Part of the Cool Sites series
As an English language teacher I love opportunities to teach culturally responsive lessons (CRT), a type of curriculum that celebrates and responds to various cultural issues through student-centered instruction. In a previous post, Do Our Students Realize They Live in the World, I explain why all students need to develop skills in collaborating with others worldwide. These skills are rarely thought in schools. How many teachers do you know in your school that participate in international projects?
Nelson Mandela is an incredibly wise man who realized that one way to unify people in a nation is through sports! The World Cup is the sporting event that unites nations and brings the world together to rejoice, cheer, kick, scream, rant and now blow our vuvuzelas! My adult English language learners are having rich discussions about the World Cup and my kindergartners are also enjoying learning about sports! However, you can use the World Cup to teach any subject, such as math, history, and statistics.
Lesson Ideas
Below are the resources I have been using with my adult English language learners (pre-intermediate level) and hope they provide you with ideas:
Sean Banville’s Listening Exercises & Quizzes
To prepare for the class, I suggested my students complete these activities in our wiki:
- Please read this article about Germany in the World Cup
- Then listen to the MP3 of the article without reading the article
- Now take these quizzes to check your understanding- Quiz 1 and Quiz 2
Sue Lyon’s Video & Listening Quiz On Vuvuzelas
- In class, we sparked thoughtful discussion by watching a video on the ESOLCourses blog about banning Vuvuzelas.
- As a class we created a concept map of what we remembered from the video about Vuvuzuelas and what we had each observed.
- Then we took this video quiz.
- We then separated into two groups to debate the issue if Vuvuzelas should be banned! We had an incredible discussion with the majority of the class voting on Sue’s poll to not ban them. Many of the students came up with great arguments, such as Vuvuzelas being a tradition, a symbol of hope, preventing coaches from communicating with players, and more!
Can I Play This at Home? The World Cup Online Game
- In class, students also created questions for this fun game, Can I Play This at Home.
- This game has the students choose a team, then answer questions correctly to make the footballers make a play.
- Students are submitting their questions on the website then having their classmates play the game at home.
- There are also preset questions in several categories, such as math, spelling, and grammar.
Here are more World Cup resources and ideas:
- Use these free creative common photos from Pic App of players, crazy fans, and more to have students create dialogues using Super Lame Word Balloon generator.
- Quizlet: Want to Sound Like a World Cup Expert? created by Ana d’Almeida!
- Pearls of Wisdom from Soccer Greats by Ken Wilson- Students will have a fun time seeing famous players and discussing the quotes they say. Students then find their quotes from their own favorite players and a great photo to accompany the quote!
- More World Cup Lesson Ideas by Eva Büyüksimkeşyan!
- The Best Sites For Learning About The World Cup by Larry Ferlazzo
- The World Cup 2010 – Quizzes & Activities by ESOLCourses
- World Cup Video Lessons by ESOLCourses blog
- Over 50 World Cup Lessons, Resources, & Ideasby Sean Banville
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