Simón Bolívar (1), Petroleum (2) units about Venezuela - thematic units for SP Intermediate 1

Two content-based units about Venezuela. Please preview.

Unit 1. El petróleo: mucho más que un producto de exportación

Venezuela supplied most of the oil used in the eastern states of the United States. How has the country used the oil wealth? Well? Poorly? Practice ordinal numbers and get your students to talk about oil dependence and consumption. What is petroleum used for? What is its future?

Unit includes:

Subject matter: daily life

Vocabulary: ordinal numbers

Grammar: agreement

Oral practice: products made from oil

Homework: consequences of rules banning use of petroleum run vehicles

Internet: Key word list to facilitate a search and further research

Answer key

Unit 2. Simón Bolívar, el Libertador

Bolívar’s face in on the bills; there is a mountain named after him; there is a city named after him; there is even a country named after him. Does that sound familiar? That’s right! Just like Washington. (He has a state not a country, named for him.) Learn more about Bolívar and make history come alive.

Unit includes:

Subject matter: history

Vocabulary: government, democracy

Grammar: preterit

Oral practice: George Washington and other figures

Homework: national heroes

Internet: Key word list to facilitate a search and further research

Answer key

All Miraflores resources are exclusively in the target language.

Full disclosure. For reasons I don´t understand, this is not a popular unit although my own students thought it interesting to learn about a national heroe and even more interesting to discuss oil and the future of our planet. Go figure. The continuing unravelling of Venezuela also makes petroleum, its sale and misuse, a difficult subject.