This is a speaking based lesson plan for higher levels, I have done it with B2, C1 & C2 learners. It's based on a video on YouTube about wealth inequality. Steps First few slides of the PowerPoint are for discussion. Most issues come up with the general, first slide. The other slides are to add a bit of vocabulary and can be used to manage feedback. When you get to the sixth slide ask them about the idea of wealth inequality and check they understand the term. Watch the first 50 seconds or so of the video. Pause and get the students, working in pairs, to divide the wealth (10 pieces of pie) up as they suppose it is. Have slide 7 up on the screen for them to refer to. Clarify that each group represent 20% of the population, stating with the 20% richest. Give them the handout with some phrases they can use as they discuss. Either swap the pairs around to see if people had similar ideas or have a class feedback session. Then have the students watch the video and see how close you they were. Use the last slide to have the students, in pairs or small groups, discuss the issues and ideas raised by the video. Notes This generated a lot of discussion in my classes. I hope it works equally well in yours.

Padlet is a great free tool for encouraging students to work collaboratively in class and the map function is perfect for making writing tasks more visual and relevant to them. Getting Started Here is a short video explaining how to create and share a padlet with students: Activities Best and Worst (A2-B1) Students pin the best and worst bar/restaurant/supermarket/clothes store/park, etc. in their town. Students discuss one of the facilities above in small groups/breakout rooms with questions like these: What's your favourite place to eat in town? What do you like about it? - what food does it have? -What do you like to order? - what does it look like? What's the worst place you've eaten in town? What was so bad about it? -what does it look like? - describe what you ate. Then share the map padlet (see video above) and get everyone to put a pin in their best and worst restaurants explaining why they chose it. At this stage it's really important to set clear expectations of the language you require: minimum 30 words? use because/although/ a specific phrase? When students have written their pins, you're ready to discuss the next topic in groups before returning to padlet to add 2 more posts. Repeat the process for as many things as you wish to cover. Here are some possible questions to give you an idea, but you'll probably want to tweak them depending on the age/level/interests oof your students. Best and Worst Padlet Map Questions.docx Follow up When students have covered the map with their thoughts and opinions, it's important to celebrate and share them in order to make the task meaningful. I always try to set a task to review each other's posts. For example, go through the posts and find something you have in common or disagree about for each of your classmates. Superlative tour (A2-B1) Split the class into teams and give each group a copy of a padlet map with blank pins in the locations where you can find (for example): The highest mountain/waterfall The tallest trees/building The biggest city The longest river/manmade structure The oldest cave paintings The hottest/coldest desert. The teams have to race to find out what is special about each location and write a sentence using a different superlative in each one. You may well find that students come up with some completely different sentences to the ones that you had intended, but that really doesn't matter! Alternative Tweak 1 Give the teams different maps to complete. Mix the groups after the first activity and get students to explain each other's maps and set a quiz for their classmates. Alternative Tweak 2 Each group makes a template map, placing pins in significant locations. Then switch and complete the other team's. Biography (A2-C1) This is one of my favourite low-prep activities. Students research a famous person they like, then create a visual biography of their life, marking their important milestones on the map. Three things are key to the success of this activity Give students an example which they can follow. Be specific about what language you expect: different tenses? minimum length? (I often give linking words which have to be included such as despite, although , however, etc.) If possible, steer students towards celebrities from the English speaking world or towards specific websites for research, as this will help to ensure the reading is done in the target language. Reviews (B2-C2) Although it lends itself well to short post-it style notes, there is no reason not to use padlet with longer texts. FCE and CAE students have to practice writing a range of different reviews and pinning them to a padlet map is a great way to make it more personal. Next time students have to write a review of a shop, restaurant or place - get them to pin it onto a padlet map. Later you can get them to read each others' reviews and assign stars to the review based on the writiers opinion. This means more exposure to target phrases, reading comprehension and a celebration of classmates work. Travel Agents This classic activity works really nicely with padlet maps. Each group chooses a country/continent and prepares a holiday tour to sell to their peers. As always, the success or failure of this activity hinges on the detail: How many posts must each group include? - 2 per student? How many words/sentences in each post? - 40 word minimum? Which key words/phrases should they employ? I found the following starting sentences helpful with my B2 group: Looking for Adventure? Treat Yourself! Feeling Cultural? Let Your Hair Down! Grab a bite to eat! Try Something new! Time for a Break. Prepare to be amazed! Once groups have prepared their tour, mix the groups and have each student sell their trip to classmates. At the end of the activity, bring the class together and everyone votes for their favourite. Follow up Students imagine that they are on the trip they voted for and write home explaining what they have been doing. Because they will have access to the padlet, they can always refer back to their classmates work as they do it. Has it been the trip of their dreams or a nightmare experience? You could get them to post their letter to the countries airport, as if they were sending it at the end of their trip. Final thoughts Ok, I'll stop there as 5 is a nice round number, but I think you'll agree that there's a lot of scope for experimentation. The platform is novel but the activities are not. In fact, it is their simplicity which makes them effective. The fundamental principles are exactly the same as when students put pen to paper in their notebooks, so: Be specific about the kind of language you expect and minimise the potential for counterproductive shortcuts (I teach teenagers!) Feedback is essential. Highlight, underline and comment on students work so that they can edit, improve and learn. Remember padlet is a nice addition, not the cornerstone of your activity. If students have any technical issues, they can just submit their text in a different format for you to add or work with another student. If you've read this far, you've invested too much time to turn back now. Why not give one of the activities a go this week?

