Civilisation: UK | USA | Canada | South Africa | Australia
General Themes & Holidays | Miscellaneous
Literature & Films | Grammar | Vocabulary | Audio
Links | B.O. et Outils | Fun | Videos

Please let me know if you find any dead links!

Sites and activities:

American Presidents

Lessons on American Presidents.com Ready-To-Print Handouts, MP3s & Online Quizzes
Read more: LessonsOnAmericanPresidents English Lessons U.S. Presidents http://lessonsonamericanpresidents.com/#ixzz1i7XvHHrr
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives

English Central

English Central provides a way to watch videos, learn new vocabulary and improve your accent. Students must sign in (free) to view their progress. (it gives an instant auto-evaluation). Practice, progress, diagnostic and expert help! What more could you ask for!

BrainPopESL

BrainPopESL is a new educational site for English language learning, targetting young people.

Podcasts/ Recording on Internet

I've found the simplest way of getting pupils to record themselves is to embed an Audio Dropbox on your website. Created by the Center for Language Education And Research at Michigan State University, it's free, and very easy to set up and to user.

Debates

Discussion/debate lessons
IDEA International Debate Education Association debate resources
ProCon Pros and Cons of Controversial Issues

Graphical Dictionaries Online

Visuwords: An amusing and original online graphical dictionary — Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate.

Lexipedia beta: Another online graphical dictionary. It does the same thing as Visuwords, but the interface is different. A matter of taste!

Podcasts

Beginner's Guide to Podcasts from the BBC, providingfree audio documents that you are fully allowed to use in class.

How to Podcast: Free tutorial and hosting!

Ressources CECRL

Les IPR de Montpellier viennent de mettre en ligne sur le site académique des documents (texte et sonore) pour entraîner / évaluer le niveau A2 du CECRL. (Clic droit pour l'enregistrer). Merci encore à Yvan Baptiste.

CERLC

La Grille de Référence avec rubrique "Indications pour l’évaluation" pour niveaux A1 et A2

Liste CECRL

Echanges et documents sur Le Cadre Européen de Référence pour les langues : la liste interlangues et CECR http://weblistes.ac-orleans-tours.fr/wws/info/interlangues

Teaching FCE
&other Cambridge exams

The new Teachers' Handbook for FCE exams (B2) from December 2008 can be found here: 2008 Handbook (with 2 new-style sample tests for each skill). Also available, past (2003) FCE Sample Papers. Other levels: KET (A2) - PET (B1) - PET for Schools (B1) - CAE (C1).

UK: Civilization

The Last Night
of the Proms

THE PROMS: Since 1895, annual classical concerts from mid-July to mid-September, with low ticket prices and an informal atmosphere. Here are a few selected clips (BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Concert Orchestra).

The Summer Concerts, mostly but not ONLY classical music:

Proms 2011 Climb Every Mountain Susan Bullock (serious 3 mins)
Proms 2011 Theme from Star Wars
Proms 2011 Music from the James Bond films
Proms 2011 The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

THE LAST NIGHT OF THE PROMS 2011: The only concert with the atmosphere of a rugby world cup final!!

Usually taking place on the second Saturday in September, and broadcast in the UK on the BBC, the concert includes popular classics, followed by a series of British patriotic pieces. This sequence traditionally begins with Edward Elgar''s Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 (Land of Hope and Glory), culminates in Thomas Arne's Rule, Britannia! and concludes with Hubert Parry's Jerusalem (a setting of a poem by William Blake), and the British national anthem. The" Prommers" have made a tradition of singing Auld Lang Syne after the end of the concert.

Proms 2011 Land of Hope and Glory (first few seconds then from 3m45-end)
Proms 2006 Fantasia on British Sea Songs (conducter Mark Elder declares war against audience!)
Proms 2008 Rule Britannia Welsh Bryn Terfel
Proms 2009 Rule Britannia Sarah Connolly
Proms 2011 Rule Britannia Susan Bullock
Proms 2011 Jerusalem, God Save The Queen & Auld Lang Syne (7 mins)

Because so many people want tickets for the Last Night, the "Proms in the Park" concerts began in 1996, and take place simultaneously in Hyde Park, Glasgow, Swansea, County Down and the Manchester area.

London Webcam

What's the weather like today in Trafalgar Square? Click here for a birds-eye view! Loads of other interesting views of London landmarks here.

British Humour/
Stereotypes

The British often make fun of themselves. Here is a collection of flashcards which illustrate this:
How to be British.

Best of British

The American's guide to speaking British. Seven sections containing over 1000 words and expressions that differ in their usage between the US and the UK.

BritainUSA
4 Kids

is a site which explains all about Britain and the British to young Americans. It's a goldmine! BritainUSA 4 Kids has sections on History, Geography, Picture Gallery, Sports and Things To Do, and it's presented by British Information Services, a New York-based Section of the British Embassy in Washington DC. The main BritainUSA site and the FAQs are also very helpful resources for answering questions about British life, culture, business, science and technology and government.

The Media

The British Press: my lesson plan for 2nde section européenne. Plus links and other documents.
Don't miss the BBC's Sitcom homepage: Voting for the Top 10 Best British Sitcoms!

English Life, Culture and Customs

Woodlands Junior School is the best place to go to for simple facts on English life, culture and customs. "Learn about England, Britain and their culture from children who live there". This site has been around for some time, and it's jolly good, I say!

Cuppa tea anyone?

Tea, glorious tea! Every day no less than 165 million cups of the stuff are drunk in Great Britain!!

Brief overview of Tea Drinking from BBC Lifestyle: a bit of history, the tea ceremony, how it has affected British society, how to make a perfect cuppa and what to serve with it... (afternoon tea receipes). Mmmmmmm!
In the December 2004 issue of New Standpoints, there are class files and webquests on tea and coffee.
NiceCupOfTeaAndASitDown.com - A site which tells you everything you need to know about the great British tradition of tea and biscuits.
Guide To Afternoon Tea In Britain's Finest Hotels - Invite someone special to enjoy a nice cup of tea in the elegant surroundings of stately homes!
The Tea Site - more information about tea and links to the Tea Council's other sites.
Twinings of London - offers animated instructions for making the perfect cup of tea, explains the health benefits of tea and proposes a downloadable mail order catalogue.

British Institutions

Le système politique anglais, la monarchie, le Parlement, la Chambre des Communes, la Chambre des Lords et des exercices interactifs pour travailler ces sujets (pour collège et lycée), sur le site d'anglais de l'académie de Paris.

U.K. Parliament

The U.K. Parliament explained in very simple language, from the BBC.
A page of activities on the theme of UK political system, from l'académie de Paris.

Royal Family

The Royal Archive includes up-to-date news on the Royals, biographies, photos and the "Royal comic strips"!
Treasure Hunt sur la Reine Elisabeth II et la famille royale. Cette Treasure Hunt est destinée aux élèves de Collège, à partir de la cinquième.

Citizenship in the U.K.

What does it mean to be a Citizen in the UK? This BBC Schools site helps to explain exactly what that means for young people. Rights, responsibilities, local democracy, crime, government, the E.U.... A good start for a debate.

Spywatch

Spywatch was a great interactive activity from the BBC for 4e/3e. Pupils go back in time to the 1940s and the Second World War to track down spy suspects. Unfortunately, BBC Schools has asked me to remove it from this site, because they don't want the general public to see it... even though it's educational and no longer available on the BBC Schools site ;-((

British Isles Quiz

Where to Next? is an interactive game that takes its users on a tour of six locations in the British Isles. The 'tour' will involve listening to audio reports and answering as many questions correctly as possible. 1ère/Terminale.

Northern Ireland

Amongst the wealth of resources available, here is a selection by Jean-Philippe Raud-Dugal (DNL Histoire-Géo):

Basic information on the Northern Ireland conflict, maps, murals, society and main events.
Useful flash animations explaining the Peace Process: A BBC enquiry, one by The Guardian and another more general one about The Troubles.
A powerpoint presentation and worksheet about Bloody Sunday
Various class activities on Northern Ireland by Annie Gwynn.
and a lesson (coming soon!) by Jean-Philippe based on "Bloody Sunday" the film, and the song by U2.

Stonehenge

La compréhension de l'écrit en début de 2nde. Une séquence de travail proposée par Pascale Fornoni, professeur au lycée Gabriel Fauré à Paris. Le professeur mène les élèves de l'élucidation de l'explicite à l'interpération de l'implicite. Le projet comprend la description de la séquence, les documents iconographiques utilisés, et les exercices proposés en parallèle.

School Trip

Take a look at these rich resources for a School Trip to London - by Yvan Baptiste on the Montpellier academy website.

Kids in British Schools

A very good 10-task activity on all the aspects of British schools. For intermediate students and above, by a German teacher, Jürgen Wagner.

