Adventure

LESSON OVERVIEW

This free ESL lesson plan on adventure has been designed for adults and young adults at an intermediate (B1/B2) to advanced (C1/C2) level and should last around 45 to 60 minutes for one student.

Adventure can mean different things to different people. For some, an adventure involves travelling to a new place seeking new experiences. For others, it can be getting out of their comfort zone to try new challenges. The common theme is new experiences and a sense of excitement. Those with an active imagination will find adventure every day in the little things in life. In this ESL lesson plan on adventure, students will have the opportunity to discuss and express their opinions on issues such as the meaning of adventure, what kind of adventures they could have, and whether or not life could be considered an adventure.

For advice on how to use this English lesson plan and other lesson plans on this site, see the guide for ESL teachers.

PRE-CLASS ACTIVITIES

Reading activity
Before the English class, send the following article to the students and ask them to read it while making a list of any new vocabulary or phrases they find (explain any the students don’t understand in the class):

Rough Guides | 8 ways to find more adventure when you travel

The article gives a number of suggestions on how to have a more adventurous trip, including going solo, volunteering, and having local experiences. At the start of the class, hold a brief discussion about what the students thought about the article. What do they think about the issues raised in the article? Do they agree with what was said? Can they think of any ways they might add to the content of the article?

Video activity
To save time in class for the conversation activities, the English teacher can ask the students to watch the video below and answer the listening questions in Section 3 of the lesson plan at home. There are intermediate listening questions and advanced listening questions so teachers can decide which would be more appropriate for their students. Check the answers in the class.

The video for this class is a biography of the life of Sir Edmund Hillary by Ultimate History which charts his adventures on Mount Everest and other important aspects of his life.

Video link.

IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES

The focus in the class is on conversation in order to help improve students’ fluency and confidence when speaking in English as well as boosting their vocabulary.

This lesson opens with a short discussion about the article the students read before the class. Next, the students can give their opinion on the quote at the beginning of the lesson plan – what they think the quote means and if they agree with it. This is followed by an initial discussion on the topic including how adventurous the students consider themselves, the best adventures they have had, and what their perfect adventure would be.

After this, students will learn some vocabulary connected with adventure such as comfort zone, adrenaline rush and daredevil. This vocabulary has been chosen to boost the students’ knowledge of less common vocabulary that could be useful for preparing for English exams like IELTS or TOEFL. The vocabulary is accompanied by a cloze activity and a speaking activity to test the students’ comprehension of these words.

If the students didn’t watch the video before the class, they can watch it after the vocabulary section and answer the listening questions. Before checking the answers, ask the students to give a brief summary of the video and what they thought about the content.

Finally, there is a more in-depth conversation about adventure. In this speaking activity, students will talk about issues such as why people enjoy taking risks, their favourite adventure movies, and what a day in the life of a professional adventurer would be like.

HOMEWORK

After the class, students will write about their opinion of adventure. This could be a short paragraph or a longer piece of writing depending on what level the student is at. The writing activity is designed to allow students to practise and improve their grammar with the feedback from their teacher. For students who intend to take an international English exam such as IELTS or TOEFL, there is an alternative essay question to practise their essay-writing skills.