ESL Lesson Materials - Moving to the UK • Level A2+ (CEFR)

Moving to the UK is a fun activity to actively engage students to think about moving to a different city • ESL Lesson Materials

Subject Area: ESL, English Language Arts, National & Regional Studies

Level: A2+ (CEFR)

Focus Skills: Reading, Speaking

Resource Type: Activity, Lesson Plan, Worksheets

Duration: 1 Period

File Types: PDF, WORD, JPEG

Overview

Moving to different places has become a common thing in our globalized world. This lesson focuses on the importance of students gathering more information on potential towns they might want to move to and then to discuss with other students which town is most suitable based on the advantages and disadvantages of these places. Students will learn skills such as systematically identifying and collecting information from several texts and orally expressing opinions and preferences via a set of useful phrases.

Pre-Instructional Planning

Objectives

Students will:

✓ Enhance SPOKEN language skills with specific focus on exchanging opinions and democratic decision making.

✓ Enhance READING skills/Vocabulary with specific focus on the topic MOVING WITHIN GREAT BRITAIN.

✓ Practice presentation skills.

✓ Develop cultural and geographical awareness with respect to Great Britain.

Materials

✓ Recording and Lyrics of Billy Joel’s Movin’ Out (can be found online).

✓ Blackboard/Whiteboard & Markers

✓ Empty map of the UK (attached JPEG)

✓ Short texts about 5 different cities in the UK (attached PDF/Word)

✓ Worksheet with assignment and useful phrases (attached PDF/Word)

✓ Pictures for the cities in color, A4 format (attached JPEGs)

✓ Dictionaries

✓ Markers or coloured pencils

Phase of Instruction

Lesson Steps

Step 1: Sing the song Movin’ Out by Billy Joel with your students. You can either use the original recording or if you can play the guitar you can accompany the song yourself: Movin’ Out Ultimate Guitar Tab & Lyrics

Step 2: Ask students where they would like to move to in the world if they had a choice and why (students have to give reasons). Also ask students if there are places that they would not want to move to at all and why. Collect positive and negative points on the board separately.

Step 3: Ask students to imagine that their parents want to move to the UK. They have job offers in 5 different cities (Belfast, Edinburgh, a little town in the Lake District, Liverpool and Newcastle → draw the locations into the map). Each of those cities is very different. Their parents have told the students that they can decide to which of those cities they want to move to. In order to make a good decision they have to find out more about each city.

Step 4: Tell students to form groups of five (you can, of course, adept group sizes depending on class size. That might entail that groups might, for example, work with only four cities). Hand out texts and assignment sheets to students. Each member of the group gets a different text (cities A-E). Pictures for each city are put up at different points in the classroom.

Step 5: Students read their texts individually. Unknown words are checked in the dictionary (words that are probably unknown at this level are already underlined in the texts). Students underline advantages and disadvantages of their cities with different colors and collect the advantages/disadvantages that they have found by reading the text and looking at the pictures of their city in a list.

Step 6: Members of the group come together and exchange the information on advantages and disadvantages of their city. Students should be encouraged to use the useful phrases on the assignment sheet whilst doing this.

Step 7: A few groups present which city they have chosen and why and explain why they have discarded the other options.

Post-Instructional

Homework assignment

Students are asked to write a short story about their first day at the new city (have to choose either Belfast, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Newcastle or Rydal). Further research on the internet is a requirement for this task. Students have to include new facts about the city in their stories.

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Preview of Material

1. Assignment Sheet

Moving to the UK assignment sheet • ESL Lesson Materials

2. Blank Map of the UK

Blank map of the United Kingdom taken from: www.d-maps.com • ESL Lesson Materials

3. Cities: Worksheets & pictures

ESL Lesson Materials - Text About Edinburgh

Text Edinburgh • ESL Lesson Materials

Edinburgh picture 1 • ESL Lesson Materials

Edinburgh Picture 2 • ESL Lesson Materials

Edinburgh Picture 3 • ESL Lesson Materials

Edinburgh Picture 4 • ESL Lesson Materials

Edinburgh Picture 5 • ESL Lesson Materials

Text Belfast • ESL Lesson Materials

Belfast Picture 1 • ESL Lesson Materials

Belfast Picture 2 • ESL Lesson Materials

Belfast Picture 3 • ESL Lesson Materials

Belfast Picture 4 • ESL Lesson Materials

Belfast Picture 5 • ESL Lesson Materials

Text Newcastle • ESL Lesson Materials

Newcastle Picture 1 • ESL Lesson Materials

Newcastle Picture 2 • ESL Lesson Materials

Newcastle Picture 3 • ESL Lesson Materials

Newcastle Picture 4 • ESL Lesson Materials

Newcastle Picture 5 • ESL Lesson Materials

Rydal Text

Rydal Picture 1

Rydal Picture 2

Rydal Picture 3

Rydal Picture 4

Rydal Picture 5

Liverpool Text

Liverpool Picture 1

Liverpool Picture 2

Liverpool Picture 3

Liverpool Picture 4

Liverpool Picture 5