History and Me! Conversation About History

 Forget about your lesson? Wake up late? Substituting for a colleague? Why not have a conversation about history! This ESL worksheet will get the job done and make you look like a super star. Also, it just got updated and is now ready-to-go for your online and offline classrooms!

How to have a conversation about history:

TL;DR Send the PDF to your students and follow the instructions, silly!

Is it possible to have a conversation about history in a motivating way (even for those who are uninterested in the subject) with students ranging from A2-C2? It is now with this easy to use ESL worksheet.

Here is an ESL worksheet in the “print’n’teach” tradition. Once you fall in love with it, look out for more to come on other topics. I guess nowadays it can be considered a “screen-share’n’teach”, couldn’t it?

Activities 1), 2) and 3) can be prepared by students at home or discussed in a spontaneous manner in class according to the abilities of your particular group. You might also create a class-wide debate or put students into groups to complete the worksheet and then come back together as a class to discuss.

Activity 3) is, for me, the most interesting (and always works well). It enables the reflection of history to be broadened to current events and allows you to find out what has marked your students and also what interests them. I like it because it can go in so many directions!

Of course, expect more from your more advanced students and be more flexible with beginners. Ask them to elaborate on or clarify their ideas when possible. 

There you go! Simple to print’n’teach for in-person lessons or screen-share’n’teach online. Hope it helps 🙂

Want to go further?

You just had a great conversation about history with your students, but they want more. Or you’ve got 20 minutes left of class time. What to do now!? Here is a very cool breakdown from USA Today of important events in history over the last 100 years. They have chosen one event for every year from 1920-2020! Check it out >>

• Give students a time limit to find the most interesting event…
• Give each group a decade and then they must choose the most historic event from that decade…
• As a homework assignment, students must find an event to present to the class…
• Assign students an event which they must do further research on and present to the class…

How did you use our ESL worksheet? Let us know in the comments below!