| LESSON OVERVIEW
In this lesson about appearance, students watch a video about women who stopped dying their grey hair and talk about societal norms regarding how a person looks.
C1 / Advanced45 min
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 & VIDEO
This lesson about appearance has an optional warm-up activity in which students guess words. A student gets a word from the teacher and describes it to other students. The others need to guess what the word is. The teacher can use cut-outs from the teacher’s pdf or use a messenger to send the words to students in the online lesson. The words used in the game are related to body and appearance (e.g. presentable, pale, acne, armpits).
After that, students look at four occasions, like a job interview, and discuss how people prepare for them in terms of appearance. Students also need to consider similarities and differences between men and women. They also discuss to what extent it is OK to expect other people to look a certain way. Before watching the video, students predict what the people’s reactions to a woman not dying her hair might be. Then, they watch the video to see what the reactions were.
DISCUSSION
In the second part of this lesson about appearance, students discuss some questions about the video. They also talk about different trends related to looks and about body positivity. Next, students read seven statements and say if they are true in their culture or if they reflect the norms in their countries in any way. The statements refer to appearance, e.g. body proportions, wrinkles, tattoos, piercing. In the final task of this lesson about appearance, students look at some ideas and discuss whether they think the ideas have made or would make any positive or negative changes. The ideas include retouching ads, social campaigns and some suggestions for influencers and the film industry.
Subscribe to unlock these and many other Standalone lesson lesson plans with the Unlimited planWORKSHEETS
What an amazing video! Thank you so much for incorporating it in this lesson plan!
Thanks, Natalia. We love it too 🙂
Thank you for this work, the topic is really important 🙏
Definitely! Thanks 🙂
Great video and a great topic. All my female students had something to say about it.
Glad to hear it 🙂
Brilliant lesson! An important topic which often gets overlooked or easily dismissed. Thank you for giving it the space it deserves. The vocabulary warmer was a big hit in my classrooms and the debate was meaningful and quiet insightful as students discovered their own biases around body image. Thank you!
Thanks for the feedback! I’m delighted to hear the lesson was a success 🙂
Excellent Topic! Appreciate it 🙂
Thanks 🙂
Thank you for this lesson, the video is really great for discussion. However the problem with the presentation is that there are just way too much text. Not enough graphics. The PDF with the “teacher’s version” is better finished than the presentation itself. So, it feels like the presentation was put together in a hurry. It really looks unfinished. So, I think there is a lot of room for improvement in the presentation.
Hi Nicole! Thanks for your suggestions.
I think it would improve the material if speaking lessons also included some pronunciation tips
Hi! I didn’t think prounuciation tips would add value to this lesson. But if you think they would, you can always edit the e-lesson plan.