Hello everyone!
I am currently teaching an American Culture class at a small, non-profit program in the city. My class consists of about 7 high-intermediate/advanced adult students from various countries.
My program's curriculum is very loose. I basically give the students a list of various cultural topics and historic topics, and they choose what they'd like to study.
They've expressed an interest in devoting a class period to the War on Terrorism. But, I don't know where to start. I cannot seem to find an ESL textbook that addresses it. Besides that, I am sort of confused about where and/or how to start.
The previous teacher of the class suggested that I lecture about:
- What is terrorism?
- Terrorism in the US (9/11) and abroad
- The role of Internet in terrorism (recruitment of terrorists through the Internet)
- Using freedom of speech in GB and the USA to promote religion of the terrorist groups over the satellite to the Arab countries, such as Tunisia.
But, to be honest, I don't know what to say about these topics. In order to provide a lecture about them, I'd have to do some research and prepare a lot. Also, I'm not a big fan of simply lecturing to my students. Besides this, what activities could they do to practice their knowledge? I'm just not sure where to begin.
Do you have any suggestions or ideas? Any help would be much appreciated by me and my students. :D
Teaching about the War on Terrorism
Moderator: Joe
Teaching about the war on terrorism
I suggest you take articles from newspapers, magazines or the internet. You could also use videos of news items and recordings of news programmes on the radio. You can then design tasks as you would for any reading or listening activity.
It could be difficult having an open discussion about the topic. Students might feel inhibited about giving their honest opinions. To overcome this, I suggest you appoint roles: e.g. some students are for and others are against. Give them time to prepare what they'll say and then let them discuss.
Kind regards,
Lucy
It could be difficult having an open discussion about the topic. Students might feel inhibited about giving their honest opinions. To overcome this, I suggest you appoint roles: e.g. some students are for and others are against. Give them time to prepare what they'll say and then let them discuss.
Kind regards,
Lucy
Lucy is the author of Lucy Pollard's Guide to Teaching English