December Themes and Topics!

Be sure to take a peek at some of the suggested topics and themes for December here! The main theme of course will be the holiday season - decked out in colorful lights and cheery decorations! However, you may also want to discuss a bit about the history of December 25th and focus less on the commercial side of it. Depending on where you are, your students will most likely be surrounded by an abundance of holiday festivities, Christmas carols and red and green symbols in their community......so don't be afraid to get them all into the holiday spirit too - especially this year!

November Topic: Consumerism

Despite ALL that's going on during these stressful and crazy times, the holiday season is coming up. With Thanksgiving in the US and the festivities of Christmas celebrated across the globe, many of us will be trying to get in the spirit of shopping! Whether online, or in a mall, it's a good time to get your ESL students talking about shopping and how it relates to CONSUMERISM. There's no shortage of vocabulary, expressions and phrases when it comes to teaching around the theme of SHOPPING (see recommended links) and all the linking topics including sales and discounts, types of stores, online shopping, as well as the countless number of products that society needs and of course wants. 

Have your students talk about the culture and FUTURE of shopping in their country and see if it compares to days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday (kick offs to the official start of the holiday shopping madness Friday, November 26th and Monday, November 30th).

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Shopping to our American neighbours! (see links to Thanksgiving worksheets and activities).

WARM UP CONVERSATION QUESTIONS BY ESL MADE EASY:

1. Do you like to shop and if so, what are some things you usually like to shop for besides the basics?
2. How have shops and stores changed over the years? How does this compare to shops and stores in your home country? 
3. Are you an online shopper and if so, what do you typically buy? How does this experience compare to shopping in a physical store?
4. How are the terms 'consumption' and 'consumerism' related? What role does consumerism play in the environment, the economy, and in our daily life? Do you think consumerism can affect our well being?
5. What are the differences between "needs" and "wants"? Do you think society's needs and wants have changed over the years? If so, what could be some of the reasons besides creative and sneaky marketing strategies?
6. How has the role of marketing and advertising influenced consumerism? Can you give any specific examples?

RECOMMENDED ESL LINKS AROUND THE TOPIC CONSUMERISM:

ESL Discussions: Discussion questions on "Consumerism"
ITESLJ: Conversation questions on money and shopping
ESL Library: ESL Podcast: How Much Stuff Do We Need?
ESL Library: A reading and vocabulary lesson on consumerism
Breaking News English: Men Suffer from Shopping Too! - reading and activities
YouTube: The Story of Stuff - find matching comprehension worksheet here
Teaching English: Consumer - Society Lesson Plan
ESL Right Now: Consumerism-supermarket-psychology lesson plan
ESL Ect: Reading activities on Black Friday and Consumption
ESL Printables: Worksheets and on-line exercises on consumerism - membership site
ESL Video: 10 minute documentary on consumerism
ESL Holiday Lessons: Reading and activities on Buy Nothing Day
ESL Lab: Short video with 3 questions on Black Friday
YouTube: What is Black Friday All About! Watch and discuss
ESL Fast: Black Friday reading with follow up activities
ESL Library: Lesson Plan on Cyber Monday - membership site
English Blog: Reuters Video on Cyber Monday with full script
English Post: Reading on Black Friday and Cyber Monday with questions
Daily Infographic: Learn all about Cyber Monday - get your students to write summary sentences
Lyrics Mode: Shania Twain's Song with lyrics: "Ka-Ching"

November Topic: Remembrance Day

November 11th, known as Remembrance Day, Veterans Day and even Poppy Day in some parts of the world, is a time to recognize and remember those courageous soldiers, airmen and women and sailors who died during times of armed conflict. Originally associated with WW1, the scope of this day has since been expanded to acknowledge those who served in other wars as well as those currently serving.

There are a number of key symbols associated with November 11th including the famous war poem from WW1 Flanders Fields Poem (video lesson), the Last Post call, and the Two Minutes of Silence. 
 

