LESSON OVERVIEW
The main objectives of this Critical Reading Club lesson are to:
- read an article about Skype shutting down;
- discuss opinions and experiences related to videoconferences;
- review vocabulary for video call problems and actions.
Students talk about their experiences with video calls, share opinions about online communication and explore vocabulary related to problems and actions during video calls. They compare different forms of communication (video calls, phone calls, in-person meetings), examine various situations and discuss what they would do in each of them.
This is a Critical Reading Club worksheet. With this format, students need to read an online article at home and do the exercises in the classroom. Learn more about how to use such worksheets and their benefits in our post.
ACTIVITIES
This lesson starts with a warm-up. Students say what the article they read at home was about using some clues (May 2025, Skype and Microsoft Teams). After that, they discuss questions about video call experiences and preferences. Moving on, students complete the gaps with verbs related to problems and actions in video calls (e.g. hung up, break up, mute). They then choose three of the situations from the previous task (e.g. a meeting in which you muted yourself and didn’t speak for the entire call) and provide some details. Following that, students read opinions on video calls (e.g. I make more video calls now than I did during the pandemic) and say whether the statements are true for them. They also add details. Finally, students say which form of communication (video call, phone call or meeting in person) they would choose in different situations and explain why.