High stakes

The main goals of this ESL lesson plan are to:

• • – acquire new vocabulary on the subject of gambling while studying the psychological impact of games of chance.
  • – practice sentence structure and vocabulary with a range of exercises.
  • – develop their listening comprehension skills with a short video about “How Molly Bloom Ran Multimillion Dollar Underground Poker Games”. Students answer questions about the short video to check and consolidate their understanding of the language in the film.

In this B1 English language lesson, learners improve their English skills through a lesson focused on the subject of gambling and its psychological aspects. The objective of the lesson is to enhance students’ range of vocabulary when reading, discussing and listening about the habit of gambling, and the mentality that accompanies it. 

Warm-up

During the warm-up phase, students complete a sentence-creation exercise which involves organizing words in the correct way. 

Video

Students watch a short video called “How Molly Bloom Ran Multimillion Dollar Underground Poker Games.” After watching the video, they do a sentence completion and gap-fill exercise to test and consolidate language acquired in the lesson.

Exercises

During the practice section of the lesson, learners do a word-completion exercise using missing letters, with the aim to create phrases about gambling. In the second activity, students select phrases that describe certain emotional responses. In the last exercise, students complete words with the missing letters to create gambling-related phrases. 

Reading

During the reading comprehension stage, students read a short passage about the card game poker. This is followed by questions and answers to check and consolidate learners’ understanding of meaning and detail. 

Discussion

During the final stage of the lesson, students discuss a quote related to the topic.