Lesson Topics: architecture, design, beautiful buildings
Skill Focus: Listening, Speaking, Vocabulary
Approximate Class Time: 1.5 hours
Lesson Plan Download: architecture-history-upper-intermediate-072025.docx
- Note on Level: The lesson is closer to C1 level than B2.
- The lesson begins with warm-up questions about home design and beautiful buildings.
- Next, students preview a list of 11 vocabulary items from the upcoming video and match them to definitions.
- The YouTube video is 3:31 in length and narrated in a American accent. The video does have a higher vocabulary complexity, but the narrator's pace is moderate and the video has subtitles, which should make it accessible to students nearing the C1-range. Content-wise, the video introduces 10 architectural eras chronologically and provides a few examples of each. For the vocabulary exercises in the lesson, I've made an effort to focus on the most useful words.
- The video is followed by comprehension and follow-up questions.
- Next, students match vocabulary from the passage to definitions. They then form discussion questions with the target vocabulary.
- The lesson has one role-play activity. In the scenario, an angry neighbour confronts her new neighbor who plans to build a modern home on her street. Together, they (with the optional involvement of a city planner) must decide if the building should be permitted to be built.
- For something different, the lesson has links to two external quizzes in which students identify famous buildings. (This could be a fun break from the lesson, but not so effective for generating conversation -MB)
- As the lesson draws to a close, students review the lesson's vocabulary, discuss famous quotations, and then match collocations used in the video.
- The lesson closes with some final discussion questions.
UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2/C1) Lesson on The History of Architecture
Warm-up
- What are the most beautiful buildings of your home country? How has building design changed over the centuries?
- Imagine that you had more money. Describe the type of home you’d want to live in.
- In your mind, what makes a building beautiful or ugly?
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This lesson plan was created by Matthew Barton of EnglishCurrent.com (copyright). Site members may photocopy and edit the file for their classes. Permission is not given to rebrand the lesson, redistribute it on another platform, or sell it as part of commercial course curriculum. ChatGPT was used to generate answer keys and some famous quotations. For questions, contact the author.
Vocabulary: 1-function, 2-curve, 3-expression, 4-sustainable, 5-harmony, 6-essence, 7-reflect, 8-blending, 9-inspired, 10-era, 11-innovation
Comprehension Question Answer Key
1 …
2 Gothic architecture
3 glass and steel
4 Modern architecture
5 …
6 Classical → Gothic → Renaissance → Baroque → Neoclassicism → Art Deco → Modern Architecture → Brutalism → Post-modernism → Sustainable Architecture
Collocations: 1-b, 2-c, 3-a, 4-f, 5-e, 6-d