What would happen if every human suddenly disappeared?

In this post I'd like to share a lesson I prepared for my upper-intermediate/advanced, adult students. I'm sure it could also work well with older teens and young adults. The lesson aims at revising the second conditional, practising listening, reading and speaking skills, as well as introducing some vocabulary.  


I. Divide your students into four groups and give each group one of  these photos  (or  photo 1, photo 2, photo 3, photo 4  ). Each group needs to describe their photo to their classmates in as much detail as possible.
Then ask everyone what the photos have got in common (they show a world without people)

II. Ask each group to discuss the following question: What would happen if every human suddenly disappeared? Let students brainstorm a few ideas in their small groups before sharing them with everybody. (Remember to encourage everyone to speak and use the second conditional.You can write their ideas up on a whiteboard).

III. Play this TED talk and ask your students to compare their previously discussed ideas to the ones from the video. Ask them to remember/note what the speaker says about the world without people. After watching the video spend some time on discussing it.

IV. Hand out this  worksheet   and ask students to do exercise I. Check their answers and talk about anything they found surprising.

V. Move on to exercises II and III to work on vocabulary. I told my students to do the exercises on their own first and then discuss their answers with their partners but you can choose another interaction pattern. Check their understanding of the words by asking various concept questions and asking them to use the words in a context. 

VI. Question IV might be answered in small groups first and then turned into a whole class discussion. Your students can later use the ideas to write a short essay on this topic (perfect homework ;) ).

You can play this  taboo game  in your next lesson to revise the vocabulary and have some fun :)

Hope you and your students will enjoy my lesson!

Modern Cinderella Christmas Story

Only 10 days till Christmas and I'm buzzing with excitement already! In the meantime, however, I'm trying to keep my students as thrilled about the festive season as I am. To this end, I've been playing a lot of Christmas music and my beloved Christmas adverts. One of my most-liked Christmas advertisements this season is #YouShall Find Your Fairytale Christmas  by Debenhams (a British department store). I love it because it retells one of my favourite childhood fairytales (Cinderella), and it's narrated by the greatest actor EVER, Ewan McGregor 💖 That's all I need to feel happy right now! 

This spot is a great material for a storytelling lesson where students practise narrating a story using a variety of past tenses and interesting vocabulary. It also gives a perfect opportunity to involve your students in a discussion about the importance of social media in our lives. 

Scroll down to have a look at my attempt to make a good use of this video.

First of all, show your students these  two photos  and introduce the people as the protagonists of a story. Have your students come up with information about the two characters. Encourage them to be creative and brainstorm both appearance and personality adjectives for each character. I even ask my students to invent names for the people as well as their likes, dislikes, hobbies, etc...the more your students get into the task, the better. 

When the profiles of the characters are ready, divide your students in pairs or small groups and give each of them a set of   picture story  . Tell your students the story they're looking at isn't complete so they need to think of an interesting ending of the story. If you want to spice the activity up, you can cut out the pictures, change their order, and ask your students to arrange the pictures into the logical order to create a coherent story. 

Before they roll up their sleeves and get their creative juices flowing, elicit a few features of a good story, i.e. interesting adjectives, past tenses, a range of connectors. Depending on the level of my students I spend some time on revising the aforementioned features or I just move on to the task and monitor the pair/group work. 

Once the stories are ready, have each pair/group share their version of the story with their own ending. Then, play the video and compare the stories. Write down any vocabulary that you think your students might find difficult. 

To follow up, you can involve your students in a discussion about social media and ask them some of the questions below:

• Do you think social network sites are good?
• What do you use social network sites for?
• How often do you connect to social media?
• How much information do you think is appropriate to put on social media?
• What are the advantages of social media?
• What are the disadvantages of social media?
•  Are social media good or bad for relationships? 

If you're looking for more festive season activities, check out  this post in which I shared some of my favourite xmas lesson ideas. 

Merry Christmas!

Ho Ho Ho!

The holiday season is upon us and I'm sure you're busy in your private as well as professional lives. December has always been hectic for me: looking for Christmas gift ideas, shopping, decorating the house, preparing and marking exams, writing end of term evaluations... I know very well how difficult it is to find time and energy to plan lessons these pre-Christmas days.

This is why in this post I want to share a few festive season lesson ideas that have been thoroughly enjoyed by me and my students in the last few years of my teaching experience. All of these lessons are aimed at teenage and adult learners of various levels.

• A few great ideas shared by Gosia on her never-disappointing blog Lesson Plans Digger :

https://www.lessonplansdigger.com/2017/12/10/3-christmas-videos-activity-ideas/

https://www.lessonplansdigger.com/2015/12/16/best-and-worst-christmas-gifts-speaking-activity/#more-4594

https://www.lessonplansdigger.com/2015/12/15/video-based-christmas-activities/#more-4578

https://www.lessonplansdigger.com/2015/12/13/office-christmas-parties-lesson-plan/

• One of my beloved teaching resources, FilmEnglish ,offers a few holiday season lesson ideas based on beautiful short films:

http://film-english.com/2015/12/18/mogs-christmas-calamity/

http://film-english.com/2016/12/07/buster-the-boxer/

http://film-english.com/2015/12/20/the-man-on-the-moon/

http://film-english.com/2012/12/02/the-journey/

• These activities by British Council's TeachingEnglish  have been very popular among my students:

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/charities

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/christmas-gift-experiment

• This post wouldn't be complete without sharing these xmas activities posted by On the same page and All at C :

https://allatc.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/please-please-please-let-me-get-what-i-want/

https://allatc.wordpress.com/2017/12/04/a-christmas-lesson-plan/

https://onthesamepageelt.wordpress.com/2016/11/24/im-going-back/

Please don't be shy and share your favourite xmas lesson ideas!

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! 

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!

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 :)

Humans of New York lesson plan and worksheets

How do you procrastinate (I know you do ;) )?? I’m guilty of procrastinating every day. I sometimes convince myself that I can’t work until the house is spotless so I clean it until every room shines. On other occasions I feel I can’t do anything before watching an episode (or three) of Friends (btw. My life wouldn’t be complete without Monica, Chandler, Rachel, Ross, Phoebe, and Joe). And then, there are days when I just scroll up and down my facebook checking out what’s happening in the world…not very productive, right?

Not everything on facebook is useless though! There are some pretty cool pages out there! One of them is Humans of New York - a photoblog with street portraits and interviews collected on the streets of New York City. I’m absolutely hooked on reading those short but inspiring stories!

I have recently been practising for FCE speaking test part 2 (photo comparison) and I noticed that my students struggle with speaking and speculating about photos. Even though they know some useful phrases to make hypotheses and they’re familiar with modal verbs of speculation, they still lack ability to put these into practice. I knew I had to stimulate my students’ imagination and give them an interesting task to help them become more successful at speculating about photos, so I decided to turn one of my procrastinating activities into a task for my students. This is how I came up with a lesson plan based on a few photos and stories taken from HONY in order to give my students the opportunity to practice modal verbs and other phrases of speculation to hypothesise about photos.

In the lesson students can also become more confident at describing people and their feelings as well as telling or writing stories. The lesson can be adapted to lower levels and can be used to practice for other Cambridge exams such as PET speaking test part 3 (photo description).


Here are the links to the lesson plan (link) and the worksheets:


Humans of New York lesson step by step
Humans of New York lesson photos A-E
Humans of New York matching activity
Humans of New York matching activity KEY
Humans of New York creative writing (homework)

Hope you like the lesson. Don’t hesitate to write to me with your comments about it :)