ICT Tip: Comprehensive, ready-to-use EFL/ESL lesson plans based on current world events

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: Ready to use EFL/ESL lesson plans based on current world events. Each lesson contains reading and listening exercises. There is a new lesson added every three days.

How can it be used in the classroom? The Breaking News English website (www.breakingnewsenglish.com) offers your students an opportunity to read and listen to current news items on-line. Each comprehensive lesson plan contains a news article, pair work, discussion, communication activities, reading and vocabulary exercises.

Technical info: The lesson handouts are available in Word and PDF document formats.  You are encouraged to print and use the lessons with your students.  Podcasts (an audio recording of the lesson) in MP3 format are available on the site too. If you’d like to know more about PDFs, MP3s, or Podcasts, please consult my ICT Blog Terminology section.

Highlights:

• The lessons are free.
• There is a new lesson every three days.
• All lessons are based on stories currently in the news.
• As the world’s news breaks, teach it!
• All lessons are also downloadable in Word and PDF formats.
• Listening files can be downloaded as MP3 audio files.
• Listening files can also be subscribed to via a podcast.
• Classroom handouts are readily reproducible.
• There is a graded listening with each lesson.
• Teachers can copy/paste parts of the lessons they want to use.

(Source: Lise Demers, Place Cartier Adult Education Centre, Lester B. Pearson School Board. Certain parts of the “Quick Overview” description have been paraphrased from a description provided to me from Lise Demers. As well, certain parts of the “Highlights” description have been paraphrased from the Breaking News English about section.)

ICT Tip: Snapshots of over 700 newspaper front pages from around the world, updated daily!

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: The Newsuem site (www.tinyurl.com/newseum) allows your students to read the front page of different newspapers from all over the world. The newspapers are updated every morning.

How it can be used in the classroom: As a teacher, the Newseum website could be a great ICT resource to keep in your “back pocket” for a day when a worldwide news event happens. Using the Newsuem site, do your students find that newspaper headlines in one country minimize or emphasize this big news event? Is the news event positive in one country and negative in another? In addition, the content on this site is about as real life as it gets and could be a great way to incorporate ICT into a real life Learning Situation.

Other useful links on the site: There’s also an archive section on the Newsuem site (www.tinyurl.com/newseum-archive) that highlights recent events of historical significance. However, due to legal reasons, the Newseum site is not authorized to archive newspaper front pages from other prior dates. If ever you find the newspaper text hard to read, be sure to click on the “readable PDF” link found with each newspaper front page for a higher resolution image. Last but not least, teachers should keep in mind that only the front page of each newspaper is provided. However, a web site link is available for each newspaper so that students can visit their websites to read more.

Additional note for FSL teachers: While the Newseum website interface is in English, there are many French language newspapers available too. For FSL teachers who may want to compare different French language papers, you are best to use the following link (www.tinyurl.com/newseum-regionlist) and use the “sort papers by region” drop down box to locate French language newspapers from specific countries. (Source: Susan Van Gelder, LEARN)

SMARTBoard: An on-line bank of sound effects to use within your SMART Notebook presentations

This ICT tip could be best applied to the following subjects:

Quick overview: The FreeSound website contains thousands of pre-recorded sound effect files that can be used within your SMART Notebook presentations. A free account signup is required to download files from the site.

How can it be used in the classroom? The FreeSound website (www.freesound.org) allows you to search for sound effects of animals, nature, household noises, ambiance, vehicles… pretty much whatever you can think of! These sounds can then be used with the SMART Notebook software so that if your student taps on an image or word, they will hear a specific sound effect played back. These sound effect files could also be used with other ICT applications too. Great for language classes!

Copyrights: Please note that the sounds on the site are freely available for download under a Creative Commons license, which you should quickly consult before you start using these sounds in your classroom. (Don’t worry, it’s not a long read!).

Important note: If you’d like to know how to insert these sounds into your SMART Notebook presentations, please refer to my earlier ICT Blog posting on “Inserting pre-recorded sounds into your SMART Notebook presentations“.

Video Tutorial: To see an on-line video overview of how to create a FreeSound account and get started with the website, click the large play button below: