Humour has changed a lot over the years. While people still enjoy a good joke, many now find entertainment in comedy shows, pranks, memes, and endless cat videos online. In this Cambridge PET writing article lesson, students practise B1 Preliminary Writing Part 2 by writing an article about what makes them laugh and who they enjoy laughing with.
With International Joke Day falling on 1st July, this lesson is a great way to bring some laughter into the classroom while preparing for the exam. Humour is highly personal as we all laugh at different things. For me, some of the funniest things are certain people, cat videos, and classic dad jokes. There is also no shortage of funny moments in the ESL classroom. If you’d like to read some relatable teaching anecdotes, take a look at my post Laugh It Off!. You may also enjoy my B2-level lesson Why Is This Funny?: Decoding English Jokes, in which students explore different types of English humour and discover why some jokes are much harder to understand than they first appear.
In Cambridge B1 Preliminary Writing, candidates complete two writing tasks. Part 1 is compulsory and requires students to respond to an email. If you’d like a step-by-step guide to teaching this part of the exam, you can also check out my lesson on Cambridge PET – Writing Part 1. In this lesson, however, we focus on Part 2, where students choose between writing an article or a story. The exam task used in this lesson is based on an article question from the official Sample tests for B1 Preliminary for Schools. At the end of the post, you will find the lesson plan, worksheet, and answer key.
Warmer: Dad Jokes
Start the lesson by giving students one or two jokes each, depending on the size of the class. Students read the jokes aloud and, if necessary, explain them to their classmates (because, as everyone knows, all good jokes become even funnier when they’re explained!). The aim of this activity is to introduce students to the world of dad jokes and get them thinking about different types of humour.
The jokes used in this lesson were taken from 175 Bad Jokes That You Can’t Help but Laugh At by Reader’s Digest. You can find the original collection by following the link below. Here are some of the best ones which can be found on the worksheet.
What do you call a can opener that doesn’t work? A can’t opener!
I sold my vacuum the other day. All it was doing was collecting dust.
Did you hear the story about the claustrophobic astronaut?
He just needed some space.
After reading the jokes, students work in pairs and rank them from the funniest to the least funny. Compare the results as a class and discuss how different people’s sense of humour can be.
Discussion: What Makes You Laugh?
Write the expression Laughter is the best medicine on the board and ask students what they think it means and whether they have a similar saying in their languages. Next, introduce a Speaking Part 3-style discussion task based on the question – What makes you laugh? As a class, brainstorm six possible answers. Students then discuss the ideas in pairs and decide which one makes them laugh the most. Encourage them to justify their choices and give examples from their own lives. This stage generates ideas that students can later use in their writing.
Cambridge PET Writing Part 2: Understanding the Task
Before writing, students need to understand what examiners expect from them. Read the exam task together and underline the key information. Explain that in Writing Part 2, candidates choose between writing an article or a story. In this lesson, students focus on writing an article based on a task from the official B1 Preliminary for Schools Handbook. Students read two sample answers and decide which one is more successful and why.
Assessment Criteria: Understanding Examiners
A great way to improve writing is to understand how it is assessed. Introduce the four assessment criteria (Content, Communicative Achievement, Organisation and Language). If this is your students’ first experience with the criteria, analyse one sample answer together. Identify strengths and weaknesses and decide how many marks it deserves. Students then evaluate the second sample answer independently before comparing their scores with the official examiner’s marks. This often leads to useful discussions about what makes a strong exam answer.
Writing Preparation: The Importance of Planning
One habit that can significantly improve exam performance is planning. Before students begin writing, ask them to spend a few minutes organising their ideas. Use the full-mark sample answer as a model and discuss its structure. Students then create their own article plans and share them with a partner or the whole class. Even if the actual writing is assigned for homework, practising the planning stage in class helps students develop an effective exam routine.
Final Task: Write an Article
If time allows, give students approximately 30 minutes to write their articles in class. Finish with peer assessment using the Cambridge criteria introduced earlier in the lesson. This not only reinforces the assessment scales but also helps students become more aware of their own writing strengths and weaknesses. If you’re introducing article writing for the first time, the additional classroom time is usually well worth the investment.
Click the link below to access the complete worksheet, lesson plan, and suggested answers.
What and who makes you laugh?
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