A fun game for younger learners to practice adverbs of frequency. Primary aged students enjoy this silly activity and it is really purposeful because they are constantly repeating the target language, both orally and in writing. Pre-task Elicit 6 adverbs of frequency to put on the board: always often sometimes rarely hardly ever never Main Activity Give each pair of students a pile of strips face down (page 2 of attached doc). The fun of this activity comes from the irreverence of the sentences, but not all of them will be right for you and your class. Just pick and choose 8 that are. Student A takes the top strip and asks question “How often do you eat worms?” Student B rolls die and answers appropriately with a complete sentence. e.g. Student rolls 2 : "I often eat worms" Student rolls 5: "I hardly ever eat worms" Follow up 1 Student writes 3 surprising things which they have learnt about their partner (e.g. Diego often kills people) This is where the 3rd person s comes in. Follow up, images from page 3 can be used as flash cards to elicit sentences. Follow up 2 Change partners and show images from attached powerpoint. They then have to remember the sentence and tell their new partner about themselves or their previous partner. play with barbie.pptx Alternative Instead of using 6 adverbs of frequency this activity works equally well with likes/dilikes: love really like quite like don’t mind don’t like can’t stand

Fun video for teens about the true story of Lawnchair Larry: Ideal for online classes. This lesson has 3 main stages: Students look at pictures from the story of lawnchair Larry and predict what happened and in which order. They watch a 3 minutes section of the video below to see if they were right. Post video, students complete dialogue from the story and match it to the pictures. Interested? read on for more detailed instructions, or open the documents attached below. Instructions Pre-watching Task Show Students the image of Larry: “Does anyone know who this is?” Tell the class that they are going to watch a video about Larry Walters who tried to fly using a garden chair with balloons tied to it, but first I they have to guess what happened: - Share link for google slides attached below (see video below for how to use google slides) Assign each pair of student s to a different slide (white/blue/yellow, etc.) and get them to drag the images into a logical order. Video Demonstrating How to use Google Slides Main activity 1. Show students the video from 2:20 to 6:00, either directly or by sharing the link so students can watch in groups. One of the advantages of online classes is that you can let students share audio in break out rooms, giving them control over pausing/repeating depending on their needs. 2. Students check their picture order and complete the dialogue on the subsequent slide. (if you shared the video link, they can go back and check for themselves at this stage) 3. Using the comment function, students paste the dialogue to the correct picture. (see below) The great thing about the comment function on google slides is that it's easy for you to reply to comments with corrections in real time. (I tend to put any reformulations in capitals so they're easy to see). Materials Video Link: https://youtu.be/q3j2WccGwwU Google Slides - (make a copy of this so you can use it with your students): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/171OfFmR3G9epz57T9Qvrx4Qgam1J0CBXxu84da2rVkM/edit?usp=sharing

This is my take on a great video which I originally came across in a lesson plan on film-english.com several years ago. It's a short film which a police sketch artist draws women based first on their own descriptions and later on others' descriptions of them. Perfect for discussing appearances and introducing vocabulary to describe faces. This lesson introduces a lot of vocabulary for describing people and has the potential for a high feel-good factor at the end. This lesson has 4 main stages: Students discuss the importance of appearances. Watch 1 minute video to explain context. Describe and identify different images of each person in groups. Use advanced vocabulary to describe own features in a positive light. Warmer Ask your students to discuss some questions like these: To what extent are you swayed by physical appearance? How much can you tell about a person from their face? Can you judge a person by their shoes? Do you agree with the statement "beauty is in the eye of the beholder?" What's your view on cosmetic surgery? Video Show students the video up to 1:25 Post - Video Put students in groups of 3 and give each group member a different set of images from the powerpoint below: HighImpactEnglish Dove Real Beauty Sketches.pptx Student A Slide 7 Student B Slide 8 Student C Slide 9 Each student has pictures of the same 5 women, either: A photo A sketch based on a strangers description A sketch based on the womans own description Students take turns to describe one of their photographs. The other 2 students have to identify which of their drawings matches the image, then by describing their images and asking each other questions, they have to guess if they have the more or less attractive version. After students have had time to describe all of their images, use slides 2-6 to reveal. Bonus Material Tell the students that a similar experiment as carried out with men. Ask them to predict whether men would have described each other and themselves in a similar way to the women. Then show them this: Follow Up Activity Give students this vocabulary list: HighImpactEnglish - Describing Faces.docx Explain that it contains only positive language for them to describe their own faces in the most positive way possible. They have to describe themselves in such a way that it is recognisably them, but as they might be described by a modeling agent. (It's easiest if they do this looking in a mirror or at a selfie on their phones) After a few minutes, display the texts and have the students guess which of their classmates each one is. In my experience (I've done this activity 4 times), students writing about themselves in a positive way then having classmates recognise these descriptions, has led to compliments and a warm fuzzy feeling that is a rare treat in a teenage class. However, an easy alternative is to get students to describe someone famous instead.

