Can you weigh in on this?

Megan | Oct 07, 2024Oct 16, 2024

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

• learn and practise functional language for meeting facilitation;
• discuss meeting ‘dos and don’ts’, and facilitation techniques;
• practise communication refinement and do a roleplay.

With this ESL lesson on meeting facilitation, students learn advanced functional vocabulary for facilitating meetings (e.g. hit a lull, chart the course). Students talk about meetings in their workplaces and give opinions about meeting etiquette. They discuss the facilitator’s role and meeting approaches. They refine thought-to-action communication, watch a video, consider facilitation techniques, and do a roleplay. 

WARM-UP AND VOCABULARY

This ESL lesson on meeting facilitation begins with a warm-up in which students consider the term ‘facilitation’ and its various applications across different scenarios. After that, students think about a type of meeting they often participate in. They look at a list of meeting rules of etiquette and separate them into ‘dos and don’ts’ for this type of meeting (e.g. encourage casual dress, employ a no-phone policy). Next, students read about the role of a meeting facilitator and discuss questions about the role. Following that, students read some questions and responses and match them correctly. Then, they explain the phrases in bold in their own words. Students continue to practise the vocabulary in the next exercise, in which they complete statements with their own ideas about correct meeting approaches. They also do a task in which they practise refining internal thoughts to produce polite external communication by using the target language. 

VIDEO AND DISCUSSION

The ESL lesson on meeting facilitation continues with a video about some tips for effective virtual meeting facilitation. Before watching, students look at some points and consider what might be said about them in the video. After watching, they check their answers and share their thoughts about the advice. Next, students read about some authentic meeting facilitation techniques, such as ‘Parking Lot’ and ‘Round Robin’. They consider some points while discussing the techniques, e.g. the purpose of the technique, what might go wrong. Students finish the ESL lesson on meeting facilitation by doing a role-play activity. They imagine they work for a skincare company and have two meetings with different agendas. When possible, they use the target vocabulary.

HOMEWORK/REVISION

This lesson plan also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students read a text about Steve Jobs. They find four phrases with the same meaning as phrases in the box provided (there are eight to choose from). Then, they paraphrase the text using the four remaining phrases. The task is available in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. You can print it and hand it out to your students. It’s also included in the e-lesson plan.

WORKSHEETS

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