Nature teaches us about sustainable business

In this Intermediate lesson plan, the student will learn new vocabulary and use it to discuss sustainability within the business world. They will also practice using modal verbs for expressing ability and possibility – can, could, and be able to.

Warm-up

In the warm-up section, the student chooses pictures that show sustainable business practices.

Vocabulary: Sustainability

They match the new words with their meanings and use them to complete sentences (sustainable, impact, global warming, etc.).

Reading: The harmful impact of plastics

The student reads and learns about the harmful impact of plastics on the environment. They answer the questions based on the text.

Next, they read the information about four sustainable packaging trends – replacing plastics with paper, replacing plastics with bioplastics, reducing and removing the packaging, and other innovative ideas. The student then answers the questions that follow.

Video: What nature can teach us about sustainable business

The student watches the TED video What nature can teach us about sustainable business and learns what companies can do to become more sustainable. Based on pictures, the student decides what the company is doing for sustainability.

Grammar: Can, could, and be able to

The student learns when to use modal verbs can and could. They complete the sentences expressing ability and possibility using the correct forms of these modals. Next, they learn about the proper use of be able to and how it’s different from can/could. The student reads sentences describing different situations and decides if they should use can/could or be able to. They also practice grammar by correcting the mistakes.

Finally, the student answers the wrap-up questions covering both vocabulary and grammar.