Keep Calm and Teach English

Talking about Shakespeare and using his works in the EFL classroom can always be risky as we all know how difficult they are to understand without adequate guidance not to mention that the original works feel overwhelming for anyone who is less than a literature student. However there is no reason why we should deprive our students of the pleasure to experience some of Shakespeare's magic that has stood the test of time and is still meaningful today. Romeo and Juliet, Frank Bernard Dicksee (1853–1928), Southampton City Art Gallery The following learning scenario was designed entirely for the e-class (a digital learning platform for the Greek schools) during the quarantine but it can be used in the classroom provided that there is a computer lab available or a classroom with a wireless connection and enough laptops and tablets for the students to work on.  Students are going to learn about William Shakespeare, the greatest English playwright, and why he is so significant. They are ...

Escape rooms - or escape games are a relatively recent entertainment phenomenon that became popular globally in the early 2010s. Typically, an escape room is played by a small team of people who are ‘locked’ in a physical room and have to solve puzzles within the time limit in order to escape.  photo by  greece-is.com The global increase in recreational escape rooms has inspired teachers around the world to implement escape rooms, physical or digital, in educational settings. There are a number of pedagogic reasons why playing educational escape games offers a valid and engaging approach to learning as it requires significant 21st century skills such as:   Communication and collaboration: Escape rooms offer the opportunities for groups of students to work together to solve the puzzles.  Problem-solving: Players are presented with a variety of puzzles/problems that they have to solve, gaining skills in developing approaches to solve them.  Resilience: Player...

It's the most wonderful time of the year again and here in Greece, as in most European countries, we are spending it at home in quarantine. However this is no reason not to be festive; in fact we should try to keep our spirits up as much as possible so as to be able to support our students as well. So why not share an online Advent Calendar with our students as a treat? photo by  JillWellington An Advent Calendar is a special calendar used for counting the days of Advent in anticipation of Christmas.  Advent calendars are usually a large rectangular card with "windows", one for each day of December leading up to and including Christmas Eve (December 24). Consecutive doors are opened every day beginning on December 1. The calendar windows open to reveal an image, a poem, a portion of a story, or a small gift, such as a toy or a chocolate item. The advent calendar that follows is a digital one. There is a new fun activity behind each door, from Kahoot quizes and filling in ...

February has officially been designated as Black History Month in the U.S. since 1976. Also known as African American History Month, it is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of blacks in U.S. history. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to celebrating black history. To celebrate Black History Month I have prepared some worksheets on a video from Free School , about Dr Martin Luther King, a famous Civil Rights leader, pastor, and humanitarian. Martin Luther King is best known for his peaceful, nonviolent protests and speeches calling for change. One of the most important figures of African American History!

An Advent calendar is a special calendar used for counting the days of Advent in anticipation of Christmas. Many Advent calendars take the form of a large rectangular card with "windows", one for each day of December leading up to and including Christmas Eve (December 24). Consecutive doors are opened every day leading up to Christmas, beginning on December 1. The calendar windows open to reveal an image, a poem, a portion of a story, or a small gift, such as a toy or a chocolate item. The advent calendar that follows is a digital one. There is a new activity behind each door, from crossword puzzles and short stories to filling in Christmas songs lyrics and making easy Christmas crafts. The doors open only on the relevant day so they can be a real surprise. I have been making online advent calendars since 2016 and every year I change some of the activities. This year I have included two Kahoot quizes which can be played with the whole class on mobile phones if your sc...

Last year I prepared an Advent Calendar full of ELT activities for the classroom and the home. The truth is I cannot resist the daily surprises Advent Calendars hide behind their small doors so I made a new one for 2018. photo by Gellinger In the calendar that follows there is a new activity behind each door, from crossword puzzles and short stories to filling in Christmas songs lyrics and making easy Christmas crafts. Some are the same as last year's but there are some new activities as well: Day 1: Make easy candy cane sleighs to give as Christmas presents Day 2: Make some easy Christmas Angels to hang on your tree Day 3: This is Britain Christmas video and worksheets Day 4: Print and solve a Christmas crossword puzzle Day 5: Christmas shopping in London! (British Council video and activities) Day 6: Read and listen to the story "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry (abridged) Day 7: Play a Christmas quiz with your friends Day 8: Write an email to Santa D...

