If I Were A...Mayor: A Lesson Plan

When I plan my lessons for my groups of teens I always take into account:

1) Teenagers are creative and highly motivated.

2) The use of technology combined with real life is crucial in the classroom.

3) Teaching a language aims at communicating properly.

4) All the four linguistic skills must be introduced.

Considering these four points above I've created a series of lessons I call

I'd like to share with you the lesson plan If I were a mayor.

NOTE

Politics is not my cup of tea. This is not a lesson about politics. My aim is giving my students a chance to use the target language in a communicative way and in a real context. 

Students: TEENAGERS

Level: B1-B2

Time: 110 minutes (Ideal lesson plan for a 2 hour lesson)

Warm-up (5 minutes): 

WHAT TO DO

Tell your students they are going to guess a profession. Give them key words.

City/Town 

Hall

Laws

You can write them on the board so the whole class will guess and have fun together or set a challenge by giving the key words written on a paper and 1 minute to think about the possible profession. At the end of the minute the students will tell you which is their word.

IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG

If they couldn't guess it you can play the Hangman. 

Lead-into Listening (5 minutes):

WHAT TO DO

Ask the students:

How can you become a mayor?

Possible answers:

You need to be a politician./You need to win the elections./People must vote for you./You must run a campaign.

IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG 

Some students are reluctant to speak so try to elicit the answers.

Listening (20 minutes):

WHAT TO DO

Tell them they are going to watch a video of the mayor of London  when he was running his campaign. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0heNP_EHmk

Let them watch the video twice and hand in the following questions. Let them check their answers in pairs and then get feedback.

IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG

This video is aimed at the citizens of London and not English language learners. Monitor students while they are watching the video and check they have most of the answers done. If not let them watch the video once again.

Reading (15 minutes):

WHAT TO DO

Students will now read a text I slightly modified from WRITING YOUR OWN CAMPAIGN SPEECH and they will answer some questions about it.

Give them 10-15 minutes to read and answer the questions.

You will find the handout here.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5kHxqaIZQRRdkR4MEVpdE00ajdhaXRTV2JrbUdzZWlrcFpr/edit

Lead-into Writing (5 minutes):

It's time to run for mayor. Let students brainstorm ideas about their own town, what they like and what they would like to change. Board their opinions so they can use them during the writing activity.

Writing (30 minutes):

WHAT TO DO

Now students write their own speech. Monitor and try to give them extra tips. You will find the handout in the link above.

IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG

By reading WRITING YOUR OWN CAMPAIGN SPEECH students will be able to write their own speech but focus on weaker ones. Let them use their dictionaries.

Speaking (10 + 20 minutes):

Students will rehearse their speech in pairs for 10 minutes.

Depending on how large your class is you can choose to work with the whole group or divide students in small groups. Students will give their speech in turn. Then everyone will vote for one to be the mayor (of course they cannot vote for themselves) and at the end of the lesson there will be a "new mayor" for your town.

IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG 

For some students this activity will be a chance to show off, don't be strict with them. Other students who are shy will feel ashamed to speak in front of the class/audience, give them more time to talk.

FOCUS ON GRAMMAR 

These activity will allow your students to review the 1st type conditional and the comparatives.

Try this lesson plan and let me know your feedback. I hope you will enjoy this lesson as much as my students and I did. 

Bye for now,

Larissa