COMPLEMENTOS PARA LA FORMACIÓN DISCIPLINAR

EN LENGUA INGLESAMáster en formación del profesorado de Secundaria

Universidad Internacional Isabel I de Castilla

ESL LESSON ON NATURAL DISASTERS AND CATASTROPHES

Lucía Vega Granados

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)

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

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.

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

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

Activity: Jigsaw

• Cooperative exercise • The class is divided into four or five

groups• Each group works on one natural disaster

or catastrophe

Group 1• Topic: Earthquakes

• Structure:

• Description

• Causes

• Effects

• Prevention

• Examples

Group 2• Topic: Hurricanes

• Structure:

• Description

• Causes

• Effects

• Prevention

• Examples

Group 3• Topic: Floods

• Structure:

• Description

• Causes

• Effects

• Prevention

• Examples

Group 4• Topic: Snowstorms

• Structure:

• Description

• Causes

• Effects

• Prevention

• Examples

Group 5• Topic: Fires

• Structure:

• Description

• Causes

• Effects

• Prevention

• Examples

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

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

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