LESSON OVERVIEW

In this lesson about appearance, students watch a video about women who stopped dying their grey hair and talk about societal norms regarding how a person looks. 

This is a Speaking Class worksheet. It includes a variety of tasks that let your students practise their speaking skills. This lesson format does not focus on grammar or vocabulary. Learn more about it here.

WARM-UP & VIDEO

This lesson about appearance has an optional warm-up activity in which students guess words. A student gets a word from the teacher and describes it to other students. The others need to guess what the word is. The teacher can use cut-outs from the teacher’s pdf or use a messenger to send the words to students in the online lesson. The words used in the game are related to body and appearance (e.g. presentable, pale, acne, armpits). 

After that, students look at four occasions, like a job interview, and discuss how people prepare for them in terms of appearance. Students also need to consider similarities and differences between men and women. They also discuss to what extent it is OK to expect other people to look a certain way. Before watching the video, students predict what the people’s reactions to a woman not dying her hair might be. Then, they watch the video to see what the reactions were. 

DISCUSSION

In the second part of this lesson about appearance, students discuss some questions about the video. They also talk about different trends related to looks and about body positivity. Next, students read seven statements and say if they are true in their culture or if they reflect the norms in their countries in any way. The statements refer to appearance, e.g. body proportions, wrinkles, tattoos, piercing. In the final task of this lesson about appearance, students look at some ideas and discuss whether they think the ideas have made or would make any positive or negative changes. The ideas include retouching ads, social campaigns and some suggestions for influencers and the film industry.