What makes a good life?

Have you ever wondered what makes a good life? Is it money, fame and wealth? Or maybe family, friends and health? Or maybe a bit of everything?

In this lesson your students will talk about their definition of a good life and they'll discuss what makes them happy. They'll also learn some vocabulary from one of my favourite TED talks by Robert Waldinger, and later watch the talk and answer some comprehension questions. This lesson has worked well for my very chatty group of upper-intermediate-advanced adult students. They enjoyed having the opportunity to learn fairly challenging vocabulary while practising both speaking and listening skills.

Before watching the video, show your students this PowerPoint presentation and encourage them to discuss the photos and answer the questions from the slides. This task should warm them up before working on the tasks from the  worksheet. 

Get your students to work in pairs and discuss points I, II and III from the handout.

 After discussing the questions as the whole group, move on to exercise 1 in which your students should work individually or in pairs. Check the answers and provide additional explanations to make sure everybody understands the vocabulary. 

At this stage, tell your students they're going to watch a TED talk in which Robert Waldinger talks about his study on what keeps people healthy and happy as they go through life. Ask them to watch the talk and answer the questions from exercise 2 (go over the questions before playing the video). The video can be found here . 

After watching the talk let your student compare their answers before discussing them all together. In the end discuss the questions from exercise 3 (this can be done in pairs, groups or as the whole class- it's up to you).

If you have some time left, you can divide your students in pairs/groups and get them to play this taboo game in order to practice the vocabulary from the talk. 

Downloadable worksheets and materials:

What makes a good life PowerPoint presentation (warmer)

What makes a good life WORKSHEET

What makes a good life TABOO game

What makes a good life TED talk VIDEO

Hope you like the lesson!