Monday 31 May 2010

Oil spill

Our environment is an important issue nowadays. The current oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico can be connected to a lesson about the environment. Many coursebooks deal with the topic of nature and present catastrophes can make our classes more interesting.
I simplified an article from The Times. There are two versions of this task.
The first one is for Intermediate students. The underlined words should be replaced with a synonym expression.
And the second version is for Upper-Intermediate students with more difficult phrases. Apart from the synonyms, the sentences in bold can be converted into Reported Speech again.
Also, if you prepare somebody for a language exam, it is sensible to discuss current affairs. They might appear among the exam tasks.

5 comments:

KALINAGO ENGLISH said...

Hi Reeka,

I came - your blog is really interesting, but yes I have some feedback for you - will you email me so I can give my tips, namely that you should load up docs using googledocs.

I am at (take away the brackets, they are to avoid the spam-bots)

kalinagoenglishblog(at)googlemail(dot)com

and it might take me a couple of days to respond (I'm juggling a lot of things at the moment) but I will!

Festy said...

Nagyon durva!!! Tegnap én is láttam a tv-ben, h még mindig nem tudták elzárni:( Bele se merek gondolni, h milyen következményei lesznek...

Barbara Sakamoto said...

Hi, Reeka
I like the way you explain how you use the current news with your students! What level do you teach?

Reeka said...

Hi Barbara,

I have various groups and individuals on different levels, so I usually have to prepare tasks in more versions:)

Anne said...

Hi Reeka,

Nice blog. Like you, I very often teach current affairs,; practically in every lesson, actually.

Wish Karenne had left a comment with her tips here, I've learned so much from her.

To embed texts so your colleagues could use them or even download them (like you saw Diana do - thanks for your comment), you could also use Scribd. Ian James, who uses it a lot, has tons of other practical ideas, too, for making a blog or virtual learning environment a lively place. http://tefltecher.wordpress.com/

All the best for your blog!
Anne