| LESSON OVERVIEW
The main objectives of this lesson on optimism and pessimism are to:
- talk about optimistic, pessimistic and realistic viewpoints;
- discuss how to keep a positive mindset when things get difficult;
- watch part of a video about a store owner who creatively deals with a situation.
In this lesson, students reflect on different ways of seeing situations, share their opinions and explore a quote about optimism and pessimism. They discuss how each mindset reacts to situations, watch a part of a video (to 01:25) about a shop owner’s creative reaction to vandalism and talk about how people stay positive in hard scenarios. Students can also do an extra vocabulary task where they review useful phrases (e.g. keep a positive attitude, expect the worst, go wrong) for the lesson.
60 minSpeaking ClassUnlimited Plan
This is a Speaking Class worksheet. It includes a variety of tasks that let your students practise their speaking skills. This lesson format does not focus on grammar or vocabulary. Learn more about it here.
WARM-UP AND DISCUSSION
Before this lesson on optimism and pessimism starts, students can do an extra vocabulary activity. They match phrases for handling difficult situations (e.g. focus on, hope for the best, deal with reality) with their definitions. Then, students decide which sentences are about optimists, pessimists or realists. After that, they do a warm-up activity. Students discuss questions exploring attitudes toward life. Next, they choose three sentences about optimism, pessimism and realism (e.g. It is/isn’t easy to be a realist.). Students complete them with one of the options and explain why they think so. Afterwards, they read a quote about optimism and pessimism. Students share their thoughts and give examples.
VIDEO AND MORE DISCUSSION
In this part of this lesson on optimism and pessimism, students look at different challenging situations (e.g. your company introduces a new AI tool) and choose four. They decide what an optimist, a pessimist and a realist would say or think in each of them. Afterwards, students watch a video where a store owner creatively responds to an act of vandalism. First, they read comments about the situation and guess what happened. Then, students watch part of the video and check their ideas. After that, they discuss questions about attitudes toward problems. Then, students use their creativity. They discuss how they could deal with various situations (e.g. you accidentally delete an important document) to turn them into opportunities.
WORKSHEETS
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Slide 16 and 18 don’t make sense.
Hi! Please look at slide 15 for context.
My students enjoyed this lesson a lot! 😊 🍋🍋🍋
Thank you so much for your feedback! We’re happy your students liked the lesson 🙂
I used this lesson with a Psychology student and it was great, we could develop the topic more deeply and also discuss therapy strategies, it was great!
Thank you for sharing this! We’re happy you and your student enjoyed the lesson! 🙂
I loved this lesson, and my student enjoyed it too. It is such a cool and uplifting topic! Thanks a lot! 🙂
Thank you so much for your feedback! Great to hear you had a wonderful lesson with our materials 🙂
Love this lesson- thank you!
Thank you for your kind words! 🙂
That’s such a great lesson! Thanks!