Live from London: 10 ideas to use with Live from London videos

The following lesson ideas can be used alongside the Live from London videos. You can use these ideas on their own, you could group some of the activities together and choose to do them in whichever order you prefer. Each lesson idea has a recommended learner level. 

Some of the ideas can be used for flipped lessons. In this scenario students can do tasks and preparatory work at home or in the school independently from the teacher for the following lesson. This allows more time for communicative tasks, teacher-led tasks or group-led tasks during class time.

1. Write an article

Level: Pre-intermediate to upper intermediate

Summary: Students use the video as a stimulus for writing an article.

Objectives: to encourage creative writing practice; to use descriptive language

Flipped: This is best done as a ‘flipped’ lesson in class or at home so that the students can watch the video as many times as they wish to write notes for their article. For the following lesson students could also upload their articles to google docs to share with the class. There could be a class vote for the best article.

Instructions: Explain to your students that they are going to watch a video where a presenter called Luke has interviewed different people.

Ask your students to imagine that on the day they were the reporter and they now need to write an article about their day out. The article could begin with the line ‘Last week I went out on to the streets of London to interview the general public about ….

You can add descriptive language for the people interviewed such as friendly, awkward, shy, reserved, bubbly or any other adjectives that you deem suitable or even recap on previous language you’ve taught on describing people, places or events. Students can write blogs or share their articles on google docs with each other.

2. Role-play

Level: Pre-intermediate to upper intermediate

Summary: Students are given roles as journalists or interviewees.

Objectives: to practise speaking; to provide fluency practice

Instructions: Play the video as a warmer. Divide the class into two: half the class will be journalists and the other half interviewees.

Journalists have to come up with six questions related to the lesson topic.

Interviewees have to write general notes on the lesson topic to prepare themselves for the interview.

Allow both groups to prepare for their interviews (approximately 10 minutes). Finally pair up journalists and interviewees for the role-play.

3. Split viewing

Level: Pre-intermediate to upper intermediate

Summary: Students are divided into two groups. One group listens to the video with no visuals. The other group watches the video with no sound.

Objectives: to engage students; to promote speaking and imagination; to practice note-taking

Instructions: Divide the class into Group 1 and Group 2. Ask Group 2 to leave the classroom.

Group 1 stay and listen to the video with no visuals. As they listen they can make notes. Encourage the students to think about how many different voices they hear and any similarities and differences they notice with each person’s answers to the questions being asked. Once they’ve listened through ask them to leave the class and swap over with Group 2.

Group 2 now watch the video without any sound. They too can make notes about the places, things and people they can see. Encourage the students to think about names and general attitude of the interviewees, whether they are more or less friendly or more or less reserved in comparison to each other.

Bring Group 1 back into the class and pair up members from each group to discuss their notes. Finally watch the full video with sound and visuals.

4. Themed discussion

Level: Pre-intermediate to intermediate

Summary: Students use the main questions from the video and additional questions as a basis for a personalised discussion.

Flipped: Students could do the preparatory work independently and prepare answers to bring to class the following day for the discussion part of the activity.

Objectives: to promote discussion; to provide fluency practice

Instructions: Write up the questions that appear in the video on the board or on a worksheet and add some extra questions. Before playing the video tell your students that Luke, the presenter/interviewer in the video, asks people about a specific topic. Ask your students to tick the questions they hear. Check answers as a class. Students then work in small groups or pairs to discuss the questions that they ticked.

5. Group reordering

Level: Pre-intermediate to intermediate

Summary: Students watch the video through once then arrange cut up pieces of the narrative into the correct order.

Objective: to listen for general understanding; to aid memory recall practice

Instructions: Print out the transcript and cut it up into small, manageable chunks. Tell your students they are going to watch the video once without further instruction. After this, hand out one piece of the transcript to each student and ask them to work as a group and arrange the transcript into the correct order. Ask the students to line up in the correct order once they think they have finished. Students re-watch the video as they stand in line to check their order of events are correct. If they find they are in the wrong order, they must move into the correct place while the video is playing.

