This jigsaw-viewing activity is based on two video clips from National Geographic's Megastructures series.

Author
Leo Selivan

Preparation

The lesson involves a jigsaw activity where two groups of students watch two different video clips and then exchange information. The class can be divided into two groups ('expert groups') and sent to different rooms or students can watch the videos individually on devices (with headphones). If this is not feasible, students can watch the clips at home.

Video 1 – Oresund bridge can be found here (start video at 0.44 – 7.50):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8_VQbOh7go

Video 2 – Rio Antirrio Bridge can be found here (watch video from the start until 5.37):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmwIjpjcPv0

Procedure

To lead in to the activity, brainstorm what famous bridges students know (e.g. Tower Bridge in London, Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco).

Give out the handout and draw students' attention to different kinds of bridges (worksheet task 1). You may have to clarify the difference between suspension and cable-stayed bridges. A suspension bridge, which has been around since ancient times, has the roadway suspended from two cables (or chains) hanging between the towers (e.g. the Golden Gate Bridge). A cable-stayed bridge is a more modern adaptation of a suspension bridge where cables run directly from a tower to the roadway.

Divide the class into two groups. Tell them that each group will watch a different video clip. They have to take notes as they watch because they will have to tell their partners what they have heard/seen.

Students watch the video and take notes (worksheet task 2). Tell them to compare their notes before watching the video a second time. Allow students to watch it more times if necessary.

After both groups have finished watching, regroup students so that they work in mixed pairs. To do this, I normally give each student a card with a letter on it (A, B, C …) and then tell them to find somebody with the same letter from the other group. This way you can control who works with whom in mixed pairs.

For heterogeneous classes, it's preferable to have mixed ability students grouped together while gathering information so that they can help each other and same ability students paired together during the speaking activity.

Get feedback (see answer sheet).

As a follow up, discuss if there are any big bridges in the country/ies your students come from, their economic importance and interesting features.

Another follow-up activity which can be set as homework is to find out more about the Oresund and Rio Antirrio bridges. They can either look up information on the internet or search for longer videos about the two bridges.

Language note

While discussing what bridge designs were rejected, there is an opportunity to practise the would have been pattern used to talk about things that could have happened in the past, i.e. the unreal past, which is often taught as part of the third conditional structure.

A suspension bridge would have been much more expensive.
They chose a cable-stayed bridge because a beam bridge would have been problematic.
An arch bridge, which would have been the biggest ever built, wasn't suitable.

Even if your students have not studied the third conditional it might be useful to point out how we use would have been to talk about things that did not happen.

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Comments

Submitted by Gian D on Tue, 09/26/2017 - 01:08

The links to the videos lead to a 404 error.

Submitted by Cath McLellan on Thu, 09/28/2017 - 08:41

In reply to by Gian D

Thanks very much for letting us know about the broken links. I've updated the activity with some links to the whole documentaries - the relevant parts for this activity are marked above. Hope you enjoy the activity, Cath TE Team

Submitted by Vann on Mon, 11/04/2013 - 10:32

This is a very useful example to share with my Geography teachers working with ELLs. A very big thanks.

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