B1 – Are you a Bookworm?

The second lesson of my Preply course, Culture Vulture, is a B1 books lesson plan designed for book lovers. While focused on reading habits, the main goal is to enhance speaking skills.

I’ve thought a lot about this course and have already wrapped it up with one group. I wanted to keep things interesting for the students by changing the topic and the class structure, so they wouldn’t get bored too quickly. Since the first lesson, The Power of Music, focused more on the listening part, the second lesson needed to concentrate more on speaking. Plus, I noticed that fewer people are really into books these days, so I figured it made sense to have them talking for almost the whole lesson to keep them engaged.

If you’re into this class, you can grab the lesson plan and the presentation at the bottom of the post.

Warmer

I wanted to begin the class by pointing out that reading is super important in our lives. Let’s start by thinking about times when we read without even noticing it. Try to come up with a few examples of texts we read that aren’t books. I mentioned things like newspapers, notes, recipes, and shopping lists. It’s a good idea to chat about why it’s important to really get what we read in those situations.

Reading Preferences

You can start by chatting about how students like to engage with reading. Have them team up in pairs or small groups to interview each other about their preferences – whether they enjoy traditional paper books, e-books, or listening to audiobooks. If you’ve got some students who are into audiobooks, that’s a great opportunity to kick off a debate on whether listening to books actually counts as reading. To wrap up this part of the lesson, have everyone brainstorm two pros and cons of reading printed books versus digital ones. In my class, students quickly shared their thoughts, with many mentioning how holding and even smelling a book is a big part of the reading experience for them.

Debate: Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover

I’m really into PET and FCE speaking part 3 questions, and I love including similar activities in my speaking lessons. To start this part, let’s chat about the saying Don’t judge a book by its cover. I’m sure the students have heard it before and can explain what it means in their own words. A quick show of hands can help us see who agrees or disagrees with that idea.

Split the students into pairs or small groups and ask them to figure out what matters most when choosing a book to read. Is it the author, the title, the cover design, the genre, or maybe some good reviews? Give each group a couple of minutes to settle on their top choice. Once they’re done, have each group share their decision and explain why they picked it. Wrap this part up by zeroing in on book reviews since that’ll be the main topic next. Ask if they usually read or write reviews after finishing a book.

Analysing Real Book Reviews

For this part of the class, I looked up some short and real book reviews and found two that were really great. They were posted by Brief Book Reviews (Brief Book Reviews on Instagram), in a post called Going on vacation? If you’re into reading and need some awesome book suggestions, definitely check out that blog. Students checked out reviews for The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North and A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. They got to pick which book they’d rather read and discuss why. It was also a good chance for students to chat about how a solid book review can really change how they feel about a book.

Reflection on Reading Habits

Students take a moment to think about how their reading habits have changed over the years. They should reflect on their favorite books from childhood and what made those stories special to them. Each student will jot down their top three all-time favorite books. As you walk around the classroom, check in on what they’ve chosen and ask them to explain why those books are at the top of their list.

Role-play: Book Recommendations

Tell students to keep their top 3 lists handy since they’ll need them for the next part of the lesson. Here’s how the roleplay works: Student A talks about what they’re looking to read right now and asks Student B for some suggestions. Based on what A shares, Student B picks one book from their top 3 and recommends it. Then, they both try to convince each other to read one of their favourite books.

If you’ve got some time to spare, you can wrap up the class with a group chat about books and how everyone likes to read. And of course, finish things off with some speaking feedback and a bit of error correction.

Wondering how many of your students are total bookworms? Grab your files below and check it out!

What’s your favorite activity to get students talking about books in class?