Family footprint

The Climate Action in Language Education series:

This lesson is part of our series of 'Climate Action in Language Education' teaching materials. There are twelve lesson plans in the series, available for teachers of primary, secondary and adult learners of English. See the full list of lesson plans in this series.

Introduction:

The climate emergency begins at home, and self-awareness of the impact of home life on the environment is very important. In this lesson, learners will develop their language and 21st-century skills in critical thinking and reaching agreement and compromise in discussions. They will discuss how family life can impact on the environment and how they can reduce that impact. They will then implement a questionnaire with some sensitive questions about home life and environmental issues.

The lesson plan and student materials have been designed to be used in either face-to-face or online teaching. When used in face-to-face teaching, teachers have the option to use a presentation instead of printing materials.

Learning outcomes:

• Describe the environmental impact of family life
• Apply critical thinking and collaborative working techniques
• Seek agreement and compromises in group discussions
• Use specific vocabulary related to the family footprint
• Ask sensitive questions about environmentally responsible behaviours

Age and level:

13-17 (B2)

Time:

65-70 minutes or two shorter lessons

Materials:

The materials can be downloaded below in PDF format.

• Lesson plan for face-to-face teaching
• Lesson plan for online teaching
• Presentation (PDF or PowerPoint)
• Student worksheet (optional for face-to-face teaching)
• Vocabulary sheet (optional for face-to-face teaching)

Introduce the topic (10 mins)

• Briefly check that learners are comfortable with the term ‘footprint’ as a way of describing an environmental impact. 
• The Cambridge dictionary definition is: ‘the effect that a person, company, activity, etc. has on the environment, for example the amount of natural resources that they use and the amount of harmful gases that they produce.’ 
• Ask the whole class briefly how their family life impacts the environment. Accept any answers.

Task 1 & 2: Group discussion (20 mins)

• Divide the class into groups of around five learners. Show slide 3 of the presentation or give a copy of the student worksheet to each group and refer them to Task 1. Ask learners to look at the new vocabulary and discuss the possible meanings within the group. 
• Show slides 4 and 5 of the presentation or give the vocabulary sheet to each group. Give learners five minutes to check any new items, and be ready to answer any questions. 
• Explain that groups will think again about how family life impacts the environment and how the impact can be reduced. 
• Show slide 6 of the presentation or refer learners to Task 2 of the student worksheet. Discuss the comments. How do these actions impact the environment? How can the impact be reduced? For example, driving to the supermarket produces emissions or poisonous gases. We could walk or take a bus. 
• In groups, learners make a list of ways families can reduce their environmental impact. The vocabulary sheet and the examples in the worksheet should give them ideas. Move around the groups and help if necessary.
• When they are ready, ask each group to appoint a leader to call out their ideas to you and the rest of the class when you ask. 
• Possible ideas might include the following, but accept all ideas: car emissions, using public transport or walking as much as possible, impact of electricity use, using solar energy and reducing consumption, waste issues, recycling and fixing ‘old’ items, food miles, buying locally sourced food

Task 3: Writing a questionnaire (15-20 mins)

• Ask the learners to remain in their groups. Tell them they are going to design a questionnaire about the impact of family life on the environment, and ways of reducing this impact. Explain that sometimes these issues can be sensitive, and people might feel embarrassed or guilty about, for example, how much paper and plastic they waste, when they could reuse and recycle instead. Because of this we may need to use sensitive questions. 
• Show slide 8 of the presentation or refer learners to Task 3 on the student worksheet. Explain that some of the questions are designed to ask about sensitive information. Ask learners to identify or underline these questions. The sensitive ones are: Is it all right to discuss why you don’t buy locally produced food? Do you mind if I ask about your electricity use? How do you feel about trying car-sharing? 
• Ask how the learners know which questions are sensitive. Remind them that sensitive questions are less direct. Briefly remind learners of the three example sentence heads and question stems used for sensitive questions. These are available on slide 9 of the presentation. They are: Is it all right + infinitive, Do you mind if + simple present, How do you feel about + -ing/noun/noun phrase
• Ask the groups to discuss and agree six questions they could ask a family about its environmental impact. They should include at least three new questions not on the list. Remind them that this discussion and agreement may require some compromises. They should write down the questions in the form of a questionnaire. 
• When groups are ready, ask two or three groups to tell the class briefly about their discussions and if any compromises were made to help them reach agreement about the questions they chose. Remind them why compromise is important in discussions, as a way to make the best decisions.

Task 4: Using the questionnaire and feedback (20 mins)

• Ask the learners to appoint three representatives from their group, two to be speakers and one to be a note-maker. The three representatives should then visit one or two other groups (depending on the time available) and ask their questions to individuals in the group about their family footprint. Remind them about sensitivity. They should make notes on the outcomes. 
• Ask the learners to go back to their groups and discuss and choose the three most interesting things they discovered from the other groups. They should be ready to present their ideas to the whole class. 
• With the whole class, ask each group to share at least one of the interesting things they discussed. 
• Extension activity: If time permits, learners can go back to their groups and discuss and agree a list of actions that they think their families could take. They can also discuss if they think families would accept the advice they were given. Ask learners to try and discuss the issues with their families at home.

Contributed by Christopher Graham