ESL Lesson Idea: Reporting Emergencies
Description
Students should know how to access community emergency services, and be prepared
to use the telephone to do so.
Materials
Suggestions
Target vocabulary: medical emergency, accident, injury, fire, crime, stolen car,
apartment complex, single family home, etc.
Using the handout Emergency Situations , discuss different
kinds of emergencies. Review pertinent vocabulary.
Using the handout Calling 911 , talk about who to call in different kinds of situations and identify the important
items that must be reported in an emergency call.
Practice asking and answering personal information questions. Make sure that students are comfortable and
understandable as they give the necessary personal information.
Then model the conversation in the handout Calling 911 .
Clarify any of the questions that the students may not understand, then have them practice the conversation
in pairs – first face-to-face, then back-to-back.
Let each student pair select a magazine photo. Have the students work in pairs to create their own emergency-911
conversations in response to the pictured emergencies.