New lesson plan: Reading (Global Warming and Climate Change)

Kayvan Saman

Reading (Global Warming and Climate Change) - Intermediate, CEFR B2 level

Reading (Global Warming and Climate Change)
Intermediate, CEFR B2 level

Description

This lesson revolves around a website article discussing global warming and climate change. The students will be involved in a lead-in discussion in order for warming to the theme before they start their reading activities. In the pre-reading stage they will work together to talk about some vocabulary presented in the text. While-reading activities include a task for understanding the gist and two more for identifying and extracting specific information form the script. In the end, there will be a few questions they will discuss to try and relate to the article at an increasingly deeper level.

Materials

Reading Script, Exercises 3 a), 3 b), 4 a) and 4 b)

Main Aims

For students to develop reading for gist and detail within a climate-related theme.

Subsidiary Aims

For students to start and further a discussion on global warming and climate change using vocabulary presented in the reading script.

Procedure (42-54 minutes)

Warmer/Lead-in (3-5 minutes) • To set lesson context and engage students

Students are asked a threefold of questions about their experience and observations of weather; they are given a moment to understand them and are told to pair up and discuss their ideas with partners. Then there is some quick feedback to round this part off.

Pre-Reading (8-10 minutes) • To prepare students for reading the text and make it more understandable

Students are asked to work on a number of words and phrases which are used in the text in pairs. They need to discuss the meanings and pronunciation patterns of the "blocking" vocabulary together. In the following part, answers are checked where pictures, examples and CCQs are used to check and clarify the vocabulary. Next, there is choral and individual drilling for the right pronunciation and the phonemic spelling of the difficult ones are written on board and then there is more drilling.

While-Reading #1 (12-15 minutes) • To provide students with less challenging gist and specific information reading tasks

Students are given two minutes to read the text quickly and match four questions to four paragraphs composing it. They are asked to check answers in pairs by sharing the corroborative ideas between the script and the questions and answers are confirmed by giving open class feedback. For the next part they are given some more time and a gap-fill task to complete by reading the text again for finding more specific information from it. However, they also need to rephrase the sentences in the reading for filling in the gaps in task statements so they are notified that the grammar of the task sentences has to be correct. In pairs they are asked to compare answers and in case of different answers, they are told to find a compromise by looking back to the script and finding evidence. Lastly, there is whole class feedback to clarify all ambiguity.

While-Reading #2 (9-12 minutes) • To provide students with more challenging detailed, deduction and inference reading tasks

The class are given a series of questions dealing with finer and deeper detail in the script and they are asked to work in pairs to find the answers in five to six minutes. Then they form groups (if possible) to share their findings and discuss their relation to the questions. The whole class feedback is provided next and students are prepared for their reflection on what they have read and discussed.

Post-Reading (10-12 minutes) • To provide students with an opportunity to respond to the text and expand on what they have learnt

In the final set of tasks students are put in groups of three (if possible) to discuss the last series of questions to check their understanding of the topic and try to identify with it in a personalised way. The questions make them think of solutions for the problem of climate change as an individual and a part of society.