PHASE 2 LESSON PLAN CLIMATE CHANGE AND YOU

A. Students and Setting:

Age: 18-25
Grade level: first-entry environmental engineering students.
English level: Students have received twelve years of instruction in Eng. at school, focusing mainly on
grammar and vocabulary. As a result, their reading and writing skills show a much higher development
(high beginners) than their listening and speaking skills (fake beginners).
Setting:
Type of institution: public university
Students per class: 15-20
Sessions per week: 2 Duration: 90 mins. ea. Classrooms are provided with a multimedia projector
and WiFi Internet access. Many students own a laptop. The instructor possesses his own laptop and
speakers.

B. Lesson Background:
The topic Climate Change is being introduced to the students, but they are fairly familiar with it. Climate
change is a common concern among people today given the repercussions it is having and will have over
the world. The students will deal with this topic along their studies and careers. For this particular class
session, students will form groups (2-3 participants ea.) to come up with examples of those simple things
(especially recycling) common people can do to help reduce climate change. In the next class sessions,
students will bring environmentally friendly inventions (realia) to the classroom and explain their use and
manufacturing. Sequence expressions, seen in the previous class session, will be used for the
presentation.

C. Learning Objectives/Expected Results:

Students will:
Team up to work for a common cause.
Become aware of the importance of climate change in the world and, as a result, in peoples lives.
Share and discuss important points about this current issue.
Develop their negotiation and collaborative skills to come to a consensus and produce a work in
common.
Practice their English writing, pronunciation, listening and speaking.
Use their spirit of research and creativity to find ways to mitigate climate change.
Use English sequence expressions to show how to create and use environmentally-friendly devices.
Exchange ideas about why to use those devices and how to improve them in needed.

D. Materials and Sources:

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MOOC Shaping the Way We Teach English. Copyright 2015 University of Oregon. All rights reserved.
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Materials:
Climate Change Survey extracted from Survey Monkey by the teacher. The teacher will monitor the
students filling out the survey.
Articles Climate Change in Depth from BBC News and Climate Change from Friends of the Earth.
The materials to be used by the students for their projects are not listed. Given the fact that students
creativity is one of the main goals of this lesson, students are free to use any materials they find useful.
Sources:
Survey on Global Environmental Issues. (n.d.). In Survey Monkey. Retrieved from:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/?sm=E1DMhSShrcpDOUhsaCdYBPqRh4h2IvaddqwQLZWoIuY
%3d
Climate Change in Depth. (2008). In BBC News. Retrieved from:
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2004/climate_change/default.stm
Climate Change (n.d.). In Friends of the Earth. Retrieved from:
http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate_change

E. Procedures / Timing:
Teacher does/says . . .

Students do/say . . .

Approximate
time needed

Gives students a survey on

Global Environmental Issues
and asks them to fill it out
individually.

Fill out the survey.

5 mins.

Go over the answers and hold a discussion on the survey items. Students are
encouraged to express their viewpoints freely. The teacher encourages them
to participate and serves as a mediator to lead the discussion in and
organized and tolerant way.

10 mins.

Using
the
multimedia
projector, the teacher shows
students some animated
diagrams and infographics
about climate change from
the article Climate Change in
Depth BBC News.

10 mins.

Forms groups of 2-3

students of varying Eng.
levels and asks them to
discuss and report on what
they have just seen, focusing
on the implications of climate
change for the world and, as

Discuss the topic based on the provided info.

and any other source they have been
exposed to. Come to a consensus on the
most critical points respecting climate
change. Feedback each other about content
and language when necessary. Appoint a
speaker per each group to share their ideas

20 mins.

This is a program of the U.S. Department of State, administered by the University of Oregon.
MOOC Shaping the Way We Teach English. Copyright 2015 University of Oregon. All rights reserved.
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with the whole class.

a result, for humanity.
Monitors the groups
provides
feedback
necessary.

Given the students beginning level, they are

allowed to use some L1 during the group
discussion.

and
if Students are encouraged write the reports in
order to avoid missing important points and
reduce stress while presenting. This also
applies to the oral presentations.

