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Forrest Gump A2 exercises: American Football, Vietnam War & Nasa
This is a booklet with exercises based on a graded reader by Pearson/Penguin on Forrest Gump (A2) level.
It is primarily designed for French kids as difficult words are translated into French; however, you could simply change these words into your students’ L1.
There are also some texts on the Vietnam War, American football and Nasa given that they are mentioned in the book.
Anne Frank Diary
Hi
I have edited the Anne Frank diary for a B1 level. As far as I understand the copyright has expired, so I’m uploading this.
I created it all myself and it’s taken hours with the vocab and comprehension questions and background information.
I have also created three texts based on things Anne mentions in the diary: Churchill, Gandhi and Queen Wilhelmina and taken the reconstruction of their arrest from the Anne Frank website (it’s been edited a bit, with images added etc.).
Travis Walton Alien Abduction (Narrative Tenses)
Here is a resource on the (supposed) alien abduction of Travis Walton in 1975. I created this document as the chapter in the student book is narrative tenses and descriptive verbs.
I got inspiration from a resource I saw on the British Council that dealt with an imaginary alien abduction to introduce narrative tenses. But I felt this way was better as it’s a real event (well, real in the sense that Travis is a real person, whether you believe he was kidnapped by aliens or not!)
Students read the newspaper story to get a general idea of the story, then the class is divided into two: newspaper reporters and Travis. The newspaper reporters need to create questions based on my points, then the group with Travis needs to give information about the abduction based on my points.
Then we read the story and answer the questions, then there is a buzzfeed video you can show them (about 7 minutes in length). TES don’t allow external links so if you want to show the video it is called “Three Bizarre Cases Of Alien Abductions.”
The Life of Helen Keller (A2 level), with exercises
Here is the life of Helen Keller.
There are exercises and some texts on Laura Bridgman, Louis Braille and Charlotte Brown.
WWII Booklet 2: USA enters WW2 (Pearl Harbor / Battle of Midway)
Here is the second part of my lessons based on WW2. I recently modified this lesson and made the Battle of Stalingrad into a Microsoft Word document, but I have kept the original older lesson in case you prefer it.
Shark Tank Entrepreneur Guide (& Phil Knight founder of Nike & Bombas activities)
Hi
I’ve been a Shark Tank fan for quite a while and thought it might be interesting to use in class as the current chapter in the textbook we’re doing is on jobs.
There is also a dictogloss to do on Nike’s co-founder Phil Knight, and video on Youtube.
Edit: I updated this as I decided to create something on Bombas. After watching a recent episode I realised Bomba is Shark Tank’s most profitable company. Their story is very interesting: for every pair of socks sold they donate one pair to homeless people.
David Beckham Biography (EFL/ESL comprehension)
Hi
I created this for a pretty low level class of young learners. It’s a biography of David Beckham. I recently improved it and added some French words but you could remove this part or change the words to your students’ L1.
The questions are purposely designed to be quite simple and the ‘extra’ part is for stronger students.
New Zealand Basic Guide (Haka, People, Culture, Tourism)
Hi
Here is a very simple guide on New Zealand. There is some information on
Its origins
Nature
The Maori people
Lord of the Rings - Hobbiton
Haka + Hongi
Usually for this kind of lesson I create a question worksheet but as I teach this at the end of the year I haven’t done this yet. But, I will probably create a worksheet later.
The videos are embedded into the lesson.
Helen Keller, Laura Bridgman, Braille and Charlotte Brown comprehension texts
Here are comprehension texts on
Charlotte Brown - a blind pole vaulter (there are two comprehension texts - one is a bit easier)
A basic guide to Braille
Biography of Laura Bridgman
Biography of Helen Keller
Each exercise has some questions. This can be used for native English speakers but has been primarily designed for English learners with a low B1 level in mind.
The texts have been taken from different websites, combined, merged, edited and rewritten in different parts.
WWI Lessons: Outbreak, Propaganda, Trenches, Letters + Christmas Truce
Hello all,
This pack consists of a set of lessons on WW1 This has taken me many hours to create, so I hope you appreciate it! There are some vocabulary lists as my students are non-native speakers but are in an international school so have a high level If your students are native speakers this part could be simply removed.
Start of WWI
Propaganda
Britain’s underage soldiers
Trenches
WWI Letters, the ‘white feather’ campaign and a poem by Siegried Sassoon.
The Christmas Truce of 1914
An introduction to Australia (Commonwealth, Origins, Tourism, Sydney)
This is a set of lessons on Australia. I used to have the Commonwealth as the first lesson in my Australia scheme of work but have decided to not use it, so I’ll just add it as an extra.
Lesson 1 – Penal Colony
Lesson 2- The origins of Australia
Lesson 3 - Tourism in Australia. I made this on Prezi but have made a new PowerPoint that has replaced the Prezi.
Lesson 4 - Focus on Sydney (updated 11.2023)
Although I call them Lessons 1, 2, 3 and 4 they will take more than one lesson depending on how long a lesson lasts in your school. I made class tests for each lesson but deleted them just in case my students found them!
