and verb forms from Part 1 of the lesson at:

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/britain-great-video-clips/knowledge-great-part-1

Match questions and answers, complete sentences and practise synomyns at:

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/britain-great-video-clips/knowledge-great-part-2

Olympic Heroes

Reading and Writing Activities 

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/english-for-the-games/my-olympic-heroes

A British Council resource with 3 worksheets

Worksheets 1 and 2 are quizzes.  Worksheet 3 consists of 3 descriptions of Olympian athletes; Eric Moussambani Malonga, Michael Edwards and Oscar Pistorius.  Students are asked to read collaboratively and write a short story about their own favourite athlete.

Also, go to http://www.olympic.org/athletes and find out about athletes who came from your own country.  What were/are their achievements? 

More activities can be found at TEFL Communicative Resources

Pronunciation Games

Domino and Board Games

 

Summer is the time for teachers to get resources ready for the following year.  These links from the British Council can be printed and laminated for use as warm ups, time fillers and lesson closers. The aim of the games is to help improve student's spelling and pronunciation.

Find links for the resources at TEFL Pronunciation Resources.

Macmillan Interactive TEFL Tool

Excellent Interactive and Irregular Verb Wheel Game

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/verb-wheel/

A visual and interactive tool to build up your knowledge of irregular verbs and your speed recalling them.  Useful I would suggest for an Intermediate level of learner.

Use the above link to find the 'ing' form, present form of the 3rd person, past participle form, simple past and infinitive form. See how many full verbs you can complete in 2 seconds.

Grammar Tenses - Wheels and Timelines

Excellent Resources for Students Who Are Visual Learners

To assist in the learning of the English Tenses; past, present and future.

• http://busyteacher.org/11837-make-a-time-line.html 

A worksheet for making a time line of all the tenses. The activity will help students become aware of the position of the various tenses; past, present and future. They can add the tenses to the time line as they progress to a higher level reinforcing their learning further. 

A marvellous aid for visual learners.

• http://busyteacher.org/3361-wheel-of-tenses.html

Another brilliant little resource, a pictorial wheel illustrating and explaining all the tenses. Once constructed (there are multiple layers to it); it helps students to understand when they should use a tense. Print, cut out and assemble the wheel layers to form a handy tool.