Bargain or Problem? Shopping, Fast Fashion and the Planet · English Première bac pro

The big question

When something is very cheap, who pays the real price: workers, the planet, or all of us?

Why this journey?

Fast fashion means cheap clothes made very quickly, sold in huge quantities, and thrown away fast. In this journey, you follow a T-shirt from the factory to the bin, you discover the Rana Plaza disaster, a brand that told customers not to buy, and the businesses that give clothes a second life. You never talk about what you or your family buy. At the end, you pitch a Second Life business like a real project.

LevelPremière bac pro

TargetCEFR A2 → B1

Sessions6 sessions + a game + a final task

Final taskSituation B training (B1): pitch your Second Life service (3 minutes) like a business project, then answer questions.

Bridges This journey is part of a path: each journey answers and builds on others.

⟵ Builds on…

Should 16-Year-Olds Vote? Power, Parliament and YouPremière bac proAfter your power as a voter, your power as a consumer.
Would You Swap Your Phone for the Wild? Humans and NaturePremière (general)In Première générale, the planet question started with nature; here it meets shopping.

Leads to… ⟶

Same Job, Same Pay? From Made in Dagenham to the LionessesTerminale bac proIn Terminale bac pro, Same Job, Same Pay? looks at fairness at work, from Dagenham to the Lionesses.

Threads in this journey: PlanetFairnessPower

The real price of a T-shirt

Guess what is inside a price.

What you do

Your teacher shows the parts of a T-shirt price: cotton, factory work, transport, shop, brand profit.
In groups, guess the share of each part, then check with the teacher’s answer.
Discuss: who gets the smallest part?

Sentence starters

This T-shirt is cheap because…
The workers get…
The biggest part goes to…

Speak up

Present your group’s guess in 30 seconds.

Learn how to learn · Quick Recall

Before you open your notes, write 3 things you remember from last time. Then check. Testing yourself works better than reading again.

Rana Plaza, 2013

Discover the human cost of fast fashion.

Savar, Bangladesh, April 2013: the collapsed Rana Plaza building.Image: Sudipta06 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Documents and facts

On 24 April 2013, the Rana Plaza building collapsed near Dhaka, Bangladesh. It contained clothing factories. More than 1,100 workers died.
After the disaster, the Fashion Revolution movement asked brands: “Who made my clothes?”

Sources: International Labour Organization: The Rana Plaza disaster ten years on · Fashion Revolution

What you do

Read the facts and the ILO page: who worked there, what went wrong, what changed after?
Write a question to a brand starting with “Who made…?”
Professional situation: you are a quality inspector in a factory. List three safety checks.

Sentence starters

The building collapsed because…
After Rana Plaza,…
I would ask the brand…

Speak up

Read your question to the brand aloud.

Learn how to learn · Explain it to a partner

Explain today’s main idea to a partner in 30 seconds, without notes. If you get stuck, that is the part to review.

Don’t Buy This Jacket

See whether a business can be green.

Documents and facts

On Black Friday 2011, the outdoor brand Patagonia published an advert in The New York Times: “Don’t Buy This Jacket.” It asked customers to buy less and repair more.
Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States, a day of big discounts.

Sources: Patagonia: Don’t Buy This Jacket (2011) · UNEP: Sustainability and circularity in the textile value chain

What you do

Read the Patagonia page and explain the paradox: a brand that says “don’t buy”.
Discuss: is it a real green idea, or clever marketing?
Write a short slogan for buying less.

Sentence starters

Black Friday makes people…
Patagonia wanted…
A green business can…

Speak up

Two-minute class debate: real idea or clever marketing?

Learn how to learn · Word + picture

Draw a tiny picture next to each new word. Your brain remembers a word and an image better than a word alone.

Where do our clothes go?

Follow clothes after the bin.

Marine debris collected on a beach (US National Marine Sanctuaries).Image: National Marine Sanctuaries · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Documents and facts

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2017), the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned every second in the world.
Synthetic clothes, like polyester, release tiny plastic fibres when they are washed.

Sources: Ellen MacArthur Foundation: A new textiles economy (2017) · WRAP (UK): Textiles

What you do

Read the facts and draw the life of a T-shirt: field, factory, shop, wardrobe, bin, landfill or ocean.
Add the “second life” options: repair, swap, resell, upcycle, recycle.
Choose the best option for three objects your teacher describes.

Sentence starters

After the bin, clothes go to…
Instead, we could…
The best option for this object is… because…

Speak up

Present the life of a T-shirt in 45 seconds.

Learn how to learn · Homemade flashcards

Write a question on one side and the answer on the other. Test yourself today, in 2 days and in a week.

Create your own game: Shop Smart

Invent a cooperative board game with a shared planet counter.

What you do

Draw a board with shop squares and planet squares.
Rule: each choice moves your score AND the shared planet counter: the whole class wins or loses together.
Write the rules with the rule starters and test them.

Sentence starters

If you land on…, you…
The planet counter goes up when…
Everybody wins when…

Speak up

Explain your game; another team plays one round.

Learn how to learn · Spaced review

Review today’s words tonight for 5 minutes, then again in 3 days. Short and spaced beats long and once.

Final task: pitch a Second Life business

Pitch a business project.