This is a classic speaking activity in which students adopt a character and argue that they shouldn't be thrown out of a sinking hot-air balloon. With a couple of tweaks it makes for a fantastic online speaking lesson. Getting Started Set up Breakout Roooms giving each the name of a different profession (“Politicians” “Scientists” “Musicians”, etc.). The students assigned to each group have to think of famous examples of their profession and change their name on Zoom to one of them (e.g. Scientists: Albert Eintein, Charles Darwin, Marie Curie.) To do this, simply right-click on your video and select "Rename" from the drop down menu. Next, students assume their personality and argue why they were/are important to the world. Each group then comes up with a list of reasons why the world needs them more than it needs the other groups. At TESOL Spain this year Harry Water’s talked about some of the creative opportunities that come from students being able to change their names on zoom (Many of his ideas can be found in this article here although not the one about the names!) Main Activity Explain the scenario (Audience participation questions in blue italics) You are going to go into a Hot-Air Balloon with the people of other professions. Unfortunately, a freak gust of wind blows you towards a mountain range (which mountain range?). ... And there's a problem (what's the problem?) You're too low. The balloon is going to crash if you don't gain altitude. (What should you do?) ..... You need to lose weight, (but how?). The only way to clear the mountains and survive is throw 2 people out of the balloon. Each person in the group will have 60 seconds to explain why they should stay in the balloon. When I (teacher) send a message to the groups, each person should vote for one celebrity who should stay. The 2 people with fewest votes have to jump out of the balloon (leave the breakout room). In the image below Elon, Serena, Taylor and Leonel have all sacrificed themselves for the greater good!. To ensure the activity runs smoothly: Assign a person in each group to time students and organise the vote (The politicians, for example). Make it very clear that students are voting for the famous alter-ego, not each other. Check and double-check. How long does each person speak? When do we vote? Who leaves the breakout room? Who stays in the breakout room? Follow up Activity Mix up the students still in balloons and repeat the activity (you've cleared the first mountains, but now there's another even higher one!). Meanwhile tell the students who were ejected that they've survived the fall but, in order to make it through until the rescue services arrive, they are going to have to eat 2 of them: who should it be? There are many variations of this activity: Who should get on the spaceship before the earth explodes Who gets to go in the only lifeboat Who gets eaten after a plane crash But they all follow the same basic procedure and can work brilliantly online!

Add a director to make dialogues from the book come alive Rationale Where I work we use the Super Minds series with our primary classes. Most units have a dialogue for the students to listen to, practise reading together and then adapt (at the higher levels). I find these kinds of activities really useful for the students but sometime the students are either reluctant to practise or go through the dialogues as quickly as possible, seeing the activity as something to get done rather than something that has value. Heaven forbid you ask them to repeat the task! I find this tweak makes the activity more enjoyable and makes the students happy to repeat the task. Here is an example from page 48, unit 4 of Super Minds 6 ©CUP The Tweak Once I have done any lead in activities I want; clarifying/pre-teaching vocabulary, listening, talking about how the people feel, how you would describe them, etc. I then elicit from the students as many movie genres as possible and board them. Then I split the students into groups of three, for dialogues with two people, where one student is Olivia, one is Charlie and one is the director. The two students start the dialogue and the student who is the director listens and shouts out a movie genre whenever they want and the students acting out the dialogue, without breaking stride, have to continue the dialogue in the style their director has just given them. They continue in this style until the director changes the genre again. Swap and repeat twice so everyone has a chance to be the director and everyone role plays each person in the dialogue. Notes The first time I do this I normally act it out with myself as one of the people in the dialogue so the students get the idea. After that I just refresh their memories of which movie genres they can use. There's no need to make the students listen to the frustrated thespian at the front of the class, let the students get on with it! If necessary I clarify that there is no set frequency with which the director has to change the genre, although too frequently and too infrequently are to be avoided. The same activity can also be done using adverbs of manner, adjectives to describe personality, famous people and probably several other options I haven't thought of! If you can think of any more please share them in the comments below

