TED Ed

For those who like TED talks but whose students might not be ready for a full-on 18 minute lecture, TED Ed is a good alternative. Many of the talks are shorter, often about 5 minutes, and they are supported with animation that helps convey the meaning. They also come with a number of multiple-choice comprehension question, two or three "think" questions, and a "dig deeper" suggestion for research.

Unfortunately, most of these are not really aimed at language learning. Fortunately, though, you can "flip" the video, which means you can make your own questions, which would be associated with a unique URL which you can give your students. TED Ed also provides tools to track the viewing of and responses to your flipped video. More info here.

When you flip the talk, sadly, you cannot edit or add multiple-choice questions; you can simply include or exclude what is already there. The "think" and "dig deeper" sections are editable, though.

Unlike TED talks, a transcript isn't provided on TED Ed, but many of the videos will have a CC box, which, if clicked, will provide closed captions.

British Council Elementary Podcasts

The British Council has been doing elementary podcasts since 2008, so there's a lot of material there. The first two seasons' podcasts are about half an hour each, broken into multiple sections, while the third season had shortened them down to about 10 minutes each. Most of them are covered by a creative commons license, which allows you to freely reproduce them. Each has materials attached.

As you would expect, the accents are mostly British. The speaking can get a bit fast, but the content and the activities are aimed at quite low levels.

Human Evolution

This TED talk is very relevant to the level 6 reading chapter "the thread of life". The explanation is clear and the delivery is simple, if rather dull. The conclusions, however, disagree with the chapter's claim that we didn't mix with Neanderthals.

Level 8 TED talks for independent listening

There are so many great TED talks, but here are some excellent ones that seem particularly relevant to our students' interests:

Level 8 TED talks

The following TED talks have been used, mostly with great success, in level eight.

The paradox of choice materials

One of the TED talks I've been using quite successfully in level 8 is "The paradox of choice" by Barry Schwartz. I've prepared some materials to go with this.

Level 7 debate materials

These files are useful for level seven students preparing for their debates: