Snack Attack: The Hidden Truth About Your Favorite Treats

The main goals of this ESL lesson plan are:

• – To get students talking about processed foods and the risks they pose
• – To teach food-related vocabulary
• – To work on B2 level grammar

In this upper-intermediate lesson plan, students will practice using English vocabulary related to processed foods.

During the lesson, students are encouraged to compare and contrast processed and unprocessed foods and share their own opinions, and to actively engage in discussion activities with their teacher.

Warm-up:

Students talk about a selection of discussion questions with their teacher. Students should provide reasons or examples to support their answers. By doing so, they get to practice a natural English conversation flow. The teacher should take the lead in this section, asking follow-up questions to increase the student’s talking time.

Video:

Students watch an authentic English-language video called “How harmful can ultra-processed foods be for us?”, noting down key ideas and new expressions that they hear. Students are encouraged to ask the teacher about new phrases or ideas in the video that surprised them. New language should be noted down so that they can use it in subsequent conversation practice. Following the video, students answer questions related to the video content.

Exercises:

This part of the lesson focuses on boosting the students’ active vocabulary by having them complete a variety of English vocabulary activities. Students will talk about processed foods using a provided chart, decide if statements are true or false, and identify mistakes in sentences. In the following exercises, students talk about what can make processed foods appealing and compare processed foods to unprocessed ones. In the final two exercises they insert words from a word bank into the correct gaps in sentences and match terms to their definitions.

By working with the language in a variety of ways, students will find it easier to retain and recall the new language when participating in discussion activities.

Discussion:

Students react to a quote related to a healthy diet, saying whether they agree or disagree, and why. Students should use new language from the lesson, and also provide reasons and examples to support their point of view. More confident students should also be encouraged to ask the teacher for their opinions. During this stage of the lesson, the teacher focuses primarily on the student’s fluency, not letting minor mistakes interrupt the flow of conversation. This will help to build the student’s confidence when participating in real-life English conversations. The teacher should also elicit use of new language from the lesson if necessary by asking leading questions.