In this lesson, learners practise and improve their listening skills as they listen to a conversation between two teenagers talking about the challenges they face at school.

Diverse group of teenagers walking outside
Sarah Smith and Sea Steele
13 - 17
B1
60

 

This lesson helps learners to develop listening comprehension skills and invites them to reflect on the challenges that some people face at school in an empathetic way. It encourages learners to reflect on the problems they face and feel more comfortable in sharing these. It also raises awareness of the challenges faced by neurodivergent learners, particularly those with ADHD. Learners also have the opportunity to explore study strategies that work for them and to practise active and empathetic listening in a role play where they express a problem and then give advice.

For more information about ADHD, https://www.adhdfoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ADHD_TeenagerBooklet_London.pdf  

Lesson outcomes

All learners will:

  • discuss challenges at school and how these make them feel  
  • listen to and understand a conversation between two teenagers talking about the challenges they face at school 
  • develop vocabulary connected to problems at school 
  • practise expressing problems, listening with empathy and giving advice.

 

Age and level

Age 13–17 and CEFR level B1

Time

60 minutes

Materials

  • Lesson plan
  • Student worksheet
  • Transcript
  • Presentation
  • Audio file
Lead-in (10 minutes)
  • Tell learners that today they will be exploring challenges or problems that they have at school. Tell them that everyone has problems at school from time to time, and elicit some examples of problems people can have at school. 
  • Show Slide 2. Say 'Look at the situations that we might face at school in the left circle, and how we might feel about them in the right circle. Tell your partner how you feel in each situation. Here's an example..' (click to reveal). (Worksheet Task 1)
  • OPTIONAL: You may need to pre-teach some of the adjectives in the box on the right before learners start the task.  
  • Learners talk to their partner or in small groups. Monitor closely.  
  • Feedback: If learners are comfortable, ask them if they would like to share some of their feelings, and elicit whether others feel the same. You could even talk about how you felt when you were at school. 
Pre-teach vocabulary (10 minutes)
  • Tell the learners that we will meet some students who all have different problems at school. Show Slide 3. (Worksheet Task 2) Say 'Read what these students say about the challenges that they have at school. Match the word or phrase in bold in Column A with the meaning in Column B.' 
  • You can do the first one together and show the answer by clicking (1d).  
  • Give learners time to match the first four alone or in pairs. Elicit the answers one by one and click to reveal (2c, 3b, 4a). You might want to ask meaning checking questions at this point.  
  • Show Slide 4. Tell learners to match. Show the answers by clicking (5g, 6h, 7f, 8e). Again, if needed, ask some meaning checking questions. (Worksheet Task 2)
  • OPTIONAL: Slide 5. Reveal the words one by one. Reveal the word, model and drill (chorally and individually) and elicit where the word stress is. Click to reveal.  
  • Slide 6 – Ask learners to read what the students say again. Ask: 'Which statements are true for you?' Learners share with a partner or a group.  
  • Conduct feedback if the learners feel comfortable.
Listening 1 (10–15 minutes)
  • Tell learners that we will meet two students called Emma and Jay. Slide 7 (Worksheet Task 3). Listen to Emma and Jay talking about problems at school. Which problems does Emma have, which problems does Jay have, and which problems do they both have? The first one has been done for you. Click to reveal the answer.  
  • Allow learners to pair check. If needed, play the audio again.  
  • Elicit the answers (Slide 8 – click to reveal one by one):
    Emma – b, c, d 
    Jay – e, f, i  
    Both – a, g, h   
  • OPTIONAL: Ask learners if they know what ADHD is and what people with ADHD experience. Mention it is more common to be diagnosed nowadays. If appropriate, ask learners whether they know anyone with ADHD. Provide learners with resources if you wish to explore this further (see introduction box above)
Listening 2 (10 minutes)
  • Tell learners that Emma gives Jay some advice. (Slide 9, Worksheet Task 4). Tick what she says (the first one has been done for them). Give learners time to read the statements first and consider whether you need to check any vocabulary here.  
  • Allow the learners to pair check. If needed, play the audio again. 
  • Elicit answers and then show Slide 10 to reveal (b, d, g, h).  
  • Show Slide 11. Ask learners what other advice they could give Jay. This could be a whole- class discussion or done in pairs. Write learners' ideas on the board. Ask what helps them the most.  
Productive task (10 minutes)
  • Tell learners that they will now be given some school problems to solve. Show Slide 12 (Worksheet Task 5). Put learners in pairs and tell them to choose one of the challenges at school. They could also come up with their own challenge. 
  • Ask the learners to work together and make notes to decide why this might be happening, what the consequences are and what possible solutions they might have. Set a time limit and monitor closely. 
  • Then ask learners to choose a role – either the learner with the problem or their friend who is giving them advice. Ask them to role play the situation. Monitor. 
  • Ask if they received good advice from their partners and elicit examples. At this point, do some language feedback (examples of good language use and delayed error correction).  
  • If time, you could ask learners to write their dialogues, or swap partners with someone who dealt with a different problem and ask them for more advice.   

NOTE: If you have three learners in a group, one of them has the problem and two of them can give advice.  

Reflection (5 minutes)
  • Show learners the prompt on Slide 13. Give learners some time to read through the questions. Tell learners that you'll roll the dice, and whatever number the dice lands on, they should discuss the corresponding question e.g. if it lands on 3, they discuss number 3. (You can alternatively give the learners individual dice for this.)   
  • Monitor and support as they discuss. Note: This can be done in the learners' L1 in a monolingual class. The idea here is for learners to really think about what they have learned, and using L1 is a good way to make sure the learners can reflect on the topic more deeply.
Extension tasks
  • Group discussion: Learners can answer the following questions in groups:  
    -What did you learn about ADHD from the listening script? 
    -How did Emma feel when her teachers didn't understand her? 
    -What can schools do to help students like Emma? 
  • Awareness-raising Campaign: In groups, learners choose a focus for their awareness-raising campaign (e.g. raising awareness about ADHD or autism or dyslexia, etc.). Provide learners with websites that can give them information. They then find strategies to help neurodivergent students, encouraging empathy among classmates.  
    Once they have researched, learners plan campaign material, for example:  
    - a poster with simple tips for supporting neurodiverse classmates. 
    - a short video to explain ADHD (or other) in an engaging way. 
    - an open letter with strategies for teachers and students to create an inclusive environment. 
  • Writing: Learners imagine they are Emma and write a thank-you message to Jay for listening. They then swap their thank-you message with a partner, who writes a response from Jay.  
Downloads
File attachments
Lesson plan305.19 KB
Powerpoint635.22 KB
Transcript143.52 KB
Audio file4.89 MB

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