Topics: How to use the lesson plans

The Series

These lessons focus on common topics found in any coursebook series. The topics include crime, travel, phobias, families, jobs, identity, weather and politics.

Available at two levels, Pre-intermediate and Intermediate +, these lesson plans include tasks on different skills such as reading, listening, speaking and writing as well as some language and vocabulary work. Each lesson plan contains complete, downloadable, step-by-step teacher’s notes with answer keys and a transcript, student worksheets and a short audio file.

The lesson plans revolve around a series of short texts. These texts are exploited in terms of reading skills, grammar and vocabulary as well as forming the basis of the speaking, listening, writing and project work. Each lesson plan provides material for approximately 90 minutes’ teaching in addition to the project.

The series is suitable for teenagers (14+) and adult classes.

How can I use the lesson plans?

The Topics lessons are designed to be as flexible as possible, so they can be used for different kinds of classes and teaching styles. They can be used either as standalone lessons, to supplement your coursebook or to complement a unit / lesson in the coursebook you use. For simplicity of use, and to provide structure for both the teacher and the students, each lesson plan follows the same basic framework:

Lead-in: A short discussion activity designed to elicit some ideas from the students and provide an introduction to the topic. A variety of task types will be used including photographs, vocabulary tasks and speaking activities.

Pre-reading task: Another topic-focused activity with a particular emphasis on vocabulary.

Reading: A number of short texts that cover the topic and one or two reading tasks. The short texts are designed to be fully exploited and digested in depth.

Working with the language: Tasks focusing on language features used in the reading texts. These will include ‘noticing’ activities which involve getting students to see how the language is used in context.

Working with vocabulary: Tasks focusing on vocabulary connected to the topic. This section includes activities designed for students to understand words in context and learn how to work out the meaning of new vocabulary items they encounter when they are reading. There is an extension task at the higher level.

Listening: A short listening task connected to the topic. These activities ask students to listen for specific details, e.g. to find differences between the reading text and the audio.

Speaking: A post-reading task, taking the form of a discussion or debate designed to get the students to use some of the language and vocabulary from the lesson and also give them a chance to express their personal opinions.

Project: a project section that can either be done in class or set as homework. The aim of the project is to extend the topic and either add a writing component or require the students to look at authentic sources.