Lesson Plans by Skill

Listening

• Don't Give Up

  A lesson plan that I adapted from somewhere, but I can’t remember where exactly. This is an idea that can be adapted to any lesson on a song that has a music video. Students watch the music video first, without sound, and try to figure out what the song is about. Then they listen to the song together with the music. Finally, they get a chance to look at the lyrics. Great fun as their opinion on the song changes each time.

• What a Wonderful World

  A lesson plan for beginners on the classic song by Louis Armstrong, “What a Wonderful World” that promotes learner autonomy by breaking students into groups and giving each group a different assignment. The tasks focus on vocabulary, writing, grammar and comprehension.

• Who Knew?

  A listening lesson plan on regular verbs in the Past Simple using Pink’s song, “Who Knew”. It also gets into some comprehension questions and a bit about love and relationships.

• Bad Grammar

  A lesson plan that touches on bad grammar and slang used in pop music. Students will learn common terms like, “ain’t”, “got no”, and “we be”. They then discuss why pop songs often have bad grammar and spelling and also whether these terms are really all that bad.

• Trick or Treat Halloween Resources

  Two songs that introduce the idea of trick or treating and set the mood for Halloween. The Trick or Treat rap is a good activity aimed at beginners and includes a lyric sheet and some activities. The Halloween Trick or Treat Rap Video I found on YouTube isn’t much harder to understand though it is a bit adult in character.

• This is Halloween

  “This is Halloween” is the opening song from the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas. It makes a great introduction to Halloween, especially setting the mood. Note that this song is not to be confused with the Marliyn Manson song of the same name!

• Land Called Paradise

  This is a lesson based on a movie by Muslim American filmmaker Lena Khan. She took a song by Muslim-American singer and songwriter Kareem Salama and made a sort of unofficial music video by asking Muslims what messages they wanted to send to the US about Islam. It’s a really funny and touching short film that should generate a lot of discussion as well as providing comprehension activities in listening and watching movies. Students can also make a project of doing a similar film to spread their message to the world.

• A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

  The classic TV special, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, is a great introduction to Thanksgiving particularly for EFL students who don’t know a lot about the holiday. This lesson plan provides some materials to help students understand the video and this American holiday.

• Jobs and Families

  This lesson plan was designed for high-school beginners as an early lesson to test their level and give them a basic framework for communication. The topic today was jobs and also family words.

• More Basics for Beginners

  This is another lesson plan I put together for working with young adult beginners. This lesson covers both asking for and giving basic biographical information like name, phone number, address and “Can I/May I” to ask for permission.

• Psychiatrist

  Play the party game Psychiatrist to practice asking questions and making guesses. A fun guessing game where students pretend to have a mental disorder and one student has to ask questions in order to find out what the disorder is.

• Tom's Diner

  A listening exercise where students listen to the song Tom’s Diner by Suzanne Vega and fill in missing verbs in the Present Continuous. Then students discuss the song and why the Present Continuous tense is used instead of the traditional past simple so it’s great for reviewing verb tenses. You can find the song on iTunes or almost any music download site.

• Odd Jobs

  Everyone has done lessons about jobs like policemen, firemen, doctors and bankers. This lesson focuses on unusual jobs like PA announcer for buses or animal cage cleaner. Students discuss how people get these jobs and then play a guessing game.

Reading

• Inversion With the Conditional
• First Impressions

  Can’t remember how I came across the article in the first place, but as soon as I saw that a newspaper had photographed ordinary people and then asked other people what their impressions of the photographs were, I knew I had a lesson plan here. It’s a great way to practice talking about people.

• Randy and the Nobel Prize

  Randy makes an important scientific discovery and writes to the Nobel Prize Committee. But he doesn’t get an answer!

• Ireland
• Mystery Unit

  Whodunit, a unit on mysteries comprising a reading, a bit of practice with modal verbs of speculation (as they seem to be called these days) and a writing assignment. Lots of discussion should be easy to add to this unit.

• What a Wonderful World

  A lesson plan for beginners on the classic song by Louis Armstrong, “What a Wonderful World” that promotes learner autonomy by breaking students into groups and giving each group a different assignment. The tasks focus on vocabulary, writing, grammar and comprehension.

