The best teacher I’ve had

Olia | Feb 19, 2025Mar 04, 2025

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this ESL lesson are to:

• engage in talking about teachers;
• share opinions and experiences related to learning;
• watch a video about a scientist who was a great teacher.

With this lesson, students talk about their first teachers and share other learning experiences. They watch a video about a scientist who’s considered a good teacher, discuss the impact of teaching styles and read about famous teachers. Students talk about the future of education and use phrases for expressing opinions (e.g. That’s an interesting idea, but…). They can also do an optional vocabulary activity.

DISCUSSING SKILLS AND TEACHERS

At the beginning of the lesson, students can do an optional vocabulary activity to prepare for talking about teachers. In the task, they choose the odd word or phrase from groups (e.g. influence, affect, accept). Next, students complete gaps using some of those words or phrases. Then, they do a warm-up where they choose skills (e.g. cook, drive a car, swim) and say who was the first person to teach them. Students share details about their experiences. After that, they discuss different ways of learning by considering pairs of ideas (e.g. parents OR peers). Students say which skills or areas of life each one is best for (e.g. Parents are better if you need to learn how something works.). Following that, they think about a teacher who impacted them positively or negatively. Students talk about them and reflect on their teachers’ impact on their lives. 

VIDEO AND MORE DISCUSSION

In this part of the lesson, students watch a video where Bill Gates talks about a scientist he admires as a teacher. Before watching, students say what they think might make a scientist a great teacher. Then, they watch the video and compare their ideas with Bill Gates’. Following that, they engage in talking about teachers and the impact of teaching styles on learning. Next, students read about some famous teachers and their approaches to teaching. They then answer questions about different teaching approaches and their effectiveness. After that, students choose statements about the future of education (e.g. Online education will fully replace face-to-face classes.) and discuss them. If their classmates have different opinions, they have a debate using phrases to express opinions (e.g. Personally, I think…).

WORKSHEETS

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