Difficulties in searching for materials for the CLIL classroom.

Choosing resources and materials adapted to learning activities and to the needs of the students is always hard work for teachers. This task becomes harder when choosing the materials for the teaching of contents in a foreign language.

First of all, we have to take into account the level of the students. Then, we need to consider whether the chosen material is adapted to the learning goals we aim to. And all of these, considering the particular context we are teaching in and the different situations we may have  within a group.

There is no doubt that if we choose the option of using native resources for teaching a foreign language, the input that learners receive is higher, richer and more varied. But this, also requires the adaptation of these resources to the level, to the curriculum and to the cultural aspects that implies.

Several researchers point out the lack of materials designed only for CLIL teaching[1]

As it is mentioned in the  work by Mehisto, Marsh and Frigols, one of the main characteristics of CLIL methodology is authenticity. This feature is clear in aspects such as the connection of learning with real life, and the use of updated materials from a variety of sources.

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[1] Coyle, Do, Hood, Philip, Marsh, David (2010): Content and Language Integrated Learning.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Mehisto, P., Marsh, D., Frigols M. J. (2008): Uncovering CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning in Bilingual and Multilingual Education. Oxford:Macmillan.

Songs are fantastic and motivating resources for children.
We can difference between Nursery Rhymes, very good to practice language, and specific songs for teaching contents.

This is a great site with Nursery Rhymes

You can watch the videos with activities and coloring pages on the web http://www.mothergooseclub.com/ 

Or you can watch the videos through the official YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/user/MotherGooseClub 

One of the big problems we all face, whether teaching English to children or adults, is maintaining learners’ interest throughout our lessons. Consequently, we often have to be very creative in the techniques we use. What makes music such a great teaching tool is its universal appeal, connecting all cultures and languages. This makes it one of the best and most motivating resources in the classroom, regardless of the age or background of the learner.

This is the introduction of the article by Adam J.Simpson "How to use songs in the English language classroom". He gives tips about planning for the use of songs in class and he also points out "Six steps for making a song the focus of your class". Very useful to make your English lessons memorable for the students.

Another interesting site where you can find songs for teaching and much more is 

Here are some tips and ideas on how to use the LearnEnglish Kids website for listening practice with your classes.

SONGS FOR TEACHING

One of the big problems we all face, whether teaching English to children or adults, is maintaining learners’ interest throughout our lessons. Consequently, we often have to be very creative in the techniques we use. What makes music such a great teaching tool is its universal appeal, connecting all cultures and languages. This makes it one of the best and most motivating resources in the classroom, regardless of the age or background of the learner. (Adam J. Simpson)

If you want to enliven your lessons in English and other subjects in English, the best way to do it is teaching songs.

Songs are the best resource to adapt the contents to your students and make things memorable and significant.

Whether you teach language or other subject contents through English, it's funny to invent your own songs with different topics. But if you don't have the time to do it, the following website gives you all kinds of songs to teach a variety of topics.

All topics (holidays, special education, skills), all subjects and contents (Science, Arts, Social Sciences...) anything you need for your lessons, you can teach it through songs.

And, if you need extra help or inspiration on how to introduce songs and music in the classroom, there are lots of articles in "Articles and teaching tips" section.

Have fun exploiting and exploring this fantastic resource that makes teaching more enjoyable.

On the next webpage you can see all the lesson plans for the whole British curriculum, activities, printables and links to other webs that develop the topics.

Another site that works on all the contents and levels for different subjects is:  contiene gran cantidad de recursos e ideas para el profesor/a, fichas de trabajo y es especialmente interesante por las actividades diseñadas para trabajar con la pizarra digital.

It contains a great variety of resources, worksheets and is specially interesting for the activities to work on the Digital Board.

The following site is a magnificent Educational Search Engine, for all levels and subjects.

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?Subject=26

The following resources follow the British curriculum, classified by topics and levels. You can find them on the next links (click on the image):

They contain videos, interactive activities, teachers resources, online questionnaries, worksheets and texts to read about the topic. 

NATIVE AND NON NATIVE RESOURCES

Searching for and choosing teaching resources can be very contradictory. On one hand, teachers may be overwhelmed about the enormous amount and variety of resources they can access through different means, both digital and traditional.
However, when finding teaching resources adapted to the needs of a particular group of students, or even for CLIL methodology, the wide range of possibilities mentioned before is dramatically reduced.
As Kelly (2014) points out: “The lesson is simply this: CLIL is easier and more effective if you have ‘custom-made’ resources and can be much harder and less effective without them.”

When talking about native resources I refer to web pages in English, or text books, that follow the curriculum from the original country, most of the cases are British or American. In order to adapt these resources to our classroom we have to compare the different curricula and make the correspondent equivalences between levels. Sometimes the best option is choosing lower level resources for the language level will be accesible to our students.