Schools
in the UK
(current terminology for schools)

UK school levels and the French equivalent		National Curriculum skill levels (ages approximate)
Infants	Lower infants: Year 1 => Grande Section	Early Years	Age 0-5
Infants	Upper Infants: Year 2 => CP	Early Years	Age 0-5
Lower Junior	Year 3 => CE 1 Year 4 => CE 2	Key Stage 1	Age 5 - 8, Years 1 to 4
Upper Junior	Year 5 => CM 1 Year 6 => CM 2	Key Stage 2	Age 9 - 10, Years 5 to 6
Secondary school	Year 7 => 6ème Year 8 => 5ème Year 9 => 4ème Year 10 =>3ème Year 11 => 2nde	Key Stage 3	Age 11 - 13, Years 7 to 9
Secondary school		Key Stage 4	Age 14 - 15, Years 10 to 11
6th Form	Lower VI th, Year 12=> 1ère Upper VI th, Year 13 => Term.	Post-16	Age 16+, Years 12 & 13

For further interesting details, try The British National Curriculum on eteach.com
A webquest on the British School System

British university degree grades demystified!

You can get a ...

First Class Honours	(First or 1st)	Excellent
Upper Second Class Honours	(2:1)	TB
Lower Second Class Honours	(2:2)	B
Third Class Honours	(Third or 3rd)	AB
Pass without honours	(Pass)	"Got it by the skin of your teeth"
Fail	(no degree is awarded)	"Sorry, try again!"

"For the best jobs, employers will generally look for a minimum 2:1 degree as evidence of a robust candidate who has studied and performed well. A First is generally quite rare, and means you have got high marks in all or most of your papers - sign of an extremely able candidate. Friends of mine who got 2:2s said "Oh well, it's a good drinker's Degree" (reference to the lively social life of most GB students which entails going to the library a little less because of pub commitments). A Third would generally be indicative of someone who has struggled and/or hasn't put enough work in. A Pass, well, it's not really worth anything to be honest. There is rhyming slang for these degrees:

A Geoff Hurst (Wow! You got a "Geoff", did you?)
An Attila the Hun
A Desmond Tutu (A 'Desmond' is a good drinker's degree!)
A Douglas Hurd

More details here: http://www.wordiq.com/definition/British_bachelor's_degree_classification and many thanks to Darren "Geoff Hurst" Rigby for this enlightening explanation ;-)

Welcome to London

Discover this online course from the BBC. "Welcome to London" is an intermediate English language course allowing users to practise their reading, listening and pronunciation skills. This flash course is made of 6 units. In each, you find short texts to listen to, interactive exercises, texts to read with a comprehension exercise, and even a "speak" section, where you can practice specific sounds. It includes the main topics your students need to be able to talk about when they come to London : transports, hotel, shopping, going out, etc. The dialogues are short, and can be practiced by students from 4ème to Terminale.

Webquests:
- From One Stop English: Webquest on London with a worksheet ready to print:
- From colleagues in France:
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/infonews/themes/weekendengland.htm and
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/absolutenglish-972/notes/webquest/page1.htm

A London quiz (also ready to print), with questions about British culture at large.

The Tube

London Underground

Tube planner: The serious guide (itinéraires, temps de voyage estimé, les zônes tarifaires, détails sur chaque station avec lieux à visiter autour)
Going Underground- The fun London Underground Guide (you've just got to read the hilarious "Underground Etiquette")
Going Underground's Blog: As Darren says, this makes fascinating reading but it's rather scary too (quite a few tube drivers write in and some of them are mad....)

London Access

Animated film and various activities about the London charging zone, by Frédéric Chotard.

British Parliament

http://www.explore.parliament.uk For schools
http://www.parliament.uk The official site (looks a bit boring!)
http://www.number-10.gov.uk Here you can watch a film on life behind that famous front door, and even send an email to Tony Blair!

USA: Civilization

Gun Control
& the NRA

Sorry, there are often dead links on this subject!

Laurence Bernard's lesson plan The Pros and Cons of Gun Control

Campaign against GUNS: Very effective advertisement to incite comments from your pupils: Kill the Gun

The NRA and its Aims - Interesting powerpoint presentation with text, pictures and relevant cartoons, made by German teachers
The Bulletproof Backpack advert (video)
Wounded In America - to Educate Americans about Gun Violence
PSR's Slide Show Curriculum - Firearm Violence: Community Diagnosis and Treatment
PSR'S Firearms and Suicide file - America is facing a firearm suicide epidemic

Bowling for Columbine

Two completely opposite points of view on the subject of gun control in the history of America, to encourage debate: Michael Moore's animated cartoon "A Brief History of America" (included in the film "Bowling for Columbine) and a hostile answer from "Bowlingfortruth.com". Lots of other resources on the Bowling for Columbine Teacher's Guide.