• Yes Virginia There is a Santa Claus

  A reading lesson plan on the famous editorial about the existence of Santa Claus, “Yes, Virgina, There is a Santa Claus”.

• Corruption

  A discussion-oriented lesson that comes at the concept of corruption from a number of point of views to get students talking including giving them situations, a case-study and research on international corruption.

• Halloween

  This is a fun Halloween lesson plan that includes a lot of different kinds of activities, talking about Halloween traditions, learning the vocabulary of monsters, and reading and telling scary stories. The activities can all be used separately of course.

• Newspaper

  This is a lesson plan I originally devised to go with the Straightforward Intermediate textbook, lesson 8A on newspapers. I thought it would be good to bring in some realia so I bought an English newspaper and came up with this activity sheet for my student. I think it works well as a stand-alone activity. And of course it could be adapted to work with a news website

• 9/11 and Park 51

  A discussion lesson about Sept. 11th and specifically the decision whether or not to build a Muslim community center/mosque near Ground Zero in New York City. While I usually avoid controversial topics like religion and terrorism, I did find that students were respectful and certainly interested in the topic.

• Alternative Medicine

  A reading and discussion lesson plan for higher level students that focuses on alternative medicine: what it is, what it does, whether it works, and who uses it.

• Can I Put Some Metal in Your Microwave?

  Another story and reading lesson with Randy the Racoon. Learn about modal verbs and find out if Randy is going to put metal in his neighbor’s microwave.

• Pancakes at 8 in the Evening

  Randy is a perfectly normal raccoon, so he sleeps all day and stays up all night. Read about his routine and learn vocabulary of everyday activities and adverbs of frequency.

• The Best Car

  Learn comparatives and superlatives with Randy the Raccoon. This series of readings for young learners features the adventures of Randy, and includes comprehension, grammar, vocabulary and discussion questions.

Speaking

• Ordering at a Restaurant for Beginners
• Find Someone Who, Greet Them As If

  A new twist on “Find Someone Who”

• First Impressions

  Can’t remember how I came across the article in the first place, but as soon as I saw that a newspaper had photographed ordinary people and then asked other people what their impressions of the photographs were, I knew I had a lesson plan here. It’s a great way to practice talking about people.

• Happiness

  This discussion lesson plan explores the idea of happiness by having students evaluate their own happiness, think about the happiness level of their nation as a whole and look at data on the world’s happiest countries. Then students can talk about what they think about measuring happiness. A lot of extension ideas here.

• Mystery Unit

  Whodunit, a unit on mysteries comprising a reading, a bit of practice with modal verbs of speculation (as they seem to be called these days) and a writing assignment. Lots of discussion should be easy to add to this unit.

• Don't Give Up

  A lesson plan that I adapted from somewhere, but I can’t remember where exactly. This is an idea that can be adapted to any lesson on a song that has a music video. Students watch the music video first, without sound, and try to figure out what the song is about. Then they listen to the song together with the music. Finally, they get a chance to look at the lyrics. Great fun as their opinion on the song changes each time.

• Where is It? Prepositions of Place

  My original giving directions lesson plan is focused more on practice in talking about where things are in a town or city and describing how to get there. This lesson is more about teaching and controlled practice. It focuses on basic prepositions of location such as “next to”, “in front of”, “behind”, “near”, “far from”, as well as “on”, “in”, and “at”

• Body Language

  This is an activity I came up with to teach American body language to students. It has a cross-cultural aspect to it as students talk about body language in their own cultures.

• The Environment and Slow Cities

  A discussion lesson plan on ecology, environmental protection and the slow city (Cittaslow) movement.

• Bad Grammar

  A lesson plan that touches on bad grammar and slang used in pop music. Students will learn common terms like, “ain’t”, “got no”, and “we be”. They then discuss why pop songs often have bad grammar and spelling and also whether these terms are really all that bad.

• Future Tenses and New Year's Resolutions

  This is just an idea I had to use New Year’s resolutions to teach the future tense. That in and of itself is probably nothing new. However one major issue that many students have with talking about the future in English is distinguishing between when we use “going to do”, when we use “will do” and when we use present continuous, “I am doing”. So here’s a way to help them understand the difference.

