Worksheets and Lesson Plans for modern EFL Teachers.
New Lessons
This category lists new lesson descriptions.
Lesson 18: Wales webquest [reading, speaking, cultural awareness]
Feb 26th
Everybody knows about St Patricks’s Day. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s one of my favourite holidays (watch out for an Irish-themed lesson in a few days!). But how about Wales?
This lesson has been inspired partly by my recent trip to Swansea, and partly by the fact that it’s Saint David’s Day soon. the webquest starts off easy, and then encourages students to find out more about the subject area of their choice. This is a good way of making sure that your students get to know the basic facts about “the land of song” – and find out more when and where they want it!
Lesson 17: How do you say it? [Listening, pronunciation, minimal pairs, stress patterns]
Feb 19th
Let your learners listen - and teach them to listen well.
This lesson may appear somewhat more “technical” and mechanical than many of the communicative, task-based resources that can be found here. There are, however, several important arguments in favour of preparing this kind of lesson every now and then. The most important reason is the lesson’s effect on the learners.
Lesson 16: Unplugged Speed Date
Feb 16th
This is a perfect follow-up for all the Valentine’s Day madness – also because it requires very little preparation and relies on the ideas and language your learners will generate. The concept of “speed dating” is made a little less threatening by including stick figures in the plan – so that the students don’t actually have to find partners for themselves!
With careful staging and plenty of guidance, pre-intermediate students can already enjoy this lesson – although, as with all speaking-heavy activities, higher levels are probably bound to have more fun. The plan can be adjusted by altering the number of questions to be prepared and asked.
Lesson 15: If it were my home…[comparing, speaking, conditionals]
Feb 5th
For visual learners, the map module puts things in perspective.
This is a good lesson for visual learners – and a useful contribution to any themes revolving around politics, geography or global affairs. Three things that make this lesson a success are:
Lesson 14: Travelling in London (reading, websearch, transport, travelling)
Jan 28th
This screenshot from the TFL website shows you where to look for the "Advanced options" link.
There are many reasons for having a lesson like this. I can remember one quite clearly. One of the groups learning English in London at a summer school I worked for could never make it on time for the afternoon classes. The reason? They spent most of their days lost on the Tube with their Group Leaders…
This lesson is based on one of the most usable and informative travel websites I know: the Transport For London website. There’s not a lot of grammar in here, and the structure of the lesson lends itself nicely to a lot of lexis / vocabulary work. Although the suggested level is upper-intermediate, I can think of a few intermediate groups who could accept the challenge quite happily 
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Lesson 13: Choose a movie (websearch, reading, speaking, film vocabulary)
Jan 22nd
Rotten Tomatoes: harsh, but brilliant.
Just before the Oscar frenzy gets to everyone, here’s an effective lesson based on the idea of choosing a good movie for a group of people.
The website for this lesson is Rotten Tomatoes – a must for every cinema lover. It turns out that it makes for a good authentic English lesson, too. The synopses and reviews (scroll down when on the website to see those) are informative and brief – and on the whole, the website provides your students with lost of good English film vocabulary.
A word of advice: get ready for a lot of data transfers when using this lesson – especially if you give your students enough time to watch the trailers!
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Lesson 12: Unplugged: Resolution Clinic [writing, speaking, advice]
Jan 13th
Teaching with empty hands: strange, yet satisfying. Give it a go.
This lesson is about New Year resolutions. Two things that set it apart from the usual “Make-a-resolution-and-talk-about-it” lesson are:
- There’s a twist to the early stages of the lesson, in which students are asked to imagine why a sad stick figure would decide to make big resolutions.
- This lesson – working on many levels, with various groups of students – requires no resources apart from a pen and paper. More >
Lesson 10: Giving advice [functions, vocabulary, reading, writing]
Dec 31st
There are countless ways of preparing a lesson on giving advice. This is not just another one, for at least three reasons:
- It’s a lot more authentic, and it lets students look for possible solutions themselves.
- Its final focus is writing – by using the functional language in an e-mail, students gain extra practice.
- It is more compact – the whole lesson relies more on students “noticing” the phrases in use in website articles than on restricted practice activities.
The website used here is Ehow.com – which features lots of “how-to” articles available for free. For extended practice, wikihow.com lets students edit their own advice articles – which could become a whole project involving research, editing and publishing an article.
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Lesson 9: The National Gallery, London [speaking, reading, vocabulary]
Dec 31st
The National Gallery in London has one of the best and most informative websites I have come across. It’s full of useful information, and features miniatures of nearly every work of art on display.
The lesson presented below combines a web-based task with a communicative task (presenting a painting and discussing it). The website should be clear enough to follow, even for lower levels (be sure to give them plenty of time and support, though). It would be great if the paintings students have chosen for the presentation could be projected onto an IWB – but simply displaying them on screens should be enough.
Do try this lesson, even (especially?) with students who seem to lack any artistic tendencies – both the website and the worksheet provide a lighter and more practical approach to art, and should therefore be palatable. The lesson is also a good way to prepare your students before an excursion (possibly a good idea to take it to a summer school).
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