Civil Rights
in America

Very comprehensive Tim and Moby flash animation on BrainPop
Web lesson plan about the Civil Rights Movement by Kieran O'Regan
Webquest: Protest Songs, Civil Rights and the Anti-War Mouvement in the USA
From Lynching Laws to Civil Rights + "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holliday (Alain Krizic)
Civil Rights in America in the 20th Century (BBC History pages)
Photos: http://www.masters-of-photography.com/B/bourke-white/b-w_living_full.html

Martin Luther King Day

MLK Day is on the 3rd Monday in January.

A really well-thought out MLK lesson plan here, brought to us by lovely Laurence Bernard from Martinique. For 2nde pupils or very good 3e.
Une page sur les Civil Rights – histoire, leaders et partis historiques, liens utiles.
Treasure Hunt pour le collège sur Martin Luther King Jr : sa biographie, évènements importants, idées, discours.
Pour le lycée une série d'activités pédagogiques comprenant une étude iconographique en lead-in, une compréhension orale et une compréhension écrite, all from the Académie de Paris.

Schools
in the USA

The Paris academy have put together a page on the US Schools System. It includes the Department of Education, some elementary school, college and university web sites, and important issues in American education today.

American History Lesson

A short history of America in pictures here or, better still, in 12 separate pictures here. By R. Crumb, the father of Fritz the Cat. (Thanks Claude!) This can be linked with a study of the song "Telegraph Road" by Dire Straits: lyrics here and Yvan Baptist's worksheet here.

Censorship today in the USA

Maybe an idea for classroom discussion? Even MTV gets censored for its political stand! The censored advert can be dowloaded as a .pps file.

Thanksgiving

Celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November in the U.S.A. The Académie de Paris English team (GIPTIC) have produced another useful page of activities (all ages),a treasure hunt for collège and an activity for lycée. Norman Rockwell's "Freedom from Want" painting. A good video from History Channel.

U.S. Elections

The U.S. Elections explained in very simple language, so everyone can understand ;-) thanks to the Beeeeb!
And a Webquest for pupils in collège on the Ac-Paris site by Claude Covo-Farchi.

The Statue of Liberty

This is America - Campaign to Reopen the Statue of Liberty. Voice Of America Script + MP3/RealAudio sound file to download.

A lesson plan from Laurence Bernard in sunny Martinique: Absolutenglish. Quelques activités sur le thème de la Statue de la Liberté, testés en salle multimédia + cours classe entière, avec des 1ère S.
- Objectif ling.: forme interrogative / passif vs actif;
- Objectif culturel: The Statue of Liberty. USA civilization : Declaration of independance from Britain (seq. 2 = MLk)

1) Un pair work: facts about the Statue (information gap, historical background, symbolism) + Wide Open 1ère p.160
2) Une évaluation support audio, source adapted from voanews.com
3) Parallement, on peut travailler sur un document lié à Ellis Island/ immigration to the USA et sur la fameuse Ellis Island Webquest de Claude Covo-Farchi, Solange Soinard, Florence Viquerat and Philip Benz.

Poverty

Brilliant lesson plan by Laurence Bernard, based on Sting's song "It's probably me". Interesting activities!

Propaganda???

The Cost of War: war and poverty, or peace and wealth? Poverty in the U.S.A. Can we believe everything we read on Internet or has it become the new "soapbox" for propaganda?

Ellis Island

A great webquest and many resources about early immigration to the USA by Phil Benz, Claude Covo-Farchi, Solange Soinard and Florence Viquerat (e-teach collaboration).
And on the Scolastic teachers' page is another webquest about Ellis Island to try out...

Martin L King

A good list of links: History - Vocabulary - Listening - Cliparts - Photos and Posters - Activities - Webquests - Games to print - Songs. N.B. MLK Day is on the 3rd Monday of January each year (since 1983)

Stereotypes

La vision stéréotypée qu'ont (certains!) américains de la France. Un texte drôle, avec toute une série d'exercices de compréhension. (Frédéric Chotard). Text: Intercultural differences.

Super Size Me

An irreverent look at obesity in America and one of its sources - fast food corporations. Laurence Bernard's new series of activities based on a CBS news report on the award winning film Super Size Me (2004) directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock. About the film.

Canada: Civilization

Canada!

