This book is a very welcome addition to the growing number of resources for language teachers who wish to integrate green issues in their language classes.  Recent resources include Jonathan Dykes’ Green Standard Schools teaching materials https://app.greenstandardschools.org/public-lesson-plans  , Sue Robbins’ Develop Your English https://openpress.sussex.ac.uk/developyourenglish/  and Harry Waters’ Renewable English  https://renewableenglish.com/ - all freely available.

Chris Graham’s book has four main aims:  

• to provide teachers with links to resources they can use to support this integration of green issues with language teaching, including some lesson plans.

• to make green issues part of teachers’ CPD.

• to suggest ways of creating green schools and institutions.

• to raise awareness of green issues among all stakeholders: administrators, teachers, parents, students and everyone in their communities.

The 50 Ways of the title include complete lesson plans with suggested levels.  But there are also many ideas for developing green activities outside class in everyday life, ideas for making the school or institution greener, and for impacting on the wider community.  There is also reference to the way these activities can reinforce the teaching of 21st century skills, such as critical thinking and cooperative learning.

There are five main sections.  Part I, Greening your classroom includes 2. Making Green Commitments; 4. Zero Waste Classroom; and 9. Kickstart Your Own CPD, all highly practical and with excellent links to resources.

Part II, Greening your lessons and teaching materials, focusses on ways existing materials such as the course-book can be adapted to include green issues.  It includes projects to engage teenagers through links with classes elsewhere in the world, working with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and creating a green culture, through literature, songs, film and drama.

The emphasis of Part III, Involving learners in green initiatives, is on ways to engage learners with green issues in their lives outside the classroom.  One suggestion is conducting simple audits of personal habits, such as 22. Count your journeys.  There are also suggested hands-on activities in the community, such as 28. Lead a beach or park clean-up.

Part IV, Green Project-based Lessons, offers a wide range of projects which can be done over longer periods of time.  These include 32. How green is my home? ;  33. Train some green detectives – an interesting idea where students conduct inquiries into how their school deals with certain issues, such as recycling and green energy;  34. Make change happen – suggestions for environmental campaigns; 37. Design a green home, or school, or office;  40 Set up an in-school recycling project.

Finally, in Part V, Creating a green movement in your school, the focus shifts to ways of turning the school into a green institution by setting up a green working party involving all stakeholders, agreeing on eco-policies, engaging with suppliers to the school, such as publishers, and setting up a programme of outside speakers – all ways of making green issues part of the DNA of the institution.

Chris Graham’s book is a cornucopia of ideas and links to resources.  It should form part of any language teacher’s arsenal of materials.

As mentioned at the outset, Chris Graham’s book is part of a swelling wave of concern among language teachers about their role in countering the imminent planetary ecological collapse.  Increasingly, there seems to be a realisation of two facts: that something urgent needs to be done, and that language teachers have a central role to play in this.  This is reflected not only in books, such as 50 Ways, but in teachers’ associations like IATEFL, where Chris Graham, as incoming Vice-President is steering a working group on making eco-issues more central to IATEFL’s mission, and in initiatives such as the new Eco-Issues section in HLT Mag itself.  The time is now!  The responsibility is ours!

You can view some sample pages here.

Please check the Pilgrims f2f courses at Pilgrims website.