With 800 million Europeans represented in the Council of Europe, and 47 member states, it's no wonder that the Council strongly believes in linguistic diversity as a tool for achieving greater intercultural understanding and a key element in the rich cultural heritage of our continent. The general objectives of the European Day of Languages are to: alert the public to the importance of language learning and diversify the range of languages learned in order to increase plurilingualism and intercultural understanding; promote the rich linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe; encourage lifelong language learning in and out of school. In keeping with these rules, people, young and old, are encouraged to take up a language, or take special pride in their existing language skills. Also, those responsible for providing access to language learning are encouraged to make it easier for people to learn a range of languages, and to support policy initiatives to promote langua...

Welcome back! I really hope you had a great summer break, lots of fun and happy moments and now you are ready for a new school year full of new ideas and activities! Keep Calm and Teach English will try to keep you company throughout the year! Coming back to school can be challenging for most students and teachers so this is a good opportunity to make our first days enjoyable. To this end I've collected some back to school activities that I have already used with success and some (like the self-portrait project) I would like to try this year. 1. GET-TO-KNOW-YOU ICEBREAKERS Icebreakers are essential for building relationships and creating a positive classroom culture. A simple Google or Pinterest search of icebreakers will yield tons of fun results.  Larry Ferlazzo offers 7 easy icebreakers you can do with post-it notes, all in one neat inforgraphic.  2. PRINTABLE FACEBOOK PROFILES Students use social media extensively while schools on the other han...

Are you or your students fans of the Eurovision song contest? It's true that it's not everyone's cup of tea; you either love it or hate it. It's a competition that is supposed to be an expression of European solidarity. Over the years however, it has been accused of being an extravaganza of kitsch pop acts or of promoting political and cultural bias in the way countries form voting blocs. In the following lesson you will find a short text on the history of the contest, with some practice on the Present and Past Passive, followed by an online trivia quiz for the real fans!

21st March is World Poetry Day . It is a celebration of poetry for everyone, everywhere. It's a day to promote the reading, writing and teaching of poetry and to connect it with the other arts such as theatre, dance, music and painting. It is a chance to use poetry to say things that can’t be said in prose. Photo by congerdesign How can we use poetry in the EFL classroom and have fun with our students on this day? Here are some ideas: An easy way to start is by reading and writing haikus.  They are short, easy to write and memorise and can be used with students of any age and level. They are made of three lines with five, seven, five syllables respectively and their themes are usually inspired by nature. For ideas on how to write haikus on paper or online you can visit an older post here. I am poems : students can talk about themselves and  express the way they feel, what they hope, think, dream, enjoy and so on.  The lines in each poem begin the same way: I a...

Writing a CV is a real-life skill our students should practice at least once before leaving High School as it is something they may have to use immediately either for a part-time job or volunteer work or later on for their further education and career. photo found in  thebalance.com As a growing number of Europeans move across the continent for work, volunteering and study every year, a CV framework that seems relevant for classroom use is   Europass .   Europass is a collection of five documents, two of which are freely accessible: the Curriculum Vitae and the Language Passport . The documents can work both online and as printed templates. Since its official launch in 2005, Europass has helped European citizens make their skills and qualifications clearly and easily understood in Europe. Recently there has been a proposal on a revision of Europass to   make the tool more accessible to all Europeans, including those with disabilities. Until the u...

Oscar Wilde’s story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is perhaps the author’s most popular work. The tale of Dorian Gray’s moral decadence caused a scandal when it first appeared in 1890. Hurd Hatfield as Dorian Gray The Picture of Dorian Gray is Oscar Wilde's only novel. Although sensored in its first edition, it has enjoyed wide popularity, and has inspired many cinematic, literary, and artistic adaptations. The video that follows presents an abridged version of the story for B1+ students. Text and audio is taken from  Opportunities Pre-Intermediate, Longman . The worksheets include Think-Tac-Toe activities for homework. Think-Tac-Toe activities allow students to choose tasks that better align with their learning styles and interests. (For more information on Think-Tac-Toe activities you can visit one of my older posts on  differentiated instruction ). If you decide to use them in your classroom, leave me a c...

