Taxes
Lesson plan overview
With this engaging intermediate ESL lesson students will learn a lot of useful expressions to talk about taxes, discuss various aspects of the tax system in their country and watch a video about tax brackets. You can combine this lesson with other money and economy-related lessons, such as “Inflation and young people”, “Can you retire in your 30s? (The FIRE movement)”, “Can money buy happiness?“and “Phrasal verbs: Money” and “Idioms: financial trouble“.
Speaking: The lesson begins with a few conversation questions about taxes, which can be discussed in pairs or with the whole class.
Reading: Students read a comparison between the tax systems in the UK and the US and complete 1 comprehension activity.
Vocabulary: Students complete the phrase given with the correct word (income tax, inheritance tax, council tax, value added tax, taxable income, to file a tax return, etc). All of the phrases appear in the texts. Next, students complete a few sentences with the correct expression, and then discuss 4 conversation questions.
Listening: Students watch a video “How tax brackets actually work” and complete a multiple-choice and a gap-fill activity. After that they have a discussion about the video and what they have learned from it.
Debate: Students are given 3 tax-related debate topics.
Writing and speaking (possibly assigned as a homework task): Students are asked to research the tax system of their country and present their findings to the class. The conversation cards provide an additional opportunity to practise and revise the target vocabulary from this lesson.
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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:
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.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
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