look at adjectives to describe personality / character
1) Discuss
What is "charm"?
In what jobs do you need to be charming?
Can both women and men be charming?
Are people less charming than they used to be?
What are the origins of the word?
Are charm and charisma the same thing?
Can charm be learnt?
2) Listen
Author and critic Stephen Bayley has said the UK is becoming less charming. In this discussion from Radio 4's Today program he debates the subject along with columnist Rowan Pelling. 1) Listen to the clip. How many of the questions above are answered?
Useful vocabulary You will hear these words. Do you know what they mean?
How many would you associate with someone who was "charming"
Highlight below to see the positive words
= appealing, attractive, bewitching, captivating, charismatic, enchanting, engaging, entrancing, glamorous, magnetic, seductive, spellbinding, exciting, hypnotizing, interesting, pleasant
B) Write
Think of some people you know. Describe them in a sentence. Use the adjectives in the list. Say why he / she is appealing, engaging, glamorous etc
4) Discuss Look at the postcard What does it tell you about being polite in English?
Do you think being polite or having good manners is the same as being charming?
Are being charming and having good manners important?
Why are we polite to each other?
In what situations is it important to be polite or charming?
Are you likely to be more impressed by someone who is polite or charming?
In what ways do you show politeness or respect in your language?
Does politeness change according to language and culture?
How do we show politeness in English? What words or expressions do we use?
More What is love?Intermediate, Listening, Love, Relationships, UpperIntermediate
Why are jeans so popular? Fashion, Intermediate, Jeans, Listening, Passive, Past Simple, Reading, Tenses Review, UpperIntermediate Willpower - How can you improve it?Advanced, UpperIntermediate, CAE, FCE, IELTS, Life and how to live it, Listening, Success,
Do you agree that it's important to remember when you first fell in love?
The Beatles sang "All You Need Is Love". Do you agree?
More Famous quotes on Love
Do you agree?
Kurt Vonnegut: A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.
Ambrose Bierce in The Devil’s Dictionary: Love, n. A temporary insanity curable by marriage.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky in The Brothers Karamazov: What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.
James Baldwin in "The Price of the Ticket": Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.
Iris Murdoch: Love is the very difficult understanding that something other than yourself is real.
Note - activities in this post are level differentiated and can be used with students from pre-intermediate to upper intermediate levels.The final gap-fill and crossword are aimed at upper intermediate students. You will hear the following vocabulary.
Discuss You are going to watch a video about the first person to shop online.
Do you ever shop online?
What do you buy online?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of shopping online?
Who do you think was the first person to buy something online?
Do you think it was a man or a woman?
How old do you think he / she was?
What do you think he / she bought?
When do you think it happened? Where?
Watch Watch the video and find out if you are right.
Discuss
Does anything in the story surprise you?
Why do you think Mrs Snowball is called a "silver surfer"?
Practise 1) Watch again and do the matching exercise.
discuss being safe online and on social network sites
listen to a discussion about cyber bullying
do a gap fill exercise
write a leaflet giving advice to people who use social network sites
1) Discuss
There has been a lot of talk recently about the risks of bullying and abuse on social networking sites. The NSPCC says nearly a fifth of children who use them have suffered a negative experience in the last year.
Do you enjoy being online?
Do you feel safe online?
What bad things can happen on the internet?
Has anything bad happened to you or anyone you know on the net?
What can you do if anything bad happens to you online?
What are trolls and what is trolling?
What is cyber-bullying? Do you understand the words in the image below?
2) Listen
This listening clip is from BBC TV. Dr Radha Modgil from BBC Radio 1’s The Surgery and the blogger Hannah Witton discuss how safe young people feel on the internet.
A) Listen. Don't worry if you don't understand everything. Answer these questions.
listen to someone talking about ideas of fashion, beauty and health
1) Discuss in pairs / write a list
In 60 seconds how many words can you think of which describe a person's appearance?
Make a note / write a list of them
eg tall, short...
2) Match
A) Choose the right category for each of the words below. Is it Build, Hair, Height or Opinion?
B) Now make a table and put all the words from the exercise and your list in the right column
Build
Hair
Height
Opinion
tall
3) Discuss
What is beauty?
What makes someone beautiful or attractive?
Where do we get our ideas of beauty from?
Do ideas of beauty vary around the world?
4) Watch
Watch the clip "Food for Thought" below.
You are going to watch a woman called Mable talk about the first time she came to the UK.
A) Listen and answer
Where does Mabel get her idea of beauty from?
Why is she scared of coming to England?
What does she learn about the British?
B) Watch again and fill in the gaps in the sentences
5) Discuss
Why does Mabel think that beauty is what she sees in the magazines?
What do you think “junk in the trunk” means? Junk = rubbish. Trunk (American) = the place where you put the bags in a car (boot in UK English). Can you guess what she means when describing people?
Why do you think it is easier for an African to eat well and be healthy than for the British?
Is it easy to eat healthily in your country?
Do you eat healthily?
She says "the magazines show what the British want to look like." Do you think this is true for all nationalities?
Why do we want to look like the people in the magazines?