CONVERSATION QUESTIONS THAT FOCUS ON PEACE BY ESL MADE EASY:

1. What do the words 'peace' and 'freedom' stand for? Which is more important to you?

2. In what ways do countries try to achieve and maintain peace? What are some of the laws surrounding the concept of peace in your country? 

3. What is your ideal vision of peace in the world? Do you think it is, or will ever be, achievable? Why or why not?

4. What are some characteristics of peaceful people? How can we teach our children to live peaceful lives? If the world was full of just peaceful people, what do you think it would be like?

CONVERSATION QUESTIONS ON THE TOPIC OF REMEMBRANCE/VETERANS DAY:

Activity Village: Activity worksheets on Remembrance Day 
DLKT-Holidays: Remembrance/Veterans Day worksheets for beginners
Bogglesworld ESL: Remembrance/Veterans Day activity worksheets
Bridge Ontario: Flanders Field - poem - beginners - picture vocabulary
MrDonn.Org: What is Remembrance Day PowerPoint
Canadian Reader: A Poppy is for Remembering - full lesson
ISL Collective: 6 Remembrance Day worksheets and activities - donation site
Government of Canada: PDF version of Canada Remembers Times - articles
VA U.S. Government: The History of Veterans Day
Teachnology: Veteran's Day worksheets
Education World: Lesson ideas and activities for Veterans Day
Homeschooling: Printable Veterans Day activity worksheets
Little Red Poppy: Reading and follow up activities
ESLVideo: A Remembrance Day tribute by Bryan Adam with follow up questions
English Gateway: A short fill in the blank exercise on Remembrance Day collocations
ESL-Library: A free listening podcast - Remembrance Day
War Poetry: Remembrance and Peace Event Poems
Altius Directory: Remembrance Day activities (poems and quotes)

ESL BRAINS: Author (s) Interview!

If you haven't already found this site, then go ahead and check it out! It's packed full of ready-to-use lesson plans and worksheets on lively and relatable topics! Here's what Stan and Justa had to say about their site ESL BRAINS.

Why and how did you get into the ESL field?

Well, we met during studies as we both did English Studies. So we studied together to be ESL teachers but our story with teaching started probably even earlier. I (Stan) did some volunteer work back in high school teaching English to the unemployed, while Justa kicked off her career during her sophomore year teaching adults in private language schools.

Tell us a little bit about your ESL website / blog. 

ESL Brains is a website with ready-to-use lesson plans and worksheets both in printable and digital formats. What makes us different is the fact that we base all our lessons on authentic video materials and tackle some up-to-date interesting and thought-provoking topics. The idea is that your students not only learn English, but learn about something interesting or do some critical-thinking as they work on relatable topics.

Why did you create this site?

We had plenty of lesson plans designed for our students and one day we thought that maybe it’s worth sharing them with other teachers out there. Our idea was that our students enjoyed our classes so maybe somebody else would find the materials useful as well.

What has been your biggest challenge with your site?

Developing the website step by step and making things work with the little knowledge we had. It was just frustrating when we envisioned something and the end result wasn’t actually it. Unfortunately, nothing always works perfectly fine and we just feel very bad when we get a message saying something doesn’t work. I’d be angry if it happened to me so we do our best to fix any issues people have as fast as we can!

What piece of advice would you give to newbies in today’s world of teaching (online or in the classroom)?

Don’t be afraid of using technology in your classroom. Remember though that it’s there to help your students learn so get rid of any cool apps or solutions that don’t work for your students!

What are your future goals for your website?

We’re currently redesigning our website and making it more user friendly. We work with an UX designer and a web developer to breathe some fresh air into ESL Brains but also introduce new features to make teachers’ lives easier.

Any thoughts on where you see the future of the ESL field?

The pandemic has forced people to do online teaching and learning and I believe some people will keep doing that long after we forget about COVID! Lots of people have realized that learning online is effective. I predict we’re going to have a lot of hybrid courses in the future and it’s good for the industry as well. Students will have access to better quality teaching and teachers won’t waste so much time commuting and will have more flexible working hours.

Thank you for taking the time to speak with us at ESL MADE EASY!

See you there at ESL BRAINS.COM