ESL Nature Lesson Plan

OBJECTIVE & OVERVIEW

This ESL lesson plan on nature and the second conditional contains activities, PDF worksheets, and digital materials for B1 intermediate and B2 upper intermediate students. By the end of the lesson, students will be able to express how to connect with and improve our relationship with nature, discuss potential outcomes of our actions and behavior toward the environment using the second conditional, and make plans to improve the environment in the local community.

PREVIEW & DISCUSSION

To engage students in this lesson plan on our relationship with nature, students describe some images of people connecting with nature, as well as some other discussion topics about their relationship to nature and humanity’s relationship to nature in general. Students end the preview part of this lesson by talking about the ways in which humans both respect and abuse nature.

VIDEO & LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Students proceed to watch an inspirational video about nature made by a woman named Zoe. In the video, Zoe expresses her thoughts on how humans can improve their relationship with nature using some stunning footage and imagery. Students do a listening for gist activity by matching some of the actions they see in the video, followed by a listening for detail activity in which students choose the correct words they hear Zoe say. There is a third activity in which students answer some short questions.

DISCUSSION & GRAMMAR

After watching the video, students share some of their thoughts about the video. They then proceed to analyze a quote from Zoe in the video, and do activities on the second conditional. Based on Zoe’s quote, students must work out the grammatical structure of the second conditional (If + past simple + subject + would + base verb), as well as the usage of the second conditional. In this case, Zoe uses the second conditional to imagine a potential outcome of creating better connections with nature. In the video, Zoe says:

After the section on the quote, students move on to do an activity on the second conditional, which will set the stage for the final activation part of the lesson, as described below.

DISCUSSION & RADIO INTERVIEW 

In this activation, students can choose whether they want to partake in some discussion questions about mother nature using the second conditional, or a role play in which they imagine they are being interviewed on a local radio show. During the interview, students answer some questions as if they were an environmental activist, and express their plans for the local community, actions they wish others to take, and potential outcomes of these actions.

Benefits of using this ESL nature lesson plan:

Fluentize's ESL nature lesson plan weaves the topics of nature and environmental awareness together. Given that the video is designed and created in an artistic way, students may be more inspired to consider improving their behavior towards nature, developing a stronger relationship with nature, and becoming a more responsible global citizen. 

From a language standpoint, in this lesson, students can explore hypothetical situations related to our actions toward nature and their potential consequences, which puts the second conditional in a practical scenario for students to be able to understand clearly and practice.

If you're looking for a topic related to nature that grabs the attention of and resonates with your ESL intermediate students, don't hesitate to give this one a try.