Why don't you bring a little bit of music into your writing classes. TIMESONLINE recently discovered, in a local library in Liverpool, an essay written by Paul McCartney at the age of 10. At the beginning of the essay, young McCartney mentions the coronation of William the Conqueror and then focuses on the Coronation Day of Queen Elizabeth II. The essay is praised for its good turn of phrase and neat writing.

The essay won McCartney a book token, which he received from the lord mayor of Liverpool.

You can easily use the essay during your writing classes with teenagers and adults. The writing provides an excellent opportunity to look closer at sentence construction and the usage and range of adjectives while reporting an event. The essay may also serve as an aid to practise present and past tenses as well as the passive voice.

If you want to download the essay and the article click here.

The medium but not the subject

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about universities in northern Europe that are leading a growing trend to deliver degrees only in English.

You can find this story in the News Items section on your Work Area screen.

For lots of fantastic resources for teaching primary and secondary-level subjects through the medium of English, plus CLIL teacher training material and methodological debate check out the Onestopclil website.

Twelve celebrities and scientists reveal their dream gadgets in The Guardian. They write a description of a gadget they would like to have accompanied by a picture.  

You could send your students a link to the weird and wonderful gadgets using MEC Web Links.

You may want to use Celebs and scientists' dream gadgets, when you are doing a lesson about inventions, dreams, Second conditional or Future.

Here are some MEC resources and ideas you could use with The Guardian's gadgets:

The invention of a new pair of glasses could help the poor (Multi level)

This news item is about the invention of a pair of glasses which people can adjust to correct their eyesight. The invention could help a lot of people in the developing world.

Inventions (Level 6)

In this listening activity you listen to a radio debate concerning the greatest inventions of the past 200 years. You read opinions and select the correct speaker.

No geeks allowed (Multi level)

This news item for teens is about young people who are successful in the world of science.

The technological revolution in education (Level 5/6)

This English for Academic Purposes (EAP) language exercise focuses on avoiding grammatical errors in academic writing. You choose the correct words or phrases to complete an academic text.

Science is proving popular with young people (Multi level)

This news item for teens is about young people who are successful in the world of science.

New technology to save the planet

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about a new study looking at practical solutions to fight climate change.

You can find this story in the News Items section on your Work Area screen.

A boy wizard grows up

This week's news item is our monthly news item for teens. It is about the star of the Harry Potter films, Daniel Radcliffe.

You can find this story in the News Items section on your Work Area screen.

You can also find longer versions of the news item with extension activities by logging in to our teachers' support area here.

Merkel retains title of world's top woman

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about a list of the world's most powerful women. The list features 100 top women in politics, business and philanthropy, and was published by the US magazine Forbes.

You can find this story in the News Items section on your Work Area screen.

September word games

This month's Witch's Pot topics are 'sports'(Easy), 'weights or measures' (Average) and 'words that can form a compound with ''well''' (Difficult).  

The Swamp Disaster topics are 'holidays' (Easy), 'verbs to do with speaking' (Average) and 'describing a feeling or mood' (Difficult).

The Wordsearch topics are 'the way people look' (Easy), 'nouns connected with work' (Average) and 'verbs connected with cooking' (Difficult).

There are new Crosswords and Bridge Builders at all levels too.

Visit the Word Games area to find them all.

Weboword Connect is the first community dedicated to Visual Vocabulary.

It has a forum, a blog, a chat, and many other social resources to connect you and your students to other language enthusiasts all over the world.

You can use it as a way of sharing ideas and thoughts on teaching English vocabulary, or even simply to access the “Word of the Day” section. It will bring you a new illustrated definition every day complete with origin, thesaurus, audio file for the correct pronunciation – and of course, vignette.

Asia lacks the means to feed extra 1.5 billion people

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about a report that expects an extra 1.5 billion people to live in Asia by 2050. The report urges Asian countries to invest in irrigation systems so they can grow enough crops to feed their fast-growing populations.

You can find this story in the News Items section on your Work Area screen.