This is an English lesson plan aimed at gaining EFL students awareness of social media addiction and smart phone addiction.
Level: Intermediate/ Upper-Intermediate
Aim: For students to prove comprehension of the video by having a discussion about the pros and cons of social media and smart phones.
Pre-viewing
Lead-in: Play hangman or jumbled letters for “social media” and elicit some ideas about it, for example, ask students Which social media networks do you use? How do they work? Plus / minuses of each one, Do you think social media is a positive thing ? Why/ Why not?
Pre-teach:
Tycoon, ( appstore ? ), notional follower ( similar to theoretical follower ? ) , to be jacked in ( = connected) , adept = very skilled, it’s up to you, dopamine.
While watching the video
Intro: Possibly pause on each initial image and ask students what they can see / elicit their reactions.
Listening for gist: Focus questions
According to the video, is technology neutral? Why/ Why not? How is it being used?
Note: the video has subtitles so maybe initially just let students listen without the image.
Listening for detail: Comprehension questions:
( according to the video )
- What do social media tycoons have to stop pretending to be?
- What do they compare social media to?
- How many times a day do people check their phones?
- Why do people check their phone even when they haven’t received a notification?
- When do we feel stressed?
- Why didn’t Steve Jobs allow his children to use the iphone ?
- What do people do at a restaurant that is bizarre?
- Why isn’t the internet uniting the world?
- What are we doing as consumers?
- What is the challenge at the end of the video?
Post-viewing discussion:
Student A: You like social media. Talk about the advantages of social media.
Student B: You are sceptical about social media. Talk about the disadvantages of social media.
Thank you for this awesome activity!
You’re welcome!
This is great. I especially liked the video. Thanks for sharing!
how can I watch the video? I’ve used the lesson before and it has always been a great success.
Unfortunately, the video seems to have disappeared.