THE PROBLEM OF LITTER

Lesson 4

                                      The problem of litter
Aims:
-to improve students’ listening, reading, speaking and writing skills;
-to motivate students to sort litter at home;
-to help students to become more active in protecting the environment;
-to bring students up to keep cleanliness in school and its territory;
Equipment: pictures, handouts, video, a map of the school.

PROCEDURE
Warming-up
If you look attentively at the equipment of our lesson and some hints written on the blackboard you’ll say the subject of our lesson.
T--    p-----m    o-     l----r.

I.
There are vocabulary definitions of the word “litter” as a noun and a verb on your desks. At first try to give your own definitions and then read vocabulary once.
E.g. Litter is rubbish carelessly dropped in the streets, parks and some other public places.
II.
1. What are the most common litter items you can find around your school?
-small pieces of paper;
-cigarette butts;
-bottle caps;
-chip and confectionary wrappers;
-glass pieces and bottles;
-plastic bottles and small cartons;
-leaves swept into the gutter.
2. Who litters? Is there gender, age or class differentiation in littering behavior?
-People who don’t will to look for a bin.
-People who think that the items aren’t litter, for example, cigarettes or food scraps.
-People who are lack of knowledge of the environmental effects of littering.
-People who carry something in poor packing design.
-People who see some amount of litter already present at a particular site.
III.
In reality we range from those who collect other people’s litter to those who willfully litter. In the middle are those who don’t care enough to overcome the inconvenience of finding a bin.
How do people think of litter? Choose suitable adjectives among the following once.
Litter is     disgusting
                  gripping
                  disrespectful
                  careless
                  entertaining
                  dirty
                  unclean
                  fascinating
                  lazy
                  ignorant
IV.
Litter is a visible sign of pollution and it remains one of the most dangerous environmental problems. Litter is anything left where it is not meant to be. It can cause some harm to people. Match the items from the list to the following adjectives.
Dangerous: syringes, broken bottles, glass, fishhooks;
Offensive:  cigarette butts, condoms;
Unhygienic: animal drippings and food waste;
Lasting: plastic bags, chip packets, fast food rubbish.
V.
We have some experts at our lesson and they’ll teach us how to behavior ourselves with
-cigarette butts;
-household chemicals;
-dog poo;
-shopping bags;
-garden waste;
-food waste.

E.g. Garden waste. Don’t sweep grass or dry leaves into gutters. When it rains all of that garden waste is washed down into the storm- water system and can end up in our water ways. You can use compost bins.
VI.
How can each of us help to decide a problem with litter at home? Watch the video made by your classmates and listen to the comments.
Often we are worried about our environment. Can we do much to help it? I’m sure we can. Here’s what I do about sorting litter at home. I put all my newspapers, magazines, old cards, posters, leaflrts to one side and take them to school for future recycling. Sometimes I ask my neighbour on the left or right to give some papers and take them to school too. All my plastic and glass bottles that become empty during the week I put separately into town containers which are close to my house.
 I take my old clothes to a shop round the corner where they collect them.
It’s not much, I know, but I think every little thing counts.
VII.
According to the colour of the thinking caps you are wearing express your attitude to the situation with litter in Ternopil. 
E.g. Violet: negative, pessimistic, critical.
It would be great to receive the services we pay for. But instead of it there are not enough rubbish bins in Ternopil. The litter is rarely collected. The most severe threat to the environment comes from litter. As a result, diseases are spreading more easily.  
White: neutral, deals with the facts.
Yellow: positive, optimistic, full of hope.
Red: strong feelings, very emotional.
Green: creative, with new ideas, with new vision and proposals.
Blue: generalized and sums up points of view.
VIII. 
Here is the map of our school and area around it. Some places are marked “SOS”. What does it mean? How can we reduce the amount of litter in our school?  
It means that marked places are dirty.
We need:
                                                                                                                                                                          - to install more litter bins inside and outside the school;
-to sell less packaging at a school canteen;
-to divide up school area among the classes to look after it;
-to buy all necessary equipment for cleaning;
-to take photos before and after cleaning;
-to put some posters around the school showing danger of littering.
IX.
Answer the following questionnaire and find out how environmentally aware you are. If somebody’s scores are low suggest him/her ways of being more aware about our environment.
1. What does your family do with empty bottles?
A  take them to a recycling bin
B   return them to the supermarket
C   throw them in the rubbish bin
2. When you buy one or two items at the supermarket, you
A   take a plastic carrier bag
B   reuse an old plastic carrier bag
C   use your own bag
3. How often do you choose products which contain recycled materials?
A  always
B  never
C  sometimes
4. If you were asked to contribute to a Save the Animals project, you would
A  give generously
B  give a small amount
C  refuse to give anything
5. A local beach has been polluted with oil. You
A  donate money for the clean-up project
B  do nothing
C  volunteer to help with the clean-up project
6. You eat a chocolate bar in the street. What do you do with the wrapper?
A  drop it on the pavement
B  put it in a litter bin
C  save it for recycling
7. When you buy paper products, you 
A  buy whatever is cheapest
B  try to purchase recycled paper
C  purchase recycled paper as long as it doesn’t cost more
8. When you clean your teeth, you 
A  turn the tap on only when you need water
B  leave the tap running until you have finished
C  only use one glass of water
1     A 3     B2   C0
2     A0      B2   C3
3     A3      B0   C2
4     A3      B2   C0
5     A2      B0   C3
6     A0      B2   C3
7     A0      B3   C2
8    A2       B0      C3
18-24 Keep up the good work! You are doing your part to protect the environment.
13-17 There’s some room for improvement. Change your habits and you’ll soon be green.
0-12 You are part of the problem. You should try to become part of the solution.
X. 
HOME ASSIGMENT
     Be ready to present your project “Care about nature” before the senior students of our school.