ESL WORKSHEET - Teenagers and Volunteering

LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

VOLUNTEERING

LinguaHouse

Mar. 1, 2022

Level: Intermediate (B1-B2)
Type of English: English for Teenagers
Tags: Pronunciation; Workplace and Equipment; Animals and Plants; Prefixes and Suffixes; 13-15 Years Old; 16-18 Years Old; 18+ Years Old; Article Based
Publication date: 03/01/2022

The topic of this lesson is volunteering and why more teenagers are deciding to give up their free time for a cause they believe in and how it can benefit them to do some volunteer work. Students read an article about the benefits of volunteering and skills teenagers can develop from doing it. Students will take part in a roleplay between prospective volunteers and employers and also get the chance to write an email to apply for a volunteer role. In addition to this, students have an extra real-world project of researching an organization they would be interested in working for as a volunteer (by Richard Moon).

• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in British English.
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in British English.
• CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audio (Am/Br English).

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Markus (USA): I work at a community animal shelter. I work with the horses and donkeys there. Many of the animals were abandoned by their owners and rescued because they were treated badly. I go for an hour every morning to clean and feed them and on Sunday I give free horse riding classes to local children. I love being with the animals and the children. Some of the kids are getting better from being very sick, so it’s fantastic to see them happy. It can be difficult to get up so early, but I think moving my body gives me more energy later in the day. It has helped me to think about my future, too. I definitely want to work outside and with animals when I’m older.
Katya (UK): My school had a volunteering week, where lots of organisations came and talked to us about what they did and how we could help. I learned that lots of older people in my area feel lonely and don’t have many friends and sometimes feel too scared to go out on their own. So, I joined Helping Hand. I go to a member’s home or for a walk in the local park. We play chess or meet others for a card game or just take a walk around. Some of them have little vegetable gardens, and I go and help them with some digging. I thought spending time with the older generation might be boring, but I have learned so much from the people I have spent time with. It’s a lot of fun and I feel good doing it, too.
Giovanni (UK): I saw that an area of my local beach was getting really polluted and I wanted to do something about it so I set up a plogging group. Plogging is a strange word for jogging and picking up litter. We run every Saturday and pick up rubbish as we go, finishing our run at the recycling centre. The real benefits were how healthy I was getting and how beautiful the beach looked. Then something big happened. We invited our science teacher to tell us about the river and the plant life in it. She brought some tests, and we found some chemical pollution in the river! Our group and our school’s parent association wrote to the local newspaper. They reported on it and the factory stopped the pollution and said sorry! We had a party on the beach to celebrate. (We cleaned up after ourselves, of course).
Robyn (UK): I volunteer online because I live in a rural area – our closest neighbours are over a kilometre away! I love maths so I joined an online maths group and then I saw they were looking for some volunteers to do some teaching and I thought, why not? So, about once a month I give an online lesson in something I have learned. It can be anything from measurements to division. People join the lessons from all over the world and I love connecting with them and working together to solve things. I also like that I can make a difference. Last month I suggested a maths competition and the organisation loved the idea. They’ve asked me to run the competition! It’s a bit scary but I think it’s going to be great.

Adapted from: https://www.linguahouse.com/esl-lesson-plans/english-for-teenagers/volunteering. Accessed on August 14, 2023. © 2008–2023 LinguaHouse.com. All rights reserved.