Working on the theme of Canada? Here are some links to resources selected by teachers on eTeachNet:
I am Joe Canada (my favourite - a punchy little video clip, with script)
Groundhog Day (the film)
Groundhog Day (facts, lesson plans, songs etc)
Masses of other interesting links on Canada
Canadian passport application form (a printable PDF file)

South Africa: Civilization

South Africa links

Here are some good ideas and addresses recommended by eTeachNet teachers:

Madame & Eve cartoons http://www.madamandeve.co.za/index.php
History of South Africa: http://husky1.stmarys.ca/~wmills/course322/his322.html
The Apartheid Museum and its educational resources "Understanding Apartheid": http://www.apartheidmuseum.org
A starter lesson based on a cartoon: http://lve.scola.ac-paris.fr/anglais/southafcartoon.php
and lots of other activities from Ac-Paris: webquests, treasure hunts, quizzes http://lve.scola.ac-paris.fr/anglais/southafrica.php
http://www.apartheidmuseum.org/supplements/issue1/index.html
New Standpoints (mai 2004) Various class files for all levels.
The song "Mandela Day" by "Simple Minds"
The textbook "Wings" p 64-65 & the TD, "Trackers 2nde" p. 88.
Films "Cry freedom", or "A Dry White Season" by Euzhan Palcy, or "The Power of One"

Béatrice Firobind a concocté une activité pour introduire une séquence sur l'Afrique du Sud/l'apartheid, et l'équipe du Giptic de l'Académie de Paris vous propose une nouvelle page de ressources sur l'Afrique du Sud.

Australia: Civilization

Australia

BBC profile of Australia. Australia is the smallest continent, but combines a wide variety of landscapes...

My webquest on Australia (3e / 2nde), with worksheet and crossword.

Civilization: General themes & Holidays

School uniform debate

Some interesting resources for this subject:
What to Wear to School: The Great Debate over Dress Codes and School Uniforms (in the USA)
School Uniform Debate and Poll (simple)
School uniform Debatabase - Should schools require their students to wear a school uniform? (complex)

Olympics & Sports

Faites faire des exposés (prise de parole en continue) passionnants à partir du site des Jeux Olypiques d'Athènes 2004, qui présente tous les sports. Il y a assez de sports pour que 37élèves travaillent chacun sur leur sujet. Now with more visual Sports Animations!
How many gold, silver or bronze medals can you win by answering this olympic sports quiz?
More resources are available for teachers at http://www.teacherplanet.com/resource/summerolympics.php
The Olympics section at http://bogglesworldesl.com/olympics_worksheets.htm contains many worksheets and activities for teaching sports vocabulary.

St Valentine's Day

For collège: A Valentine treasure hunt (aca Paris again!)
For Lycée: Activity based on an article on St Valentine's Day in Newsweek
The following are entries to a competition asking for a rhyme with the most romantic first line, but least romantic second line:

I see your face when I am dreaming, That's why I always wake up screaming.	Love may be beautiful, love may be bliss But I only slept with you, because I was pissed.
I thought that I could love no other Until, that is, I met your brother.	Of loving beauty you float with grace If only you could hide your face
Kind, intelligent, loving and hot; This describes everything you are not	I want to feel your sweet embrace But don't take that paper bag off of your face
My darling, my lover, my beautiful wife: Marrying you screwed up my life	My love, you take my breath away. What have you stepped in to smell this way
I love your smile, your face, and your eyes Damn, I'm good at telling lies!	My feelings for you no words can tell, Except for maybe "go to hell"
Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you. But the roses are wilting, the violets are dead, the sugar bowl's empty and so is your head.	What inspired this amorous rhyme? Two parts vodka, one part lime.

St Patrick's Day

On the History Channel website, everything you always wanted to know about St Patrick and St Patrick's Day celebrations...

April Fool's Day lesson

Introduction: Today's lesson is going to start with a timed test. You have two minutes to complete it. It is essential that you work quickly and quietly. All you need to do is follow the following instructions.
Instructions:

Read everything before you do anything.
Write your name in the upper right-hand corner of the paper.
Draw two squares in the lover left-hand corner.
Place an 'x' in one square and an 'o' in the other.
Write your class under your name.
Draw one large circle in the centre of your paper.
Divide the circle exactly by drawing a line through it.
Sign your name at the bottom of the circle.
Write your birthday under your signature.
Now that you have finished reading everything, do only as directed in the first sentence.

Follow up: Go to the TeacherNet site and discuss the origins of April Fool's Day with your pupils.

England & St George

April 23rd is St George's Day. How much do you know about England? Test your knowledge with this little quiz.

Fireworks Day

Remember, remember, the fifth of November, Gunpowder, treason and plot.
A Treasure Hunt about Guy Fawkes' Day for collège pupils on the Académie de Paris site.

