LABOR DAY ESL LESSON DESCRIPTION

In this ESL lesson plan for adults, students watch and list to a short, animated video report about the origin story of Labor Day (also known as “May Day” or “International Workers’ Day”). It includes discussion questions, conversation, and vocabulary activities about labor, worker’s justice and labor rights, labor issues, and Labor Day. Students then do some listening/viewing comprehension activities based on the video. The viewing follow-up includes some additional discussion, an activity on some collocations for labor issues, and an activity for students to categorize phrases for expressing opinions and dissatisfaction. There are additional labor debate and strike tasks for students to use these phrases. There is a quiz & review as well as a lesson reflection included.

VIDEO DESCRIPTION

Workers around the world have, for over a century, fought to ensure the bare minimum of labor rights. And May Day is just one day that commemorates their efforts. But what’s the story behind the day?

LESSON ACTIVITIES

• SPEAKING: Labor, Labor Day, Labor Issues, Worker’s Justice
• VIEWING: Images (Origin Story), Phrasal verbs, Prediction Checks
• VOCABULARY: Images, Collocations
• GRAMMAR: Phrases For Expressing Opinions / Dissatisfaction
• ADDITIONAL: Labor Debate Task, Strike/Speech Task, Quiz & Review, Lesson Reflection

LESSON TOPICS

Labor & Labor Unions