ESL Lesson on natural disasters an catastrophes

1. COMPLEMENTOS PARA LA
FORMACIÓN DISCIPLINAR
EN LENGUA INGLESA
Máster en formación del profesorado de Secundaria
Universidad Internacional Isabel I de Castilla

2. ESL LESSON ON NATURAL
DISASTERS AND CATASTROPHES
Lucía Vega Granados

3. Target group
• Subject: English as a foreign language
• First year of Bachillerato
• Twenty two students
• Two pupils failed the subject the previous
academic year
• Location: a high school in a small miner town of
Asturias (Spain)

4. Grammar
• Use of present tenses: descriptions of the
disasters, causes, effects, etc.
• Use of past tenses: narrations about past
natural catastrophes in the world
• Use of conditional tenses: hypothetical
situations to prevent the disasters

5. Vocabulary
• Specific words about different natural disasters
and catastrophes: hurricane, earthquake, flood,
tsunami, thunderstorm, vulnerability, risk,
damage, wound, etc.
• Expressions: circumstances beyond one's
control, unforseen event, humanitarian
organization, etc.

6. Skills
• Reading comprehension: the students read
different information about the topic, for example
using the Internet, and summarize and choose
what they consider better
• Listening: the students listen and watch several
videos of real natural disasters to compare the
different situations

7. Skills
• Writing: the students write in the target
language, English, the final project about the
topic
• Oral interaction: the students present their
conclusions to the rest of the class and answer
their mates' questions

8. Activity: Jigsaw
• Cooperative exercise
• The class is divided into four or five groups
• Each group works on one natural disaster or
catastrophe

9. Group 1
• Topic: Earthquakes
• Structure:
• Description
• Causes
• Effects
• Prevention
• Examples

10. Group 2
• Topic: Hurricanes
• Structure:
• Description
• Causes
• Effects
• Prevention
• Examples

11. Group 3
• Topic: Floods
• Structure:
• Description
• Causes
• Effects
• Prevention
• Examples

12. Group 4
• Topic: Snowstorms
• Structure:
• Description
• Causes
• Effects
• Prevention
• Examples

13. Group 5
• Topic: Fires
• Structure:
• Description
• Causes
• Effects
• Prevention
• Examples

14. Jigsaw: Process
• Each member of the group searches
information about a part of the structure
• They share the information with the students of
the other groups that have the same part
• Each group creates a test with the most
relevant questions about the topic
• The groups make an oral presentation in front
of their mates and the teacher

15. Assessment
• The teacher creates a test with the questions of
the groups and the students have to answer it
• The teacher and the students assess the oral
presentations

16. Useful links
• https:
//www.ache.org/pubs/McGlown%20Sample.pdf
• http: //m.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg-6whkbZXs
• http: //m.youtube.com/watch?v=HhD85cQejTg
• www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/?s=films_
details&pg=33&id=2795#.VNfOyXuCOc0