ESL/EFL Level: Upper-Intermediate (B2/C1)
Lesson Topics: high school, making friends
Skill Focus: Speaking, Vocabulary, Listening, Writing
Approximate Class Time: 1.75 hours
Lesson Plan Download: whats-highschool-like-upper-intermediate-042026.docx
Lesson Overview:
Lesson Topics: high school, making friends
Skill Focus: Speaking, Vocabulary, Listening, Writing
Approximate Class Time: 1.75 hours
Lesson Plan Download: whats-highschool-like-upper-intermediate-042026.docx
Lesson Overview:
- Audience: This lesson was written for young teens entering high school.
- Students first warm up with questions about school subjects and teachers.
- Before viewing the lesson's video, students preview six questions that are asked in the video. Then, as they watch the video, they are asked to take notes. After viewing, they discuss the questions in a group, along with two follow-up questions.
- The video (3:44) is entitled "What is Going to High School Like?" It contains interviews with young Australian high school students who answer questions about making friends, studying, and how high school is different from primary school. The speakers have Australian accents.
- 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 three debate prompts, the first speaking activity is a roleplay between a nervous student who is about to start school and an older sibling, whose role is to be supportive and calm the student's nerves.
- Next, as vocabulary practice, students use vocabulary from the lesson to make a story using four images.
- The next activity is an interview. Students pretend they are the students in the video, taking turns asking each other questions about high school.
- After four famous quotations, students then review vocabulary and the lesson's collocations.
- Finally, the lesson ends with a few final discussion questions.
UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2/C1) Lesson on High School
- What is your favourite subject? What is your least favourite?
- What are you most excited about or most nervous about in your future school life?
- Do you prefer having one teacher for all subjects or a different teacher for each subject? Why?
Membership is required to view this post. Please support EnglishCurrent by becoming a member today. Members, please log in.
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.
Vocabulary answer key: 1-d, 2-i, 3-f, 4-h, 5-e, 6-k, 7-g, 8-b, 9-a, 10-c, 11-j
Collocations: 1-b, 2-c, 3-e, 4-a, 5-f, 6-d