Creativity, Global Issues and the English Language Classroom

It’s been gratifying over the last few months to see an increase in interest in the role of creativity in learning and particularly language learning, so I thought I’d share some of the work I’ve been doing with Alan Maley on behalf of the British Council and hope to encourage a few more teachers to get involved with the C Group.

I was really glad to see the culmination of over a years’ work come to fruition with the publication of Integrating global issues in the creative English language classroom. This is book is now available as a free download from the British Council site.

The book focuses on the development of a deeper understanding of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 and explores creative ways teachers can raise awareness of and promote these goals among our students.  This is a book I co-edited with Alan and also wrote a chapter for and which I presented in a live webinar on October 5th for Teachers’ Day.

Integrating global issues in the creative English language classroom from Nik Peachey

The book was a follow on from our earlier volume Creativity in the English language classroom - also published for free by the British Council back in 2015.

This is where the C Group comes in as the first book would probably never have existed if it hadn’t been for the work of Alan Maley in bringing together a group of teachers and authors all of whom shared a similar concern regarding an increasing orientation in teaching towards tests and certificates.

The C Group first met in Harrogate in 2014 and it was out of that first meeting and with the support of the membership that we were able to put together a proposal for the book.

Since then the C Group has grown considerably so it’s something that I would like to encourage more teachers to get involved with.

If you are interested in finding out more about the C Group please visit their website or Facebook page.

If you have work related to creativity in ELT that you want to circulate through social media or what to track what others are sharing please use the hanshtag  #cre8

I hope you enjoy these books and they help to spark your own creativity.

My eBooks:

• 20 Tech Enhanced Activities for the Language Classroom
• Digital Tools for Teachers
• Thinking Critically through Digital Media
• Exploiting Infographics
• 10 Lessons in Digital Literacy
• Digital Video – A Manual for Language Teachers

Best
Nik Peachey

Using Computer Games to Raise Global Issues

Computer games are increasingly making their way into the field of education these days and for good reason.

• They are part of our students' lives
• They can be deeply engaging to the point of addiction
• They can be a creative genre of communication through narrative

So in this post I'd like to introduce a few games that you can use with students as a springboard for discussion on what can be some difficult issues for teachers to address in the classroom.

The Coming Out Simulator
This is an interactive story type game that is played on a simulation of a phone screen. The students watch SMS messages appear and follow the story. Students can work through the story and gain some valuable insights into what it’s like to be a gay teenager and to ‘come out’.

This could be really useful content to get students talking, thinking and writing about a topic that many teachers find difficult to deal with in the classroom.

We Become What We Behold
This is a short game that attempts to raise awareness of how the media highlights certain behaviours and attitudes that reinforce prejudices that can then lead to violence. The students play the role of a photographer, taking photograph and trying to spot things that are interesting. As they snap the pictures they see people’s reaction and gradually manipulate the reactions of the people they are photographing.

This is a great game to lead in to discussion or writing tasks on the topic of media manipulation and prejudice.

Lilya - The Shadows of War
This is a free game built for iOS or Android around the experience of a Palestinian family during the 2014 war in Gaza. It has won multiple awards from around the world. It does a lot to counteract the usual glamour attached to war related games and is a mixture of game play, digital narrative and art experience. It tells the story of a small family and their struggle for day to day survival.

 The game contains a strong emotional message, so you should be careful about using it with particularly young learners.

Read more

Games for Change
You can find lots more free and commercial games like this on the Games for Change website. They have helpful reviews and in many cases short video clips of the games.

I hope you find these games useful. You can find links to many more tools like these and activities for the digital classroom in my ebooks at: http://peacheypublications.com/. All my ebooks are available for iOS and as PDF.

Related links:

• 20 Tech Enhanced Activities for the Language Classroom
• Digital Tools for Teachers
• Thinking Critically through Digital Media
• Exploiting Infographics
• 10 Lessons in Digital Literacy
• Digital Video – A Manual for Language Teachers

Best

Nik Peachey