Helping ESL teachers save time, reduce prep stress, and deliver more engaging lessons with ready-to-use resources and curriculum tools. Get practical materials, exclusive discounts, and business tips — straight to your inbox.
Controversy, chaos, and a flaming piano... ESL lesson?
|
Hey, it’s Robbie. Controversy. That can only mean one thing... Eurovision is back. And to honour this Saturday’s Grand Final (aka one of the most-watched annual TV events in Europe), I wanted to share a free lesson you can use with your ESL learners. Here’s how it works: 1) Lead In:We start with a quick visual icebreaker. Students look at three unusual images and try to guess what connects them. What could a talking turkey, a bearded drag queen, and a group of Russian grannies possibly have in common? They were all Eurovision contestants, of course. 2) Reading + VideoNext, students read a short, engaging text about Eurovision’s bizarre history and surprisingly specific rules. Then they complete a few true/false questions to check understanding. From there, we move on to a fun video explaining the “perfect formula” for a Eurovision-winning song. Powerful opening? Check. 3) Creative ProductionIn small groups, students create their own Eurovision entry. They decide: What kind of song it is If there’s time, we finish with some open-ended discussion questions around identity, taste, and cultural values. The whole thing is light, visual, fun to teach, and usually sparks interesting conversations. If you'd like to try it out, you can grab the slides here. Hope it brings a little fun to your week... and maybe saves you a planning headache too. And if you’re watching Eurovision this Saturday, may your favourites not get robbed. Warmly, P.S. If you enjoy lessons with this kind of visual flow... Then you'll want to check out my ESL Animated Lesson Mega Bundle, if you haven't already. Yes, you'll get no-prep lessons, interactive grammar presentations, games, and activities you can start using immediately... But you'll also be free to make your own changes, since everything is fully editable. So you can tweak, adapt, and add parts to match your own unique teaching style. |
Teaching On Your Terms
Helping ESL teachers save time, reduce prep stress, and deliver more engaging lessons with ready-to-use resources and curriculum tools. Get practical materials, exclusive discounts, and business tips — straight to your inbox.
Hey, it’s Robbie. Just a quick heads-up before the TpT sale ends today. If you were thinking about picking up my Job Interviews + Business Meetings bundle, you can still get it for less than usual while the sale is live. These are the kinds of lessons you’re glad to have ready when a student tells you they have an interview coming up, or says, “I need to speak more in meetings at work.” The Job Interview lesson helps learners understand what interviewers are looking for, organise stronger...
Hey, it’s Robbie. Yesterday I shared one of the biggest changes I made to the way I plan lessons: I stopped building lessons around vague goals like “improve your speaking” and started building them around real situations learners needed to handle at work. Over the last few weeks, I’ve used that same idea to give my Job Interviews and Business Meetings lessons a major update. So today, I thought I’d show you some of the thinking behind the changes. The Job Interview Lesson One of the tricky...
Hey, it’s Robbie. I hope you’re having a great summer. We’ve been having an unusually hot one here in Dublin. And speaking of things heating up… Actually, no. I have absolutely no idea how to segue from the weather into Business English. (Yes, my segues still need some work.) Anyway… When I first started teaching English online in 2020, I spent far too much time planning lessons. I’d create something for one student, teach it once, and then start almost from scratch for the next one. After a...