This lesson encourages learners to develop listening comprehension skills while exploring themes of inclusion, empathy and the challenges of starting anew in different circumstances. The materials provide meaningful language practice and encourage learners to think critically and empathetically by asking them to understand the experiences of four different students and consider how schools can support new students.
Lesson outcomes
All learners will:
- discuss starting new things and how that makes us feel
- develop listening skills in four monologues about students starting new schools
- develop vocabulary connected to emotions and characteristics
- think of creative ways for schools to help new students and present these ideas.
Materials
- Lesson plan
- Student worksheet
- Transcript
- Presentation
- Audio file
- A4/A3 paper
- Lead-in (5 minutes)
- Tell learners that today they will be listening to four students who have just started a new school.
- Show Slide 2 (worksheet task 1). Say: 'Discuss the following with your partner. Share your number and the reason why you chose it.' (Click to reveal.) Point to the scale. Tell learners that 1 means they would feel very nervous and 5 means they would feel very confident. Consider demonstrating the task by giving your own example.
OPTIONAL: You may need to pre-teach confident.
- Learners talk to their partner or in small groups. Monitor closely.
- Feedback: If learners are comfortable, ask them if they would like to share their numbers and the reason for choosing them. Then show Slide 3 (Worksheet Task 1). Say: 'We are going to meet some teenagers who have just started a new school. How do you think they feel?'
Elicit some answers.
- Listening 1 (10 minutes)
- Show Slide 4 (Worksheet Task 2). Say: Listen to the teenagers talking about their new school experience. Match the student to what they say.' (Indicate the speech bubbles at the bottom of the slide.) Check with learners that they understand it's a matching task.
OPTIONAL: Depending on the level of your learners, consider checking the words uncomfortable, alone and overall.
- Play the audio.
- Learners pair check. If necessary, replay the audio.
- Elicit the answers from learners (1c, 2a, 3d, 4b) and show the answers on Slide 5.
OPTIONAL: Summary: Show Slide 6 and ask learners: 'Which student do you think is having the easiest time? Which student do you think is having the most difficult time?'
- Learners discuss in pairs, groups or as a whole class. Click again to show the next question: What advice would you give to each student?
- Learners discuss in pairs, groups or as a whole class.
- Pre-teach vocabulary (15 minutes)
- Tell learners that they will listen to the teenagers again, but to first check some vocabulary. Show Slides 7 and 8 (Worksheet Task 3). Consider pre-teaching the word ramp by showing an image.
- Learners work together to put the words/phrases in the right sentence. You can do the first one together by eliciting.
- Elicit the answers. (Slide 9 – click to reveal one by one.)
Answers: a. refugee, b. dye, c. inside jokes, d. stick together, e. lonely, f. feel out of place
If required, ask some further questions to check the meaning of each. - Do some modelling and drilling – model and drill for each word and then click one by one to elicit the word stress.
- Elicit the answers. (Slide 10 – click to reveal one by one.)
Answers: g. relief, h. welcoming, i. piercings, j. feel left out, k. get an awkward feeling, l. disabled, m. open-minded
If required, ask some further questions to check the meaning of each. - Do some modelling and drilling – model and drill for each word and then click one by one to elicit the word stress.
OPTIONAL: Slide 11. Learners discuss the following with a partner:
- Have you ever felt left out at school?
- Have you ever felt out of place in a social situation?
- Have you ever been friendly and welcoming to a new person?
- Listening 2 (15 minutes)
- Tell learners that they will listen to the teenagers again, one at a time, and answer the questions by choosing the correct option for each.
- Slide 12 (Worksheet Task 4). Learners listen and pair check. Click to show the answers.
- Repeat for slides 13, 14 and 15 (Worksheet Task 4).
- Get learners to justify their answers.
Answers:
Speaker 1: Zainab
1. What was the most difficult thing about starting a new school for Zainab?
a) She found it difficult to communicate in English.
2. Why did Zainab enjoy maths more than other subjects?
b) Maths concepts are the same everywhere.
3. How did Zainab’s relationship with Georgia make a difference?
b) Georgia helped her make friends and improve her English.
Speaker 2: Femi
1.What made Femi's experience at the new school different?
d) The school was much larger, and students already had friendship groups.
2. How does Femi feel when he tries to talk to his classmates?
c) He feels alone because the conversations are about shared experiences.
3. What did Femi try to do to feel less lonely?
c) He tried to sit with different groups outside of class.
Speaker 3: Hanna
1. How did Hanna feel before starting her new school?
d) She felt scared.
2. How did the buddy system help Hanna?
b) It helped her understand where things are at school and make a new friend.
3. What does Hanna still find difficult?
a) Understanding the past funny stories her classmates share.
Speaker 4: Adam
1. What makes Adam feel uncomfortable at his new school?
d) The students look at him because of his style.
2. How does Adam describe his experience during lunch breaks?
c) He focuses on his phone to stop feeling left out.
3. What does Adam miss the most about his old school?
a) People at his old school didn't judge his clothes and hair.
Show Slide 16. Discuss: Have you ever been in a situation like the characters? How did you feel, and what helped you? If not, how would you feel in their situation?
- Productive task (15–20 minutes)
- Show learners Slide 17 (Worksheet Task 5). Put learners in groups. Tell them that we want to make life easier for any new students that join our school and that we are going to make a Welcome plan to help them.
- Click and reveal step 1. In groups, give learners about 3 minutes to discuss:
What problems do the students have?
How could your school help students like Zainab, Femi, Hanna or Adam?
- Click and reveal step 2. 'What could your school do to make new students feel happy and included? Write a list of five ideas with your group.' Elicit one example from the whole class and then give learners 6–8 minutes to generate five ideas. Monitor, help and guide. Tell the learners that they must all write down the five ideas.
- Click and reveal step 3. Mix the learner groups up. In new groups, the learners each share their five ideas. With the new group, they choose the best three. Monitor, help and guide.
- Show Slide 18. Tell learners to write their Welcome plan on a poster. This can just be a large piece of A4/A3 paper. Give it a title and write down the three ideas. They can draw and use colours if they want, but the idea here is for learners to then present their ideas to the class/another group. Click to show an example. Give learners around 10 minutes for this.
OPTIONAL: Show Slide 19. Learners present their Welcome plan to another group and explain why their ideas will help new students.
- OPTIONAL: Reflection (5 minutes)
Show learners the reflection task on Slide 20. Get them to write some notes about their answers and then share with a partner.
- Extension tasks
Discuss: Learners discuss the following questions:
What did you learn about inclusion from these stories?Have you seen or experienced similar challenges in real life?
Write a social media post: Learners choose one speaker and write a social media post from their perspective and asking for advice. They then exchange with another learner, who can respond.
Write a thank-you message: Learners take on the role of Hanna and write a thank-you message to Georgia for helping her settle into a new school.