Environmental bike lesson plan focuses on the issue of eco-friendly transport and introduces the idea of benefiting from traveling by bike. Environmental issues appear in every coursebook and for some reason it’s usually the least liked chapter. I have found this pretty challenging to engage my students, there has always been a lot of eye-rolling and general “No, not this again!” attitude. This is why I have decided to lead in with a short video about the environmental bike idea to establish the context in a very visual way. Here is the video and you mustn’t let the students see the caption below it.
The Task
We start with a very brief introduction on the meaning of being eco-friendly and the significance of bicycles (Before you watch section). Then, the students watch the video and need to answer the question. There is no voiceover, it is not a listening activity, everything appears in onscreen captions. Finally, you may evaluate the idea of the environmental bike (E!Bike) using the After you watch questions.
Now, it is time for the main part of the activity, which I called Mini Writing. Students need to review the environmental bike (E!Bike) following a set of guidelines. This is a useful activity for practising strategies for the FCE and CAE review writing task.
To see more examples of classes discussing new technologies see my activity about a mobile app or my lesson plan about Facebook.
For another review writing activity take a look at this FCE class.
Useful Expressions
Liking: The thing I liked most was… / The highlight of the product for me was …/ What I liked most was …
Disliking: I was disappointed by … / The … was a real let down / I was not particularly keen on …
Recommending: …would appeal to… / I can’t recommend it highly enough / You should probably give it a miss
Personal Experience
Some students found this idea pretty interesting and those who didn’t, got to slash it in the review, so the general aim of eliciting justified opinions for the review was achieved. The Mini Writing served well as a quick revision of review writing techniques and most students managed to use the key expressions effectively. All in all, it was one of the better environment classes I have done. Nevertheless, I am still trying to break through my students’ unwillingness to discuss environmental issues. Any ideas?
