Standard Course Description: Article-based Disucssion Course

Teachers can use this standard description by copy-pasting and creating a topic outline under your teacher account.

• level: upper-intermediate

• type: conversation class

Summary

In this class, we will discuss general topics in the news. The focus of this course is to give students an opportunity to practice speaking English, improve conversational skills and to learn how to express your opinion in English.

Sample article: Delete your account: leaving Facebook can make you happier, study finds (The Guardian)

Class format

Each week, I will share a short article to introduce a topic for our in-class discussion. The topics will be both relevant to current events and to student's lives, so everyone will have something to say. Students will be encouraged to share their own stories, thoughts and opinions during the discussion.

Students will prepare in advance by viewing the assigned article. Students are encouraged to think about what they would like to discuss to prepare for class, but it isn't strictly necessary. There will be a reasonable time limit on how long it takes to view the content (around 30 minutes). However, those students who wish to simply jump into a discussion without any pre-reading should be able to do so for most lessons.

Student expectation

Students can expect to have many opportunities to speak and share their opinions in class. This class is for students with a little or a lot of knowledge of the news, media and global issues. We will learn from one another!