Expect the Unexpected
ESL Lesson PlansExpect the Unexpected

Expect the Unexpected

This ESL lesson plan focuses on reading and speaking skills, helping B1/B2 learners summarize and discuss events with surprising twists. Through engaging storytelling, students read short narratives, predict alternate endings, and explore creative "what if" scenarios using the third conditional. Group discussions and written exercises encourage students to express opinions and connect the material to their personal experiences.

Skills

  • Can summarize and give their opinion about a short story, article, talk, discussion interview, or documentary.
  • Can describe events, real or imagined.
Online Interactive
Based on CEFR
Fully Customizable
1

Warm-up

Answer the following questions.
1
Can you share a time when you faced an unexpected situation? How did you handle it?
2
What do you think is the most surprising thing that has ever happened to you?
3
How do you usually react when things don’t go as planned?
2

Three best friends Sarah, Peter and Emma met up for brunch on Sunday. Each of them is telling a story that happened to them during the week. What do these stories have in common?

3

Match each situation with the correct person: Emma, Sarah or Peter.

4

How would you end the story?

5

The teacher will give you the ending of one of the stories.

6

Continue the following sentences. Then, give 3 more examples of what could have happened if the characters in the stories (with all the suggested endings) had made different decisions. Use the third conditional.

7

Write your opinion about situations with unexpected endings. Support it with 1-2 examples from your personal experience.

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