It’s always exciting when a new lesson idea begins to take shape. Perhaps you come across a video, or read a text – or maybe it’s a visual image – a picture, a map, a diagram – that gives you the idea. I’ve also learnt that sometimes it’s what might at first seem to be a fairly dull topic that can be used to fire students’ imagination and interest. Of course, you never know if a lesson will really work until you have done it, and tweaked it.

For this week I have created materials around the topic of glass. What do we use it for? What do we like or dislike about it? How is it made – and how do we describe the process? How will it be used in the future? What kind of language do you need if you want to make people focus on something they probably take for granted? In addition to these questions and the language work they involve, we will also read some extracts from novels and poems where glass is described, literally and metaphorically. I have adapted this lesson to B2, C1 and C2 levels by adding or changing aspects of the skills, grammar and vocabulary accordingly. I’ll tell you how it goes in a later post…

Daniel Brint.