The workbook has a harder and easier version but the only difference is for the Sydney video as the video gap fill is a bit easier.
The videos are embedded in the lessons, but if they don’t work you could copy the link and go to the site manually.
Haruki Murakami - A Shinagawa Monkey with activities (B2+/C1 level)
This short story is available for free on The New Yorker’s website, but I have edited it slightly.
Plus, I have created vocabulary exercises, preteaching vocabulary that appears in the text along with comprehension questions to check understanding of the text.
I have also written my own biography of Haruki Murakami adding some information about “magic realism” given that this short story employs some magical realism techniques. There is also a short article on the difference between jealousy and envy (if you read the story you will understand why).
This is a high level B2 or low C1 level on the CEFR scale. I found it great for students studying FCE or CAE level given that it has lots of advanced adjectives and great phrasal verbs needed at these 2 levels.
Call me Nick, Hitchcock Presents Literature with a Devil article (B2+)
Hi
This is an excellent and dark short story by Jonathan Crag: “Call me Nick” from 1968 and featured on Hitchcock presents.
Content
Call me Nick - I have edited this short story to remove some really difficult words and use some slightly easier synonyms
The Devil - an article on the Devil slightly adapted from a site online with images added showing the cloven hooves, trident and horns.
Workbook - difficult vocab is defined (e.g. gasp, chuckle, stare, sin etc) and there are comprehension exercises along with a few idioms with the word devil.
This has been used for a literature class with B2/B2+ students. I have divided the short story into two parts and between these parts students have an article about the Devil to read. This breaks it up nicely.
This could also easily be used in a literature class for native speakers. I think my students enjoyed it! It took two whole classes to read and finish the questions (55 minute classes in my school, so if your classes are shorter you might need 3 lessons).
Breakfast around the world (B2)
Here is a lesson based on food. This is taken from the New York Times; however, it's been heavily edited, with vocabulary exercises, lots of formatting due to the layout on their website, so it's actually been several hours of work.
Why we dream / Billie Eilish - Everything I wanted (B1)
In textbook we use in school for my English learners the students are taught vocab such as someone, anyone, anything etc so I decided to use Billie Eilish’s song “Everything I wanted” as it uses these words. Then, as it is about dreams I have a comprehension text on dreams.
And I have added part of my grammar lesson on indefinite pronouns. This should be used with a textbook that includes this grammatical concept (to do exercises on it for example).
Zlata's diary excerpts with exercises
I got the idea for this when I found some excerpts of the diary online which looked to be scanned from a class book, but I didn’t like the questions so I made my own.
I have started with a very simple background on what Yugoslavia was with questions, then excerpts from the book along with comprehension questions every so often to check understanding of the text and then a conclusion on her life with comprehension questions.
There are also some vocabulary activities to pre-teach difficult words, so if your students are native English speakers I guess you could simply edit and delete these sections.
Adidas vs Puma - A feud between brothers
Adidas vs Puma
This is a lesson on the feud between the founders of Adidas and Puma - two brothers. I find that teenagers find this topic interesting as most kids nowadays wear Adidas, Puma and Nike.
Firstly, if time there is a dictogloss. On the first page of the dictogloss is a picture of the brothers to show the students and a map with Herzogenaurach.
During the dictogloss I get students to just write HZ as it’s much quicker!
Then is the text on the brothers’ feud and story, accompanied by comprehension questions.
This has taken several hours to create,merging, editing and rewriting material from multiple sources.
WWII Booklet 1 (Appeasement, Rationing, Blitz(krieg), Operation Barbarossa) *UPDATED 2024*
Here is a collection of lessons on WW2. Please note, it’s been recently modified. I decided to scrap some of the Powerpoints so most of it is in the booklet. But I have kept the old powerpoints just in case you prefer them.
Lesson order:
1 Introduction to WW2 (Powerpoint)
2 Origins of WW2 (How Britain Hoped to Avoid War with Germany in the 1930s) (Word document)
3 Rationing (Powerpoint)
4 The Battle of Britain & The Blitz (Word document)
5 Operation Barbarossa (Word document)
I used to have the Hitler biography here at the start of WW2 but decided to put it at the end of WW1 after the Great Depression.
There is a separate booklet for questions.
My students are French and we have a special history class, so the question booklet has translations of advanced words.
WWI lessons: Weapons, The Somme, Treaty of Versailles, End of WWI
[This has been updated 17.02.2023]
In this pack there are
Two Powerpoint lessons on weapons:
1st lesson: guns (pistols, rifles, machine guns), planes, zeppelins
2nd lesson: gas and tanks
A Powerpoint Lesson on the Treaty of Versailles
A workbook with questions from the weapons lessons the Treaty of Versailles and a separate booklet for the texts:
The Battle of the Somme
Sidney Lewis, Britain’s youngest soldier in WWI
The end of WWI
Origins of WWII video
WWII Booklet 3 : Holocaust, Anne Frank, D-Day
Here is my third booklet on WW2
9 The origin of the hatred of the Jews and the Holocaust
10 Anne Frank
11 Sophie Scholl
12 D-Day