Lesson Topics: mortality, gratitude
Skill Focus: Listening, Speaking, Vocabulary
Approximate Class Time: 1.75 hours
Lesson Plan Download: ten-minutes-to-live-upper-intermediate-082025.docx
- The lesson begins with warm-up questions about accomplishment and near-death experiences.
- Next, students watch a short 1:21-minute YouTube video of Jim Carrey talking to talk-show host Jimmy Fallon. Carrey recounts his stressful but transcendent experience being told he had 10 minutes to live after receiving a missile alert in Hawaii in 2018. Residents of the island were later told the alert was sent by mistake.
- 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.
- In the first speaking activity, students discuss what they'd do if they had 10 minutes, one day, or one year to live.
- The highlights of this lesson are its roleplays, both of which are based on apparently true stories that occurred after the missile alert. In the first, a woman must explain a white lie she told to a friend who confessed that he loved her after hearing the alert. In the second, a woman attempts to sue the state of Hawaii for the alert which led her alcoholic brother into a relapse that ultimately cost him his life.
- For something more uplifting, the final speaking activity has students express gratitude for the blessings they've received in life.
- 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 about Ten Minutes to Live
Warm-up
- What are some major things in life that you have accomplished so far?
- What are some major things in life that you have not accomplished yet?
- Have you ever felt like your life was about to end? (Note: avoid telling any really sad stories)
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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.
Comprehension Question Answer Key
1 …
2 His own face photographed at the moment he thought he had ten minutes to live.
3 He couldn’t leave the island and didn’t want to die stuck in traffic trying to meet loved ones.
4 He sat on the lanai, looked at the ocean, and listed everything he was grateful for.
5 “Point of grace” = a calm, accepting state of gratitude and peace just before what he believed was the end.
6 …
7 “It’s been a good ride” means he feels his life has been enjoyable and fulfilling overall.
8 …
Vocabulary: 1-alert, 2-heads rolled, 3-pissed off, 4-drill, 5-come up with, 6-blessings, 7-shelter, 8-gratitude, 9-posed, 10-missile
Collocations: 1-a, 2-e, 3-b, 4-c, 5-d.