Christmas
(lycée)

Aborder Noël avec des classes de lycée, c’est l’occasion de travailler sur des points de civilisation laissés dans l’ombre. Les activités (une Treasure Hunt sur les pantos, la lecture d'un article sur l'arbre de Noël de Trafalgar Square et l'étude d'une page sur Coca-Cola et Santa Claus) vont permettre à vos élèves d'aborder Noël tout en enrichissant leurs repères sur la société anglo-saxonne. (Site d'anglais de l'Académie de Paris)

Adverts

A large choice of TV ads to download and use in class:
http://www.markmcm2002.verysmooth.co.uk/ads_a-f1.html (the English Classics, downloadable)
http://www.pubstv.com/advert/pays-a-a/pub.html (English ads from the UK, USA, Australia and NZ)
http://www.absolutelyandy.com/tvadverts (Andy Savage's choice of funny ads with good music)
http://www.visit4info.com/coolads.cfm (TV ads in Quick Time format, listed in alphabetical order)
And lastly, the world's largest archive of classic print ads: http://www.adflip.com

Hijacked adverts? http://www.subvertise.org

Links to lots of material on advertising and some language modules designed by Barbara Dieu for her students.

The "mystery" of Dalarö: The Volvo advert would have us believe that 32 people bought the same car on the same day in a tiny Swedish village... Using the Volvo site and the site of a "non-believer", Carlos Soto, Yves Gouast has created a number of oral comprehension hot potatoes exercises (3ème upwards).

Adverts -
Super Bowl Commercials

If you're looking for adverts to get your pupils talking, how about the Super Bowl "best ofs"? OK, so they're mainly full of cowboys talking about potato crisps, coke and beer, but some are very amusing...
http://superbowl.about.com/od/offthefield/a/ds020402.htm
http://sports.aol.com/nfl/superbowlads (Recommended by Sylvie Brod & P-F Ehrer on eTeachNet)

Advertising Parodies

False advertising, a gallery of parody. Very funny, but maybe not for our pupils ;-) Spotted by Claude Covo-Farchi.

Anti-tabacco Campaign

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/prof.danglais/altria/index.htm (Leçon de Frédéric Chotard avec Flash animation)

Cartoons

Motivants pour les élèves, facile de s'en procurer, les cartoons peuvent générer aussi bien de l'expression orale que de l'expression écrite, du plus simple au plus complexe, et on peut les adapter à tous les niveaux.

Conseils, suggestions, liens.
British cartoonist Giles : fifty years of Daily and Sunday Express cartoons documenting Britain and the British, gently mocking their absurdities.
Plus the BBC's special report on it
CartoonStock is a searchable database of over 40,000 quality gag cartoons, political cartoons, cartoon pictures and illustrations by over 250 of the World's best cartoonists.

Environment, pollution, civil liberties etc

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/prof.danglais/animations (Flash animations collected by Frédéric Chotard)
http://www.discip.crdp.ac-caen.fr/anglais/documents/cottenceau/flashmovies/freerange.html
(Flash animations collected by C. Cottenceau)
"The Meatrix" http://perso.wanadoo.fr/annie.gwynn/meatrix.htm (Flash animation, spoof movie of "The Matrix" and exercises by Annie Gwynn)
"Store Wars": Organic vegetable farmers fight the Dark Side of the Farm (toxic pesticides) http://perso.wanadoo.fr/absolutenglish-972/notes/storewars/index.htm (Flash animation, spoof movie of "Star Wars" and comprehension exercises by Laurence Bernard). Follow up: The Sith Sense: Challenge Darth Vader who will read your mind in twenty questions or less. Can you beat The Dark side of the Force? ;)

European Union

Une série de 15 exercices Hot Potatoes qui vous permettront de réviser le vocabulaire de l'Union Européenne. Prenez des notes ! (by Yvan Baptiste)

2004 Expansion:
The Guardian: very nice flash presentation (series of maps) of the European Union enlargement
CNN special report, with Membership interactive map and Timeline.

The Perfect European Poster

Click here for a bigger poster
Click here to know more about this poster

Printemps de l’Europe 2005

Préparez-vous ! Le Printemps de l’Europe 2005 sera axé autour du thème de la Constitution européenne. L’Union européenne possèdera bientôt une nouvelle constitution, à savoir un texte qui contient les règles et droits fondamentaux des Etats membres. Il est très important d’aider les citoyens actifs de demain à comprendre de quoi il s’agit, le fonctionnement des institutions européennes, nos valeurs communes et le processus qui a donné vie à la constitution.

Inventions

Totally Absurd Inventions(America's Goofiest Patents). Pupils love this! They choose an invention and write a paragraph about it to present orally to the class.
Inventions, Robots & Technology: A resource page for Secondes (Laurence Bernard).