What is Google Slides? Google Slides is a free online programme similar to Microsoft Powerpoint. The difference is when you share the link to a google slides document all your students can access and work on it simultaneously. You can see everything students are doing and give them constant feedback and guidance as they work. Using Google Slides for video retell activities. Sorting images to scaffold retelling activities is one of my favourite ways to encourage speaking in the classroom. Here is a short video explaining how we can do just the same in an online classes - right down to sticking virtual post-its on the images.

The more comfortable I become with online teaching, the less conscious I (and hopefully the students) become of the technology itself. However, in order to get the most out of class time, it's necessary to approach some activities slightly differently. Breakout rooms The breakout room feature on Zoom has been a real game-changer for communicative classes because it means students can talk and work together in pairs and reduced groups. It is not quite as simple as pairing off students in a classroom though because, once groups have been assigned, you can't discretely monitor the whole class in the same way you would in the classroom. Here are some things which I’ve found helpful: Clear and complete instructions Understanding Once students enter the breakout room you want them to be able to immediately start work on the task set, rather than waiting for you to reach them on your frantic "clarification tour" of the rooms. Give clear staged instructions and, if necessary, put them in the chat box for learners to refer back to. Avoiding counterproductive short cuts My teenage students tend to see many of the tasks which I give them as obstacles to be overcome rather than vehicles towards greater English (to be fair, this ultimate goal is much vaguer and more difficult to measure). So, if I want them to get as much as possible from the journey it is important to specify the route. What phrases should they use? How long should they speak? How many sentences should they write? Motivation and measurable targets If learners know that they will have to produce or demonstrate something at the end of the task, it makes the preceding stages more relevant. So we have moved on from: Talk about something you can cook. To: Describe how to cook one thing in as much detail as possible. You must use all of these words first/second/third/next/after that/ finally You may use some of this language: Boil/fry/stir/chop handful/spoonful/small pieces golden brown/about 5 minutes/soft/crunchy and added: You will then have to explain your partners recipe in at least 5 stages. By giving the staging language (first, second, etc.) and giving an end task (describe your partners recipe) we have ensured a minimum level of communication from less motivated students. It also means the teacher is able to focus their assistance more on the language which comes up rather than just the mechanics of the task. To keep things snappy, I tend to type out more detailed instructions in word prior to the class so that they are ready to copy and paste into the chat box. Switching groups For me one of the best things about the breakout room’s function is the way you can change up the groups without the disruption and angst that sometimes comes with moving students around the room. Rather than bringing everyone back to the main room, you can just go into the breakout room menu and move half the students, whilst leaving the other half in the original room. This gives communication activities a fast-paced dynamic feel that works well with teen classes. So in the set up on the left: Albert, Marie and Elon stay where they are. Sergio moves to Group 2 Joe moves to Group 3 Bob moves to Group 1 After a couple of minutes Sergio, Joe and Bob move again and in a short time all the students can speak to each other in a classic mingle activity. In the example above, students have changed their names for an activity. I have posted a fun speaking lesson which uses this feature and the breakout rooms here The Chat Box 1,2,3 SEND Ask students to answer a question in the chat without sending it. Then say 1,2,3 SEND and everyone sends it together. I’ve found this is an effective way to gently increase the pace as the time shortens and prevents the fastest student from constantly giving away the answer. If students are less confident, they always have the option of holding back a little to see what their classmates put. Sandy Millin mentions this and other online tweaks in her excellent blog here. Fast Finishers I often put a couple of questions in chat for faster students to reply to when they complete an activity. I tend to keep a bank of these on a word document so I can quickly copy and paste them in when required. For example, here are a couple using the second conditional: If I could be any animal ……………………… because …………………. If I had a pet dragon …………………………… because ………………. Mr and Mrs Smith This is the game where you have to guess your partners answers, but it works really well online. Everyone completes a sentence about a student and (on the count of 3) send it to the group. The subject of the question sends it privately to you. For example: Lei Wei’s least favourite food …… Alba’s worst fear ….. This is nice because it encourages the students to take an interest in each other (especially if you repeat the question in a future class) but make sure they write the full sentence to make sure that they are learning the target language. Keeping a record With communicative classes, I always try to keep a record of any phrases which come up or corrections/reformulations in the chat box (sending it either individually to the student, or to the whole group) and after class I copy and paste the contents into a word document. It’s then ready to turn it into a quick gap-fill or quiz to kick off the next class.