ESL Uncaged

Flipped lesson plan (B2 and above): Why is ice slippery? -  BUY ME A COFFEE if you like my FREE ESL content Learn why it is so hard to walk on ice without falling over.  In this worksheet, students will watch a video about the science of slipperiness, learn ice-related idioms and read an article about Frederic Tudor, the intrepid American entrepreneur who created a global market for ice in the 1800s. Educational materials shouldn't be paywalled. Show your support for my ESL content by  buying me a coffee! Lesson activities: Discuss one of Robert Frost's most famous poems, 'Fire and Ice' Watch a video explaining the reason for ice's slipperiness, using scientific vocabulary (friction, megapascals, pressure, hydrogen bonds) Learn idioms/phrases related to ice (frosty reception, when hell freezes over, (someone) could sell ice to an Eskimo, to be on thin ice) Study a text from  The Atlantic  about the stubborn American entrepreneur who defied naysayers and made huge m

Flipped lesson plan (B2 and above): Why did Prohibition fail? -  BUY ME A COFFEE if you like my FREE ESL content Teach students about America's 'noble experiment' with banning alcohol in the 1920s. In this worksheet, students will watch a TedEd video and read an article about the temperance movements, Al Capone and the Valentine's Day Massacre. Educational materials shouldn't be paywalled. Show your support for my ESL content by  buying me a coffee! Lesson activities: To warm up, students will perform Field Sobriety Tests, administered by cops on DUI suspects. These include saying the alphabet backwards and counting backwards and forwards Students will summarise the events that led to Prohibition in the US in their own words Students will learn idioms/phrases related to alcohol (hair of the dog, to get wasted, to hold your drink, Dutch courage)

Flipped lesson plan (B2 and above): How do police interrogations work? -  BUY ME A COFFEE if you like my FREE ESL content Learn how cops subtly manipulate suspects to extract a confession. In this worksheet, students will watch a video about the psychological techniques used by police to interrogate suspects. They will also read a case study, involving a woman who murderered her baby step-son. (WARNING: not suitable for young learners.)  Educational materials shouldn't be paywalled. Show your support for my ESL content by  buying me a coffee! Lesson activities: Explain in your own words the interrogation techniques detailed in the video  Read an interrogation transcript and analyse how the psychological techniques have been applied  Learn idioms/phrases related to interrogations (spill the beans, guilt trip, to talk one's way out of something, to grill someone, like talking to a brick wall, spit it out) Match descriptions of guilt, anguish and anger with pictures of facial exp

Advanced ESL worksheet (B2 and above):  W hy do we feel nostalgia? -  BUY ME A COFFEE if you like my FREE ESL content In this worksheet, students will read a poem about nostalgia and reflect on their own childhoods and how they feel looking back on them today. Idioms for discussing the past will be introduced (look through rose-tinted glasses, for old time's sake, a blast from the past, salad days). They will watch a Ted-Ed video about how nostalgia was once considered to be a dangerous mental health problem. The worksheet concludes with an article by behavioural economist Ben Ho on how Hollywood exploits our feelings of nostalgia to sell us reboots of the same old stories (think: Jurassic Park, Marvel films, etc.) Educational materials shouldn't be paywalled. Show your support for my ESL content by  buying me a coffee! Lesson outcomes:  Analyse poetic language in 'The Land of Lost Content' by Alfred Edward Housman (e.g. blue remembered hills, happy highways) Study id