Laurence Bernard, notre collègue de Martinique, a créé une séquence sur New year’s resolutions pour les élèves de troisième, mais vous pouvez l’adapter à d’autres niveaux. C’est un travail très complet, qui propose une démarche pour faie une production écrite, mais propose aussi des ressources intéressantes comme les résolutions de Bridget Jones, des cartoons et un court film. Allez voir:
http://cms.ac-martinique.fr/discipline/anglais/file/resolutions_sequence.pdf
Si vous préférez travailler avec d’autres sources, voici des suggestions:
The best sites
as usual, our colleague Michèle Henry has selected the sites she find the most useful especially with beginners and intermediate students. Discover them, and especilly the chart of the resolutions.
http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/enseign/anglais/Henry/newyear.htm#resol
http://www.hiaspire.com/newyear/images/chart_bigResolutions0702.gif
Essay writing
Laurence Bernard recommends this lesson plan to encourage students to write and essay with the future and link words:
http://perso.orange.fr/absolutenglish-972/notes/resolutions/page1.htm
Here is another lesson plan of the same type, create by a primary school teacher in the US
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/new-years-day/lesson-plan/4136.html?detoured=1
She also recommends this video : « Don’t be a Gary » – resolve »: great fun! easy to understand (from YouTube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9wF5LunEmo
Tips about what resolutions to take
Laurence Bernard also recommends those videos. There is no script, the picture is very bad and just shows the people who talk, the sound is not very good either but the tips are really interesting. Maybe we could use this document to try and understand a message globally.
http://138.26.96.3/Joshklapow/VIDEO-DIALUP/newyearsresdialup.wmv
http://138.26.96.3/Joshklapow/VIDEO-DIALUP/hhstickingwithresolutiondialup.wmv
And here is are other texts with tips and advices
http://www.ehow.com/how_12076_keep-new-years.html
http://www.washington.edu/newsroom/news/1997archive/12-97archive/k122397.html
http://www.mygoals.com/about/NewYearsTips.html
List of resolutions
A very easy list of resolutions, and the children vote for the one which is most important to them. You can use them even with beginners. After the vote, the students can access a funny flash interactive site which shows them a list of fun resolutions.
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/pollzone/white/0,6405,403250,00.html
Setting your goals
About.com offers a more complete (and complex) approach, with a useful reflection for educators on how to maintain motivation and how to help the students set realistic goals and meet them.
http://7-12educators.about.com/library/weekly/aa121400a.htm
Don’t miss the worksheets in the related resources, with especially this one about writing specific goals which helps students setting sub goals or intermediate steps to go from general to specific goals
http://7-12educators.about.com/blgoalspecific.htm
Another lesson plan
A lesson plan with the history of the resolutions, and how to keep them. Created for 9th grader, that is the last year of primary school in the US, this lesson plan can be used with intermediate ESL students.
http://www.developingteachers.com/plans/nyrlp.htm#dictation