Activity – Language Teaching for the Planet

Rob Ansell posted in the group 3.2 My Green Lesson Idea

OK so I explained this at (possibly too much) length in the 2.5 forum, so I wanted to simplify it here.

I like the idea of basing the lesson around a text, but the concept of ‘a text can be anything’ is kind of new to me. It’s not that I don’t do this, I just consider ‘text’ as ‘article’ (e.g. newsela or one provided in a course book) and find…Read More

7 Comments

Ben Crompton
1 week ago

Thanks for this, Rob. I’ll leave a reply in 2.5 with some musings from your post there. I appreciate that ‘anything is a text’ can be a bit of a strain sometimes. I have been working quite a lot with developing visual literacy with my learners – I thoroughly recommend you check out the New York Times’ ‘Photo of the Week’ page, as I’ve found this…Read More
- Rob Ansell
  1 week ago
  
  Hi Ben, thanks for that.
  - Rob Ansell
    1 week ago
    
    Turns out command+return doesn’t do the new paragraph.
    
    Shift+return works though
    
    So, yeah, the first two phases are kind of interchangeable/flexible. The reason I have them in this order is volume of vocabulary. I have 8 words to introduce (not including taxi which in my experience often comes up/is useful). So by doing the stages in this order,…Read More
    - Rob Ansell
      6 days, 15 hours ago
      
      Update on this lesson that I did this afternoon, in case you’re interested. Turns out the rank order activity worked really well – got them debating (mostly in Chinese, but that’s to be expected, I’m sure it helped to consolidate vocab knowledge when we reviewed it in English) and they were way more engaged in the follow up survey we did. As you…Read More
      - Ben Crompton
        4 days, 16 hours ago
        
        Timing’s almost always an issue isn’t it? Great to hear that you have a fruitful and productive class – it sounds the your learners were able to really engage with the topic, so I’m sure that environmental aim was more than achieved. I’m sure the posters would make a nice way of rounding of the trimester as you say, and it also gives you the…Read More
      - Owain Llewellyn
        1 day, 23 hours ago
        
        Hi Rob and @ben-crompton what a great thread going on here. Rob I’ve put a comment on your padlet lesson, summing about things we talked about. I think being on this course has really opened my eyes to outdoor learning. I’ve justt come across this concept of ‘nature as co-teacher’ in a video I’ve discovered by the theorist I mentioned before. This…Read More
      - Owain Llewellyn
        1 day, 23 hours ago
        
        Also, I’m glad to hear your lesson went well with your class. At this point, Rob, I want to ask if you would be interested in making this lesson into a post for eltsustainable.org? I think it’s such a great lesson and many people could benefit from it. There are a few posts already by alumni from the course; the one about a meat-free Monday is…Read More

Ben Crompton
1 week, 2 days ago

It’s a neat little hack isn’t it? My lessons now have four aims:

1) Communicative
2) Language
3) Phonological
4) Sustainable Development Goals

Even if point 4 is just an extra question in the post-activity stage, or a discussion about what someone else might think, it’s enough to keep it current. I think that makes everything much more powerful…Read More

Ben Crompton
1 week, 2 days ago

Love this, and fully agree. I have a logistical question, speaking as a teacher of kids and teenagers. What would you do to get the parents to buy into this? I know for a fact that many of the middle class parents of my youngest kids would be reluctant to do a litter pick on the way to school.

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