Introduction
Focusing on speaking, vocabulary and writing, this lesson aims to raise awareness of the many reasons not to smoke tobacco.
The lesson begins by focusing on some anti-smoking posters, and learners discuss the message and effectiveness of each one. They then learn some vocabulary to talk about four key reasons not to smoke: (health, cost, the impact on your attractiveness, and the impact on others). Learners then choose one of these reasons and write a paragraph about it, using the vocabulary as appropriate.
As an optional final activity, the learners design their own anti- smoking poster and present it to another pair or to the class.
Learning outcomes
- Identify reasons not to smoke, or to give up smoking.
- Use appropriate vocabulary to talk about health risks and other issues connected with smoking. E.g. bad breath, anxiety, blood pressure.
- Develop writing skills through collaboratively writing a paragraph about one negative aspect of smoking.
- Take part in peer feedback and correction on writing.
Materials
- Before your lesson, you will need 3 images from anti-smoking campaigns (see useful links).
- Learner worksheet
- For extension: Poster paper and suitable pens to make a poster if available
Smoking stinks
- Write ‘smoking stinks’ on the board. Explain the double meaning – that smoking smells bad and that smoking is a bad or unpleasant thing.
- See if everyone agrees (they may not!) and elicit some ways in which both meanings might be true.
Note: If relevant, explain that 31st May is the World Health Organization (WHO) No Tobacco Day. Each year the WHO encourages people to give up for at least that day, and tries to raise awareness of the negative effects of smoking.
- Show your learners the anti-smoking images (see materials) and ask them to discuss the message and which they find most/least effective and why.
- Briefly feedback as a class. You could also ask learners:
- what other posters or adverts they have seen which they thought were effective.
- whether they think cigarettes should be sold in plain packaging
- Give out the worksheet and ask learners to work together to categorize the words and phrases under the four headings given.
Note: Learners might need to use dictionaries for some of the words (wrinkles, asthma, lungs, stains).
- This is a relatively subjective task, but suggested answers are:
A: anxiety (some people think it relieves anxiety, but it actually causes it as the withdrawal symptoms start) asthma, lungs, cancer, heart disease, blood pressure, addiction, colds and flu (you are likely to catch more of these), pregnant (smoking can damage the baby and make you less likely to get pregnant in the first place).
B: wrinkles, bad breath, yellow stains (on fingers and teeth)
C: expensive addiction (you have to buy them), save (you could save a lot of money by giving up)
D: passive smoking, second-hand smoke, asthma (children of smokers have much higher levels of asthma)
- As you carry out feedback, encourage learners to explain why they chose to put the words and phrases under each heading. This should push them to use all the language they have at their disposal.
- Make notes of good points and any other useful topic-related language which comes up.
- Put learners into pairs and allocate one of the four headings to each pair
- Pairs write a paragraph about the topic, using the vocabulary.
- Monitor and help learners with the language they need.
- Join two pairs to make a group of four. They read each other’s paragraphs and give feedback on both the content and the language.
- Give learners a little longer to re-draft and make any changes.
- At this stage, you could put the paragraphs up on the wall for learners to go around and read (this will work better if they have written about different aspects)
- Remind learners about the posters they looked at early and ask them to work in pairs or small groups to design their own poster, using the guiding questions on the worksheet.
- Depending on the time available, learners could print pictures, draw them or simply describe them.
- To finish, let learners present their ideas to either another pair/group or to the class.
- These are images related to anti-smoking campaigns with a creative commons licence:
- Smoking and health: https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/40120338
- How smoking affects others: Anti-smoking-campaign by J.A
- Smoking and money: Anti-smoking store @ Orchard Rd by Kevin Lim