Frankenstein  by Mary Shelley can be described as the first great horror story. Published in 1818 it has remained popular untill this day and has formed the basis for a number of films. The film adaptations tend to present the monster as an evil character, but the book itself tells us a different story… The following video presents an abridged version of the story for B1 students. Text and audio is taken from Opportunities Pre-Intermediate, Longman . I designed the worksheets in 2015 but some minor changes were needed in order for the tasks to work better. I also added a key to the tasks to make it more teacher friendly. The worksheets include Think-Tac-Toe homework activities which allow students to choose how they will show what they are learning, by giving them a variety of activities to select from. (For more information on Think-Tac-Toe activities you can visit one of my older posts on  differentiated instruction. )

We've all been told that we should recycle plastic bottles and containers. But what actually happens to the plastic if we just throw it away? The following TEDed lesson traces the life cycles of three different plastic bottles, shedding light on the dangers these disposables present to our world. Photo by  Grooveaddicted The video is accompanied by animation making its message crystal clear: when it comes to plastic there is really no other way than recycling.  Below you can find the worksheets I've prepared for the video. They are suitable for B1 level. If you decide to use them,  please let me know how the lesson went. :-)

On day 1 of my Advent Calendar you can find a "This is Britain" video on  YouTube about Christmas customs and traditions including that of Advent Calendars.  photo by  PublicDomainPictures Below you can find the worksheets I prepared to accompany the video. Can you think of a more appropriate way to start the festive season? 

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated mainly in the United States on the fourth Thursday of November. It is a special day for families and people travel long distances to be with their loved ones on this day. It also marks the beginning of the Christmas festive season.  Photo by  jill111 Thanksgiving Day  is a holiday so often depicted in American films and TV series that many Greek students are familiar with it, although they don't exactly know what it is about.  In the following presentation you will find activities on the origins of this popular holiday, suitable for pre-Intermediate young teenagers.  You can download the worksheets here: For the last activity you can use a voting tool like Mentimeter . Students can brainstorm their blessings and make a beautiful wordcloud. Here is what some of my students had to say:

It seems that I have a soft spot for Shel Silverstein's writings.  They are simple yet so rich in meanings and they are always accompanied with straightforward illustrations that make them ideal for children and adults alike. Three years ago I created a short lesson on  The Missing Piece Meets the Big O . This year I made a short video for one of Silverstein's short poems, the  "Zebra Question".  photo by  VIKTOR HANACEK Zebra Question is a poem from the book  A Light in the Attic , published in 1981. It is about a boy who asks a zebra whether it is black with white stripes or white with black stripes. The zebra replies somewhat sassily with an exhaustive list of questions: "Are you good with bad habits? Or are you bad with good habits? Are you noisy with quiet times? Or quiet with noisy times? and on and on and on in a repetitive way. The poem reminds us to look at situations but also at ourselves from different perspectives. Not...

A video on Bonfire Night, suitable for children and young teens in A2 level. The worksheet includes a True or False task, a link to an easy recipe for toffee apples, plus a cut out Guy Fawkes mask. photo by  Free-Photos Make sure you take a look at  my older post  about November 5th and the story of Guy Fawkes night. If you decide to use it, leave me a comment and tell me how it went!

Browsing through templates for powerpoint and google presentations, I came across a Halloween template in Slides Carnival that was just too beautiful to ignore. So I transferred one of my older lessons about the origins of Halloween into these slides making a few changes. For example, I added a KWL chart   at the beginning of the lesson to activate students' interest and have them ask their own questions about this popular custom.  Questions such as: W hy do people celebrate Halloween?, Is it really an American tradition?, Who was Jack-O- Lantern? and many more can be answered in the text.  I also changed some of the True - False questions to make them easier to remember as students are not going to have a printed version of the text.  The crossword can be downloaded separately.  If you've used it, how did the lesson go? Let me know in the comments below!

A "This is Britain" video on Halloween for younger learners together with worksheets to use in the classroom.  photo by  Bekir Dönmez