Cancel culture
Lesson plan overview
This upper-intermediate to advanced ESL worksheet is dedicated to the topic of cancel culture. Students will learn important expressions to discuss this topic and talk about various aspects of cancel culture. You can combine this lesson with the worksheets: “Cultures are not costumes (Cultural appropriation)“, “Why debates turn into arguments“, “Phrasal verb: social media“, and “Idioms: forgiveness and acceptance”. You can also take a look at the lesson “Personal branding“.
Speaking: The lesson starts with a general discussion about celebrities and the importance of public image and reputation.
Vocabulary: Before completing the vocabulary activities, students discuss what the term cancel culture means and read a short definition. Next, they learn important expressions when talking about cancel culture (call someone out, hold someone accountable, get canceled, backlash, public scrutiny, political correctness, etc.). To practice, students discuss 7 questions, each containing an expression from the previous activity.
Speaking: Next, students take a look at the photos of 7 celebrities (Kanye West, Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, Ellen DeGeneres, J.K. Rowling, Armie Hammer, Kevin Spacey) who got canceled, and discuss the reasons behind the cancellation, what consequences each of them suffered, and how has their life developed since.
Listening: Students watch a video “How does cancel culture work?” and complete 2 activities. After that, they discuss the video.
Vocabulary review and speaking: Students complete 3 opinions with words from this unit and then say which opinion they agree with. Finally, students are given 5 discussion questions.
Writing: There is an essay topic suggestion for students to complete as homework.
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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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