LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this ESL lesson about crowdfunding are to:

• practise funding-related vocabulary;
• watch a video and discuss the myths of crowdfunding;
• develop a crowdfunding project.

In this lesson, students talk about funding sources and discuss their suitability for various business scenarios. They address scepticism and watch a video where an expert debunks common myths about crowdfunding. Students also explore vocabulary (e.g. groundbreaking, unforeseen, compelling, etc.), analyse successful crowdfunding campaigns, create their own crowdfunding projects and present them to the class.

WARM-UP & VIDEO

This ESL lesson about crowdfunding starts with a warm-up where students match funding sources (e.g. loan, angel investors, venture capitalists, etc.) with sets of words and phrases they consider most appropriate (e.g. borrower, lender, guarantee, interest). Then, they use those words and phrases to explain what each funding source is about. After that, students discuss questions about funding options and their suitability for different business scenarios. Afterwards, students address some of the thoughts expressed by sceptics of crowdfunding (e.g. It’s hard to get the money you are aiming for). Then, they watch a video in which an expert talks about common myths about crowdfunding. Students watch the first part of the video, take notes on the speaker’s arguments and compare them to their ideas. 

VOCABULARY & DISCUSSION

In this part of this ESL lesson about crowdfunding, students read two summaries of what the crowdfunding platform from the video can offer and complete gaps with the correct forms of the words in brackets (e.g. adequate, backers, feasible, etc.). Then, they watch the rest of the video and choose the summary that best describes the narrator’s points. After that, they discuss questions about myths and challenges related to crowdfunding. Next, students read stories of successful crowdfunding campaigns and discuss what contributed to their success and the suitability of crowdfunding versus other funding methods for different projects. Finally, they come up with a crowdfunding project and consider points such as funding goals, feasible perks or rewards and obstacles. Then, students present it to the class.

HOMEWORK/REVISION

This lesson plan also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students read a text about crowdfunding, find words with a similar meaning to those in the boxes in the task and replace them. The task is available in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. You can print it and hand it out to your students. It’s also included in the e-lesson plan.