Are you being catfished? (cybercrime)
Lesson plan overview
This upper-intermediate and advanced worksheet explores the topic of cybercrime and catfishing in particular. Students learn useful vocabulary and collocations to talk about cybercrime, watch an informative video, talk about the topic and practise with different role-play scenarios. You can combine this lesson with the video-based lessons “Modern dating“, “How to spot a liar”, “Don’t fall for these crypto and NFT scams”, and the worksheet “Phrasal verbs: crime”
Vocabulary: after an initial discussion, student learn different types of cybercrime (e.g. data breach, cyber extortion, catfishing) and discuss how people can protect themselves against each of them, what the negative consequences are for the victim and what punishment would be suitable for each one. In the pre-listening vocabulary activity, student learn noun + verb collocations (extort money, gain your trust, catch them lying) and adjective + noun collocations (social engineering, psychological damage, best-case scenario) by completing 2 short texts.
Listening: Students watch a video “What is catfishing and how to avoid it” and answer several questions related to the video. Then students complete extracts from the video with the correct prepositions to learn idioms and phrasal verbs (something might be up, to keep tabs on someone, lure someone into, fall for) and watch the video again to check their answers.
The lesson concludes with 3 role-play scenarios which provide further opportunity for students to practise the target vocabulary of the lesson.
Homework: 3 research topics are suggested which aim to develop the topic further. The topics, combined with the additional resources provided on theenglishflows.com provide plenty of extra opportunities for contact with topic-related vocabulary in order to reinforce and enrich it
Unlock these resources with one of our subscription plans
Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
Pre-class activities
All video-based ESL lesson plans include online pre-class activities, which are FREE and can be completed without registration. Perfect for teachers who wish to embrace the blended learning approach. By providing students with resources and engagement opportunities before the actual class session, educators can foster active participation, enhance comprehension, and optimise in-class discussions.
The pre-class activities are optional: if you choose not to assign them, or your students don’t complete them, it will not disturb the flow of the class. You can find and review the pre-class activities for this lesson plan here:
To send the pre-class activities to your students, copy the link below.
In-class activities
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.
Unlock these resources with one of our subscription plans
Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
Not sure yet?
Try one of our FREE lessons plans
Share this lesson plan with someone who will find it useful