Learning by doing is a well known motto and it’s true that doing something ‘with’/‘in’ a foreign language is the best way to learn that language! What about EFL by doing research projects? Looking for information about influential people of the past? Students are asked to choose, select information, write reports: while doing their research, going deep into data, problems and matters of importance, students realize that famous people can really become their ‘personal heroes’, role models... and communicative competence in English as a foreign language 'naturally&' improves!

Offer your students the chance of approaching Poetry critically, by simply starting from any poems you - or they! - wish to.... Make them aware they are taking the first step towards understanding Poetry as a literary genre. Just ask students to try and point out the main features they are able to recognise when dealing with a poem: is it a demanding task? If so, ask them if they think dealing with poetry might mean they can rely on their: - eyes and see... - ears and listen to the sounds... - voices and utter words and sentences in a peculiar language.... It won't be a piece of cake for them to describe, or simply talk about what they are supposed to understand and analyse, that is poetry! However, see what happens if they are supported with some materials that provide them with some 'visual' guidelines: ask students to look for the exact meaning of the words - used in text analysis - they have in the worksheets, see how they learn and finally use the exact terminology to describe and talk about what they, finally, realise is 'Poetry'...

Students meeting students: preparing interviews in advance, using a foreign language to ask about schools and school careers and then writing nice and detailed reports ... A nice way to promote communication (in a foreign language) and - why not - help students choose a school career...

Dealing with Literature - prose, poetry, drama, literary texts and text analysis, authors and movements - is not always great fun for our high schoolers... The problem is teens often look so unenthusiastic, demotivated, unwilling to work ... But what if they were simply seeking for something 'meaningful', for a solidly valid 'reason' behind things? Teens do not want to be forced, this is a fact - and maybe they are right! However, good teachers can try and help them make sense of what they are dealing with, leading them on the right path towards a deep understanding of what eventually really counts in human life and makes us 'human': that is Art and Literaure! I tried this and went on working on this 'reasonable' path: my enthusiastic high schoolers are now following me!

(Foreign Languages) High School Teachers and Students of English Language and Literature will certainly acknowledge the importance of digging deep into and learning more and more about some main issues and turning points in relation to the social-historical context in which Literary masterpieces were created: some masterpieces of the Victorian Literature - …but also of the Romantic movement - will certainly become more understandable and even more inspiring and thought-provoking when we get to know the context in which they were created better. Here’s a very interesting docu-film by the BBC and a worksheet for Students: some guiding questions are meant for our Students to be able to focus their attention on the most meaningful parts/aspects of the documentary film and become more aware of the key-ideas and key-concepts that can make Literature really clear and meaningful to all of us.

Teaching English Grammar and teaching Poetry in English becomes easier when the great Bard of Avon comes and help us! Making hypothesis on Shakespeare's life is a good starting point to learn how to make 'unreal hypothesis' in English, and to practise Conditional sentences - type 3! Dealing with Shakespeare's Sonnets, on the other hand, makes Poetry enjoyable, pleasant like ...a summer's day ;)