| LESSON OVERVIEW
This decision-making lesson plan is based on a video by Patrick J. McGinnis who coined the term FOMO. This time, however, it is about a different acronym, FOBO – fear of a better option. The worksheet consists of a lot of exercises that will make your students learn new vocabulary, listen to decision-making strategies presented by the speaker and talk about their own experiences with taking decisions.
WARM-UP
The worksheet starts with a task in which students have to match 8 questions to correct answers. The questions contain some words and phrases connected with making decisions. For example, a snap decision, make-or-break, flip a coin, etc. These questions and answers are structured in such a way that after matching them correctly, students are able to understand the meaning of the vocabulary items. Next, students have to work in pairs and answer the same questions, however, in a way that is true for them. Encourage your students to ask their partners some follow-up questions as well.
VIDEO & DISCUSSION
Next three tasks are all listening comprehension activities based on the video about making faster decisions. First, students watch just a minute of the video and have to find out and explain what FOBO means. Then, they continue watching the video and have to complete a table. They have 3 decision types that the speaker presents and they need to write down meanings and examples of such decisions. In the third task, students watch the whole video again and note down what provided pictures refer to. Finally, students need to list a few personal and professional no-stakes, low-stakes and high-stakes decisions they’ve made in their lives and compare them in pairs.
VOCABULARY EXTENSION
In the next exercise, there is a box with a few words in it. Students have to complete given sentences with these words. There are such expressions as take sth into account, have second thoughts or be in two minds. To practise these phrases, cut out and give students a follow-up exercise [available on Page 4 of the Teacher’s Version]. Don’t show it to your students before they finish completing sentences. You can make them work in pairs and describe the last time they had some situations described in the task.
The last task of this decision-making lesson plan is a short discussion. In the video, Patrick McGinnis presented some strategies for making decisions. Students have to look at the list of various strategies and discuss in groups whether they use them and for what type of decisions.
Extra worksheet: make and do collocations
With this extra worksheet, we want to focus on make and do as these two verbs are often confused by students. We focus here first on make and do collocations and the more basic stuff that your B2 students should already know. There is some free practice and speaking tasks to reinforce that. Next we move to fixed phrases with the verbs make and do. Students will have to decide which verb to use to create these phrase, then identify their meaning from the context. At the end, there is a short speaking task which uses new phrases.
WORKSHEETS
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Thank you for great learning material. Do you know how I get subtitles?
You need to click the Settings (cog) button on the video player and toggle the captions. See the picture:
If you don’t see that captions toggle, read this to learn how to turn it on: https://www.facebook.com/help/427723640933279
Thank you !!
Thank you very much) All your lesson plans are fantastic. I’ll never be able to create a lesson on video games, yours was a hit.
Anna, thank you!
Thanks for the info! I found one version of it uploaded by Think Big Act Now channel but the quality of it is pretty poor so I’m not going to embed it here – besides it looks as if you somebody recorded their screen 🙂 Going to wait for official video on TED channel but if you find a good version please let us know here.
Hi! Thanks for creating online lesson plans. Very useful for me and a great lesson! I used this one the other day and I would like to share some constructive feedback if that’s okay… Less content on each slide would be easier to digest for the student. It looks a bit overwhelming – especially the first few slides. Another idea is that the correct answers could appear one by one when clicked, instead of on a new slide. I hope you find feedback useful. 🙂
Thanks for your comment! It’s very valuable for us. Let me address what we do about it:
1) Less content on each slide
When possible we’re now splitting content between slides. In newer lesson plans, you will see some tasks divided into parts. In this particular case, it’d be a bit difficult as you would have to jump between slides or the task would have to be easier (fewer options to choose from)
2) Correct answers appearing on click one-by-one
We hear you! We’ve already changed that in newer e-lesson plans and will gradually backtrack to change that in “older” e-lesson plans as well.
Brilliant lesson plan! The key vocabulary is very interesting and students get a lot of chance to practice it during the class.
Thank you!
Great materials – I did notice a mistake in this one, however. Slide 5 #6 says “take decisions” instead of “make decisions”
Nevermind, I see it’s used in the UK
This lesson is one of my favourites of yours. It’s sparked some very interesting discussions with my students and the vocabulary is very useful. Thank you!
Thanks 🙂 We’re thrilled to hear that the lesson comes in handy!