Talking About Failure: The Secret to Success?

Talk about failure by looking at some famous ones! This 90-minute lesson plan has everything you need to get your students talking about an important subject. It also gives them the tools to express themselves more clearly.

In this advanced 90-minute lesson plan, students talk about the benefits of failure by learning about some famous failures of well known people. Did you know Steven Spielberg was rejected from film school three times? This advanced lesson plan for B2-C1 students includes a warm up with 3 discussion questions, a speaking activity where students discuss what they already know about these personalities, 2 reading comprehension activities, a vocabulary activity, and two discussion sections at the end for ample speaking opportunity. The first can be completed in pairs, groups or as a class while the second one should be completed in pairs. By the end, students will be able to talk about failure in a multitude of contexts.

If you’re looking to take the subject one step further, have your students look through this massive list of 48 Famous Failures. Have your students choose one of the examples and present their failures and successes at the next lesson (focusing, of course on the vocabulary related to failure!

Click on Download All to get the Student and the Teacher versions.

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Reviews

  1. kate.kono

    Hi Guys, love your materials but there are no answers in teacher pdf; it looks exactly like student pdf.

    • Ian Kime

      Link updated! Now the teacher’s PDF is where it should be 🙂

      Thanks!

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Ian Kime

Ian Kime

I have been teaching English abroad since receiving my CELTA certificate in Poland in 2018. I enjoy tracking my individual students’ development but love having lessons with big groups! Now that I teach online, I am accompanied by my sidekicks Olaf, Mała, Pirate and Bandit on a regular basis.

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