Famous Inventions : A to Z Research the history of famous inventions - past and present &
Famous Inventors : A to Z Research the history of famous inventors - past and present

Mobile Phones & Camera
Phones

Absolute English (Laurence Bernard)
Do you speak Esemese? (Yvan Baptiste)
A texting lesson, a short SMS matching activity and a cellular phone quiz (It's Online).
Lesson plan from OneStopEnglish: Abbreviations and text message language, reading for meaning. I shall be trying this out in 2nde: an interesting multimedia lesson plan by Philippe Marlier and Denis Martin on mobile and camera phones (trois à quatre heures de travail en salle multimédia, qui comprend des exercices très différents : compréhension orale et écrite, manipulations fonctionnelles, analyse grammaticale, exercices de lexique et de phonologie, production orale et écrite).
"Mobile Madness" is a txt msg game from Oxford University Press.

Music

From the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the DSO kids site includes an orchestra seating chart, instrument list with sound, composers timeline, music to listen to and games which are educational and fun to play!

Slow Food

If you're working on this subject in Voices Terminale, here are some useful resources for you:

Australian video here:
http://www.abc.net.au/abcasiapacific/englishbites/stories/3ep049.asx
Or with Real player streaming here:
http://www.abc.net.au/abcasiapacific/englishbites/stories/m716293.ram
Script of the video here:
http://abcasiapacific.com/englishbites/stories/s1322945.htm#4
Vocabulary explained on right of the page.

Mysteries & Suspense

Another brilliant lesson plan by Laurence Bernard, with lots of activities, based on http://www.mysterynet.com. Good follow-up for practising the vocabulary of investigation (a red herring, a lead, clues etc) and making deductions, hypotheses... Alternatively, get each pair/group of pupils to gather information about one particular character in the MysteryNet monthly "solve-it"mystery (prepare a worksheet to guide them?), and to answer the other pupils' questions. Then, as a group, pupils should draw their conclusions from the notes they have taken and shared.

Studying Paintings

Une séquence de travail proposée par Béatrice Firobind, professeur au lycée Claude Monet à Paris : sensibiliser les élèves à la démarche de description d’un document visuel)

Time Mag's "Top 100"

Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world today.
Time's list of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.
A class activity I put together to go with this. Le classement est divisé en 5 catégories : Leaders & Revolutionaries, Artists & Entertainers, Builders & Titans, Scientists & Thinkers, Heroes & Icons. Il est intéressant de noter quelques absences de taille (P et M Curie, Stalin...), d'en discuter et de réfléchir sur ses propres choix.

A lesson plan by National Geographic: Cultural Icons: Voices of their Nations

Miscellaneous

Gahooyoogle

Yahoo and Google get it together to give you a double search list. C'est foo non ? ;-)

Ship or Sheep?

Shiporsheep.com - online English language pronunciation practice with minimal pairs and instant sound - simply mouse over to hear

Phonology - Phonetics

I don't suppose you have much time for this, but here's a useful page of links to various lessons and resources by Yvan Baptiste.

Free puzzle making tools

Eclipse Crossword "the fast, easy, free way to create crossword puzzles in minutes".
JClic "for the creation, playing and evaluation of multimedia educational activities".
Hot Potatoes 6 well-known applications to create interactive exercises for the World Wide Web.
Puzzlemaker for crosswords, word searches etc.

Maths in English

Pour le fun, quelques jeux en lignes qui présentent le jargon matheux en contexte: http://www.subtangent.com/maths/games.php (who wants to be a mathionaire?, mots mêlés, pendus, "des chiffres et des lettres, etc...)

Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public. Films, audio files and books.

Holiday Homework!!!

A proposer à vos élèves pour les occuper pendant les vacances ;-D http://www.anglaisfacile.com, une leçon par jour, 100 % gratuit, les pages "COURS D'ANGLAIS POUR DEBUTANTS" me semblent très bien pour réviser avant la rentrée...

Play Twenty Questions

Originally, it was a game to play with the kids during a long car journey. 20Q.net is the next generation of Twenty Questions: a special kind of computer program called an AI (Artificial Intelligence). Players think of an animal, vegetable, mineral, or other item and the computer guesses what the player is thinking in twenty questions. And the more people play, the more the game “learns”. For pupils, it could be a fun way to practice answering yes-no-maybe questions! Try it!

News Article by a Monty Python guy

Let them eat bombs... is an wicked satirical article written by Terry Jones, a film director, actor and member of the Monty Python team. Very profound text on an extremely serious subject, illustrating one side of British humour.

A Horror Story

Take a look at "The House" from iT's online magazine : a rather good horror story activity - lycée 1ère level, I imagine - with clickable icons to hear the horror story in mp3 audio format. It really has nothing whatsoever to do with Halloween, so can be used anytime :-)

Teaching with Songs

Angles online for Cambridge School - Learn English with great hits and listening/reading exercises.
A wonderful ESL page of songs - new and old favourites - with activities to practise vocabulary, grammar, sounds, etc. by Isabel Perez (Spain).
British Council site, a new song every week and some good ones in the archives: Songs & Lyrics
Two sites with lots of useful information and links: "Chansons, paroles et musique" and "Music, Songs and Singers"
Lesson & various worksheets based on Black Eyed Peas' song "Where is the Love?" One - Two
The Grave - George Michael, an online listening activity.
Learn a Song Podcast - very easy songs to learn by heart. Downloadable mp3s. For collège pupils.

