I had wanted to have a lesson about the Paralympics for a couple of weeks now, but hadn’t been able to find an article or video to do it. Then Cecilia Nobre shared a video on Facebook entitled ‘it’s time to stop calling disabled people inspirational’ and I thought that was an interesting way to approach it.
This lesson could be used with adults or adolescents who are B2+ but with some support this lesson could also be adapted to B1 students.
The Olympic games are the gift that keeps on giving for conversation lessons. Although the games ended two weeks ago, they are still being talked about and we now have the Paralympic games starting tomorrow.
The Ryan Lochte story interests me firstly because I like swimming, but also because it’s so crazy that you almost end up believing it (as in, nobody would be that stupid and entitled, would they?).
This lesson can be used with students who are B1+, but there are follow-up activities for C1 students as well.
The burkini ban created some outrage last week and I thought it would be a good topic for a conversation lesson. The text I chose also touches on the subject of politics, which can be a good segue to talk about other events in Brazil.
This was originally used with a group of C1/C2 teachers, but I have shortened the text. Still, some of the language used in the text is complex and I’d recommend you use it with B2+ students. This discussion is also more appropriate for a group of adults or young adults.
Most of the ideas for lessons I post here come from either a video I come across on Facebook or something I read in online editions of newspapers. This one, however, comes from a podcast.
I’ve been doing a lot of driving recently and podcasts keep me entertained. The best one I listened to this year was an interview with Charity Water’s founder Scott Harrison, which you can find here. It really struck a chord with me and I thought it could generate meaningful conversation with my adult students.
This lesson is aimed at students who are B2 or above, but can be easily adapted for B1 students if you don’t use the podcast snippet.
If you live in Brazil, like I do, it seems that the Olympic Games is all everybody is talking about. Back in June, I posted a lesson based on this topic and it continues to be one of the most clicked posts on the blog after two months. Because of that, I’ve decided to post a new conversation lesson I used last Saturday, the day after the opening ceremony took place.
The idea behind this lesson is to explore two ideas: the first is that a picture is worth a thousand words and the other is that pictures can be deceiving. This was originally aimed at adult students, but could also be used with adolescents and young adults without making too many changes.
Living ethically is something I have been thinking about recently, particularly how difficult it can be to do good things when you are aware of the consequences of your actions.
I found an article that reflected my opinions on the topic and a new lesson came out of it. This is better suited for adults and young adults, although I imagine some adolescent students who are mature for their age or who are interested in environmentalism will appreciate it too.
As an English teacher Halloween is one of my favourite events. Not because I particularly enjoy wearing costumes (I don’t think I’ve worn one in the past 10 years), but because I love using TV series in my lessons. There are some great Halloween episodes around and these are two of my favourites, one to be used with adolescent groups and another with adults.
ricardo barros elt 