World Oceans Day Lesson Plan

Activity: Stating an Opinion—World Oceans Day

Read the Op-Ed Phrase Sheet before class to see how facts and opinions are used in writing an
op-ed essay in English.
Print the World Oceans Day: Word Search worksheet. At least one copy per group is needed, preferably one copy per student.
Print the World Oceans Day Reading, preferably one copy per student.
Print the Op-Ed Outline Template. One copy per group is needed, preferably one per student.
Load the Celebrate World Oceans Day video prior to class.
An op-ed is a page of a newspaper where opinions are expressed by individuals on a topic they are concerned about. The goal of this lesson is to help students learn English opinion phrases by
writing an op-ed piece about saving the oceans. This style of writing is also common in American university classes in which students learn how to support opinion with fact.

Begin the lesson by activating student schema. Ask the class what makes oceans important.
To warm up, watch the Celebrate World Oceans Day video. Students can use the video’s facts in
their op-ed essays. Replay the video if needed so students can write down the facts in the video.
Give each student (or group) a copy of World Oceans Day reading. Have the class read silently or have student take turns reading the passage aloud.
Give each student (or group) a copy of World Oceans Day word search. Words in bold can be found in the word search.
In groups or individually, have the students solve the word search.
Review the word search vocabulary as a class. The facts can be used for their opinion essays.
Using the facts from the three sources, have the students fill out their Op-Ed Template to create
an op-ed piece to send to the American English Facebook page.

If students struggle with the material, have the class write short opinion-only paragraphs instead of an op-ed that uses the facts from the class activities.