Poisoning Pidgeons

Un travail à partir de la chanson "Poisoning Pidgeons in the Park" de Tom Lehrer - hilarious! (by Frédéric Chotard, Lucy George, Gilles Siche) puis click sur "Spring"

Music

Songs & Singers Fun

"Let them sing for you" is quite an amusing project. Type any lyrics into a dialogue box, press a button, and some of the world's greatest singers will sing it to you. The fun comes from trying to guess which famous singer is singing what!

Webquests

AKA Treasure Hunts. Definition, intérêt, ressources :
http://lve.scola.ac-paris.fr/anglais/webquests.php.
Extreme Sports. Un travail pour 4e/3e par Michelle Henry.
Australia Webquest with worksheet and crossword puzzle
Not ANOTHER Harry Potter webquest with worksheet

Translation

Methodology lesson plan from Laurence Bernard (Martinique) for Terminale pupils:

Activité 1: Avec rétroprojecteur, associer un procédé de traduction à ce en quoi il consiste + réfléchir aux tips et dangers en traduction.
Activité 2: Repérer des procédés de traduction (Your Way Tle), et traduire des expressions en utilisant le procédé indiqué.
Activité 3: Avec rétroprojecteur, traduire des expressions sans mot à mot
Activité 4: Lecture d'une lettre traduite de l'anglais au français (et quasi incompréhensible, rigolade assurée). Réécrire la lettre dans un français correct. Imaginez ensuite la lettre originale.

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Any copyright infringement unintentional: please contact the webmaster.

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Teachers' Warehouse (Sharehouse Part I)

Civilisation: UK | USA | Canada | South Africa | Australia General Themes & Holidays | Miscellaneous Literature & Films | Grammar | Vocabulary | Audio Links | B.O. et Outils | Fun | Videos

Sites and activities:

American Presidents

English Central

BrainPopESL

Podcasts/ Recording on Internet

Debates

Graphical Dictionaries Online

Podcasts

Ressources CECRL

CERLC

Liste CECRL

Teaching FCE &other Cambridge exams

UK: Civilization

The Last Night of the Proms

London Webcam

British Humour/ Stereotypes

Best of British

BritainUSA 4 Kids

The Media

English Life, Culture and Customs

Cuppa tea anyone?

British Institutions

U.K. Parliament

Royal Family

Citizenship in the U.K.

Spywatch

British Isles Quiz

Northern Ireland

Stonehenge

School Trip

Kids in British Schools

Schools in the UK (current terminology for schools)

UK school levels and the French equivalent

National Curriculum skill levels (ages approximate)

British university degree grades demystified!

Welcome to London

The Tube London Underground

London Access

British Parliament

USA: Civilization

Gun Control & the NRA

Bowling for Columbine

Civil Rights in America

Martin Luther King Day

Schools in the USA

American History Lesson

Censorship today in the USA

Thanksgiving

U.S. Elections

The Statue of Liberty

Poverty

Propaganda???

Ellis Island

Martin L King

Stereotypes

Super Size Me

Canada: Civilization

Canada!

South Africa: Civilization

South Africa links

Australia: Civilization

Australia

Civilization: General themes & Holidays

School uniform debate

Olympics & Sports

St Valentine's Day

St Patrick's Day

April Fool's Day lesson

England & St George

Fireworks Day

Christmas (lycée)

Adverts

Adverts - Super Bowl Commercials

Advertising Parodies

Anti-tabacco Campaign

Cartoons

Environment, pollution, civil liberties etc

Teachers' Warehouse
(Sharehouse Part I)

Civilisation: UK | USA | Canada | South Africa | Australia
General Themes & Holidays | Miscellaneous
Literature & Films | Grammar | Vocabulary | Audio
Links | B.O. et Outils | Fun | Videos

Teaching FCE
&other Cambridge exams

The Last Night
of the Proms

British Humour/
Stereotypes

BritainUSA
4 Kids

Schools
in the UK
(current terminology for schools)

UK school levels
and the French equivalent

National Curriculum skill levels
(ages approximate)

The Tube

London Underground

Gun Control
& the NRA

Civil Rights
in America

Schools
in the USA

Christmas
(lycée)

Adverts -
Super Bowl Commercials

Mobile Phones & Camera
Phones