What's happening in September 2023?
Whether you are a teacher or a teacher educator, this page gives you an overview of all the activity happening across our TeachingEnglish channels in September 2023.
For teachers this month, we'll be focusing on the theme of 'Planning lessons and courses', 'Supporting literacy development', and 'Developing soft skills in teacher education'. For teacher educators, the focus is 'Planning teacher learning'.
Find out about:
- Current and upcoming free online training courses
- Upcoming online events and webinars for teachers and teacher educators
- Facebook and Instagram Live
We have hundreds of lesson plans and classroom resources. Below are just a few to help you explore different days celebrated by the United Nations, examine some of the key themes with your learners and help them to develop their language and 21st century skills.
If you like listening to podcasts or reading current research and insights, we also recommend a range of podcast episodes, as well as publications related to this month's themes.
Online training
See all of our free training courses for teachers below.
- Teaching English through literature
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Learn how to engage and develop your learners’ English language skills through a range of literature-focused learning activities and related teaching approaches in this four-week course for language teachers.
In this free 4-week online course, you will learn about the following:
-Foundations of teaching English through literature
-Developing receptive skills through literature
-Developing productive skills through literature
Find out more and enrol on this free course - Planning lessons
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Learn how to plan engaging language and topic-based lessons by identifying and applying commonly used lesson models. Explore techniques for introducing new language, writing achievable learning outcomes, and planning warmers and lead-ins.
In this free 4-week online course, you will learn about the following:
-Engaging with lesson planning – models and frameworks
-Engaging with lesson planning – introducing new language
-Engaging with learning outcomes
Find out more and enrol on this free course - Classroom management for primary
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Give your primary learners the best environment to learn English by improving your management of instructions, learning activities, resources and physical space.
In this free online course, you will learn about the following:
-Language use and instructions for primary
-Activities and classroom space for primary
-Understanding resources
Find out more and enrol on this free course - How to teach speaking
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Develop your understanding of speaking skills and explore teaching techniques and activities which promote oral communication in the classroom for a range of ages and levels.
In this free online course, you will learn about the following:
-Key terms and issues about teaching speaking
-How to select and adapt speaking activities
-The benefits of pair and group work for speaking
-A range of language practice activities for speaking
-How to adapt speaking activities for different ages and levels.
Find out more and enrol on this free course
Online events and webinars
See all of our free online events and webinars for teachers and teacher educators below.
- Supporting literacy development - mini-event (8 September)
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This one day webinar event will feature three webinars with ELT experts from around the world. Attend up to three webinars on 8 September from 10:00 to 13:30 (UK time). All three webinars focus ways to support literacy development in young learners. The webinars are for teachers of primary, secondary and young adult English language learners.
Schedule and speakers
10.00am UK - 11.00am UK: Bringing EFL reading instruction up to date (Robin Skipsey)
11.15am UK - 12.15pm UK: Unlocking Language Learning: Maximizing the Potential of Picture Books in VYL and YL Classrooms (Fiona Hunter)
12.30pm UK - 13.30pm UK: ‘The Polar Bear’s Pin’ - An EFL phonics story to teach pronunciation to young learners (Stella Palavecino)
Friday 8 September 2023 10.00 - 13.30 (UK time).
Find out more and register for this online event. - Planning effective Continuing Professional Development programmes for teachers – key principles (12 September)
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Please note the content of this webinar is not aimed at teachers, and is specifically for teacher educators who have a role in supporting the professional development of English language teachers.
It is important for teachers to have opportunities for professional development, but what can we do to make these opportunities as effective as possible? In this webinar, ELT teacher development specialist Simon Borg draws on his academic and practical experience to discuss a number of principles that guide the design, delivery and evaluation of effective CPD programmes.
Tuesday 12 September 2023 12.00 - 13.00 (UK time).
Find out more and register for this online event. - Planning activities and lessons - mini-event (20 September)
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This one day webinar event will feature three webinars with ELT experts from around the world. Attend up to three webinars on 20 September from 10:00 to 13:30 (UK time). All three webinars will help English teachers think about how they plan activities and lessons. The webinars are for teachers of primary, secondary and young adult English language learners.
Schedule and speakers
10.00am UK - 11.00am UK: Setting up activities and tasks efficiently in 5 steps (Ela Moyle)
11.15am UK - 12.15pm UK: Gentle Discipline in classroom management (Zahra Zuhair)
12.30pm UK - 13.30pm UK: Creating your own learning materials - six easy steps (Desislava Duridanova)
Wednesday 20 September 2023 10.00 - 13.30 (UK time).
