Climate Change Motorway Protests in Berlin: for advanced A level students

This a demanding powerpoint lesson for advanced A-level students with considerable German knowledge, using a newspaper report about a climate change protest on a Berlin motorway, followed by a tv news report. Students can be asked to debate or write about whether they are for or against this type of protest.

The newspaper report describes a climate change protest on a Berlin motorway: this can be used to develop advanced reading skills, pronunciation and translation. Teachers can point them to certain points of style andstudents can identify useful vocabulary and phrases to be used later.

A German news report follows, covering the climate change protest from all angles. Teachers can use as much as they think suitable as there are several obvious start and end points. Students may need to listen several times, which can form an exercise where they pull out phrases they understand and may use later in their written work. Teachers can provide further scaffolding as needed, by using shorter excerpts and identifying key phrases.

The final part of the lesson can also be a homework. There are a number of ways of using the material: divide the class into for and against climate change activism and ask students to furnish arguments accordingly. Then ask students to debate using what they have written. Finally, homework can be a written piece, describing events and/or arguing for or against this kind of direct action.