Critical thinking with the Three Little Pigs

This week, I've been writing about teaching critical thinking in EAP and, perhaps because it was on my mind, was struck by how good the latest Guardian "Three Little Pigs" advert would be to use in class.

It would be lots of fun, especially using the original fairy tale as a lead-in, and it would bring up lots of good discussion questions about stance and perspective.

One of the frustrating things about not having regular teaching is that you don't get the chance to try out lesson ideas like this when they crop up. I generally get a teaching stint through the summer at Bristol Uni on their EAP pre-sessional course. It's a fairly intensive course with a very focused syllabus, so I don't get to try lots of things out, but I usually manage to slip in a few new ideas. Sadly, this year, it looks like I'm going to have to take a summer 'off' because my other work commitments will see me too busy to commit to teaching as well. It would be really nice to have a 'guinea pig class' who I could just dip into when I felt like it to try out a new idea - of course, I'd have to be able to call on them at any time and they'd have to morph to whatever level I needed and be happy to go along with whatever random topic I came up with ...