This writing-focused lesson plan and materials were designed to help my Spanish teen students prepare email responses to party invitations - intended to help them with their B1 Preliminary exam preparation. You'll find stages to generate interest and allow students to personalise the task somewhat, as well as focus on categorising and practising useful phrases they may want to include in their emails.
After a couple of years without teaching B1 exam prep courses, I've had a flurry of teen groups recently and find that they often struggle to generate ideas and use their own words - many are capable of expressing themselves very well but use the same vocabulary that's provided in the writing task and frequently complain that they "don't know what to say". This lesson plan aims to help them with both issues.
I've now taught several variations of this lesson plan with a variety of learners, but it's true that teens' interest is definitely piqued by the notion of a school party, particularly when they realise they have the chance to put forward their own ideas and suggestions. Padlet works extremely well in brainstorming stages allowing contributions in real time that students (and teachers) can refer back to at a later time.
Topics: School parties
Functional language: suggesting, responding, expressing preferences, giving information
Level: B1
Timing: approx. 1 hr 30 mins (including Writing practice of approx. 20-25 mins)
Original source: the writing task is taken from the Cambridge B1 Preliminary for Schools sample test, free to download from www.cambridgeenglish.org
Learning outcomes:
practise reading sub-skills: skimming, scanning, reading for detail
practise functional language for making suggestions, responding to ideas, expressing preferences and giving information
brainstorm ideas for a written response to a party invitation
write an informal email, appropriately responding to the invitation
Looking for a lesson plan on B1 article writing? Find one here!
Thank you, Vicky. Happy holidays