Let’s talk about some common illnesses
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Week of Sept. 28/26
This page gathers helpful links for your online classes of ESL beginners (CLB 1-4) on topics such as Alberta, Canada, health, work, home and community, numbers, transportation, clothes, and grammar. Use these to create your…
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Lesson plan overview
| Task | To learn the names of some common illnesses and treatments for them. |
| CLB level | CLB Stage I (CLB 1-3) |
| Delivery method | Online |
| Class size | 10-15 students (vary the number of activities according to your class size) |
| Estimated time | 1.5 to 3 hours (depending on class size and whether you do the activities in all parts of the lesson plan) |
| CLB Skills and Competencies | Speaking: Interacting with others Sharing information Listening: Interacting with others Comprehending information Reading: Comprehending information |
| Language focus | Learn the vocabulary needed to understand this topic. Learn the vocabulary needed to describe some illnesses. Complete the optional “Part B: Building Sentences” activities below to help your students move from understanding vocabulary to using that vocabulary to create simple sentences. Use the appropriate grammar structures and vocabulary to respond personally to the reflection questions. (Encourage students to respond in full sentences.) |
| Cultural focus | Students understand more about the Canadian health system (e.g., when to go to the Emergency Room and when to access different forms of healthcare). |
| Specific task learning objectives | – Students learn the names of common illnesses. – Students practice talking about illness. – Students learn about the present simple verb form and how to use subjects, verbs, and objects to make simple sentences. – Students share home remedies and other ways to combat illnesses. |
| ESL Directions original video (🎥) and audio (🔊) activities? | This lesson includes original video (🎥) and audio (🔊) activities. |
| Resource attribution | ESL Directions original resources are marked below with an asterisk (*). Feel free to use these, but please give credit to ESL Directions. |
Part A: Vocabulary acquisition and practice
This is a self-contained, complete lesson plan (about 1.5 hours) focused on vocabulary.
Part B: Building sentences
Part B takes your students further by giving them some tools to build simple sentences (using the vocabulary they learned in Part A).
Use Part B if you want to focus on sentence production, teach for a longer time (1 to 1.5 additional hours), or break your lesson into two related parts.
Part C: Reflection Questions
These questions work at the end of either part A or B.
Lesson plan
Part A: Vocabulary acquisition and practice
Warm-up: Introducing the topic and defining our terms
- In this part of the lesson, we’re going to learn about common illnesses.
- What is illness?
- Can you name some illnesses?
Skill-building activities
- Listen to the vocabulary again*🔊 (Pay attention to what the words mean and how to pronounce them.)
Skill-using activities
- Picture match-up*
- Illnesses: Guess what I have* 🔊
- Discussing illness role plays* (Students practice how to discuss illnesses with other people.)
- Match the audio and words* 🔊
Assessment/review tasks
- Tell us the illness* (Ask the students to describe each illness’ symptoms.)
Part B: Building sentences
Warm-up: Introducing the topic
In this part of the lesson, we’re going to work on creating short sentences from the vocabulary we learned in Part A.
Skill-building and skill-using activities
Verb tenses
English uses verbs (action words) to talk about the past, present, and future.
Today, we’re going to talk about the present simple of the verb “to have.” This verb tense describes things that are usually true, happen often, or that are part of your daily life or routine.
- Learn the present simple form of the verb “to have”* (Ask students to notice that “to have” is an irregular verb.)
- Present simple tense of “to have: explainer* (A more detailed explanation that you can teach in class or send home with your students.)
Parts of speech
- Tell us the pronoun* (Replace the nouns with the correct subject pronouns.)
- Replacing nouns with subject pronouns explainer* (A more detailed explanation that you can teach in class or send home with your students.)
Word order in English sentences
Today, we’ll also look at three important parts of English sentences.
- What is a subject?
- What is a verb?
- What is an object?
Let’s practice!
- Quick definitions of subjects, verbs, and objects*
- Put the words into the correct containers* (Practice identifying subjects, verbs, and objects and putting these items into the correct order.)
- Unjumble the sentences* (Try to identify the subjects, verbs, and objects in each sentence. Use these to create sentences in subject/verb/object order.)
- Create sentences in subject/verb/object order* (Try to identify the subjects, verbs, and objects in each sentence. Use these to create sentences in subject/verb/object order.)
- Subject/verb/object explainer* (A more detailed explanation that you can teach in class or send home with your students.)
Assessment/review tasks
- A busy day at the clinic 🎥 (Watch a story using the lesson vocabulary.)
Part C: Reflection questions
- Can you name three illnesses?
- When would you go to doctor if you were ill?
- When would you go to the hospital emergency room?
- Do you know about 811 (for Alberta residents)? What is the difference between 811 and 911?
- Do you have home remedies for colds or flu?
- Do you get more or less ill in Canada than in your first country?
- Do you take vitamins? Do you think that these help prevent illness?
- How often do you get colds?
- Do you think that exercise and healthy eating are important in preventing illness?
RELATED PAGES
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Keep readingHEALTH YOUTUBE PLAYLIST
Click on the small right arrow at the top of this video to watch the videos or go to the YouTube Health Playlist.
HEALTH WORDWALL ACTIVITIES
Wordwall is a very useful interactive lesson-creation site. If you sign up for a free Wordwall account, you will be able to see our “Health” folder, which includes ESL Directions activities that you can add to your lessons.
ABOUT ESL DIRECTIONS
Kathy Garnsworthy, the creator of ESL Directions, is an ESL teacher, movie buff, constant reader, and former editor and communications pro. Now a graduate of the Teaching English as a Second Language program at the University of Manitoba and an ESL teacher in Edmonton, Alberta, she specializes in teaching online classes of beginner ESL students.
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