A special lesson

1-When and why the lesson was taken
On the 4th March I had a special science lesson with my pupils in English. As science teacher, I joined the Comenius Project “Inside Landscape, Landscape Inside”. Landscape observation was both practical and metaphoric. So landscapes were naturally intended and also humanly intended. As a science teacher I discussed about the nature with my pupils. Through this project our students are studying the environment and they are learning to respect it.
The Comenius project included an English lesson from every teacher who joined the project and I did it.

2-What the topic was
As I was terrorized by the idea of having to speak in English to my pupils, I decided to start the lesson by showing the students an environment documentary; I choose “An Inconvenient Truth” from All Gore’s film on environment. It is a 2006 documentary film about global warming as the book that reached n°1 on bestseller’s list.


3-Author of “An Inconvenient Truth” and film subject

He is a very famous American politician; he is very concerned with global warming caused by increasing CO2 in the atmosphere.
He has been fond of environment’s studies since he was a pupil, because he met a special science teacher who passed on to him that it was needed to stop the increasing of CO2 in the atmosphere to save the Earth.
The documentary was very interesting and scientifically valid because it has a sample language and it is based on specifications and analytical studies about global warming and polar ice melting.
Moreover the video shows images of wonderful lands such as India and nearby archipelagos that may be submerged by the rise of sealevel.

4-The aim of the lesson
Among the aims we chose the following ones:
Awareness that our habits cause increasing CO2: like using cars for each person instead of car-poolings to go to work or to school; like heating excessively the houses; like wasting too much warm water for our showers; like leaving lights on in many rooms.
The second aim was the awareness that we can have new habits which are more compatible with our welfare and the earth’s welfare, such as promoting recycling, or eating foods produced in the neighbourhood and in season; or using low energy lights bulbs.


5-Pupils’ reactions and teacher’s remarks
The pupils were interested and surprised because I had never taught in English; by the way they spoke in English, too.
We were glad of this cultural interchange. That was an exciting experience for me as a teacher.
I enjoyed myself and it was gratified in all this also because there were no English teachers in the classroom. I’m sure the pupils will not forget that lesson, and especially…… global warming.
By Nicoletta Capone