Lateral Thinking Stories for the ESL Class

Cockroaches and Ladybugs: Lateral Thinking Stories for the ESL Class: What is lateral thinking?  In 1973 Edward De Bono developed the term “ Lateral Thinking ”. Lateral thinking involves looking at a situati...





In ESL, Lateral Thinking Puzzles are a great resource for thinking, speaking and writing because they are often strange situations which require an explanation.

Teaching Maths Through English or English Through Maths: A CLIL approach

Cockroaches and Ladybugs: Teaching Maths Through English or English Through ...:



Are you thinking in doing some CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) next year? Is Maths your favourite subject to do it but the staff of your school thinks that this is a too tough for to be taught in English? Need some good reasons to convince parents and teachers? Or, are you not sure about some "language" issues when teaching maths...?

Here you are some good "references" may help you!

Is that CLIL or what?

I have received some comments and questions about what’s CLIL and what’s not and, especially about the definition of "language showers"...  it seems to me that this is an aspect not clearn enough!

Is teaching a subject in a foreign language CLIL? Are immersion programmesCLIL? Are “language showers” CLIL? Are “workshops” or modulesCLIL?

Have a look at the following article and decide by yourself if you are doing CLIL or not!

Cockroaches and Ladybugs Blog

Some Ideas for the ESL class (or for any class!)

Cockroaches and Ladybugs: Some Ideas for the ESL class (or for any class!):

ESL Ideas is a Pinterest Board, compiled by Amanda Avens with lots and lots of resources, tips and ideas for the teaching of English as a Second Language


I will try them in my class this school year, for sure!

6+1 Action Tips for Project Working

Cockroaches and Ladybugs: 6+1 Action Tips for Project Working:

I remember many years ago, my students turned our English classroom into a TV studio. In groups they decided the different TV programmes they wanted to perform: the weather forecast, News, some advertisements, an interview, and a cooking programme. Then, they did all of the research, decided what information was important to share, wrote the scripts, and practiced after school.


They decided together how to decorate the classroom and how to set the furniture. They invited a TV professional camera to videotape the “performances”. And after that, they showed to the younger in the school and to parents. The video was also viewed in a local TV.

The students still mention it to me when I see them. They are in college now.



Project based learning is learning in its truest form!

My City, Project Based Learning or Content Based Learning in the ESL class

One of the most important topics in the Primary Social Science Curriculum at Cicle Mitjà and Cicle Superior is the city, the town or the village where the students live.

The city landscape of Vitebsk

Knowing the city is a way to know many aspects of the social, cultural and civic around us. But it is also a way to know about museums, interesting places, monuments, history, famous people, unique buildings and curiosities of the town.

In this project, students will conduct a research on one or more aspects of their city (or another one, if we consider it more appropriate). The main aim is to develop a graphic support with varied information to orally show in front of the class and to make a display in the school corridors.


These are just some examples of outputs produced within the project. Power Points and scaled models are probably the most used resources among primary students, but they also used Prezi, Glogster or Issuu.

My city project from Enric Calvet

And this is the complete Unit Plan.

Unit plan my city from Enric Calvet

If you want to know something else about this project, the proposal, the basic skills it covers, or to download a Rubric for the assessment of communication, a peer assessment or a self assessment grid, please visit ARC (Aplicació de Recursos al Currículum). The project is fully published in this link: My City.

This project has been developed by TLEinC. ICE UAB Teacher trainers group work, 2013. Authors: Núria Biosca Perich, Enric Calvet Tomàs, Ana M. Esteban Nieto, M. Emília Masdeu Chimeno, Manuela Moledo Nores, M. Carmen Pérez Martin, Antonio Orihuela Lechuga.

Developing a Classroom Culture that Prioritises Communication

Theories about English Language Teaching have been prioritising different skills through the years, in order to find the best way to teach English as a second language ...

Cockroaches and Ladybugs: Developing a Classroom Culture that Prioritises Communication:

Do you Understand the Size of the Universe?

Cockroaches and Ladybugs: Do you Understand the Size of the Universe?

Several weeks ago, I was surfing the net looking for some resources to explain the size of the Universe. This is a really tough topic, specially when the learners are above 10 and you need some "interactive help" to answer this difficult question in English as a Second Language!

Film English: innovative and creative use of moving images in language learning

Cockroaches and Ladybugs: Film English: innovative and creative use of moving images in language learning:

Today I want to suggest an essential resource for English classes: Film English , the website of the English teacher Kieran Donaghy.

Do not miss it!

Get the most of videos in the ESL Class

Cockroaches and Ladybugs: Get the most of videos in the ESL Class

There are many things we can do with videos in the ESL class to actively involve children into the language learning.