Advanced reading. Telling about news with a fun twist

Level: upper intermediate/advanced  

Materials: 

Students need to read online news in teams. Therefore for this task, teacher will have to use either a personal computer per team or allow students to use their mobiles.  

If you do not have any of these devices available, you can choose the "Weird" pieces of news to print. 

Procedure:

• Divide classes in teams of 3 to 4 ss
• Give each student a different source of strange news. I suggest these: (some of the news may contain adult content) 

1. Weird News - Strange and Odd News Stories | Sky News
2. Weird News (huffpost.com)
3. Strange News - Weird Science News and Discoveries (livescience.com)
4. Weird News - Latest Bizarre & Strange News Stories - Express.co.uk

You will find more sources by typing  "Strange news" or "weird news" on any browser

• Each group picks a piece of news
• Each group invents a piece of news
• Each groups presents both pieces of news. Make ss explain difficult vocabulary first.
• Groups decide which piece is true,

Weatherman. Weatherwoman

Be ready to be the Weather Person 

Level. Intermediate or higher 

Timing: one hour

Procedure: 
Students watch TWO VIDEOS. Available HERE

Students prepare their own weather forecast. 

First video: This video provides B1 or + weather expressions.

Video title: Talking about the weather in English. (8 minutes) 

Students need to take notes of the vocabulary (chilly, freezing, you can see your breath, bundle up, drizzling, mist, spitting, chucking it down, overcast, dark overhead, a storm is brewing, scorching, boiling, baking hot, sleeting, frost....

Second video + vocabulary list:

Video title: Kaddy Lee Preston.Weather Woman ( 1 minute 50) 

Handout to project: Kaddy Lee Preston. Words to remember/learn

Student should make sure they understand the sentences/expressions on Kaddy Lee Preston Handout

Students listen to video and raise their hands when they hear the sentences.

Prepare to produce your own weather forecast to share it with the class or your team 

Debate. Structure, vocabulary and expressions. For and Against essay. Team work

 Level: intermediate and higher 

Students should be relatively fluent and be mature enough to bring arguments to class.

Materials: 

Projector

Enclosed docs:

• Model text to project/read: ‘Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of being your own boss"
• Expressions/Vocabulary for debates
• Model text to discuss: Junk food should be banned
• List of topics for debates

Access docs  HERE 

Procedure:

A) 

• Divide students in groups of 3/4. 
• Assign roles within groups: Take notes of FOR argument/ take notes of  "Against Arguments"/ Take notes of language structures  (you can give the same roles to students)
• Project the text: Advantages and  advantages and disadvantages of being your own boss. You may copy the text into a Teleprompter HERE
• Students take notes according to their roles
• Students share their notes 

B) 

• Project and discuss the text: Expressions vocabulary for debates 

C) 

• Project model text: Junk food
• Encourage students to create sentences using the vocabulary/ expressions in step B) 

D) 

• Project list of topics for debate
• Each team creates a for/against text on a different/same? topic
• Students share their text

Access docs  HERE 

Sources:

https://evajorgeteacher.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/for-against-opinion-essays.pdf

https://debatewise.org/31023-junk-food-should-be-banned/

https://www.myenglishpages.com/english/communication-lesson-useful-expressions-for-debating.php

https://debatewise.org/

https://www.teachenglishabroad.co/ultimate-guide-to-engaged-ells/100-esl-debate-topics-that-will-get-your-students-fired-up