ESL/EFL Level: Upper-Intermediate/Advanced (C1)
Lesson Topics: war, propaganda, manipulation
Skill Focus: Speaking, Vocabulary, Listening, Writing
Approximate Class Time: 2 hours
Lesson Plan Download: wartime-sucker-upper-intermediate-042026.docx
Lesson Overview:
Lesson Topics: war, propaganda, manipulation
Skill Focus: Speaking, Vocabulary, Listening, Writing
Approximate Class Time: 2 hours
Lesson Plan Download: wartime-sucker-upper-intermediate-042026.docx
Lesson Overview:
- Language note: The film clip in this lesson contains the word "negroes" in two places. Please preview the video before use.
- Note on level: This lesson is C1 in level, so it could be used for strong upper-intermediate or advanced students.
- Students first warm up with questions about scapegoats, being a sucker, and World War II.
- This lesson contains both a short passage and clip. Students first watch a short (2:18m) clip from the US War Department from 1947, entitled "Don't be a sucker!" The film is designed to show American citizens the dangers of manipulation and prejudice. (The entire film, 22 minutes in length, is great as well.) After the clip, the remainder of the film is explained in a short paragraph, along with two quotations. Though old, the film makes the viewer contemplate how manipulation and propaganda have changed in the modern day, and also, more generally, how society has improved or worsened.
- The video and passage are followed by comprehension and follow-up questions.
- Next, students review phrases from the video and match key vocabulary to definitions. Once complete, students use some of the new vocabulary to complete discussion questions.
- After two debate prompts about prejudice and immigrant integration, students are introduced to the term manipulation and asked to identify manipulative strategies from the video. Afterwards, through two roleplay scenarios, students practice employing manipulative strategies and responding to them.
- Next, as a group activity, students design their own government-funded film that aims to address a societal problem.
- Next, to reinforce the lesson's vocabulary, students tell a story using six images and the 12 vocabulary from the lesson.
- After three famous quotations, students then review vocabulary and the lesson's collocations.
- Finally, the lesson ends with a few final discussion questions.
UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (C1) Lesson on Liberty & War
Warm-up Questions
- Is there a group of people who are often blamed for your country’s problems?
- To be a sucker means to be fooled or tricked by someone. When was the last time you were a sucker?
- What do you know about the Second World War? How did it start?
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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. Claude was used to generate answer keys and some famous quotations. For questions, contact the author.
Comprehension questions:
- …
- The orator implies that some Americans are more authentically American than others — specifically white, Protestant, non-immigrant Americans. It's a way of dividing people into "real" Americans and everyone else.
- He appeals to the crowd's patriotism and sense of identity ("I'm just an average American"), creates a common enemy by blaming specific groups for society's problems, uses emotional language to provoke fear and anger, and frames the issue as an urgent threat requiring action.
- The speaker includes Freemasons in his list of enemies. Since the young man is himself a Mason, he suddenly realizes he is one of the groups being targeted — and that changes everything.
- They created suspicion among different minority groups, turning them against each other. They also suppressed the truth by banning books, imprisoning academics, and discouraging citizens from attending college or consuming news.
- Subjective/discussion. The professor's point is that prejudice is not natural — it is manufactured by those who benefit from it politically or economically.
- Subjective/discussion. Students might mention populist politicians who scapegoat immigrants, religious groups, or ethnic minorities in their own countries.
- Subjective/discussion. "Woke" generally refers to awareness of social injustice and discrimination. The commenter's point is that the film's explicit anti-racist message would be criticized as political or ideological by some people today — which is itself a rich irony worth discussing.
Vocabulary answer key: 1-e, 2-j, 3-a, 4-f, 5-k, 6-d, 7-l, 8-i, 9-c, 10-g, 11-h, 12-b
Collocations: 1-h, 2-a, 3-c, 4-I, 5-b, 6-g, 7-d, 8-e, 9-f