The other week, the eyes of the whole world were directed at the ill-fated submersible vessel on its way to explore the wreckage of Titanic. The topic became somewhat controversial splitting the audience and bringing to our attention a fascinating world of extreme tourism.
Whether you were invested in the story or not, you were bombarded by the news about the ill-fated trip to see the wreckage of Titanic. There were even more opinion-based articles after we all learnt what had happened to the vessel and the people on board. This topic was brought up naturally in class, as the students also were following the story and wanted to weigh in on it with their points of view. I don’t like creating lesson plans focused on recent news, as these lessons are too topical and cannot be reused in the future. However, focusing on the world of the rich and their passion for extreme tourism is something that can be discussed at any point. I did something similar during last year’s trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. That time I used the ongoing trial as a starting point for a bigger discussion about Separating the art from the artist.
This lesson plan is based on the article Inside the mind of thrill-seeking billionaires by Caitlin Tilley for Daily Mail. At the end of this post, you can find the presentation and the lesson plan available to download for free.
I thought the class could start with a short brainstorm eliciting as many types of tourism as possible and the reasons why people travel. There is a plethora of reasons behind people’s holidays. Some of them may include visiting family, learning about cultures, learning a new language, doing business, finding love, etc. Travelling to do something extreme and dangerous probably isn’t very high on the list of reasons for students, but with the recent accident, this answer may definitely show up.
Elicit the different types of tourism and discuss the words that come to students’ minds when they hear this expression. Some of the answers that can appear may be thrill-seeking, risk-takers, dangerous, etc. Write all the words in the chat or on the whiteboard and ask students to read the introduction to check if their predictions appeared in the article. The words used in the article are dangerous thrills, risk-takers and daredevil.
Before getting into the major part of the lesson, ask students to discuss why this type of tourism is becoming more popular (according to the article the adventure tourism industry is predicted to increase from $322 billion in 2022 to $1 trillion in 2023!). Think about other places and activities that are popular amongst daredevil tourists. Check the predictions by reading the rest of the article and elicit what students read about.
This lesson is designed for advanced and proficient students, so I couldn’t stop myself and needed to include some of the Cambridge exam preparation tasks. I’m afraid that at this point it can be some sort of sickness of mine! This time I decided to check students’ knowledge of word formation. Look at the list of root words and their part of speech. Match them with their definitions from Cambridge Dictionary. These words are not particularly complicated, but I wanted to divert students’ attention to parts of speech as they often forget about them. Then look at the sentences removed from the article and fill in the gaps with the correct form of the words from before. Firstly, read the sentences and elicit the type of missing words, change them accordingly and fill in the gaps.
This activity is an introduction to the CAE part 7 – filling the gaps with the missing paragraphs or sentences. This activity is quite challenging and will require a lot of concentration and understanding. Before checking the answers, you can put students into groups or pairs to compare and better understand their choices. Finish by going over the answers as a group.
The lesson ends with a group debate. Divide students into two groups – one in favour of and the other against extreme tourism. Allow each group to come up with compelling arguments. Monitor the activity and help groups as needed. Then do it as a group or pair activity. Put together one person from the group in favour and one from the group against to debate each other by explaining the points they came up with in the first part of the activity. Finish the class by providing speaking feedback and asking if students would ever partake in extreme tourism.
If you enjoyed this hot-topic lesson, feel free to download the presentation and the worksheet with the teacher’s notes by clicking the links below.
Did you follow the story of the unlucky vessel? What did you think about it? Are you going to bring this topic to your classroom?
