Would You Swap Your Phone for the Wild? Humans and Nature · English Première (general)

The big question

Do we protect nature for its own sake, or for ours, and who gets to decide which places are saved?

Why this journey?

Many teens spend hours on screens, and many scientists say time in nature is good for us. But nature is also under threat, from fires to floods. In this journey, you meet a photographer and a writer who helped save America’s wild places, a Kenyan woman who planted millions of trees, and the fires of Los Angeles in 2025. At the end, your group designs and defends a new protected park.

LevelPremière (general)

TargetCEFR B1 → B2

Sessions6 sessions + a game + a final task

Final taskGroup presentation (B1–B2): propose a new protected area, with a map, a photo in Adams’s style and three rules.

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

⟵ Builds on…

OK Boomer? Generations Online and on the PlanetSeconde (general)The climate gap between generations, seen in Seconde, returns here.
Who Owns the Moon? Hidden Figures to Artemis IIPremière (general)Earthrise showed a fragile planet; now we protect it on the ground.

Leads to… ⟶

Bargain or Problem? Shopping, Fast Fashion and the PlanetPremière bac proIn Première bac pro, the planet question meets shopping: bargain or problem?
English-speaking Oceania · Hunt for the WilderpeopleTerminaleIn Terminale, the Oceania journey links land, memory and Māori culture.

Threads in this journey: PlanetPowerIdentity

Phone or wild?

Give opinions on what nature gives us.

Documents and facts

In 2005, the writer Richard Louv used the phrase “nature-deficit disorder” in his book Last Child in the Woods to describe children who spend less and less time outdoors.

Sources: Richard Louv: Last Child in the Woods

What you do

Quick class vote: phone or a week in the wild? Give a reason (opinions only).
List what nature gives and what screens give.
Discuss Louv’s idea: is it a real problem or an exaggeration?

Sentence starters

Nature gives us…
Screens give us…
I agree / disagree with Louv because…

Speak up

Each student gives one reason in 15 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.

Ansel Adams and John Muir

See how a photographer and a writer made America protect its wild places.

President Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir at Glacier Point, Yosemite, 1903.Image: Underwood & Underwood · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Documents and facts

Yellowstone became the world’s first national park on 1 March 1872.
In 1903, John Muir camped in Yosemite with President Theodore Roosevelt and convinced him to protect more land.
Ansel Adams photographed national parks for the US government in the 1940s. His black-and-white images made millions of people want to protect them.

Sources: National Park Service (Yosemite): John Muir · US National Archives: Ansel Adams photographs

What you do

Describe the Adams photo: light, river, mountains, what is missing (people, roads).
Read the facts and explain how a photo or a book can change a law.
Write a caption for the photo as if it were a poster to save the park.

Sentence starters

Ansel Adams’s photo shows…
John Muir convinced… to…
A photo can change a law because…

Speak up

Present your poster caption to the class.

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.

Wangari Maathai: planting trees, planting peace

Discover that protecting nature can be a political act.

Wangari Maathai (1940–2011), founder of the Green Belt Movement, in 2006.Image: Foto: Antônio Cruz/ABr · CC BY 3.0 br · Wikimedia Commons

Documents and facts

Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in Kenya in 1977. Women planted tens of millions of trees.
In 2004, she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Sources: The Nobel Prize: Wangari Maathai · Green Belt Movement

What you do

Read the Nobel page and find why a tree project won a peace prize.
Make a chain: trees → water → food → peace.
Discuss: who has the power to protect a forest?

Sentence starters

Wangari Maathai believed…
Planting trees helps… because…
Protecting nature is political because…

Speak up

Explain the chain to a partner in 30 seconds.

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.

When nature fights back: Los Angeles, 2025

Understand how people adapt to extreme weather.

The Palisades Fire seen from the UCLA campus, Los Angeles, January 2025.Image: BulkyOS · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Documents and facts

From 7 January 2025, the Palisades and Eaton fires burned large areas of Los Angeles and destroyed thousands of buildings.
Strong Santa Ana winds and very dry vegetation helped the fires spread.

Sources: CAL FIRE: incidents · BBC News: LA fires, what happened and what caused them

What you do

Read the facts and list causes and consequences.
Discuss: what can a city do to adapt (rules, firefighters, building, vegetation)?
Write three tips for a public information leaflet.

Sentence starters

The fires spread because…
A city can adapt by…
People should…

Speak up

Read your leaflet tips like a public safety message.

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: Park Ranger

Invent an escape game where teams save a park.

What you do

Make 5 clues: a map, a photo, a quote, a weather report, an animal track.
Rule: each clue opens only with a correct English sentence.
Write the rules with the rule starters and test them.

Sentence starters

Before you start, …
Each team must…
You escape when…

Speak up

Each team explains one clue to the class.

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: a new national park

Design and defend a protected area.

What you do

In groups, choose a real natural area in the English-speaking world and propose to protect it.
Prepare a map, a photo in Adams’s style (black and white, no people) and three rules.
Present in 4 minutes; every student speaks.

Sentence starters

Our park will protect…
Visitors must…
This place matters because…

Speak up

4-minute group presentation; each student speaks for at least one minute.

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: Park Ranger

An escape game: 5 locked clues (map, photo, quote, weather report, animal track). Each clue opens only when the team gives a correct English sentence.

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

Group presentation (B1–B2): propose a new protected area, with a map, a photo in Adams’s style and three rules.

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 vote, the poster caption, the Maathai chain, the safety leaflet, Park Ranger).	In this sequence: your part of the group presentation (at least 1 minute), 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

Our park will protect a coastal forest in the Pacific Northwest. This place matters because it is home to salmon, bears and very old trees. Like John Muir, who convinced President Roosevelt to protect Yosemite in 1903, we believe that people protect what they love. That is why we took a black-and-white photo in the style of Ansel Adams, with no roads and no people. Our first rule is: visitors must stay on the paths, because the soil is fragile. Our second rule is: no fires, because the Los Angeles fires of January 2025 showed how fast a fire can spread with dry vegetation and strong winds. Finally, like Wangari Maathai, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, we want local people to plant trees and to guide visitors. Protecting nature is good for animals and for us.

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. Rules for the park (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

“Yosemite was the first national park”: it was Yellowstone, in 1872.
Confusing Ansel Adams (photographer) and John Muir (writer).
Rules with no reason.
One student speaks for the whole group.

Answer key for the sequence exercises

Session 2

1 March 1872: Yellowstone
1903: Muir and Roosevelt in Yosemite
1940s: Adams’s photos for the government

Session 3

1977: Green Belt Movement
2004: Nobel Peace Prize

⎙ 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

Adams The Tetons and the Snake River.jpg: Ansel Adams · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Muir and Roosevelt restored.jpg: Underwood & Underwood · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Wangari Maathai, 2006 (cropped).jpg: Foto: Antônio Cruz/ABr · CC BY 3.0 br · Wikimedia Commons
Palisades Fire from UCLA 0671.jpg: BulkyOS · CC BY 4.0 · 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 · CECRL visé : B1 → B2

Ancrage programme : Axe « L’être humain et la nature » · objets d’étude : les parcs nationaux ; l’homme face aux événements météorologiques

Fil rouge : Planet, Power, Identity. 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 : Le vote « phone or wild » porte sur des opinions, jamais sur le temps d’écran personnel. Photos Adams : Archives nationales américaines, domaine public.