Teaching for exams? Have fun! Give a pep talk to yourself and your mates!

A new year has just started and most of my students have their resolutions made: take an English language exam.
Studying for an exam is always considered boring and tiring, but let's spice up this hard-working task with a pep talk!

What is a pep talk?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary a pep talk is "a short speech that is given to encourage someone to work harder, to feel more confident and enthusiastic, etc."

Everyone needs a pep talk not only students who are taking an exam so this lesson plan can be useful for any type of class!

Students: TEENAGERS/ADULTS
Level: UPPER-INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED
Time: 1h30minutes
Linguistic skills: LISTENING & SPEAKING

1) I started my class by writing the phrase PEP TALK on the board and asked my learners if they knew what it meant.
They brainstormed some ideas I reported on the whiteboard without saying whether they were right or wrong.
2) After a few minutes I told them I was going to show them a video about a pep talk so they could check their predictions.

This is the link to the video: A Pep Talk from Kid President to You
3) After watching the video I collected some feedback and I gave my students some information about Kid President.

4) Listening activity: I cut out the following sentences and paired up students. They watched the video again and put in order the sections as they heard them. (To check if they were right we watched the video with subtitles).

5) It's time to take action! Students have to prepare their own pep talks. I gave my learners the following instructions and tips:

My students' talks lasted about 60-90 seconds. They filmed each other and it took them about 30 minutes to write their speech.

6) Finally, students listened to each other's pep talk.

I found this class both heart-warming and encouraging. I hope you get the chance to try something similar with your learners and if you do, please let me know!