Why does Mabel think she is lucky at the end?
6) Do the crossword
Click on a number and type in your answer. Click check to see the answers.
7) Play a game 20 questions.
Someone in the class thinks of a famous person. The others ask Yes / No questions to guess the name of the person. - Is it a man? Yes it is - Is he tall? - Yes he is. - Has he got long hair? Yes he has
Continue until you guess. If you can't guess in 20 questions you lose!
8) Discuss / Write
A) In Pairs. Describe someone. Talk about their appearance and their personality. Don't say their name. Read your description to your partner or to the class. Can they guess who you are describing?
B) - IELTS
The Fashion and clothing industry is becoming increasingly important in modern society. Is this a good or bad thing?
Eating a balanced diet is the most important factor for a healthy life. To what extent do you agree?
More
What Britain Loves Advertising, Beginners, Gerunds, Life in the UK, Present Simple, Travel and Tourism
What is the weight of the human race? Advice, Crossword, FCE, Food, Health, IELTS, Jamie Oliver, Listening, Obesity, Obligation, Writing,Intermediate, UpperIntermediate
Fill in the gaps below with a word. Listen again to check or if you have problems
Printable worksheet here
Answers to questions above - highlight below To push himself out of his comfort zone and learn something new about himself - Do you know yourself?
- Do you know what you want from life?
- How will you judge whether your life has been a success?
3) Discuss
Do you agree with Oli?
How should we live life?
Should we experience as much as possible?
4) Speak The Future Perfect
What is te future perfect
How do we make it?
What do we use it for?
Look at he presentation below. Make some sentences using the pictures as prompts.
5) Practise
Make your own bucket list.
What will you have achieved / done / seen in 12 months / 5 years etc?
Where will you have been to?
In 12 months I will have... By the time I'm 30 I will have...
6) Listen and read
Here's a song by Nelly Furtado called "Bucket List". Does it give you any ideas for your bucket list?
There are many talented people who haven't fulfilled their dreams because they over thought it, or they were too cautious, and were unwilling to make the leap of faith.
- James Cameron
The only thing that will stop you from fulfilling your dreams is you. - Tom Bradley
You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. - C.S. Lewis
3) Discuss How many friends do you need?
Justin Bieber said this week that he only has four friends. "I only have like four people that I keep in contact with... I don't need a bunch of friends to make me happy," he said.
Social media like Facebook allows us to have hundreds if not thousands. What is the best number of friends to have?
4) Listen
Nikki Moore, founder of the online technology site girlgeekchic.com, and Sarfraz Manzoor, writer and broadcaster, discuss how many friends is good for you.
How many friends do they think is the right number
More Classroom ice breaking activity - Speed dating
Best done at the start of a course. Students have to find the person in the class they have the most in common with.
Organize students in a circle.
Students have two minutes to interview each other on habits, likes, dislikes etc.
After 2 minutes students change places to talk to someone new. Continue until everyone has finished
Each student reports to class who they have the most in common with.
do a listening comprehension exercise on the Beatles
look at some vocabulary connected to culture / music
read about the Beatles
1) Discuss
It's 50 years since the Beatles released their first album Please Please Me. They recorded the whole album in only one day.
What do you know about the Beatles?
Why were they important or special?
The first track on the album was called I Saw Her Standing There
Listen. Do you like it?
2) Before you listen
You are going to listen to someone talking about why the Beatles are "special".
Here is some vocabulary from the clip. Match the words to their definitions.
3) Listen
Listen below to an interview by Nick Ellerby with Phil Alexander, the editor-in-chief of the music magazine Mojo.
Why were the Beatles special?
Here are the Beatles in November 1963 at the Royal Command Performance attended by the Queen Mother. At 04:45 John Lennon makes a request. "For our last number I'd like to ask your help. The people in the cheaper seats clap your hands. And the rest of you, if you'd just rattle your jewellery."
do some comprehension exercises based on the clips
do a presentation on your choice for the most important innovation of the last 100 years / take part in a balloon debate
1) Discuss
What do you think are the most important innovations or inventions of the last 100 years?
Make a list and choose 3.
Why are they important?
Who invented them?
What would life be like without them?
2) Listen
You are going to listen to three people talk about the innovation they think is the the most important of the last 100 years.
The choices are taken from http://www.topbritishinnovations.org/
Tim Berners-Lee
1) Brian Eno talks about the World Wide Web
Brian Eno is a musician.
Why does he think the world wide web is important?
4) Speak
Activity - Balloon debate. The most important innovation of the last 100 years.
Choose an invention that you think is the most important and present your argument to the class.
The class votes for the best one.
Introduce yourself
Introduce the innovation / invention
Give some background detail - Why was the invention needed?
watch a video clip and do some listening activities on the history of denim (Int)
do a reading activity about the history of denim (Int)
do a listening activity about the popularity of jeans (U.Int)
write about the influence of fashion on people
1) Discuss
Are you wearing jeans now?
How often do you wear jeans?
What are jeans made of?
Do you like jeans? Why? / Why not?
Why do you wear jeans?
If you are in class now, how many people are wearing jeans?
Why do you think they are so popular?
