This exercise is linked to the topic People and Nature.
Opener:
Students should brainstorm for about 2 minutes all of the knowledge they have about bees. What do they remember learning about bees? What questions do they have about bees? Elicit responses from a few of the students and discuss briefly.
Listening and writing: Watch the YouTube video, and instruct students to write down as many new things as possible that they learn about bees from the video.
Speaking:
Why do bees matter to society? How do they affect agriculture? Why should they be protected?
• Put students into pairs and have them exchange ideas. Then, have them summarise both of their ideas and go around, sharing each pair’s ideas.
Reading:
Read the Spectator College article, calling on different students to read different parts. Instruct students to underline anything that is new to them about bees, and also any vocabulary words they are unsure about.
• Elicit responses from students — What new facts about bees did you learn? Do you think the European Commission should apply the pesticide restrictions? Why/why not?
• Ask students which words they are unsure of and explain, if necessary.
This exercise is published as part of Spectator College, a programme created by The Slovak Spectator with the support of Sugarbooks, a distributor of foreign language books. The author works at the Evanjelické lýceum in Bratislava as an English-language instructor.
