That was rubbish!!

Hello again on this lovely Sunday!

I think I've already mentioned that my students love music and they like it when I bring songs to class. However, it's never easy to make everybody happy with my song choices. Even though I always go for a track that is on the list made by my students (I frequently ask them to make a list of songs they like) ,there are always a few grumpy kids who absolutely despise the number/artist I decide to work with.

I'm hoping to make everybody happy with this lesson. The kids who enjoy certain songs will be able to listen to them while the ones who hate these tracks will have a unique opportunity to criticise them as much as they wish to.

In this lesson your students will watch a video of a famous talent show judge being very harsh to a few contestants. They will firstly learn a few ways of giving very mean feedback. Then, they will study a few ways of making criticism sound softer and more tactful. In the end they'll participate in a role-play in which they'll listen to various songs and take turns to be crude or sensitive talent show judges.

First of all, show your students this PowerPoint presentation and ask them if they know the people in the photos and elicit if they have anything in common. The photos show famous talent show judges known for being very honest but rude in their comments (Simon Cowell, Gordon Ramsay, Chicote). I currently teach in Spain so I included Chicote: a celebrity chef who doesn't beat around the bush when he criticises others. You might want to include some photos of other mean celebrities who your students are familiar with.

Then, tell your students to work in pairs, watch Top 10 Simon Cowell Insults and write as many mean comments as possible. Have your students share their notes but don't correct them yet.
Now give everybody this handout and get them to watch the video again in order to complete exercise 1. At this stage, depending on your students' level, you might need to explain a few words like horrendous, delusional, edge, charisma, utterly, hammy or rubbish.

After correcting exercise 1, tell your students that Simon Cowell isn't the most tactful man around and there are other, nicer ways of expressing one's dislike. Have your students work on exercise 2 and make sure you point out and explain how to use the understatements. Give them more examples if necessary.

Now your students are ready to do exercise 3 in which they have to work in pairs/individually (it's up to you), and use the expressions from the previous exercise to make Simon Cowell's statements (exercise 1) sound more sensitive.

In the last activity divide your students into two groups: group 1 will be harsh judges, group 2 should be tactful judges. Play a song (choose one beforehand) and give your students some time to come up with feedback according to their roles. Remind them to look at different aspects of the song: lyrics, melody, video, etc. Monitor to make sure they use the studied expressions correctly before they act out their roles. You can then play another song and get your students to swap roles. Alternatively, you can divide your students into three groups and add a group of friendly judges who love and compliment the song. Remember to pre-teach some useful expressions to help them give very positive feedback. 

The choice of songs depends on your students. I always pick the most controversial artists that I know my students either love or hate, for example Justin Bieber or One Direction. It's always a good idea to suss out your student's music tastes before the lesson.

This lesson might be followed up by a review writing activity in which students need to review a book/place/film, etc. they don't like: this might be ideal for those of your students who are preparing for more advanced Cambridge exams.

I prepared this lesson for my intermediate and upper-intermediate teenage students but I'll give it a go with my adult students, too. This lesson contains some harsh, offensive language so it's very important that your students are mature and responsible enough to know that their words might be hurtful so they need to think carefully before they speak out. I wouldn't conduct this lesson with my younger, less mature students. 


Let me know if there's anything you would change in this lesson!

A wee treat for Ed Sheeran fans ↓

This quick activity is based on Ed Sheeran's "Shape of you". My teenage students are absolutely crazy about this song and have been nagging me to work on it for ages.

Apart from completing a typical gap fill task, students write a short story using some words and phrases from the song.

To begin with, students work on the first exercise in order to get familiarised with some vocabulary from the song.

Then, they listen to the song and complete the gaps in the lyrics with the words from the first activity.

 After discussing the song and the lyrics (make sure you explain the underlined words/phrases and any words your students don't know), students draw a piece of paper with a character's description written on it. They need to work individually or in pairs and write a short story about the character. They need to use at least 6 words or/and phrases from the song.I always encourage my students to use the words that are new to them. 

In the end students swap their stories and looking at the list of all the characters they try to guess who's described in the text. Encourage them to justify their choices and ask authors of the text to confirm/reveal their true characters. 

I came up with this activity with my intermediate students in mind but it can be easily adapted to higher levels by not giving them the first activity and asking them to fill in the gaps without help. 

Downloadable worksheet  → Ed Sheeran "Shape of you" activity


For other ideas how to use songs in teaching and more downloadable worksheets click here

What makes a word "real"?

Have you got any adorkable students? If you're just scratching your head wondering what adorkable means, then you haven't watched Anne Curzan's TED talk on what makes the word "real" . 

In her witty talk, Anne Curzan talks about how new words become real and end up in a dictionary. Since it's one of my favourite TED talks I couldn't help but turn it into a lesson for my more advanced students.

In the lesson, students are encouraged to discuss changes in their language in the last few years, learn new vocabulary from the talk, watch a video and answer some comprehension questions from the talk. In the end they get to work in pairs/groups and create their own slang words! 

My older upper-intermediate and advanced students LOVED the video and enjoyed coming up with fun phrases!

Clink on the following to see:

What makes a word "real" worksheet

What makes a word "real" video

What makes a word "real" transcript

Enjoy :)

I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you...

When was the last time you had to break some bad news to somebody? It's definitely never easy to disappoint a person. However, there are some ways in which we can deliver bad news in a less painful way. In this  lesson your adult students will learn some useful expressions we use to give and respond to bad news. They'll also get involved in a role play to put these expressions into practice.

I've prepared this lesson with my company students in mind and so far it's worked well with intermediate and upper-intermediate levels. My students have approached the topic quite lightheartedly and haven't shared any terrible news. However, remember to be sensitive if any very bad news comes up.  

Download the worksheet here . 

Have a great weekend!

The importance of being idle

The title of this post has nothing to do with my bank holiday. I haven't been lazy at all as I've been trying to plan all my lessons for the rest of this week. Well, as you can guess, I didn't manage to plan ALL my classes, but at least I got to think up a few, hopefully interesting, activities. One of them is based on a song by the men in the picture below. Do you recognise them?

That's right, they are Oasis! And the photo is taken from a hilarious music video for their song "The importance of being idle" .

I decided to exploit both the song and the video to practice reported speech and reporting verbs with my teenage and adult students. Although they have been studying reporting verbs for years, some of my students still find it difficult to use verbs other than say and tell when reporting sentences. 

Hopefully, this activity will do the trick and it will get my students to become more creative with their use of reporting verbs. I'm also hoping to kill two birds with one stone and make them fall in love with Britpop. Fingers crossed! 

Click on the links below to see the lesson plan and the worksheet:

The importance of being idle lesson step by step

"The importance of being idle" Oasis - lyrics

Hope you like the idea! Feel free to comment with your suggestions :)