Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Tell Me More - Task-based Communication Activities

By Andrew Finch and Hyun Tae-duck


Introduction for Teachers
Development of oral abilities in a second language, like other skills (e.g. playing a musical instrument or swimming), needs regular exercise and reinforcement. "Tell Me More!" offers this practice in using English, providing language-activities which require students to communicate with each other. Situational, functional, and structural emphases all have their place in the book in an environment of interactive learning, in which students are encouraged to develop their skills and abilities in the transferring of information and opinions between themselves, using the target language as the medium for this communication.

If we look at the language that we use every day, we find the same or similar forms appearing in different guises. Promoting fluency in such repetitive (and non-prescribed) use of English will therefore greatly help our students. This can be done not only through the performance of language tasks and activities, but also through the negotiation of those activities, using the full range of language functions such as questioning/answering, explaining, agreeing/ disagreeing, suggesting, and giving opinions, while trying to solve the communication problem. We might even imagine a role-play in which students do no more than talk about how to perform a language-learning task!

"Tell Me More!" is a collection of starting points. Teachers will want to adapt and supplement these, and much of the lexical input has therefore been left to their discretion and preferred method of presentation. The "Teachers' Notes and Resources" are also beginning points. If the book and its contents can be used as a springboard for the development of conversation skills in the classroom, along with the promotion of greater self-confidence, motivation and independence on the part of the students, then it will have succeeded in its goal.

We wish all participants (teachers and students) an enjoyable and creative time!


Andrew Finch
Hyun Tae-duck


April 2000 (revised July 27, 2001)


Student's BookTeacher's BookPage Numbers
Chapter 1Chapter 1 - Teacher's Notes(5-16)
Study SkillsStudy Skills - Teacher's Notes(18-24)
Chapter 2Chapter 2 - Teacher's Notes(25-36)
Chapter 3Chapter 3 - Teacher's Notes(37-50)
Chapter 4Chapter 4 - Teacher's Notes(51-62)
Chapter 5Chapter 5 - Teacher's Notes(63-76)
Chapter 6Chapter 6 - Teacher's Notes(79-94)
Chapter 7Chapter 7 - Teacher's Notes(95-112)
Chapter 8Chapter 8 - Teacher's Notes(113-128)
Chapter 9Chapter 9 - Teacher's Notes(129-144)
Chapter 10Chapter 10 - Teacher's Notes(145-162)
Chapter 11Chapter 11 - Teacher's Notes(163-175)
Chapter 12Chapter 12 - Teacher's Notes(177-188)
ExtraExtra - Teacher's Notes(191-207)


Saturday, April 21, 2018

Food and Climate Change - A Systems Perspective - Online Interactive Guide

UNDERSTANDING FOOD AND CLIMATE CHANGE: A SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE

Link: https://www.ecoliteracy.org/download/understanding-food-and-climate-change-interactive-guide

Exploring the links between food systems and our changing climate from a systems thinking perspective.
Understanding Food and Climate Change: A Systems Perspective
Understanding Food and Climate Change: A Systems Perspective explores the links between food systems and our changing climate with an emphasis on systems thinking. A systems approach helps to illuminate how seemingly disconnected phenomena are often dynamically linked and can be understood best when viewed in a larger context. This collection of essays contains an extensive bibliography that provides resources for further investigation.
Available as a free iBook for Mac and iPad users.

Get it on Ibooks


A web version is available for all computers and tablets:
Understanding Food and Climate Change: A Systems Perspective

WHAT'S INSIDE: A SAMPLE PAGE

Food and Climate Change Guide: Systems Perspective Page 

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

"Engaging. Smart. Comprehensive. Understanding Food and Climate Change is what our nation’s youth need to face the challenges of our changing planet."
Pam Koch, EdD, RD
Executive Director, Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy, Teachers College, Columbia University

"The food and wellness movement and the movement to foster awareness and understanding of climate change are among the most powerful social movements in today’s global civil society. And yet, there is hardly any connection between the two, either conceptually or organizationally, even though a thorough understanding of the multiple links between agriculture and climate change seems critical for the survival and well-being of humanity. Understanding Food and Climate Change promotes such understanding in a lively, multicultural way. It will be an invaluable tool for food and climate educators and change advocates, and I highly recommend it."
Fritjof Capra, Ph.D.
Physicist, Systems Theorist, and Author

"I have spent the last year educating myself about the critical and complex connections between agriculture and climate change. How I wish I had started with this guide!
Whitney Cohen
Education Director, Life Lab and Lecturer, UC Santa Cruz

"Agriculture has a huge impact on the environment—greenhouse gases as well as pollution of air, water, and soil. The Center for Ecoliteracy’s Understanding Food and Climate Change is essential for finding out how this happens and what we can do about it."
Marion Nestle, PhD, MPH
Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, emerita, New York University

"Understanding Food and Climate Change is a much-needed resource for educators everywhere that brings the food system “home" in a lucid and informed publication. The food sector, which includes farming, silvopasture, agroforestry, grazing, food waste, and dietary choices—is one of the two largest contributors to global warming, the other being transport. As a solution, it has the potential to be the largest sector in terms of its contribution because it can not only reduce and stop emissions, but it can also bring carbon back home through regenerative land use practices. "
Paul Hawken
Editor of Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming

Tuesday, April 3, 2018