A Star is Born: a conversation lesson

Hi, everyone

I’ve been teaching a group of teachers since last year, and they are my only group at the moment (mostly of what I do is either teacher training or exam preparation).

The good thing is I really enjoy working with them, which means I pick the topics of the lessons carefully and try hard to make them interesting. I think this particular lesson hit the mark.

This is aimed at B2/C1 adult students, but you may be able to adapt it to both lower levels (by pre-teaching language from the text) or younger students (by changing the focus of the follow-up conversation questions)

Bolsonaro’s fake news campaign – a conversation lesson

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen the photo below. It shows the board work of a lesson I taught yesterday, based on an article from the Guardian describing the WhatsApp scandal in the Brazilian presidential elections.

It’s unlikely this lesson is for you if you don’t live in Brazil, but enough of my friends showed interest in it that I decided to make a quick post for it.

Thi, Eduardo, Gustavo and Ana, this one is for you 🙂

Planning a trip: a conversation lesson

One of my favourite things about being a CELTA tutor is working with people who are talented and highly motivated. Ana Paula is one such teacher. When I read her skills assignment, I told her the text would lend itself really well to a conversation lesson.

Today’s lesson, then, is now my own, but Ana’s. It is aimed at upper-intermediate adult students and will certainly generate some interesting discussion.

Ana Paula is a freelance teacher who has been in ELT for over for 4 years, working in Guarujá and São Paulo. She has also lived in New York – United States and holds the CELTA and ESL from Borough Of Manhattan Community College (BMCC). She will have graduated in Pedagogy by the end of this year.
Finally, I highly recommend checking her YouTube channel and Facebook page.

Adventure Travel or How I teach Exam Classes

A while ago Carina Alves asked on Facebook which exam materials teachers used in their preparation classes. I said I usually use past papers, either available on Cambridge’s website or as a booklet. This may give you the idea that my lessons are a diet of endless exam practice (a phrase borrowed from Fiona Jospeh), which couldn’t be further from the truth.

For today’s blog post I’m going to use a Proficiency lesson to illustrate how I teach exam preparation. Although the lesson itself is aimed at C1-C2 students, the ideas and rationale behind it can be used for exams at any level.

Making new friends: a conversation lesson

Hi, everyone

For the first time in more than a year I finally have the chance to write for the blog. The feeling is bittersweet, though, as I have just heard Claudio Azevedo, author of Movie Segments to Assess Grammar Goals and one of my inspirations when I started blogging, has passed away. Sad day for ELT ☹

This is a lesson I taught to a group of B2/C1 adult students, but you may be able to adapt it to both lower levels (by pre-teaching language from the text) or younger students (by changing the focus of the conversation questions)

image created by Javi_indy – Freepik.com

Gen X vs. Millennials: a conversation lesson

Technology is a topic that I like talking about and that my students generally enjoy too. A couple of weeks ago I came across this article that said Generation Xers use more social media than Millennials. I found that quite surprising and thought it would be a good starting point for a conversation lesson.

Because I work mostly with adults, I tried to steer the conversation to work. If you decide to use this lesson with younger students, you may want to change the context a bit. I’d recommend this lesson to students who are  B2/C1, but you can also use it with B1 students. The video has no dialogues, but you will need to pre-teach some words in the text to make things easier.

Thanksgiving: a conversation lesson

Many of the lessons I post on the blog are things I come across during the previous week, reacting to things that are happening in the world or to things I read or watch. This one, however, had been waiting in the wings for a while.

Although Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Brazil, most people who study English know about it, because of how often it is depicted in American films and TV series. I thought this text, which focuses on family, would be an ideal way to talk about it.

This lesson is aimed at adult students who are B1 and above. I haven’t tried using it with adolescents, but if you do, make sure you change the questions in the last slide.

Life before the internet: a conversation lesson

A couple of weeks ago I read an article on Facebook describing the last generation that remembers life before the internet. Most of my adult students belong to that group (as do I), so I thought  this could lead to some interesting conversation.

This lesson is aimed at students who are 30 or older, but if you have a classroom with a mix of students where about half of them are over 30, this could also work well. In that case, you probably want to pair people up in such a way that they can share their different experiences.

A Halloween conversation lesson for adults

It’s that time of the year again. If you are into Halloween there are a plethora of materials out there. For starters, you may want to check out the vocabulary lessons I posted last year. In addition to that, check out Eduardo de Freitas’ materials. He has Halloween lessons for all levels with great handouts. Finally, if you are looking for a reading Halloween lesson for advanced students give Beatriz Solino’s blog a go.

As for my lesson today, I feel like adults are often ignored during Halloween, as teachers are worried about activities for children and pre-teens. With this in mind, this is a conversation lesson to be used with adults or young adults – better to be safe and do it with students who are over 18, as the topic of the text may be sensitive.

Gender diversity at work: a conversation lesson

I have only ever worked as an English teacher, and maybe because of that, my initial thoughts about gender diversity at work are biased. Along the years, most of my co-workers and bosses have been women (7 of the coordinators/managers I have worked with directly were women and only two were men).

However, when talking to students in other professions, I realised that their reality is the complete opposite of that. So, when I found an article that touched on this issue, I thought it would generate some interesting discussion with my students.

This lesson is aimed at adult students who are B1+. I could be wrong, but I’m not sure adolescents, regardless of their level, would have much to say about it.