Merry Christmas from TUGToC!
At around this time of year, I am always looking for a nice holiday lesson to send everyone off for their Christmas break, feeling warm and fuzzy inside. For the past couple of years I have been just about to jet off somewhere exotic for a few weeks to get away from the dreaded flu season. Unfortunately that won’t be the case this year.
To make myself feel warm and fuzzy inside, I am giving away this free lesson to anyone who wants to use it with their students. The lesson can be used either online or in the classroom (as long as you have internet access).
If you are a subscriber to our Blog, you may have been lucky enough to enjoy the two previous Christmas lessons A Stress-free, Prep-free Christmas and Another stress free, prep. free Christmas (if you aren’t a subscriber,why not become one now?). This year’s lesson follows a similar format but I think you will agree, I have gone above and beyond this year….
The Christmas Advert – Procedure
Don’t forget the golden rules while conducting your lesson:
- always give students a task to do while listening/watching
- give students the chance to check answers in pairs before plenary feedback
Warmer – Send students to breakout rooms or have a discussion in plenary
“Do you enjoy Christmas adverts? Why, why not?
Pre-listening (optional) – play last year’s John Lewis & Partners’ Christmas advert and ask students to think about/answer the following questions while watching:
- Do you like the advert? Why, why not?
- What is the message?
- What do you think this year’s advert will include?
Pre-listening – Before playing the song in the next step, give the students a prediction task:
A Little Love by Celeste – which words do you expect to hear in the song?
In-listening (listening for specific information) – Now play the song and ask students to listen out for any of the words they predicted.
In-listening (listening for detail) – give the students a gap-fill with the lyrics while they listen for a second time. NB the song lends itself quite well to focus on 1st and 2nd conditional.
Post-listening – Put the students into groups (breakout rooms?) and ask them to discuss the following question:
Now that you have heard the song, what do you expect to see in the advertisement? What do you think this year’s storyline will be?
Now show them this year’s video to see if their predictions were correct.
If time – Discussion question:
This year’s Christmas advert was inspired by acts of kindness by the public during the pandemic. What acts of kindness have you encountered over the past year?
I hope you and your students enjoy the lesson. I can recommend preparing it all on Google Slides for a seamless online delivery.
The Ultimate Guide to CELTA 
Thanks a lot. I will try to use this.
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Let me know how you get on.
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It was a little tricky for my teenage learner – she got better when I told her to get a pen and paper and that she didn’t have to remember the lyrics 🙂 (She doesn’t turn her camera on so I’m never entirely sure what she’s doing!) But overall, a nice, positive lesson. I changed it quite a bit, will post about it when I have a chance. Thanks for the inspiration.
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Dear Emma, thank you for sharing! I did it with two groups of adult learners (B1+ and A2/B1) online. I didn’t skip anything. It worked well! It took about 70 – 80 Minutes with watching, breakout sessions and plenary discussions. My students needed probably a few more questions in the opening up activity for warming up. And not everyone quite got an idea of the first dragon video. I should have clarified the cultural phenomenon of Flaming Christmas Pudding before watching. Anyway we all enjoyed the lesson and it was a great fun at the beginning of hard lockdown! Thank you very much! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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Great, I am so pleased it worked well. Merry Christmas!
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