The missing piece

Write the following quote on the board (or project it) and ask students to have a think and guess the missing word in pairs. Conduct open-class feedback and confirm the right answer or give the solution (=water).

“_________, thou hast no taste, no color, no odor; canst not be defined, art relished while every mysterious. Not necessary to life, but rather life itself.” (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

Reflect and share

In the same pairs, have students discuss some questions related to water and water usage. Some possible questions:

• Is water important to you? Why? / Why not?
• What do you use water for on a daily basis?
• Do you take water for granted?
• Could you live without water?
• Have you ever been in a situation when you were in need of water but you didn’t have access to it?
• …

Key lexis

Check students’ understanding of the following vocabulary items: faucet / swamp / pond / be exposed to / germs / contaminated / diarrhea / dehydration / well

Orientation to video

Tell students they are going to watch a video about water crisis. In pairs, ask them to brainstorm some ideas they think might be mentioned in the video. When they have finished, put their ideas on the left side of the board (e.g. in the form of a mind map).

Then, play the video until 2:03 and have students check their solutions. You can also tick the correct ideas on the board together with the students.

Solutions – finish the sentences

In this part of the lesson, students are trying to think of how the water crisis could be solved. Put the following sentence beginnings on the right side of the board and ask students to finish them. (At this point, you might want to switch some pairs so that students don’t always work with the same partner.) After some time, conduct open-class feedback and put some ideas on the board.

• One way to solve the water crisis is …
• If the crisis is solved, …
• In the future, this means …

After the activity, play the rest of the video. Make sure students are aware that the content of the video is not the one and only solution to the crisis.

Dear …,

Finally, students work individually. Tell them they have the chance to write a letter to a family caught in the water crisis. (They can make up a name.) They can express their feelings and opinions in connection with what they have seen in the video,  their own water usage, anything. Collect the letters and report back to the class in the next lesson in the form of a short feedback.