Lesson Topics: 2025 news in review
Skill Focus: Speaking, Vocabulary, Reading, Grammar (third conditional)
Approximate Class Time: 2 hours
Lesson Plan Download: 2025-news-review-upper-intermediate-122025.docx
Lesson Overview:
- After warm-up questions, students read and discuss a 366-word passage that summarizes 12 news stories from 2025. The stories focus on politics, war, entertainment, etc. Most stories contain a cloze (blank) that students must try to fill in with their own knowledge.
- The passage is followed by comprehension questions and a list of 12 vocabulary items that students should match to their corresponding definitions.
- After pronunciation practice, students use some of the new vocabulary to complete discussion questions.
- The lesson has three debate topics on Bitcoin, the value of international law, and Trump.
- Next, students take turns imagining they are government-employed spin doctors. Using a set of four expressions, they must respond to a reporter's questions about their own government's failures.
- As a roleplay, which is more of a debate, an optimist debates a pessimist about whether next year will be better or worse.
- As a grammar and speaking activity, the next activity has students use the third and mixed conditionals to discuss an alternative timeline for 2024.
- Finally, students review vocabulary, collocations, and then ask each other some final discussion questions.
UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2/C1) Lesson on 2025 in Review
Warm-up Questions
- How was 2025 for you? What were the best and low points? Did you accomplish your goals?
- Do you have a New Year’s resolution for 2025?
- How is New Year’s celebrated in your culture?
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- 2025 in Review lesson plan about 2025 News by Matthew Barton of EnglishCurrent.com (copyright). Site members may photocopy and edit the file for their classes. ChatGPT was used to generate vocabulary definitions and answer keys. For questions, contact the author. Permission is not given to rebrand the lesson, redistribute it on another platform, or sell it as part of commercial course curriculum. For questions, contact the author.
Reading passage cloze answers: Tariffs, Anora, Francis, Israel, Elon Musk, Sudan, Nepal, Louvre, Japan, fourth, Swiss
Comprehension Question Answer Key:
- …
- …
- …
- He strengthened border security, ended diversity programs across the federal government, and pardoned nearly everyone involved in the Jan 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol
- They suggest that his style of diplomacy is confrontational, personal, and informal, relying more on public attacks and blunt language than on careful negotiation or traditional diplomatic channels.
- …
- Because of corruption and a ban on social media
- Because investors often look for safer assets during times of economic uncertainty
- …
Vocabulary Answers: 1-j, 2-l, 3-i, 4-d, 5-c, 6-h, 7-a, 8-b, 9-e, 10-g, 11-k, 12-f
Collocation Answers: 1-g, 2-b, 3-f, 4-a, 5-c, 6-d, 7-e
[1] https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/2025-biggest-news-stories-311da8a2
[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjel2nn22z9o