Level: Intermediate
Lesson type: Conversation and Reading (optional)
Topic: Career and Personal Development
Lesson time: 1h/1h30 approx.

Teacher’s notes

Note:  This lesson is especially relevant if taught either a) at the end of term or around the time the training course ends, as a way to reflect and set new learning objectives, or b) at the start of a new term, as a way to set goals for the upcoming weeks/months. The warmer activity could also lend itself to a lengthier discussion on the Intermediate Plateau: it may be helpful for you to gauge how your students feel about their own progress at their current intermediate level. Have they been feeling frustrated or stuck lately? This article gives great advice on how to help students conquer the Intermediate Plateau.

Click here for the full handout.
Click here for an optional reading activity handout.

Warmer

Performance plateau activity: Without telling the students what it is about, draw a simple graph (on a whiteboard or sheet of paper) representing the performance plateau.

Ask students what it could mean: maybe it could represent the level of pain you feel wearing a new pair of shoes over time or the level of interest in talking about the weather as one ages… Encourage them to be creative!

Short debate: Ask students if they feel this graph applies to anything in their work or life at present. Some possible follow-up questions, depending on time and student engagement with your first question: Have you ever spent a lot of time and effort working on something but not seeing any results? Why do you think that happens? What can be done differently to change this?

During group discussion, make notes of any language mistakes students make throughout. Provide feedback at the end of the lesson (for ideas on correcting mistakes and giving feedback in class, click here).

Pre-teaching and watching the video

Pre-teaching vocabulary: Elicit/feed these challenging words/expressions from the video: stagnation, to emulate, to hinder, sword, orator, lisp, high/low stakes, to foster, flawless, to fall behind.

Viewing questions: Ask students to follow the instructions written in the (folded) handout, and make notes accordingly. Feedback and discussion after watching the video.

Post-viewing activities and consolidation

Handout activity (wrap-up): Ask students to unfold their handouts and read the instructions in pairs. After completing the graph, students can share what they have written with the class.

Reading activity (optional):  Depending on the number of students in your class, divide them into three groups or pairs and hand each of them a page of this handout, containing excerpts of an entry taken from the Mindset Works blog, written by Eduardo Briceño. Ask each group or pair to read the type of mistake they were handed and discuss how to best summarize the information provided, noting any new vocabulary they come across. Using this illustrated chart as a guide, students should then present their group’s assigned mistake.

For similar lesson plans based on TED talks, click here. If you’re interested in learning how to create a lesson plan around a TED talk of your choosing, click here.