Dracula: How the legend was born

The main goals of this ESL lesson plan are to:

• – Explore myths and legends vocabulary including mythical creatures like “chimera” and “phoenix” plus idioms from ancient mythology in this C2 lesson plan.
• – Discover the Dracula legend through TED-Ed videos about vampire origins and Vlad the Impaler’s historical connections for advanced ESL lessons.
• – Distinguish between storytelling types by understanding differences between myths, fables, and legends while discussing famous English folklore characters using these English teaching materials.

In this C2 lesson plan, the student will learn and practice vocabulary related to myths and legends. They will also learn more about the famous legend of Dracula and talk about it as they watch a TedEd video.

Warm-up

The lesson starts with a few warm-up questions about living and non-living legends. The student then learns the difference between a legend, a myth, a fable, and a lore in a matching exercise. Next, they sort out keywords related to myths and legends.

Vocabulary: myths and legends

The student learns about mythical creatures by completing the scrambled descriptions (chimera, phoenix, basilisk, and pegasus). Then, they match the names of the creatures with the images.

After that, the student gets familiar with characters from famous English legends (Robin Hood, King Arthur, The Loch Ness Monster, and Saint George).

Next, they learn idioms originating from ancient mythologies and legends (rise like a phoenix from the ashes, sow dragon’s teeth, etc.) by matching them with their descriptions.

The student tries to list the roles that local legends played in local communities.

Vampires

The student reads a Wikipedia entry about vampires and replaces the words in bold with their closest synonyms. Then, they complete a mind map with associations related to the word vampire. This is followed by an activity in which the student discusses everything they know about vampires. 

Video: How did Dracula become the world’s most famous vampire?

The student watches a video and learns the story of Dracula’s character, and ticks the words they hear. After that, they watch the video again and look for the context in which the words appeared. 

Video: Vlad The Impaler

The student watches a video about Vlad Tepes’s life. Some sentences are extracted from the video for the student to correct them. 

Brief vocabulary review

In several word sequences, the student chooses the odd one out and explains why.