Find out more and register for this online event. - Facebook and Instagram Live events in September 2023
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Join our online community of more than 4 million teachers worldwide. We will be hosting weekly events throughout September via our Facebook and Instagram channels.
These 30-minute 'live' sessions are a great opportunity for you to join teachers from around the world.
Engage with English language teaching experts and community members on a range of topics and themes to help you develop your teaching skills, and share ideas and questions with a vibrant global online community.
See what's happening in our community on Facebook
See what's happening in our community on Instagram
For the classroom
See a list of resources below that you can use to focus on UN Special Days in your language teaching classrooms.
- International Day of Charity (5 September)
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Title of lesson plan: Charities
Age group: Older teenagers and adults
Level: Intermediate and above
In this activity learners will imagine the class has £100 to donate. They will work in groups to decide which of four charities they should give the money to. Learners will first work in a group, reading about one of the charities and preparing their arguments for why their charity should receive the £100. Then they will separate into new groups with representatives speaking on behalf of the four different charities. They will take turns to present their arguments and try to convince others in the group that their charity deserves the donation. At the end of the discussion learners will vote for the most deserving charity.Title of lesson plan: Movember
Age group: Older teenagers and adults
Level: Intermediate and above
In this lesson students read about the Movember charity, discuss issues related to charities and health, then join an ‘imaginary’ online chat group to organise their own charity event. - International Literacy Day (8 September)
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Title of lesson plan: International literacy day
Age group: Teenagers and adults
Level: Intermediate and above
This lesson plan, which looks at ideas related to International Literacy Day on 8 September, is written by Daniel Xerri and comes from chapter five of the book Integrating global issues in the creative English language classroom: With reference to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by Alan Maley and Nik Peachey.
Students work in groups of four and discuss the layout, content and purpose of different infographics. Students then decide what they consider to be the most important piece of information from the infographics, share their views and reach an agreement about the most significant fact. Finally, they create a poster with visuals and a brief slogan or message about their important fact. - International Day of Peace (21 September)
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Title of lesson plan: Peacemakers and peace-breakers
Age group: Primary learners
Level: Lower intermediate and above
In this lesson, learners classify people into peacemakers and peace-breakers. The lesson starts by looking at different ways of saying and writing the word 'peace' around the world. In the main part of the lesson, learners focus on peacemakers and peace-breakers in a classroom context. Information is presented in a fun way through a jigsaw reading activity in which pupils practise saying letters of the alphabet. The lesson finishes with learners collaborating to make a poster for the classroom. - International Day of Sign Languages (23 September)
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Title of lesson plan: Little beauty
Age group: Primary learners
Level: Lower intermediate and above
This is a series of activities and related worksheets for you to download and use with the storybook Little Beauty. Learners will make a class poster based on friendship and differences and give a presentation. It forms part of the Promoting diversity through children's literature series, produced by the British Council Teaching Centre in Paris. - World Tourism Day (27 September)
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Title of lesson plan: Holidays
Age group: Primary
Level: Lower intermediate and above
In this lesson learners talk about holidays and holiday activities. They initially meet vocabulary through a pre-lesson task, then they practise and extend the vocabulary through listening and speaking activities. Next they are introduced to some past simple forms and consider how to categorise them before practising them with some simple games. They also show the class a souvenir from a past holiday and use the past simple forms to write and speak about a previous holiday.Title of lesson plan: Thumbprint stories
Age group: Primary
Level: Lower intermediate and above
In this activity learners make a thumbprint story about a holiday using a blank cartoon grid and an ink pad.Title of lesson plan: School holidays
Age group: Secondary
Level: Intermediate and above
Students will look back at the academic year that is ending, brainstorm vocabulary connected to holidays and do a class survey. They will also look at holiday jobs and read about holiday trends in the UK. Finally, students will plan their ideal school holiday in groups.Title of lesson plan: The holiday maze
Age group: Secondary and adults
Level: Lower intermediate and above
This is a reading and speaking activity. Students make decisions in pairs or groups with the aim of going on a successful holiday. It is based on a 'maze' principle, which gives students different options and a variety of different holiday outcomes.Title of lesson plan: Holiday destinations and travel review
Age group: Secondary and adults
Level: Lower intermediate and above
This activity, suitable for pre-intermediate students, follows on from a presentation and controlled practice of the comparative and provides extended practice of this structure. It engages the students visually and integrates all four skills. The students will produce a newspaper travel review of two ‘island' destinations. The end product is authentic looking and the process very motivating and fun.Title of lesson plan: Mingling: Terry’s trip
Age group: Secondary and adults
Level: Lower intermediate and above