• Yes Virginia There is a Santa Claus

  A reading lesson plan on the famous editorial about the existence of Santa Claus, “Yes, Virgina, There is a Santa Claus”.

• Christmas

  A Christmas lesson plan that discusses the American Santa Claus and his counterparts in other parts of the world. Since I teach in the post-Soviet Union, where Ded Moroz, or Grandfather Frost, brings presents on New Year’s Day and has some other differences, I thought a comparison of Kazakhstan’s holiday traditions and American traditions was a good introduction to Christmas. But of course, you could compare American Santa Claus and Sinterklass or other variations in your students’ cultures.

• Desert Island Discs

  A simple party game that works as a warm-up, cool-down or to give students some easy practice expressing preferences.

• Land Called Paradise

  This is a lesson based on a movie by Muslim American filmmaker Lena Khan. She took a song by Muslim-American singer and songwriter Kareem Salama and made a sort of unofficial music video by asking Muslims what messages they wanted to send to the US about Islam. It’s a really funny and touching short film that should generate a lot of discussion as well as providing comprehension activities in listening and watching movies. Students can also make a project of doing a similar film to spread their message to the world.

Writing

• Writing Good TOEFL Paragraphs Quickly

  A great method from the Michigan Guide for writing good body paragraphs quickly and easily with 6 simple questions.

• Inversion With the Conditional
• Describing Change

  Worksheet to teach verbs that describe changes in numbers, graphs and statistics as well as prepositions. Designed for the IELTS Writing section, Task 1.

• Ireland
• Mystery Unit

  Whodunit, a unit on mysteries comprising a reading, a bit of practice with modal verbs of speculation (as they seem to be called these days) and a writing assignment. Lots of discussion should be easy to add to this unit.

• What a Wonderful World

  A lesson plan for beginners on the classic song by Louis Armstrong, “What a Wonderful World” that promotes learner autonomy by breaking students into groups and giving each group a different assignment. The tasks focus on vocabulary, writing, grammar and comprehension.

• IELTS Task 1: Example Essay Step by Step

  Step by step how to write the Task 1 essay for the IELTS Writing Section. Skills described include: writing a good introduction, conclusion, using transition words, summing up data.

• Halloween

  This is a fun Halloween lesson plan that includes a lot of different kinds of activities, talking about Halloween traditions, learning the vocabulary of monsters, and reading and telling scary stories. The activities can all be used separately of course.

• Newspaper

  This is a lesson plan I originally devised to go with the Straightforward Intermediate textbook, lesson 8A on newspapers. I thought it would be good to bring in some realia so I bought an English newspaper and came up with this activity sheet for my student. I think it works well as a stand-alone activity. And of course it could be adapted to work with a news website

• Draw Label Caption
• Pre-Writing Techniques

  A lot of students don’t appreciate the importance of pre-writing or brainstorming or warming up to write. Often they want to sit down and start putting pen to paper immediately. However taking a few minutes to think and plan and get your brain working is an important part of writing a good essay. If you know what you are going to say, you can concentrate more on grammar and style while you write. So here are a couple of good exercises to give students in order to help their brain warm up before they get to writing.

• Error Correcting

  This is not a lesson plan as such. More it’s an exercise or method that you can teach your students in order to improve their writing. By listing the types of errors that they frequently make, they will be able to correct those areas and improve their English. This method can apply to grammar, vocabulary, spelling, syntax, style, or any area of English language learning.

• Precise Writing

  This is a lesson that comes from my father’s writing course at Amherst College. English 1, a required course at the school in the 1940s, included the assignment to write precise, exact and complete directions on how to throw a ball. I have simply added some new ideas to this basic concept.

• Steps to Writing a Good Essay

  This article was originally written for students. I just wanted to break down the steps for writing a basic five paragraph essay. I had the TOEFL independent or opinion essay in mind when I wrote this, but many high-school teachers still demand this form. While there are more complicated ways to write an essay, this is the basic model of the American academic essay, so it’s good to understand it well, if only to improvise off of it.

• Transitions Are Your Friend

  A quick review of transition words and a chance to practice using transition words in a paragraph. Good practice for the TOEFL or IELTS essay.