Lesson Topics: 2025 news in review
Skill Focus: Speaking, Vocabulary, Reading
Approximate Class Time: 1.5 hours
Lesson Plan Download: 2025-news-review-intermediate-122025.docx
Lesson Overview:
- After warm-up questions, students read and discuss a 228-word passage that summarizes nine 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 nine 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 debate topics on Bitcoin and Trump.
- As a roleplay, which is more of a debate, an optimist debates a pessimist about whether next year will be better or worse.
- Next, students make predictions on what events will transpire in 2026.
- Finally, students review vocabulary, collocations, and then ask each other some final discussion questions.
INTERMEDIATE (B1/B2) Lesson on 2025 in Review
Warm-Up Questions
- How was 2025 for you? What were the high and low points?
- Some people create a New Year’s Resolution every year, which describes a goal want to achieve. What is your 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 tightened border security, arrested illegal immigrants, and started a trade war by putting tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China. (any two)
- They protested against corruption and a ban on social media.
- True
- …
- …
Vocabulary Answers: 1-c, 2-d, 3-f, 4-I, 5-h, 6-g, 7-e, 8-b, 9-a
Collocation Answers: 1-a, 2-d, 3-c, 4-b, 5-e
[1] https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/2025-biggest-news-stories-311da8a2
[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjel2nn22z9o