A selection of English ESL american civilization printables

Describing a picture.

"Westward the Course of Empire takes its way" Emmanuel Leutze.

Pioneers going westward, Colonization of the Wild West. How to describe a picture. 

American Civilization

Word document with 4-part timeline on US history to cut and display in classroom. From norse seamen in 1000 to Donald Trump 2017 (first settlers, war of independence, declaration of independence, civil war, end of slavery, civil rights movements, twin towers)



American Civilization Timeline

This is a webquest/research worksheet about the different aspects of segregation in the USA. In the first part, the students are invited to describe/comment on two photographs showing what segregation was. They will have to choose another picture (photograph or painting) to present to the class.

Beside this research, they will have to present an important figure of the movement (someone who fought for civil rights or a person in favour of segregation).

The lesson itself is about the trailer of the film Selma - the  British-American historical drama film directed by Ava DuVernay and written by Paul Webb (2014)

The civil rights movement in America - Selma

Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Christian minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the Civil Rights Movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, King is best known for advancing civil rights through nonviolence and civil disobedience, inspired by his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi.

Martin Luther King

With this worksheet, pupils have to fill in the blanks using the adjectives written into brackets. They will practise SUPERLATIVES with short, long, and irregular adjectives, and they will learn facts about the American civilization. 

The USA, a land of SUPERLATIVES

Martin Luther King

Voting Rights Act

Civil Rights Act

1956

1964

1965

This activity is created by using VOA Learning English. After You listen to the conversation you can start filling the gaps. Thanks for your consideration. 

Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King Jr.

Watch two videos and take notes. Students should understand what segregation means, what the Civil Rights Movement, what Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr are famous for and what the Civil Rights Act is. Afterwards, they have to describe two pictures and talk about what they have learned in a voice recording.

Racial segregation & the Civil Rights Movement in the US

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the most important leader of the American civil rights movement. He helped unite a nation with his powerful speeches and use of non-violent protests. His 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech is one of the greatest in human history. King’s efforts to end racial discrimination earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

Horrible Histories Rosa Parks Equality Song from episode 1 series 5.



#RosaParks is here to sing about how she sat on a bus and kick- started a massive Civil Rights movement in #America.



This is an activity that you can do in class with students.

It's a Listening activity from which you can draw discussion by having converstations and going through the storyline in the song.





Horrible Histories - Rosa Parks - 'I Sat On A Bus' - Worksheet

Hey Teachers!



With Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 18th, I've decided to create and publish an ESL lesson plan on him. This lesson is based on a short biography video about MLK and racial segregation in the USA in the 1950s & 60s. With the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in the USA, I found it would be an interesting topic for students to study in the context of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement in the USA that took place in the 1950s. One of the aims of the lesson is to help students build awareness on racial discrimination in the USA and what it was like.



I would say this lesson plan is probably most suitable towards intermediate (B1) to upper intermediate (B2) level students - probably better for upper intermediate level students, although you could probably present a tough challenge to an intermediate student if you're willing to play the video a few times for them.



In order to view the video, please visit the lesson page on Fluentize via the link below. The full lesson plan is free to download on Fluentize until January 18, 2021 as long as you're registered. After that, the lesson will cost 1 credit. Here on iSL Collective, you get the first half of the lesson plan for free, which includes the preview activities and viewing activity, but excludes the post-viewing exercises.



https://app.fluentize.com/lesson/martin-luther-king



As you'll see, the preview activities include feature discussion material, pre-teaching the essential vocabulary that is presented in the video, and then the viewing activity is essentially a listening comprehension exercise based on the video. The post-viewing sections feature activities on a video quote, vocabulary context usage,  prefixes / suffixes, grammar using the conjunction "despite", follow-up conversational material, and then a quiz & review, in addition to the teacher's guide.



Students learn about Martin Luther King Jr., what segregation. They'll also learn a few special phrases and terms such as "to be on the run" and what "sit-ins" are. After watching the video and completing the first post-viewing section, there is a second post-viewing part that focuses on some grammar using the conjunction "despite" based on the following quote from the video:



"Martin Luther King Jr. believed in the power of nonviolent sit-ins and marches despite the use of force by police."



You can follow everything up with additional discussion material based on the following topics...



- The effect of racism on society

- What racism and discrimination is like in the native country where students are from

- Cultivating anti-racist attitudes for future generations

- What kinds of other social changes students would like to see take place in the future beyond racism



From the creator’s standpoint, my favorite part of the lesson is the section on prefixes and suffixes, as I found that the specific vocabulary words in the video and their accompanying prefixes and suffixes to be both interesting and useful (discredit, nonviolent, outspoken, brotherhood, rightful).



I also realize that many English language teachers are teaching in an online environment. For those of you who are, I recommend trying out our interactive lesson plan for it  (attached below), which is basically a digital version of the lesson materials that comes equipped with interactive fields for your students to write answers within.



I hope you have a great lesson exploring Martin Luther King Jr. and his influence in detail with your students!

Martin Luther King Jr. Bio - Lesson Plan

Listening comprehension on a short video biography of American musician Nina Simone and her relation with the Civil Rights movement. There are two preliminary exercises on vocabulary words and context to understand the video better, and listening comprehension questions on the video. 

Nina Simone short biography

US Elections 2012

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

For personal or classroom use only. Uploading on other internet sharing platforms or any commercial use NOT PERMITTED. Share Alike.

Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License

Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives License

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike License

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License

how to accuse somebody of something in English

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how to blame somebody for something in English

how to defend yourself from criticism in English

how to deny or admit something in English

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how to encourage or discourage people in English

how to evaluate people or progress in English

how to express agreement /disagreement in English

how to express approval and disapproval  in English

how to express cause and effect in English

how to express interest in something in English

how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

how to express sequence and chronology in English

how to express shock and disbelief in English

how to express sympathy and condolences in English

how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

how to keep a conversation going in English

how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

how to praise people and express appreciation in English

how to reassure somebody of something in English

how to refuse and object to something in English

how to remind people of something in English

how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

how to say thank you, express gratitude in English

Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

18 American civilization English ESL worksheets pdf & doc