Evacuation project with EFL students

This is a project on the children evacuation from London during World War II based on the testimonies collected by Pam Schweitzer in the book Goodnight Children Everywhere. The participants are a group of B2 English students from the EOI Malaga, coordinated by their teacher Marta Moreno López de Uralde.

The students read the book “Goodnight Children Everywhere” and created a website (sadly no longer available) that included:

1. A glossary for each testimony.

2. A reading guide also for each testimony in which the students explained all the cultural references that might be obscure for Spanish people and even for those Britons who are to young to have lived the Second World War (you can see an example of these reading cards below).

3. General information about the children’s evacuation (location, the journey, billeting, accommodation, food, school…)

Each student was in charge of three or four testimonies. They created the reading notes using Evernote and they worked on their glossaries. Marta corrected their first drafts and suggested improvements. Finally, they uploaded all the information onto the website.

Once the students had finished their reading cards, there was a class discussion in which they shared information and expressed their feelings about what they had learned about this event in British history which had been unknown to them so far.

The next stage was to work across the book and find information general information about specific topics (location, happy memories, sad memories, parents…)

Finally, all the students had the opportunity to meet Pam Schweitzer, who gave a talk about the evacuation of children for all the advanced students in the school. After the event, a group of those who had worked in the project had an informal meeting with Pam in which they had the opportunity to have many of their questions answered.

Here you can also see the video of Pam’s talk at the EOI Malaga.

All in all, it was a very fruitful experience which opened the minds of the students involved.