Valentine's Day with the ex? A task-based lesson for upper-intermediate and advanced learners

Valentine's Day has come and some of us love to bring that to class. I've done that quite a few times but I've realized some students might not feel comfortable with this topic. However, for this year, I've decided to bring a fun element to my students and I'd like to share this with you. This is a task-based lesson planned to last 100 minutes. It means that students will have a project or problem-solving situation to deal with and present their findings to the group.

Lesson Aim: Devise a creative Valentine's Day campaign for a big company.

Lead-in: Ask Ss to brainstorm the most creative campaigns they have seen and what was special about them. Consider Ss' answers and build a mind map of "essential components" for a successful marketing campaign.

Edit (after I taught this lesson for the first time): If you’re teaching teenagers, they might not have a lot of references. In this case, make sure you have a backup plan. With my group, I asked them to watch a top-five Super Bowl commercials video and discuss wheat they have in common and what made them successful.

Click here to watch the video

Reading: For this task, give Ss a number from 1 to 3. Each of them is going to read a different text. Ask them to read the text and be ready to share with their colleagues what the text is about.

• Text 1

• Text 2

• Text 3

After students read the text, group them in trios (Text 1, 2 and 3 on each group) so that they can share what they read. Ask them to find out what the three campaigns have in common. This is called a jigsaw reading activity. I’ll talk more about it on my IG. You can check the #methodology highlight.

Then, ask students to discuss what components from the brainstorm you’ve had at the beginning of the lesson are present in the three campaigns. Encourage them to bring more items to the brainstorm.

Task: This is where students start working on their “project”. They have to create a marketing campaign for Valentine’s Day which includes the clients’ ex-partners somehow in a very creative way. Follow the steps below to guide you through the lesson. Remember to monitor them and take notes of their mistakes for the feedback moment at the end of the lesson.

• Step 1: Select some brands and raffle them for the groups. These are the brands Ss will work with.

• Step 2: Ask Ss to decide on a target audience. Ask them to be as specific as possible.

• Step 3: Ask Ss to decide what products will be involved in their campaign. They may use their phones to do some research.

• Step 4: Ask Ss to create the campaign. It’s mandatory to include the clients’ ex-partners somehow.

• Step 5: Ask Ss to prepare a quick presentation to the whole group.

• Step 6: Ss vote for the best campaign.

Feedback: Use your notes and observations from the task stage and give students feedback on both language (their mistakes and opportunities for language stretching) and on content (how well they completed the task, focusing on the final product).

Well! I hope you liked this lesson and if you use it, please give me some feedback. You can post your comments here or send me a message on Instagram.