Project 366: Carnival and other eccentricities

Images by C. Pang. See here for more.

Carnival! Some like it, some don't, but whether you do or don't, you'll most likely associate it with colour, music, fun, dance, Brazil, etc.

So, what's my lesson idea this time?

Aim: Mainly to get the students speaking!
Level: Any
Language: Emergent
Length: As long as a string
Material: Your students' photos

Ask your students to bring in a photo (preferably taken by themselves) associated with carnival, or even better, have them send it to you digitally. Collect them and prepare a mosaic like the image above. You can also set them a webquest task: find out where in the world they have carnival, when they celebrate it and how it got started in the first place.

You can arrange the students in pairs, groups or you can work individually - it depends on the size of your class.

Each student chooses one image. They describe it without saying which. The others try to guess.

Then, they're asked why they chose that particular photo.

Further discussion: Do they like carnival? Why? Why not? Do they dress up? What disguises have they used? What was the latest? What was their favourite? What's the most popular costume this year? What's the most popular ever, in their opinion? For example, in the Canaries, I think the most popular is men dressing up as women, but in a vulgar and grotesque manner: one of the images in the mosaic is a typical case. Oversized bust, badly painted lips, torn stockings, and generally, they make sure they can be easily identified as men: beard, moustache, hairy legs, etc.

What other festivals are there in which people dress in fancy costume? Do they (the students) participate in these? Why do people like to disguise themselves? What about safety in these occasions? Are there usually problems? Have they ever been involved in one?

Written task: Write about their choice of image as discussed in class.

Have you got any other great ideas?

UG2BK - Hinglish, Chinglish & Singlish?

This is so hilarious I've just got to share it here, too. Shame it's so fast that learners may have a hard time following it. Anyway, just sit back and try to enjoy it: The History of English in 10 minutes!

   

Stand By Me, Japan

This is a good an excuse as any to listen to a good song, and, at the same time, be reminded of the suffering the great nation had to endure earlier this year.

Why not use this video as a springboard for a class discussion on natural disasters, for example?

You might like to read this post on activities using songs.

 

Sheltering Change, more ideas for your lessons

I've always loved this song (written by Jagger/Richards, and released on the Stones' Let It Bleed album towards the end of 1969), and, as you probably already know, I'm very fond of Playing for Change, too. They are good enough reasons for me to link it here in this blog.

But how can we use it in our lessons, you might ask. Well, think about it and tell me!

I can think of numerous ideas - I'll just give you a few clues.

Before you even start playing the song, look at the title, 'Playing for Change'. What is change? What does playing for change mean? What does this organisation stand for? How did it start?

Then, the title of the song, 'Gimme shelter'. What's 'gimme'? What's shelter? What collocations can you think of? What do you think the song is about?

There is also the caption: It is in the shelter of each other that the people live

Have you heard of it? It's an Irish proverb. What do you think the 'shelter' here refers to? Why the definite article in 'the people'?

Finally, make sure they know what 'sign up' and 'mailing list' are.

So, even before you play the song, there's enough material for a whole lesson, depending on your class.

So, you've played the song; you've rocked the building, the DOS has come to see what's going on..., now what do you do?

Where were the musicians from? Can you name the country and nationality? How many instruments appeared in the video? How many can you name? Webquest: find out the names of those you don't know. Which instrument did you like best? Which performer? Which singer?

Diagnose the lyrics. Focus on phrases such as:

• a storm is threat'ning my very life today
• I'm gonna fade away
• It's such a shot away
• the whole of the third verse

The whole song is very metaphoric. Elicit interpretation. Elicit more examples. Get them to write more verses in groups. Choose the best.

More stuff you can use:

Related posts:

Building a school from the ground up

"When you educate a girl, you educate the whole world"

We are the champions: one song, countless activities

"When you educate a girl, you educate the whole world"

In January 2011, I posted a video showing how they were building a music school in  Kirina, Mali, from scratch. The school opened its doors in October 2010, and Playing for Change takes us into the school to see what teachers and the kids do...

Related posts:

Building a school from the ground up

Second Conditional Activities: Comparing Countries

We have already seen an activity for second conditional with Norah Jones, and I'd also touched on the subject of countries prior to this. However, from my experience, the concept of conditionals isn't too hard to grasp, but it could be used as a springboard for speaking activities. Please see my post on The Best Countries as well.

With that in mind, I introduce to you this interesting website, If It Were My Home. I'll have to admit that I first heard of it from Nik Peachey. Andy Lintner and Annette Calabrese first started the page in 2010 to highlight the magnitude of the BP Oil Spill disaster, but have since expanded it to include interesting information on many countries.

If you click on 'Country Comparison', if I remember correctly, it will ask you permission to access your IP address to know where your home country is. This happens only once. If you do this, it will assume you wish to compare your home country with another. Click on another name further down the page.

When you've done that, something like this will be what you get:

Here, we're comparing Spain to Australia. On the map, you can see the difference in size of the two countries. It also lists a few comparisons between the them, e.g.

  "If Australia were your home instead of Spain, you would have 68.51% more chance of being employed."

