Mpox (monkeypox)
Lesson plan overview
With this breaking news ESL lesson plan students learn about mpox (formerly monkeypox), and more broadly about viruses. They learn essential vocabulary and talk about symptoms, treatment and vaccination. Other health-related lessons that you might find interesting are: “First aid“, “What happens to your brain when you have a concussion?”, “Video calls and cosmetic surgery”
The lesson starts with a few conversation questions about common diseases (measles, mumps, hepatitis). Students share what they know about each one, talk about vaccination and other public health achievements.
Vocabulary: Students learn common symptoms (e.g. rash, swollen glands, fever) and use them to describe the diseases from activity one, or other diseases. In the next activity, students learn about viruses and complete the sentences with useful vocabulary (e.g. spread, outbreak, strain, epidemic). Then, they discuss a few questions to activate the vocabulary.
Pre-listening and video: Students watch a video called “Why is mpox a global health emergency?” and answer 7 comprehension questions. Finally, students discuss the video and answer a few more questions related to mpox and more broadly to viruses and diseases.
The set of conversation cards is a great way to review the target vocabulary of this lesson as well as to teach a conversation class. The Interactive PDF will make it easy to teach this lesson in an online setting.
This lesson will work great in combination with the worksheet “Phrasal verbs: health”.
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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:
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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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