Freeganism

I came across an article at Alternet today about freeganism.

One Person's Dumpster Is Another's Diner

By Becca Tucker, AlterNet. Posted March 21, 2007.

A subculture of people make a statement by living off the waste of millions. For three days, a reporter gave it a dumpster-diving go in the "freegan" paradise of Manhattan. (click here to read on).

I thought that it would make for an interesting lesson. As the article is quite long and complex this would be best done by advanced students.

Lesson plan

1 Write the word freegan on the board and ask students to come up with a definition. make sure they understand that any definition is acceptable and there are no wrong answers.

E.g A freegan is a person who rides a bus without paying.

or

Freegan is a organic compound found in inactive volcanos.

2 Students share their answers with each other.

3 Now write the headline on the board (and explain what a dumpster/diner is)

"One Person's Dumpster Is Another's Diner"

4 Student then speculate on what the article is about and what a freegan might be.

5 Hand out the article and ask students to answer the following questions;

a What is a freegan?
b Why do some people do this? (support your answer with examples from the text).
c What is the writer's opinion of freeganism?
d Would you ever try freeganism? Why/why not?

6 Students first find the answers on their own and then get into groups of three/four to discuss their answers.

7 Elicit answers from the class.

8 Would freeganism ever become acceptable in Greece? Why/why not?

9 Ask students to watch this video on freegan eating and if it changes their mind.




10 Students post the video along with a response (in written or video form on their blog). Alternatively, they could post a response on the original YouTube video.

Teaching EFL/ESL using headlines

The basic idea is to use newspaper headlines n order to get students to ask questions and write the opening paragraph of a news story. This is aimed at intermediate students and above and will probably need 15 to 30 minute depending on the level of your students and the length of the article you choose.

Lesson Plan

1 Ask students what's the weirdest news story they heard recently. Student question each other about what the story is about.

2 Write a strange headline on the board (click here and here for some sites that have such stories every day). For example;

"Please don't invite us to your wedding, couple says"

3 Ask students what the story might be about.

4 Now explain that when a journalist writes a story the first paragraph has to answer five questions;

who
what
where
when
why

5 The students then write down their five questions, e.g. Who doesn't want to go to a wedding?"

6 They write down their own opening paragraph which answers their own questions.

7 Students check each others writing and make suggestions about how the story could be improved.

8 Give a photocopy of the original story and ask them to compare and contrast their version with the original.

"BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Fed up with spending too many weekends going to weddings, an Argentine couple took out a paid announcement on the social pages of a major newspaper expressing their desire for some social neglect."

Using the internet to teach young learners English

Every weekend I help my daughter with her English. The idea is that we do things together that will help her with her reading and writing. As she goes to a Greek school she gets plenty of practice with these skills in Greek, however, they haven't started English yet. I thought that it would be a good idea to expose her to written English through books, games and the web. Her favourite sites are PollyPocket, MyScene and the British Council's Learning Kids. So, here is a short video showing how we used an activity from the Council's site in conjunction with Google Earth.

To see the activity we were using click here.

I'm willing to try any approach as long as it keeps her interest and enthusiasm for learning alive. Too much of what is taught crushes learners natural curiosity about the world around them.

Teaching English through football (soccer)

Photo by Heikomeins

To say that I'm not interested in football would an understatement of massive proportions. However, I do realise that is something that many of my students love and so, it gives us a great opportunity to find materials and opportunities for them to practice their English. Here are some ideas about how to use it and so spark some enthusiasm amongst our often, disaffected male teenage learners.

Idea 1

1 Give them a short match description in English and ask them to underline the words and phrases that are used in football e.g. This works best if the article is about their favourite team(s), of course.

2 Then ask them to write their own short description of a game they've seen recently.

Idea 2

1 Go to Garth Crook's dream team page at the BBC football website. Ask them to comment on his choice of players and create their own dream team.

2 Students post their choice on their blog and the other students comment.

Idea 3

1 Ask your students to commentate on a clip from a match from YouTube and record it on the PC or mobile phone. Students then listen to their commentary and if necessary re-record it.


The BBC sports site is an endless source of learning activities as it covers sporting activities from all over the world. As well as written articles there are also radio programmes and podcasts about sport and chat rooms.