If you wish to compare your home country (Spain) to a different country, select another from the drop-down list by clicking on the arrowhead, then on 'compare'. However, if you want to compare the chosen country (Australia) to another, you select the following button, where it says 'Compare (Australia) to other countries'. When you click this, a list of countries will be displayed. Select one.

In this way, you can compare any two countries you wish. Below, you can see a comparison between the two most digital countries in the world, according to a recent survey.

Notice that the statistics are highlighted in three different colours. Red is negative (e.g. ...you would consume 5.1 times more oil), green is positive (e.g. ...have 87.74% more chance of being employed), and blue is for babies! At least I haven't seen any other statistics highlighted in blue.

If you want to see additional information on a particular statistic, just click on the arrowhead to its right, and more information will appear.

Further down, you'll see a thumbs up and a thumbs down sign. These are for you to vote. Below this, you'll see more information on the country you're comparing to.

If you scroll even further below, you are allowed to enter your comments, and read those of others (if there are any) of the compared country.

So, as you can see, there's ample material for students to come up with second conditional sentences. Conversation shouldn't be restricted to this grammar structure; students should be encouraged to speak about any of the statistics they see or even the comments. For more ways of using the site, I'd recommend your reading Nik's post.

Related posts:

Index of all Material by Category

Conditional Type II with Norah Jones

Conditional Type III with Keith Whitley

The Best Countries To Live In

One World - is it such an impossible dream?

"The next thing we knew the music started playing, children gathered for their own personal concert, and we all transcended to a place with no time, no fear, and no difference between us." And so, we watched, mesmerised by Mali's Tinariwen's desert blues, reminiscent of the late great Ali Farka Touré.

Boy, do I love this music. These are the roots of American blues, which, in turn, are the roots of most forms of popular music today.

So, just chill out, watch, listen, dig out some Ali Farka, and dream of achieving the objective of Playing for Change: peace through music. Dream of One World.

View Larger Map

Related posts:

Building a school from the ground up

All Isn't Lost: Caring Children

Find more videos like this on School of TEFL

Thanks to David Deubelbeiss for bringing this truly inspiring award-winning documentary to our attention. It's really heartwarming to see that there are teachers like Toshiro Kanamori who attach as much importance to human values as academic knowledge.

What about you? Have you got any similar experiences to share with us? Comment below, please, by clicking on the pencil icon.

    

Cool site to help you with pronunciation

    

Have you ever wondered how to pronounce 'bite off more than you can chew'? Or 'harry caterpillar'? If you have, surf on over to FORVO and listen to words and phrases not only in English, but in 267 other languages, too!

You can ask for help on something you have problems with, or collaborate and send in your pronunciation.

Building a school from the ground up

I've been a long-time fan of Playing for Change, a fan of their music, a fan of their projects. Amidst the never-ending chaos in the world, it's always heartening to hear that someone somewhere is doing their bit to make the world a more tolerable place for future generations, to instil some hope in our children, the future leaders of our planet.

      

Countries & Nationalities - Another Game

Here's another game on countries and nationalities. The clue gives you the nationality and you'll have to find the country on the map.

You may also like these other games on countries:

Countries and Nationalities Arcade Game
The Best Countries
Flags of the World
Capitals of the World
Find these Cities

Using Geocam in the classroom

Geocam has, at the moment, over 1000 cameras stationed throughout the world, constantly streaming images to your computer. You navigate around Geocam as you would in Google Maps. See the image above. Since it's streaming live, it's perfect as a tool to get students speaking in the present continuous. Be warned that since it's streaming images, you'd need a decent internet connection.

Of course, you don't have to restrict yourself to the present continuous. Students can practise the simple present and adjectives by describing the image. You can always ask them to choose the location themselves.

You can work on simple past by freezing a couple of images and asking them to compare the differences. See below.

You can practise predictions (future or past, depending on the point you freeze the images) as in the picture below:

What do you think they had been doing/are going to do? (Actually, the baby had to pee!)

It can also be used to demonstrate differences between countries, such as the time, the weather, etc.

If you have other interesting ideas on how to use Geocam in the classroom, please do share them with us here. 

I stumbled upon Geocam @ Ana Maria's Blog

    

The World's Best Countries: Games and Activities

If you had a choice of a country to live in, where would you choose? What would your criteria be?

Newsweek recently compiled a list of the best countries in the world based on health, economy, politics and the quality of life. The project took them several months to complete, but their results are now available. Click on the image below to browse the scores and rank of the country of your choice, interactively.

Do you agree with the list?

This topic provides endless possibilities for classwork. You can have debates, web quests, conversations on food, culture, weather, etc., work on grammar points such as conditionals, and so on.

Below, I provide you with two point-and-click games: the first is on the geographical locations of the best 20 countries, and the second is one on their flags.

If you have any interesting ideas on how you can use this topic for your class, why don't you share it here with  others?

    

You may also like these:
Flags of the World
Capitals of the World
Latitude & Longitude, explained
Places on Earth Quiz
Find these Cities
Countries & Nationalities