The Grammy Awards 2026
Lesson plan overview
This ESL lesson explores the Grammy Awards 2026 as a theme to develop students’ vocabulary, listening comprehension, speaking fluency, and critical thinking. Using music, award shows, and current cultural topics, learners engage with authentic content while practicing English in meaningful contexts. The lesson covers topics such as: the Grammy Awards nominees and winners for 2026, music genres, artists, and success in the music industry, as well as social and political issues discussed by artists in their acceptance speeches. Other lessons you might like are: “The impact of Taylor Swift“, https://youtu.be/2IUfONUTuBc?si=s0ueYiKhNWGup4n1and “Idioms: nominations and awards”
Activities overview:
Speaking: Students discuss music preferences, familiarity with music awards, and ideas about artistic success to personalize the topic and build speaking confidence.
Vocabulary Development: Learners match award-related vocabulary and artist descriptors with their definitions. Vocabulary focuses on music awards, performances and public reactions (e.g., to make history, standing ovation, to take home, moved, speak out against). To practice, students complete sentences using vocabulary from the previous activity.
Listening: Students watch selected segments of the 2026 Grammys video, taking notes on award winners and their speeches. Listening activities include questions about political statements, artist performances, and audience reactions, improving comprehension and critical listening skills.
Speaking: In a post- listening discussion, students participate in discussions about memorable Grammy moments, the role of celebrities in social and political issues, and the balance between entertainment and activism at award shows.
Vocabulary development: Learners learn descriptive vocabulary to talk about different types of artists (emerging, established, breakout, underrated, overrated, fan-favorite, etc.), encouraging opinion-based speaking and comparison. Then, in a practice task, they give an example of each type of artist, activating the target vocabulary.
For more speaking practice, you can use the printable conversation cards.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
Pre-class activities
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In-class activities
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Additional resources
Each video-based lesson plan includes links to additional resources (videos and articles), which are FREE can be found online (in the pre-class activities page. These links aim to extend the learning experience, enabling students to connect classroom knowledge with real-world applications.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
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