Lesson plan about social studies and education

In this lesson, learners practise and improve their listening skills as they listen to a conversation between two teenagers talking about learning social studies at school.

Sarah Smith and Sea Steele

13 - 17

This lesson encourages learners to develop listening comprehension skills while finding out about social studies and the benefits of learning it. The materials provide meaningful language practice and encourage critical thinking, helping learners to reflect upon what makes school subjects useful. The lesson also provides opportunities for learners to speak creatively and persuasively about introducing a new school subject to their timetable.

Lesson outcomes

All learners will:

practise listening to a conversation between two teenagers about social studies (what it is and the benefits of studying it)
reflect upon what makes school subjects useful
practise speaking by preparing a pitch for introducing a new school subject.

Materials

Lesson plan
Student worksheet
Transcript
Presentation
Audio file

Procedure

Stage

Lead-in

Tell the learners that today they're going to find out about a really interesting subject to study at school. It's called social studies and it's a combination of different subjects.
Show Slide 2. In pairs or small groups, the learners decide which of the subjects are part of social studies, and why.
In feedback, invite the groups to say what they think social studies includes and ask them to justify their answers.

Listening 1

Tell the learners that they're going to listen to a conversation between Amir and Lewis. Which of these subjects (on Slide 2) does social studies include, according to Amir?
Play the audio.
The learners share their answers with their partner. Click on Slide 2 again to reveal the answers.
Follow-up question: Did Amir persuade Lewis to take social studies? (Yes)

Listening 2

Tell the learners that they're going to listen again to find out what social studies helps you understand. Give out the Worksheet. The learners listen again and take notes on the different topics.
Play the audio.
Let learners compare answers with a partner after the first listening. Then play the audio again. Invite them to check the answers again together before you show Slides 3 and 4.
Alternatively, you could divide the learners into four groups, and each group listens for one of these topics. The groups then share their answers with the whole class, and then everyone listens again to check and add any extra information they hear.
Show the answers on Slides 3 and 4 for learners to self-check and compare.

Productive task preparation

Tell learners that they're going to look again at the subjects they saw at the start of the lesson (show Slide 5). Explain to learners that all of these subjects are in fact part of social studies. Make it clear that social studies includes more subjects than just the ones Amir mentions in the conversation.
Put learners into small groups and invite them to answer the questions on Slide 6.

Which of these subjects do you enjoy most? Why?
Which is most useful for your future? Why?
Which is most useful for society? Why?
What subjects that are NOT taught at your school would you like to learn?

Monitor closely. Encourage learners to think outside the box when it comes to question 4. They could think about subjects that relate to life skills, creativity or well-being. Some ideas are: DIY and repair, gardening, cooking, managing finances, animal care, meditation, critical thinking.
Do some whole-class feedback. Write ideas for the subjects mentioned in question 4 on the board.

Productive task

Introduce the task. Now, imagine you have the opportunity to introduce a brand-new subject to your school. With your group, prepare a two-minute pitch to convince the head teacher that your subject should be added to the timetable. You may need to explain that a 'pitch' is a speech that persuades someone to buy or do something.
In small groups, learners choose one of the 'new' subjects from question 4 to pitch to the head teacher.
Tell them that you're going to play the part of the head teacher, and you will choose the subject that seems to be:

a. the most enjoyable for the students

b. the most useful for their futures

c. the most beneficial for society.

Give learners ten minutes to prepare their pitch. Remind them that it can be a maximum of two-minutes long. Show Slide 7 with prompts to help them with their planning. Encourage creativity and enthusiasm – remember, they are 'selling' their idea!
Monitor closely and help with any language they need.
The groups present their pitch one by one. Tell them that they have a maximum of two minutes. After that you will stop them.
Ask some follow-up questions to challenge them, for example: What sorts of teachers will teach the class? What sort of job could this subject help you to get? Could this subject help solve a problem in society? Which one?
Announce the winning subject and explain why you chose it.

Extension