| LESSON OVERVIEW
The main objectives of this lesson are to:
- discuss the experience of living in unusual places;
- practise vocabulary for extreme environments;
- watch a video on a remote Australian town known for its underground homes.
This lesson allows students to talk about unusual places around the world. They explore words and phrases about challenging conditions (e.g. inaccessible, remote, scorching, etc.), look at pictures and read texts about unusual places worldwide. Students also watch a video about people living underground and discuss the experience of living in extreme environments.
WARM-UP AND VOCABULARY
This lesson starts with a warm-up. Students match photos of places with their names (Whittier, Alaska, the US; Shibam, Yemen; Meteora, Greece) and explain their answers. After that, they discuss questions about those and other unusual places. Next, students practise vocabulary for extreme environments (e.g. frigid, inhospitable, inaccessible, etc.) and match halves of sentences. Afterwards, they read texts about the places in the photos. In each text, students find words or phrases with the same meaning as the target vocabulary from the lesson (e.g. rocky, exposed to elements, unbearable, etc.). Following that, they discuss questions about living in extreme environments.
VIDEO AND DISCUSSION
At this point in the lesson, students watch a video about people living underground. Before doing so, they try to guess the answers to questions about the living conditions and environment of that place. Afterwards, they watch the video to discover where the town is and check their ideas. Next, students discuss questions about life in unusual places and the effects of living in such environments. Following that, they practise vocabulary for extreme environments more. Students complete sentences expressing personal opinions on experiencing extreme places and finish them with their own ideas (e.g. Building a home on rocky terrain is/isn’t practical, because…).
HOMEWORK/REVISION
This lesson plan also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students read descriptions and imagine they are talking to the people who live in these places. Students ask questions about each place using the target vocabulary from the lesson. The task is available in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. You can print it and hand it out to your students. It’s also included in the e-lesson plan.
WORKSHEETS
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Great lesson plan, thank you!
Thanks! I’m glad you liked it 🙂
I have a student who wanted to talk about this exact topic! Thank you 🙂
Thanks for your comment! We hope this topic leads to a great discussion 🙂
This is a lesson plan I was looking for!! Thank you!!! It is more than great!!
Thank you, that’s fantastic!
Excellent lesson!!!! Thank you!!!!
That’s great to hear, thank you!
Very interesting lesson plan, thanks!
Thanks, we’re happy you like it!
Congratulations. A well-designed and thought-provoking lesson.
Could I make 1 suggestion? Could the pictures of the 3 places on slide 3 also be placed on slide 22 under the questions? This would help the students remember and focus on the conditions found in each location while using the new vocabulary and avoiding confusion.
Thank you for your kind words and thoughtful suggestion! We really appreciate your feedback. We’ve updated the presentation with a link that helps students revisit the places and relate to them while answering the questions. However, the main discussion is still intended to be based on the texts from the previous task. Hope this works well for your students – let us know if you have any other suggestions!
Great idea and a very inspirational one. After having read about the Valley of the Dolls in Japan, I’ve decided that my next lesson could be on aging (“Is age just a number?”)/ageism, youngism, stereotypes. One idea sparks another one! A chain of concepts is being naturally formed. Thank you!
Hi! Thanks for taking the time to comment! It’s awesome that you find our lessons so inspiring 🙂