Happy Valentine’s Day 

Lesson – Valentine’s Day

An interactive lesson on Valentine’s Day and how commercialised it has become.  Students give their opinion and practise the Second Conditional as they ask and answer questions on the topic.  Students also watch a short YouTube clip of an advertisement,  re-ordering the pictures to tell the story before working in pairs to re-tell the story.

Teachers’ Notes – Valentine’s Day 

Alma – A Short Film 

Lesson – ‘Alma‘

A great lesson for Halloween.  Learners watch the silent short film (Cartoon) and retell the story of Alma in small groups before then re-ordering the jigsaw reading and deducing meaning of underlined vocabulary from context.  After reading the complete text, learners then write the story in their groups from Alma’s point of view using narrative phrases such as suddently, just then, finally and in the end.

Teachers’ Notes – ‘Alma’

 Would You Push The Button?

Lesson – The Box

In this B1 lesson, students are introduced to commonly used adjectives + prepositions such as, fascinated by & keen on to describe emotions and then review the First Conditionalwhile watching clips of the thriller movie, The Box and predicting what will happen if the couple push the button! An engaging way to lead into the Second Conditional – groups discuss what they would do if this stranger appeared on their doorstep!

Teachers’ Notes – The Box

Backpacking

 Lesson- Backpacking

In this B1 lesson students will work together to decide what to take on a round the world trip, discuss problems they may face along the way, research a backpacker route of choice and present the information to the class.

Teachers’ Notes – Backpacking

Preparing for Interview

Lesson – Preparing for Interview

In this lesson, students are introduced to work-related vocabulary with particular focus on adjectives used by candidates in interviews.  Students work in pairs to describe themselves using the adjectives and write examples of situations where they demonstrated these skills to relay back to their partners.

Teachers’ Notes – Preparing for Interview

St. Patrick’s Day

Lesson – St Patrick’s Day

In this lesson, students are introduced to St. Patrick’s Day through a paired reading activity on A) The History of St Patrick and B) St Patrick’s Day in Dublin.  Students paraphrase the text for their partner and have to explain the underlined lexical chunks.  Students then discuss true/false statements about St Patrick’s Day before watching a video clip and working with their partner to check if their statements are true/false.  A highly-interactive and communicative lesson.

Teachers’ Notes – St Patrick’s Day

 Guinness

Lesson – Guinness

In this lesson students learn more about Ireland’s famous beer – Guinness. Students will watch some famous Guinness adverts and learn more about the Guinness Book of Records. This lesson gives students the opportunity to work on reading, writing and speaking skills whilst focusing on accuracy when using comparatives and superlatives.

Teachers’ Notes – Guinness

Eurovision Song Contest

 Lesson – Eurovision Song Contest

In this B1 lesson, students are introduced to one of Ireland’s most recent and well-known Eurovision entries. In groups, they discuss the pros and cons of the contest as they meet useful phrases for ‘giving your opinion’ before taking part in a class debate.  Focus is on spoken interaction, reading and listening skills. Watch Jedward’s performance here.

Teachers’ Notes – Eurovision Song Contest

 Children of Lir 

Lesson – Children of Lir

Students learn about one of Ireland’s most well-known legends while practicing verb transformations and meeting some widely-used phrasal verbs in context.  Focus in this lesson is on skim/scan reading and on a collaborative writing task where students work in pairs to create/write a letter in the past simple.

Teachers’ Notes – Children of Lir

 Irish Writers (Oscar Wilde & James Joyce)

Lesson – Irish Writers

Students first have a group discussion on their own favourite writers and the genre they like to read.  Students are then introduced to two of Ireland’s most famous writers, Oscar Wilde and James Joyce through an Information Gap activity, where they will also meet some useful vocabulary to practice later.

Teachers’ Notes – Irish Writers

One Direction

Lesson – One Direction

One Direction is one of the biggest bands in the world and one of its members just happens to be Irish. In this lesson Student will learn more about the band and get to form a judging panel to create a new band themselves.

Teachers’ Notes – One Direction

What other B1 lessons would you like to see here? Let us know and we’ll get working on them…