How Reading Affects the Brain

The main goals of this C1 ESL lesson plan are for students to:

• – practice new advanced vocabulary on the topic of benefits of reading,
• – improve reading comprehension to talk about how reading affects our development,
• – discuss how reading is not valued enough.

In this advanced lesson, students will explore how reading affects the brain through comprehension exercises, vocabulary work, and critical discussion prompts.

Warm-up:

To get students going and ready for the lesson they will be asked to read a short text on how reading impacts our ability to communicate. To evoke more natural responses the students will be asked to share any experiences they might have had with reading.

Video:

The students will watch an authentic video “How reading changes the way your brain works” and choose which of the statements were mentioned in the video. This part of the lesson requires the students to show understanding of a fast-paced video honing their fluency in the use of English.

Reading:

The learners will read three separate authentic texts “Reading and the Brain”, “10 Brain Reasons To Make Reading a Habit”, and “ChatGPT May Be Eroding Critical Thinking Skills, According to a New MIT Study”.

Each of the texts will have a follow-up activity such as answering a broad question about the main message of the text or filling in blanks in sentences based on what the students read.

Discussion:

The students will discuss whether fiction or non-fiction provides greater cognitive benefits.