Asks questions to the

speakers in order to guide
the class activity if any
misdirection arises and to
provide indirect corrective
feedback (ICF) in the form of
clarifications. Other forms of
ICF provided by the teacher
include
elicitation
and
metalinguistic feedback.

Speakers give their reports.

The other group members are allowed to
make questions.
Questions can be answered by the speakers
or by any member of their groups. Languagerelated questions can also be answered by
any class member if required.

Assigns students a project

on the steps people can take
to mitigate climate change.
Clarify any doubts respecting Students ask questions they may have about the
project, the sources of research, and the
the project.

25 mins.

5-10 mins.

vocabulary needed to accomplish it.

Reviews
sequence
expressions
from
the
previous class if needed.
Outside of the classroom, students review the
article Climate Change from Friends of the Earth
in order to get some ideas for their project.
However, they are allowed to do some
independent research, too.

N/A

Note: In the next class session, students will present their project by explaining how to make and use
the above-mentioned devices and how they help save the environment. After each presentation, the
rest of the class is allowed to make comments aiming at improving their classmates projects in terms of
their practically and the benefits they bring about to the environment.

F. Learner Feedback/Formative Assessment:

The feedback provided to the learners will come not only from the teacher but also from their
This is a program of the U.S. Department of State, administered by the University of Oregon.
MOOC Shaping the Way We Teach English. Copyright 2015 University of Oregon. All rights reserved.
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own classmates. During the group-discussion and presentation periods, students can feedback
each other on language- and content-related topics. The idea is to promote collaborative
learning. The teacher, on the other hand, will provide the same type of feedback only if
absolutely required, giving students as many opportunities to actively participate in the class as
possible. In the case of language-related feedback, the teacher will use of prompts (clarification,
elicitation, metalinguistic feedback) because this method is much more authentic and efficient
than traditional forms of feedback such as explicit correction and repetition. The teacher will also
provide feedback in the form of questions and comments during the group-discussion and the
presentation periods mainly to make sure the activities follow a productive order and as a
means to assess the students progress.
This type of assessment gives the teacher an opportunity to better evaluate the students
learning by gaining insight into the use of their actual language resources. Rather than focusing
on artificial activities supplied by language-learning textbooks, students work on a relevant and
stimulating topic, thus making connections with the real world as well. Language is learned as a
by-product of interaction, that is, the way it is supposed to be and not all the way around. This
type of learning has proven more authentic and long lasting as compared to the traditional
assessment activities focusing merely on measuring the students short-term memory at taking
tests completely unrelated to real life. After all, what do we use language for? Is it about taking
tests or communicating among ourselves?
G. Extended Reflection:
This lesson plan is an upgraded version of the previous one. Authentic materials (Internet
resources), realia (projects), and collaborative learning are present. However, more involvement
on the part of the students has been added. This involvement is reflected in the objectives and
in the procedures. Students are encouraged to play a much more active role with respect to
approaching the topic and using the language in an authentic way, not only while working in
groups and presenting but also while asking questions to the presenters and answering others
when necessary. Timing, as a result, was extended to serve 90-minute class sessions. 10
minutes are devoted to interims among activities; then, even though the class session lasts 90
mins,, the activities are intended for 80 mins. only.
Their critical thinking is fostered by selecting a current, relevant and controversial topic: climate
change. Students are required to reflect on and discuss what they already know and what they
are exposed to in class about this topic. Creativity and research are also promoted by means of
a project to be presented in the next class session, which require them to investigate using
resources provided by the teacher and of their own if desired.
As previously stated, feedback will be provided by the teacher and the students through
questions, corrections, and contributions. However, this feedback will also serve the purpose of
guiding the students learning as a means of formative assessment. By making students aware
of their language errors, and of important topics like climate change, feedback helps students
not only improve their communicative skills but also increase understanding of and responsibility
for the world.

This is a program of the U.S. Department of State, administered by the University of Oregon.
MOOC Shaping the Way We Teach English. Copyright 2015 University of Oregon. All rights reserved.
Phase 1 Lesson Plan Template
Page 4