High School Lesson Plan - Heroes! Storytelling lesson

I'm really excited to share this lesson plan as it really got all the students speaking, and more importantly, excited to be speaking. It is quite a high level lesson plan although I think you could easily change some of the key words and include more structure to the key phrases to make it a little easier. The idea came from this website and the lesson Brave Pensioner Foils Raid on Jewellery Store. Also the video I have included is well worth watching even if you don't choose to do the lesson. Incredible stuff!

Low Level High School ESL Lesson Plan - Superlatives

This is a low level high school lesson on superlatives that is great for classes that struggle to stay motivated during English. The interactive and competitive element of the main activity mean the whole class gets really involved in cheering for their team, leading to a great classroom atmosphere. I have also previously done this lesson with middle school students and whilst it worked really well with them, I was a little worried the high school students might be to shy/cool for some of the activities. However they all got really involved in everything and it has ended up being one of my most fun lessons.  

High School ESL Lesson Plan - Modern Technology and GoogleGlass

I have just finished doing this lesson on technology for my open class and it went really well. It is great for higher level students and has a good mix of reading, writing, listening and speaking. It's also a topic the students are really interested in and they got very excited during the GoogleGlass video.

Technology in 2013 ppt1 from Duncan Elder

Objectives

Students will be able to talk about the features and the pros and cons of modern technology.

Students will learn vocabulary relating to modern technology.

Key Expressions:

This technology’s key feature is ….

The positives/ negatives about this technology are that ….

Problems could arise because ….

Materials

PPT presentation.

Handout about the new (and old) technologies.

Activity one.

Introduce the vocab and make sure the students understand it. Introduce the key phrases and ask students to make sentences using the phrases. Ask the class to read the phrases with the information about 3D printers (5 minutes).

Activity two.

Show the class the promotional video for GoogleGlass and ask them to think about the key phrases. Give them 5 minutes to discuss GoogleGlass with their friends using the key phrases then ask them their ideas. Make sure you tell the students you will be asking them to share their ideas after 5 minutes so they actually do the activity! (10 minutes)

Activity three.

Split the class into four groups and hand out three of the pieces of information about technology to each group. Ask them to come up with endings to the key phrases for each piece of technology. Tell the students they can use information from the paper or their own knowledge of the product (15 minutes).

Activity four.

Play a guessing game. Ask someone from the first group to read out their first clue. The other groups have to guess what the technology is. If they guess the answer after 1 clue their group gets 4 points, 2 clues is 3 points, 3 clues is 2 points and 4 clues is 1 point. Then move onto the next group. When a team knows the answer I ask them to put their hand up and write it down a whiteboard (although you could use paper), this means the other teams don't hear the answer so they can carry on playing. At the end the team with the most points wins.

High School ESL lesson plan - Bourbon Street.

This is an intermediate conversation game lesson that I found at  http://www.eflsensei.com/Bourbon-Street/?path=52. Around this time of year lot's of my lessons are changed around due to midterms, school trips and sports days and this lesson is great to use for a fun one off filler. I have extended the original 30 minute lesson found at eflsensei into a 50 minute lesson suitable for use in a High School. The lesson works best with 20 students but if you need more you can either split up some of the more complex clues, or add some of your own.

Lesson aim.

To improve conversational fluency.

Time.

50 minutes

What you need.

A game board for each student.

A copy of the clues, cut out and given to each student.

PPT presentation.

What to do.
Activity one. (Introduction)
Introduce the key vocab to the students, my students are quite high level so you may need to add a couple of words to the slide. Go through the game rules and check the students all understand what they have to do  (5 minutes)

Activity two.
Let the students play the game! Walk around to check that they are asking the questions in English, not just copying from each others paper. Once the first few students have finished and are all correct put the answers up on the screen and let the other students check their answers themselves (25 minutes)

Activity three.

To extend this game into a full lesson I then ask the students to make their own Bourbon Street game. I let them choose their own categories and fill in a blank game board, then challenge them to see if they can be clear enough with their instructions that someone could guess their street correctly using only 20 clues. I also say that only 4 clues can involve house numbers. It is very important to say that you are 'challenging' them to make the game in 20 questions, as every time I made the activity sound like a challenge the students were significantly more motivated.  (20 minutes)

ESL lesson plan - A Question of Sport Quiz

This is a sports quiz ESL lesson based on the tv show A Question of Sport. My students loved it and it the theme was perfect as sports day is just around the corner. Most of the questions are pretty general but a few are aimed at Korean students, so if you teach in a different country you should change them to something that fits sports they like.

Lesson aim.

To review sports vocabulary. To practise talking about sports

Time.

50 minutes

What you need.

Quiz presentation.

Quiz questions.
What happened next videos.

What to do.
Activity one. (Introduction)
First put the class into four groups and go through the games rules on the PPT. Then start the picture round. Basic instructions for the students are in the PowerPoint are in the PowerPoint but here is a more detailed explanation. You should ask one team at a time a question from the list, if they answer correctly they can choose to remove a square from the picture. Once they have removed a square allow them to have one guess as to who the person behind the boxes is. If they answer correctly give them 3 points, if not go to the next team. A team can only answer who they think is behind the boxes when it is their turn   (15 minutes)

Activity two.
Observation round. Show the first team the first video, make sure you then close the window and ask them the three questions on the sheet. If they answer incorrectly I then pass it to the next team along. repeat with all 4 videos. (10 minutes)

Activity three.

What happened next. Show the first video to the class, then shown them the options and make them guess what happens next. Show them the video of the answer and give all the teams that answered correctly 2 points. Repeat with all the videos. (15 minutes)

Activity four.
On the buzzer. Ask the group the first on the buzzer question. The students should raise their hand when the know the answer. Choose the first student to raise their hand. If they answer the question correctly give them 3 points and ask their team the next three questions, each worth one point. Repeat with the next set of on the buzzer questions. (10 minutes)

ESL lesson plan - adverts

This is a conversation based lesson that contains plenty of videos to get the students talking. I have done it with a few different classes and found this to be the most fun and interesting way to teach the students about adverts.

Lesson aim.
To learn vocabulary related to advertising. To be able to talk about adverts.

Time.
50 minutes

What you need.
Adverts presentation. (To watch the adverts just click on the link in the ppt) 

Internet connection.

What to do.
Activity one. (Introduction)
Show the first slide and ask the students to read the sentences. In groups ask them to try and guess the meanings of the highlighted words. Check they are guessing correctly and then finally tell them what the words mean. (10 minutes)

Activity two.
Put the students into pairs with one of the students facing away from the screen. Play the first advert and while it is playing the student facing the screen should explain to the student what is happening (in English). Then show the next slide with the stills from 3 adverts on it and ask them to guess which one they had described to them. Finally show the students the questions on the next page and ask them to discuss it in their groups. Repeat this with all three adverts. (20 minutes)

Activity three.
Show the next advert. You should make sure you start and finish the advert at the times shown in the slides so as not to give the answer away. The students should then guess what they think the advert is advertising and answer the questions on the slide. Then ask the students to tell the class about what they think the product is advertising. (10 minutes)

5 ways to boost your ESL students speaking confidence

This is a link to a blog post I wrote on the British Council website. It focuses on how to improve your students confidence during speaking and conversation activities and also aims to show why improving speaking confidence is such an important thing to do. I also included my favorite 5 ways to build students speaking confidence. Hopefully you will find this article useful and get some ideas for your classroom!

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/crossthebreeze/5-great-ways-build-your-students-confidence-why-it-most-important-thing-you-can