Apex Predators

The main goals of this ESL lesson plan are:

• – to engage students with interactive B1 level exercises on the topic of apex predators,
• – to improve reading comprehension,
• – to learn new vocabulary and practice listening skills.

This intermediate ESL lesson plan engages students with interactive exercises about apex predators including matching activities, gap-fill dialogues, and discussions.

Warm-up:

The lesson starts with students reading several facts about apex predators. The students are asked to explain what bolded phrases mean, using their own words.

Video:

The learners watch a video “Tiger that killed its owner ‘was a cat being a cat’.” They are asked to look at a list of points and pick those that were mentioned in the video. This helps improve listening and speaking skills.

Reading:

Next, students read a short text about apex predators and answer questions about the text in order to check their reading comprehension.

Exercises: 

In the first task, students match phrases with their definitions, helping to reinforce new words. In the second activity, they fill in the blanks in short dialogues using the vocabulary provided. This gives them a chance to see how the phrases work in real-life conversations.

Then, students choose one of several discussion topics and use the expressions provided.

Finally, students complete sentences with their own words.

Discussion:

At the end of the lesson, students choose two opinions they agree or disagree with. They explain their reasoning.