What do you know about the history of jeans?
2) Watch
What do you know about the history of jeans?
Look at the sentences in the exercise below. A) Watch the video below and decide if they are true or false.
B) Watch again and do the gap-fill exercise
3) Read Read the text below and put the sentences in the correct spaces
4) Listen Listen to the clip below
You are going to listen to Anthropologist Daniel Miller talking about the popularity of jeans on the BBC World service programme The Forum.
Why does he think jeans are so popular?
Vocabulary - to plug = to promote / market / advertise
5) Write Fashion trends are difficult to follow these days and it's widely believed that they primarily exist just to sell clothes. Some people believe that we shouldn't follow them and that we should dress in that we like and feel comfortable in.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?
(IELTS)
discuss the reliability of news and information sources
Note - This post is not a complete lesson plan designed to be followed from start to finish. It is really a collection of activities mainly designed to stimulate discussion and help advanced or upper intermediate students think about what news is, what makes something newsworthy and how trustworthy news sources may be.
The internet has enriched our lives and given many of us access to information that was previously unavailable. However, nowadays we seem to be verging on information overload and the 2 really important questions for the future seem to be how do we filter good news sources from bad and, in the age of photoshop, easy video editing tools, blogging and social networking, how do we differentiate real from fake?
1) Discuss - The News Vocabulary
How do you stay updated on what's important to you? Make a list eg TV, facebook...
What news topics are there? Make a list eg politics, sport...
What news vocabulary do you know? Make a list eg journalist, headline...
2) Discuss - Your views Your views
What kind of news matters to you?
Are you interested in the news? Why? / Why not?
What exactly is news? How do you define news? What makes something interesting or newsworthy?
Who writes the news? Who decides what news is? Who can influence the news (politicians, business...)?
3) Watch Youth Views on the News A) Youth Views on the News 1
How do the people answer some of the questions above?
Watch again and do the exercise below.
B) Youth Views on the News 2
What reasons do the people give for choosing their preferred news sources?
Watch the clip again and do the exercise below
4) Read - What is News? What is news? Some famous quotes
How many do you agree with?
When a dog bites a man that is not news, but when a man bites a dog that is news. Charles Anderson Dana, American journalist, 1819-1897
News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising. Lord Northcliffe, British publisher 1865-1922
Well, news is anything that's interesting, that relates to what's happening in the world, what's happening in areas of the culture that would be of interest to your audience. Kurt Loder, American journalist, b. 1945
What you see is news, what you know is background, what you feel is opinion. Lester Markel, American journalist, 1894-1977
No news is good news. Ludovic Halevy, French author, 1834-1908
For most folks, no news is good news; for the press, good news is not news. Gloria Borger, American journalist, b. 1952
News is what a chap who doesn't care much about anything wants to read. And it's only news until he's read it. After that it's dead. Evelyn Waugh, British author, 1903-1966
Journalism consists largely in saying Lord Jones died to people who never knew Lord Jones was alive. G.K. Chesterton, British writer, 1874-1936
5) Watch - What is News? Watch this video from thePulitzer Center
What answers do these journalists give to the question "What is news?
1) Watch again and do exercise A. Put the sentences in the order you hear them
2) Watch the second half of the video again (1:45 - end) and do exercise B
6) Can you believe what you read? - Discuss
Do you think advertising affects news? How?
What is the most important thing a newspaper or media outlet should do - make money or give information?
Are there occasions when the media should be censored?
Do you think social networks like facebook and twitter should ever be censored?
If the news is business how much can you trust what you read or see?
Do you think a lot of news is sensationalist or exaggerated? Why?
What are the reasons for a a news story being exaggerated or untrue? Can you think of any examples?
What are the best ways of knowing when a news story is exaggerated or untrue?
What are the best ways of researching information on the web?
What are the best ways of knowing what is going on in the world?
What are the best ways of knowing what is true and what is fake?
7) Discuss - Headlines
What is a headline?
What are today's news headlines?
What makes a good headline?
Why are headlines important?
Are headlines sometimes more important than the story? Why? Why not?
Watch this clip from the film TheShipping News. You will hear three headlines
What are they?
Answers - highlight below - Horizon filled with dark clouds - Imminent storm threatens village - Village spared from deadly storm
Which two headlines are the best? Why?
In English headlines are often abbreviated leaving out common words like the or a. Why do you think newspapers do this?
8) Write
IELTS.Choose 1
1)News editors decide what to broadcast on TV and what to print in
newspapers. What factors do you think influence their decisions? Have we
become used to bad news? Would it be better if more good news was
reported?
2) Present a written argument or case to an educated reader with no specialist knowledge of the following topic. Whoever controls the media also controls opinions and attitudes of the people and there is little can be done to rectify this.
To what extend do you agree or disagree?
You should use your own ideas, knowledge and experience and support your arguments with examples and relevant evidence.
3) The popularity of news media often has significant influence on
people’s lives. Some people believe this to be a negative development.
Do you agree or disagree?
4) The mass media, including TV, radio and newspapers, have great influence in shaping people's ideas. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement? Give reasons for your answer.
