Lesson Plan

Dear Educator,

This sample lesson plan originally slated for teaching ESL courses can be adapted for children at all grade levels. Please refer to the website for more advanced lessons.

In the twenty-first century, hunger and a lack of food still killed six million children a year. This is according to a new report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Another depressing fact from the report is that in sub-Saharan Africa, there are more children dying from starvation today than in the 1990s. Hunger and malnutrition are the main reasons for poverty, illiteracy, disease and deaths in developing countries. The report says the developed world has not provided enough aid to the hungry. Many children die every day from easily preventable diseases such as diarrhea, malaria and measles.

The UN food agency said it is unlikely to meet its goal of cutting in half the number of hungry people in the world by 2015. This target was made by the World Food Summit in 1996 and boosted by the Millennium Development Goals in 2000. Countries that joined these programs have been slow to deliver on their promises of aid. The only bright spot in the gloomy report was for South America. Asia too has a good chance of reaching targets. Agency boss Jacques Diouf stated: "Most, if not all of the ... targets can be reached, but only if efforts are redoubled and refocused and priority given to agriculture."

Source: http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2005/1000151/index.html

1. FOOD: In pairs / groups, talk about quantities of food. Do you eat too much? Do you waste food or throw it away? Do you see food being wasted in your daily life? Why do you think we have so much food but most of the world has too little or none?
2. THE HUNGRY: Discuss the following groups of people. How would you like to help them? What should world governments and organizations do to help them?

3. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words are most interesting and which are most boring. 21^st Century / hunger / lack of food / agriculture / sub-Saharan Africa / starvation / poverty / illiteracy / developing countries / aid / malaria / bright spots / targets Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.
4. HUNGRY: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word "hungry". Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.
5. MY COUNTRY: Do any of the problems in sub-Saharan Africa also affect your country? Talk about whether these problems exist where you come from. Are they big problems?

6. HUNGER OPINIONS: What do you think of these opinions on world hunger? Talk about them with your partner(s).

1. The developed world gives very little aid to the hungry.
2. Globalization is creating more hungry people in the world.
3. Any CEO who does not give lots of money to the poor is a criminal.
4. Humans cannot beat the power of nature. The hungry cannot be helped.
5. Poor countries need strong economies to help poor and hungry people.
6. The fact that 6 million children die every year is a sin.
7. How many millions of children could the USA's spending on weapons feed?
8. Rich countries are always too slow to act to help poor people.
9. Companies like McDonalds have a responsibility to help the hungry.
10. Rich countries care more about domestic problems than millions of dying kids.

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article's headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

GAP FILL: Put the words in the column on the right into the gaps in the text. UN: Hunger kills 6m children a year

Listen and fill in the spaces. UN: Hunger kills 6m children a year In the twenty-first century, ________ and a lack of food still kill six million children a year. This is according to a new report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Another ___________ fact from the report is that in sub-Saharan Africa, there are more children dying from ___________ today than in the 1990s. Hunger and malnutrition are the main reasons for poverty, ___________, disease and deaths in developing countries. The report says the developed world has not ___________ enough aid to the hungry. Many children die every day from easily preventable diseases such as diarrhea, ___________ and measles. The UN food agency said it is ___________ to meet its goal of cutting in half the number of hungry people in the world by 2015. This target was made by the World Food Summit in 1996 and ___________ by the Millennium Development Goals in 2000. Countries that joined these programs have been slow to ___________ on their promises of aid. The only bright spot in the ___________ report was for South America. Asia too has a good chance of ___________ targets. Agency boss Jacques Diouf stated: "Most, if not all of the ... targets can be reached, but only if efforts are redoubled and refocused and ___________ given to agriculture."

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms for the words "main" and "reason".

• Share your findings with your partners.
• Make questions using the words you found.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

• Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

3. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the gap fill. Were they new, interesting, worth learning?
4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.
5. STUDENT WORLD HUNGER SURVEY: In pairs / groups, write down questions about world hunger and why so many children are still dying in the 21^st Century.

• Ask other classmates your questions and note down their answers.
• Go back to your original partner / group and compare your findings.
• Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

6. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:

STUDENT A's QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

1. Did the headline make you want to read the article?
2. What do you think of hunger existing in the 21^st Century?
3. Do you do anything to help the world's poor and starving?
4. Does you government have a good record of giving aid to countries in need?
5. Whose responsibility do you think it is to help the world's starving children?
6. Do you think world hunger will ever disappear from the world?
7. Do you think globalization is helping or adding to the problem of world hunger?
8. Why do you think there are more starving children today than ten years ago?
9. What are the biggest problems in your country?
10. Do you think UN aid programs are needed in your country?

STUDENT B's QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

1. Did you like reading this article?
2. What do you think about what you read?
3. Do you think the USA should do more for the developing world?
4. What do you think of the fact that developed countries spend trillions of dollars on weapons but six million children starve to death each year?
5. The leaders of rich nations often say fair trade and strong economies are the way to reduce poverty. What do you think?
6. Why do you think man sends people to the moon but cannot feed hungry and dying children?
7. Why do you think countries who joined the World Food Summit and Millennium Development Goals have been slow to deliver on aid?
8. How do you think sub-Saharan Africa can progress and reach aid targets?
9. Have you ever redoubled your efforts in doing something?
10. Did you like this discussion?

AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.

1. What was the most interesting thing you heard?
2. Was there a question you didn't like?
3. Was there something you totally disagreed with?
4. What did you like talking about?
5. Which was the most difficult question?

GOODBYE PROBLEMS: In pairs / groups, discuss ways how your government(s) can make these problems disappear. Put your suggestions in the right hand column.

• Change partners and compare and share your ideas.
• Decide on the best idea for each of the points in the table.
• Return to your original partner(s) and discuss the ideas you talked about with your previous partner.
• Make presentations of your ideas to other groups.

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google's search field (or another search TYPE) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.
2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's report. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson. Did you all find out similar things?
3. MY GOVERNMENT: Create a poster explaining what your government does to help the needy - either in you own country or in others. Include a section that has your advice for your government's future actions. Explain what you wrote to your classmates in your next lesson. Did you all have similar ideas?
4. DIARY / JOURNAL: Imagine you live with the possibility of starvation. Every day is a struggle to find enough food to eat and survive. Write your diary / journal entry for a day spent in poverty and need. Show what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all write about similar things?

TRUE / FALSE:

SYNONYM MATCH:

PHRASE MATCH:

GAP FILL: UN: Hunger kills 6m children a year In the twenty-first century, hunger and a lack of food still kill six million children a year. This is according to a new report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Another depressing fact from the report is that in sub-Saharan Africa, there are more children dying from starvation today than in the 1990s. Hunger and malnutrition are the main reasons for poverty, illiteracy, disease and deaths in developing countries. The report says the developed world has not provided enough aid to the hungry. Many children die every day from easily preventable diseases such as diarrhea, malaria and measles. The UN food agency said it is unlikely to meet its goal of cutting in half the number of hungry people in the world by 2015. This target was made by the World Food Summit in 1996 and boosted by the Millennium Development Goals in 2000. Countries that joined these programs have been slow to deliver on their promises of aid. The only bright spot in the gloomy report was for South America. Asia too has a good chance of reaching targets. Agency boss Jacques Diouf stated: "Most, if not all of the ... targets can be reached, but only if efforts are redoubled and refocused and priority given to agriculture." Copyright © 2005 by Sean Banville