Finally, hand out the full transcripts to check their orders again. Whilst they read the transcript ask the students to underline any language that is unfamiliar and conduct a whole-class feedback discussion boarding new language.

6. Note-taking

Level: Pre-intermediate to intermediate

Summary: Students watch the video and write down notes on a chosen interviewee.

Objective: to listen for specific information

Flipped: Preparation for the lesson can be done at home to bring to class the following day.

Instructions: Place your students into groups. Give each student in their groups the name of an interviewee from the video so each student has a different name.

Explain that as they watch the video they have to make detailed notes on their given person. Play the video. Now ask your students to share their information in their groups. Play the video again to consolidate the shared information. Students then discuss which person in the video they think they agree with the most and why.

7. Back to screen predictions

Level: Pre-intermediate to upper intermediate

Summary: Half the class watches the video whilst the other half sit with their backs to the screen. The students who can see the screen describe what is happening.

Objective: to engage students; to promote speaking, imagination and predicting skills, to practise modal verbs

Instructions: Divide students into pairs. Student A turns their seat away from the screen and student B watches the screen.

Student B explains what is happening to student A whilst watching the video with no sound.

Student B has to use the visual prompts such as the montage (the opening scenes) and the expressions and mannerisms of the people in the video to make predictions regarding what the video is about and what the people in the video are saying. Swap half way through the video.

Pairs then quickly discuss and finalise what their predictions are and then share with the rest of the class. Finally, play the video for students to check whether any of the predictions were correct.

8. Imagination task

Level: Pre-intermediate to upper intermediate

Summary: Students work in pairs and try to imagine additional information about the people in the video.

Objectives: to practise interviewing, listening and note-taking

Flipped: This could be set up as homework

Instructions: Firstly play the video and ask your students to write down each person’s name in the video.

Now ask your students to work in pairs to use their imagination to predict additional information about each person and offer justifications for their answers. They could use the following questions as guidance for thinking about additional information. As their teacher you could also make your own predictions.

• How old are they?
• Are they single or married?
• Where are they from? What’s their background?
• What’s their job?
• Do they like their job?
• How do they spend their free time?
• What kind of music do they listen to?
• What kind of films do they like?

Conduct whole class feedback allowing your students to share their ideas and see what agreements and disagreements arise. There are no right or wrong answers for this exercise as the aim of this exercise is to practise making predictions, rather than getting the right answers.

9. Find the difference

Level: Pre-intermediate to intermediate

Summary: Students are given sections of the video transcript with slight differences to the video. As they listen they have to underline the differences, and then they correct them.

Objectives: listening for specific information

Instructions: Download and edit the transcript so that there are sections in the transcript which are different from the video. Ask students to underline the differences as they watch the video for the first time. In pairs they correct the sentences.

Finally, watch the video for a second time to check answers.

10. Interview task

Level: Pre-intermediate to upper intermediate

Summary: Students work in pairs or small groups to interview people in their school and/or local area.

Objectives: speaking; interviewing; listening; note-taking

Flipped: This could be set up as homework, and the interviews could take place the following day during class time.

Instructions: Use the video as a warmer. Before playing the video, tell your students that Luke, the presenter/interviewer in the video, asks a number of questions. Ask your students to write down the questions they hear. Now place your students into pairs and ask each pair to think of three additional questions about the same theme. Explain to the students that they are going to interview people and they can record the answers on a video camera, phone or note down answers on paper. Once your students have interviewed at least five people they can report back to class. They can then choose how they wish to present their findings. They could present them, create a video, write an article or blog, or turn the answers into a script which they can perform to the class.

Additional idea: You could include a short lesson on register and how best to present yourself when conducting interviews. This could include activities on being indirect and tactful in the language they use when they approach people.