| LESSON OVERVIEW
With this speaking lesson plan, students watch a video about growth and fixed mindsets and get plenty of opportunities to discuss them. They also learn some collocations referring to challenges and development, as well as practise word formation.
B2 / Upper Intermediate60 minStandard LessonPremium Plan
WARM-UP & VIDEO
The speaking lesson plan starts with a brainstorming activity in which students come up with some possible connections between four words: ability, challenge, improve, fail. Then, they read what a mindset is and discuss how a person’s mindset can change. They also try to figure out the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset with the help of an image representing the two. Next, students complete gaps in a short paragraph and watch the first part of a video to check their answers. Before the second viewing, students create collocations by matching their halves (e.g. take a risk, avoid challenges, be likely to succeed). Then, they read five statements (e.g. sees life as a journey of improvement) and decide if each of them describes a growth mindset or a fixed mindset. Finally, they watch the second part of the video and check their answers to the previous exercise.
WORD BUILDING & DISCUSSION
This part of the speaking lesson plan starts with a multiple choice task in which students choose the correct form of a word (e.g. developed, development, develop). Then, they discuss the questions from the previous exercise. The questions refer to the video and students’ own experience related to mindset. After that, students use what they learned from the video, as well as the vocabulary from the lesson, to do one of two speaking tasks. In the first one, they choose a company or an institution, and discuss if they have a growth mindset by answering five questions (e.g. How does the organization see achievement and failure?). In the second exercise, students discuss which of the images and slogans are suitable for a campaign to support pupils who face learning challenges. Finally, they choose an image and a slogan and explain their decision to the rest of the class.
WORKSHEETS
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Just a quick note to compliment you guys on the great work you have been doing, providing us teachers the opportunity to broaden our minds and help our students to broaden theirs by using these intriguing and updated topics. And what´s even better, free!!!
Congrats and thank you so much,
Kátia Oliveira
Brazil.
Thanks, Katia! It’s our pleasure 🙂
My students loved it. Thank you so much. I will definetly use other lesson plans too.
That is really good to hear. Enjoy!
Congrats on this exceptional speaking lesson. I’d like more lessons that focus on speaking, please.
Looking forward to using this with my students.
You guys keep up the good work!
Thanks, Soul. Much appreciated 🙂
Thank you so much for your work! Very interesting, useful and informative!!! I really appreciate what you do.
Mary,
Ukraine ( blees y’all )
Hi Mary, thank you for you comment! I’m glad you enjoy ESL Brains!
Thanks a lot for these worksheets! So well-developed, structured and full of ideas.
Thank you! Hope your students enjoy the lesson 🙂
Perfect!!!
Thank you 🙂
Nice and sweet. Thank you so much for sharing!
Thanks 🙂
Great lesson plan! Thank you! I’ve adapted some of the activities there and wanted to share them with the community.
1) Vocabulary expansion – Synonyms
These are phrases taken from the video about fixed vs growth mindset. Watch the video again. Pay attention to what the speaker says and change the bolded words with exactly what he says.
1 The fixed mindset suggests that your abilities are 1 *unlearned* and 2 *immutable*.
2 With a growth mindset you see 3 *fiasco* as a chance to learn and even 4 *change the way it’s done*.
3 If talent is fixed, why 5 *spend your energy and time* improving?
4 But with a growth mindset you’re more likely to 6 *adopt* challenging tasks.
5 In a fixed mindset the focus is on 7 *quantifiable* accomplishments.
1 unlearned – innate
2 immutable – unchangeable
3 fiasco – failure
4 change the way it’s done – pivot
5 spend time and energy – bother
6 adopt – embrace
7 quantifiable – measurable
2) Multiple choice exercise: https://wordwall.net/resource/34390378
To review the synonyms, the following class we played a simple game to help students remember them. Each st. was given two sets of words and had to describe them or say an example to help their partners guess what words they got.
I hope you find this useful!
Thanks for sharing!
I’m exceptionally thankful for all the materials you provide since it can be pretty challenging to find time for being creative and come up with something so cool!
Thank you so much!
Thanks, we’re glad you find the lessons useful 🙂
I tried it with my high school students (14-15 y/o) and they didn’t enjoy it that much… the worksheet is well-made, perhaps they just don’t feel related to the topic? Thanks!
Hi, thanks for the comment. The lesson is aimed at adults (as all ESL Brains lessons) and contains questions and ideas that might be too abstract for most teens.