This document outlines an English lesson plan about natural disasters and catastrophes for first year Bachillerato students in Spain. The lesson uses present, past, and conditional tenses to describe, narrate, and hypothesize about disasters. Vocabulary focuses on specific terms and expressions related to different natural disasters. A jigsaw activity divides students into groups to research and present on earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, snowstorms, or fires. Students will develop skills in reading, listening, writing, and oral presentation. They will research causes, effects, prevention, and examples for their assigned disaster topic. The lesson aims to develop English proficiency while learning about natural catastrophes.

1. COMPLEMENTOS PARA LA
FORMACIÓN DISCIPLINAR
EN LENGUA INGLESA
Máster en formación del profesorado de Secundaria
Universidad Internacional Isabel I de Castilla

2. ESL LESSON ON NATURAL
DISASTERS AND CATASTROPHES
Lucía Vega Granados

3. 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)

4. 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

5. 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.

6. 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

7. 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

8. Activity: Jigsaw
• Cooperative exercise
• The class is divided into four or five groups
• Each group works on one natural disaster or
catastrophe

9. Group 1
• Topic: Earthquakes
• Structure:
• Description
• Causes
• Effects
• Prevention
• Examples

10. Group 2
• Topic: Hurricanes
• Structure:
• Description
• Causes
• Effects
• Prevention
• Examples

11. Group 3
• Topic: Floods
• Structure:
• Description
• Causes
• Effects
• Prevention
• Examples

12. Group 4
• Topic: Snowstorms
• Structure:
• Description
• Causes
• Effects
• Prevention
• Examples

13. Group 5
• Topic: Fires
• Structure:
• Description
• Causes
• Effects
• Prevention
• Examples

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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