Justa | Oct 19, 2017 Apr 27, 2023
This TED talk lesson plan is based on a short video by Chris Anderson titled “Questions no one knows the answers to”. This time students get a lot of grammar exercises on asking questions (direct and indirect ones) and discuss some hard ones.
B1 / Intermediate 60 min Standard Lesson Free / Premium PlanFirst, students have to create questions to given answers. This exercise checks their knowledge of various tenses and grammatical structures. Then, students should study the examples of indirect questions and introductory phrases. As a teacher, help students understand the issue by, e.g. giving them more examples or eliciting other structures on the board. After that, students have to rewrite questions from exercise 1 using various introductory phrases. The last grammar task is working in pairs. Students get a list of topics and they have to ask each other indirect questions connected with their free time, education, work, etc.
Then, before watching the TED-Ed video, there is a short discussion on questions kids ask. Next, students move to the video and they have to write down three of them that the speaker mentions, and then they try to answer them. In the last exercise, students have to imagine that they are parents and try to answer the selected questions that kids ask.
It usually takes me around 60 minutes (including 2-minute video – students can watch it twice to write down what they hear) to do this lesson plan. I do it with strong B1+ students or with B2 students if I want to remind them of this grammar point.
We created something that would allow students to use indirect questions in a real-life situation and is based on authentic material. In our extra worksheet, students will have to play the role of potential candidates and hiring managers to talk about the best job in the world. The scenario encourages students to use indirect questions to sound polite. It’s a fun task as the advertised job is probably the best job in the world ?
Role-play cards for this task are available in the Teacher’s Version pdf
Unlock the e-lesson plan with the Premium subscription