What you do

In groups, create a Second Life service: a repair café, a swap shop, an upcycling workshop, an online resale service…
Prepare a 3-minute pitch: the service, the customers, the price, the benefit for the planet (Situation B training).
Answer questions like in a job interview or a business meeting.

Sentence starters

Our service helps customers…
It is good for the planet because…
Customers will choose us because…

Speak up

3-minute pitch, then questions.

Learn how to learn · What I know / What I don’t know yet

Make two columns. A mistake is information: it tells you exactly what to practise next.

★ Create your own game: Shop Smart

A cooperative board game: shop squares and planet squares. Each choice moves your score and the shared planet counter, so the whole class wins or loses together.

Rule-writing starters

The aim of the game is to…
Each player must…
If you land on…, you…
You win when…
You miss a turn if…
Before you start, …

Final task

Situation B training (B1): pitch your Second Life service (3 minutes) like a business project, then answer questions.

Effort badges

Badges reward effort and progress, never a ranking. Everyone can earn every badge.

Word HunterI collected new words and used them again.

Team PlayerI helped my group succeed.

Game DesignerI invented or improved a game.

Brave SpeakerI dared to speak in English, even with mistakes.

Comeback BadgeI did better than last time.

✓ Assessment

How will I be assessed?

Printable grid (PDF with QR code)

Two kinds of assessment go with you. The first one helps you improve. The second one checks what you have learnt at the end.

During the sequence: formative assessment	At the end: summative assessment
It helps you improve.	It checks what you have learnt.
You are allowed to make mistakes: a mistake you spot is a mistake you will not make again.	You show what you can do, with criteria you already know.
You check your own work with the checklist.	The teacher uses the same grid as you.
In this sequence: sessions 1 to 5 (the price guess, the question to a brand, the Patagonia debate, the life of a T-shirt, Shop Smart).	In this sequence: your business pitch (3 minutes) and answers, marked out of 20.

While I practise, I can say

“I am not sure yet about…”
“Can you check if this fact is right: …?”
“I made a mistake with… Now I know that…”
“The word I want to remember is… because…”

To mark quickly and fairly: what is expected, what earns full or partial points, and the most common mistakes.

Model answer

Good afternoon. Our business is called Second Stitch. It is a repair café in the town centre, open on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Customers bring clothes with a hole or a broken zip, and our team repairs them for a small price, from £3. Customers can also learn to repair their clothes themselves in our workshops. Our service is good for the planet because, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned every second. Repairing means fewer new clothes. It is also fair: after the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013, when more than 1,100 workers died, many people asked “Who made my clothes?”. Like Patagonia in 2011, we say: buy less, repair more. Customers will choose us because we are cheap, fast and friendly. Thank you. Any questions?

Criterion by criterion

Criterion	Full points	Partial points	0 points
1. Task and message (4)	Clear answer to the question, position stated at the start and at the end.	Position unclear or only at the end.	Off topic or no position.
2. Facts from the journey (5)	At least two accurate facts or quotes from the documents, with names and dates.	One accurate fact, or facts with errors in names or dates.	No fact from the journey.
3. The business idea (4)	Done fully and clearly.	Done partly, or not linked to the topic.	Missing.
4. Speaking without reading (3)	Notes are keywords only; voice and eye contact help the audience.	Reads for part of the time.	Reads the whole time.
5. Language (4)	Varied starters and connectors, four or more journey words, meaning always clear.	Few connectors or journey words; meaning sometimes unclear.	Meaning often unclear.

Common mistakes to watch for

Talking about personal shopping habits: the pitch is about a business.
Forgetting the price or the customers.
“Rana Plaza was in India”: it was in Bangladesh, in 2013.
No benefit for the planet.

Answer key for the sequence exercises

Session 2

24 April 2013
Near Dhaka, Bangladesh
More than 1,100 workers died
“Who made my clothes?”

Session 3

Black Friday 2011
The New York Times
Buy less, repair more

⎙ Printable fiche

The one-page fiche sums up the journey: the big question, the sessions, the sentence starters, the final task and the badges. It has a QR code back to this page.

Open the printable fiche Assessment grid (PDF)

Image credits

Second hand clothes stable at the flea market Waterlooplein; free photo 14-10-2021.jpg: Fons Heijnsbroek · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
2013 Savar building collapse aftermath.jpg: Sudipta06 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Marine Debris -- Lighters (43102098570).jpg: National Marine Sanctuaries · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Videos, films, songs and protected texts are not copied here: follow the links to the official sources.

Repères pour le professeur (en français)

Niveau : Première bac pro · CECRL visé : A2 → B1

Ancrage programme : Voie professionnelle (BO spécial n° 5 du 11 avril 2019) · thèmes : habitudes de consommation, grandes enseignes, commerce en ligne ; environnement, développement durable et transition écologique · entraînement Situation B

Fil rouge : Planet, Fairness, Power. Les blocs « Bridges » relient ce parcours aux autres parcours de la carte.

Évaluation : formative pendant les séances 1 à 5, sommative avec la tâche finale ; grille de notation et grille de correction dans l’onglet professeur du bloc d’évaluation, et en PDF avec QR code.

À noter : Aucune question sur les achats des élèves ou de leur famille. Images protégées (publicité Patagonia) : lien seulement.