Teaching using film music

Here is an activity that I tried a few times over the last week with a lot of success. It can be done by all levels above intermediate. You'll need music from three different movies, preferably ones that your students haven't seen.

Lesson Plan

1 Tell your students that they are going to hear three pieces of music that come from a movie. What they have to do is think of;

Title
Genre
Scene

2 Make sure that they understand what genre means, if necessary, give examples or elicit different ones from the class.

3 Also make sure that where it says scene the students should write down what they think is happening at this point in the film, e.g. the hero is fighting with a two -headed alien at the top of the Empire State Building.

4 Play one to two minutes from the soundtrack.

5 Students compare their answers which each other. Elicit answers from the class. If a student knows the film then ask them to be the teacher and talk about the film.

6 Repeat these steps twice more.

7 Write on the board;

who where when which why how what

Now ask students to write down questions to ask you about the films from which you took the music.

8 Answer the questions.

Teacher Dude's anatomy class

Ok, I'm officially amazed. At the end of today's lesson one of my students asked me if there were any podcasts connected with anatomy that I could find (he doesn't have ADSL at home). I just took a quick look in itunes and found four!!! You've just got to love the internet. I'll be downloading as many of them as possible in order to burn a CD to give to Vassilis. Amazing!

Using songs in your EFL/ESL lessons

I know I said I'd leave off the ideas for a while but this came to me on the bus ride back from the centre of Thessaloniki and it seemed too good to waste. This exercise is a good way for students to express opinions and different degrees of certainty and uncertainty, i.e. modal verbs etc.

Lesson plan

1 Explain to the students that you are going to play a song and all you want them to do is write down ten words that come to mind when they hear it.

2 Play Your Beautiful by James Blunt. (You could try Torrentspy, but you didn't hear that from me, ok?)

3 Students then work together in pairs or groups, explaining which words they choose and why.

4 Hand out the lyrics to the song and explain to the students that they are going to write down four columns;

-What we know for sure about him
-What we can guess about him
-What we know for sure about her
-What we can guess about her

JAMES BLUNT LYRICS

"You're Beautiful"

My life is brilliant.

My life is brilliant.
My love is pure.
I saw an angel.
Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway.
She was with another man.
But I won't lose no sleep on that,
'Cause I've got a plan.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

Yeah, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,
Flying high, [ - video/radio edited version]
F##king high, [ - CD version]
And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last till the end.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you.
But it's time to face the truth,
I will never be with you

This might be a good point to go over modal verbs such as might be, could be, will have been etc. and other ways of expressing certainty/uncertainty such as perhaps, it seems that etc.

5 Play the song again and student.

6 Each student fills in their four columns and then compares their answers with their partner.

7 Elicit answers from the whole class.

8 As a follow up exercise, student write a short dialogue, imagining that the two people meet again in a cafe or bar. The class could then vote on the best performance.

You could even ask them to act it out and record it using a video camera then post it on YouTube.

And the hits keep on coming !

Create your own tv or radio ads


1 Tell the students about your favourite tv ad e.g. I love the latest
ad from Nova which shows a Greek cop chasing a a chicken thief
through a village. He finally catches up with the guy, and then
starts reading him his Miranda rights (in English).

The slogan is that the some people are glued to Nova.

2 Ask students to describe their favourite tv ad to each other.

3 The students then discuss the following questions;

What makes an ad successful ?
Apart from selling something, what else do ads want to achieve ?

4 Elicit answers. Write them on the board.

5 Show students three or four ads in English on video
(alternatively pin up ads on the board).

6 Are they successful according to the criteria we set
out in (5)? How could they be improved ?

5 Tell students that they're going to create their own radio
or tv ads. Divide students into groups of three or four.They
then decide what product or service they want to advertise.

6 Explain to students that they are going to write a script
for a 30 second radio/tv spot.Emphasise the fact that it has
to be 30 second exactly.Students then write and rehearse
their ads.

7 Record students using a cassette recorder (for you old
skoolers!!), mobile phone, mp3 player, digital camera (for
the low tech Hitchcock wannabe's)or a video camera (for
that full - blown Dolby home cinema experience).Pop corn is optional.

8 Play them to the other students who suggest ways in
which the ads can be improved.

Copyright Teacher Dude (just kidding)!!!!!