Animal Aid

Lesson Ideas: English

Updated Animal Writes Framework Objectives available

Lesson ideas

English KS3: From Farm to Fork film

  1. Show the From Farm to Fork film (available from Animal Aid) and/or invite an Animal Aid speaker to give a talk about factory farming.
  2. Discuss how we have selectively bred wild animals to create today’s domesticated farmed animals.
  3. Debate the pros and cons of intensive factory farming (see points raised below in super-dairy debate activity).
  4. Follow-up: Ask students to write an email/letter to their MP, either for or against factory farms, or to write an article for a teen magazine about what young people can do if they disagree with factory farming.

English KS3: Troublesome wildlife

Start with a discussion of why the government is calling for a cull of badgers and whether the policy is justified. Follow with Lesson 4 (Troublesome wildlife) from Animal Aid’s Animal Writes resource pack.

English KS3: Meat-Free Day

Provide students with copies of the BBC news report and play the interview from the BBC World Service. Debate whether your local town, city and/or school should follow Ghent’s example and introduce a Meat-Free day each week.

Organise students into three groups. One group’s task is to summarise the arguments for having a Meat-Free Day. The second group’s task is to summarise the arguments against having a Meat-Free Day. The third group generates a list of questions to ask the other groups. The for and against groups prepare a sales pitch to present to the third group. They are given five minutes to sell their views. The third group has five minutes to ask questions. Finally, take a vote on which of the two groups were more persuasive.

English KS4: Bull fighting

Find out what students know about bullfighting.

Show part of the first episode of Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventures and read relevant passages from Hemingway’s book Death in the Afternoon.

Set a comprehension exercise on the text and discuss the issues raised. What did Hemingway think about bullfighting? Why? Do people in Spain still think the same way? Do students agree?

Show newspaper/video reports on the Catalonia bullfighting ban (see below for web-links). Discuss the subject and implications.

Ask students to pretend that they are attending a bullfight. They will write a letter home to tell others what they are experiencing. Alternatively, ask students to write a creative story about being a bullfighter and/or a story from the bull’s perspective.

Useful weblinks:

English KS4: Circus debate

Provide students with copies of the Times Online article Anger over return of elephants to British circus. Read, analyse and discuss. Set students the tasks of investigating the pros and cons of performing animals in circuses and drawing up a list of the key arguments both for and against (they could be divided into two teams). Follow this with a debate (along the lines outlined in the lesson idea above). Conclude by asking students to write a letter to their MP asking him or her to either support or oppose a ban on performing wild animals in circuses, or to write a statement for the Have your say section relating to the article on the Times Online site.

For anti-animal circus info:

For pro-animal circus info:

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