This is a simple mingling activity that can be used with low level groups to provide practice in the past simple, particularly the question form. The lesson is designed for adults but could also be used with teenagers.Title of lesson plan: Staycations - Holidays at home
Age group: Secondary and adults
Level: Intermediate and above
Students are introduced to the idea of ‘Staycations’, there is a speaking task where they discuss the benefits of this type of holiday and a mingling activity where they can find out about their classmates’ experiences. Students will also practise reading, writing and giving opinions in this integrated lesson plan, as well as designing their ideal staycation. - International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (29 September)
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Title of lesson plan: World food day
Age group: Older primary or secondary
Level: Lower intermediate and above
In this lesson, instead of focusing on the topic of food itself, learners learn about the problem of hunger in the world and the need to work together to eradicate it. Learners start by reading a text about World Food Day that contains some statistics about hunger. They answer a series of questions related to the text, designed to make them think critically about issues related to hunger. They share their ideas about what they can do to raise awareness in their community. Finally they collaborate to write letters to world leaders, explaining how they feel and why this issue is important.Title of lesson plan: Cooking and TV chefs
Age group: Secondary and adults
Level: Intermediate and above
Students will firstly learn and review vocabulary related to cooking and kitchen utensils. They will do a mini-survey to find out their classmates’ cooking habits, read about cooking trends in the UK, read and complete a recipe, and then finally write their own recipe.
Podcast episodes
See all our podcast episodes connected to this month's themes below.
- Teaching English podcast: How can we use 'story' to teach English?
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Wherever you are in the world, and whatever your context, story will almost certainly be an important part of the teaching and learning context. However, what is meant by the word’ story’ may differ from place to place, ranging from the type of traditional tale found in coursebooks, to oral narratives created by students themselves, to digital creations found online.
To develop our understanding of these different contexts we first speak to Jamie Keddie, an expert in the way we can use different forms of ‘story’ to teach English. His passion and knowledge of the subject will be sure to stimulate your own classroom practice. After this, we visit the Oasis Centre in Cardiff to learn more about their novel approach to using storytelling to develop their students’ English language skills.
Listen to the episode and download the show notes
Publications, research, and insight
See all of our publications related to September's themes below.
- Planning lessons and courses self-study booklet
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This self-study guide for teachers and teacher educators looks at planning lessons and courses. It forms part of a series of self-study booklets, in which teachers will find useful theory and practice for teaching English effectively, including short case studies and professional development activities to do individually and with colleagues.
Planning lessons and courses self-study booklet - BritLit - Using literature in EFL classrooms
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This booked published by Associació de Professors d'Anglès de Catalunya (APAC) helped to launch the BritLit initiative at the APAC Congress in February 2009. It coincided with a visit to schools in the city of author Louise Cooper, who also contributes to this book, and a short series of workshops for teachers about the project.
This slightly revised version has been produced because it was recognised that teachers worldwide would be interested in the contents, not just those fortunate enough to live in Catalonia. The contents cover the whole range of BritLit activity in that the voices of teachers and authors are heard along with some comments from students, as well as more detailed studies from the project team and academics.
BritLit: Using literature in EFL classrooms - Tell it Again! The Storytelling Handbook for Primary English Language Teachers
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Picture storybooks and the technique of storytelling provide teachers with an attractive and appealing resource for meeting the diverse needs of children in the primary English language classroom. Tell it Again! first published in 1991 as The Storytelling Handbook, has now been republished in its third edition. There have been minor revisions and updated sections on using learning technologies, creating an inclusive learning environment and references and further reading.
Tell it Again! provides a comprehensive methodology section and story notes on 12 stories from around the world. For each story there are a series of lesson plans with photocopiable activity sheets. The stories include ten of the most popular Puffin storybooks as well as two stories that can be copied.
Tell it Again! The Storytelling Handbook for Primary English Language Teachers - Teacher education planning handbook
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This handbook provides practical advice, strategies for planning, managing and evaluating large-scale teacher education programmes. How can we best approach the design and implementation of teacher education programmes? How can we ensure that we’re considering what teachers need and align the programme to our vision for improved classroom practice? How do we do this effectively at scale, when hundreds or even thousands of teachers will participate in the programme?
The Teacher Education Planning Handbook seeks to answer these questions, providing a variety of input in the form of case studies, tasks and tools. Edited by Dr Martin Wedell – Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Leeds – the handbook discusses the principles of change and the need for these to be taken into consideration when planning and implementing a teacher education initiative.
Teacher education planning handbook