Dear Teacher,
This academic year’s final three additions to the Downloadable Worksheets page of www.tuneintoenglish.com are all based on life in the U.S.A. The 9th June is Multicultural American Child Awareness Day, and the first new worksheet is based on Brad Paisley’s look at the diversity of cultures in his home country. American Saturday Night was contributed by Caterina Ziliani, from Milan, but now based in Houston, Texas.
The second worksheet looks at life as an immigrant – the song America, from the musical West Side Story, is an exchange of praises and criticisms of life in New York. This was submitted by Marella Corbani and Tina Lorenzani, from the province of Milan.
The third worksheet, The Ghosts of Saturday Night (After Hours at Napoleone’s Pizza House), is set where Tom Waits had a part-time job as a teenager, and was sent in by James Ratcliff, St. Etienne de Montluc, Nantes, France.
Thank you to all teachers who have submitted worksheets – I look forward to receiving your contributions in the future.
This year’s Tune Into English Roadshow had its final performance in Huelva, Spain on 30th May, wrapping up a season of 146 performances in 91 schools in 71 towns and cities. Thank you to all who have hosted the Roadshow this year, and for all the wonderful feedback I have had – you can check out the comments here. Perhaps the most rewarding shows was in the prison of Treviso, where one reaction was that I “brought a bit of happiness to a place that is otherwise extremely dull and where sadness, sorrow and despair ooze out of every brick”. You can see photographs from over six years of the Roadshow on the Tune facebook page.
Teachers at the Scuola Superiore di I° Grado may be interested in Up To You!, ELI’s holiday book, consolidating and revising vocabulary and structures presented during the year. Written by Kavanagh and Morris, you can read more about this here. In the meantime Team Up in English has now also been published in Mexico, with the name Great Team!
The Karaoke page of Tune Into English features over 8,500 songs. Don’t forget that you can sing along with the UK Top 10 Charts on the Speak Up site – updated weekly; there is a link on the Tune Home page too. (You can see a facebook album of over four years of Speak Up advertising here).
With the warm weather coming (it’s got to, sooner or later!), what better time to add the Tune Into English T-shirt to your wardrobe? Made of high quality material and featuring the Tune logo, this is available here. Don’t forget that the Once DVD and 48-page worksheet is also available.
If you are still undecided what to do during the summer break, remember that there is a two-week Teacher Training course Staging Music & TV in ELT course, which perfectly reflects Tune’s philosophy and is also held in my hometown of Cork! You can read full details here.
In the final lessons of the year, why not film your students singing in the classroom? We would be delighted to publish the video!
Don’t forget to tell your students about the Tune Into English Drawing Competition – we have received some wonderful pictures, and look forward to receiving more of your students’ (or even your own!) masterpieces!
One month to go before the holidays! The Tune Into English newsletter will return in September, but in the meantime check out the facebook page for updates. Have a great Summer – you deserve it!
Best wishes,
Fergal Kavanagh
Tune Into English
www.tuneintoenglish.com
