Lesson Plan - What Should Be Done About Overtourism?

Engage and Build Vocabulary

Ask students to respond to this prompt: What place would you like to visit someday? Why do you want to go there? What might be the benefits of going there? Discuss responses. Then use the Skill Builder Words to Know to preteach domain-specific terms from the article.

Read the Article

Read the article aloud or have students read it independently or in pairs. As students read, direct them to underline, highlight, or jot down the central idea of each section.

Answer Close-Reading Questions

Have students write their responses, or use the Close-Reading Questions to guide a discussion.

• What are some ways tourism can hurt and help places? (Cause and Effect)
Tourism can cause damage when too many people visit a site. For example, visitors can wear away fragile ruins. Tourists can also create pollution, trash, and traffic. However, tourism can help places by creating business for local hotels, restaurants, and stores.

• How do the photograph and descriptions of the Acropolis help you understand the issue of overtourism? (Integrating Information)
The photo and descriptions help me understand just how many people are visiting the Acropolis every day and how having that many visitors at once could be harmful, especially for such an ancient site. They help me understand how all those visitors can damage a site, even if they are not intending to, and why the Acropolis has started limiting how many people can visit per day.

• What does the author mention as a potential disadvantage of each fix? (Analyzing Arguments)
For visitor limits, Lisa M. Herrington points out that they might frustrate tourists who might not be able to see certain attractions. With extra fees, she notes that more people might be unable to afford to travel. For education campaigns, Herrington explains that some people think they might not make much of a difference and that alternate sites might also experience problems.

Write Arguments

Guide students to complete the Your Turn activity on page 11. Help students research historical sites or landmarks and write their paragraphs. You can also use the Argument Writing Toolkit to support that activity or to have students write general arguments about the issue.

Decide and Cast Votes

Ask students to reveal which of the three fixes they prefer by holding up fingers or going to designated parts of the classroom. Have students with different opinions discuss their reasons. Then take a final poll. Go to the article at junior.scholastic.com to enter the results for your class, or have students cast their votes individually. Click “See results” to find out how students around the country have voted.