Will we live in a smart city?

Abi | Jan 20, 2025Jan 20, 2025

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this ESL lesson on future forms are to:

• discuss how technology can solve urban issues;
• understand and review future forms (will, be going to, Present Continuous);
• watch a video and learn about smart city services.

With this lesson, students reflect on problems in cities and towns. They discuss and watch a video about services a smart city can offer, imagine they participate in a survey and practise different future uses (e.g. to talk about a plan, to make a prediction based on what you see or know, etc.). Students also role-play discussions about plans using future forms.

WARM-UP AND VIDEO

This ESL lesson on future forms starts with a warm-up. Students look at problems (e.g. dirty streets, traffic jams, not enough streetlights, etc.) and choose one that is true for their city or town. They also add more information about it and say if technology can help fix it. Following that, students match halves to create services a smart city can offer (e.g. smart vehicles that pick you up and drive you to work). Then, they watch a video about smart cities and say which services are not mentioned. Afterwards, students complete statements from the video with some missing verbs. They then watch the video again and check their answers. Next, students discuss questions about the video and services in a smart city and where they live. 

DISCUSSION AND ROLE-PLAY

At this point in this ESL lesson on future forms, students imagine the government plans mobility hubs in their area, but they must do a survey first. Students rate services, answer questions and give details. After that, they look at survey answers (e.g. I’ll take the bus if it’s cheaper) and match them with the correct future use (e.g. to talk about a plan, to make a prediction based on your opinion, etc.). Afterwards, students choose one of the future uses for statements related to cities. Then, they complete gaps with the correct future forms of verbs. Following that, students complete lines in dialogues using different future forms. Finally, they work in pairs. Using the details on their card, Student A shares their plan. Student B responds using their information on the card and Student A reacts. They use a future form in each line and swap roles. 

HOMEWORK/REVISION

This lesson plan also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students choose the correct future form in statements. Then, they think of a situation where people could say those comments. 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

1

0