OVERVIEW & OBJECTIVES

This ESL lesson plan on giving opinions offers engaging activities, PDF worksheets, and digital materials designed for B1-B2 students. In this lesson, students will:

• Talk about everyday topics and explain why people may support or dislike them.
• Learn verbs such as express, support, disagree, and clarify in opinion contexts.
• Study phrases for giving opinions, giving reasons, and clarifying main ideas.
• Rewrite and respond to short opinions using natural opinion phrases.
• Share personal opinions in guided discussions with classmates or their teacher.

WARM-UP ACTIVITY

Students begin this giving opinions ESL lesson plan by looking at six everyday topics: reclining seats on planes, pets sleeping in the bed, using air conditioning, having a big wedding, electric scooters in cities, and reality TV shows. They choose a few or all of the topics and discuss what different opinions people might have about each one. They also talk about why people might support or dislike each topic before sharing their own opinion.

Next, students choose a few or all of the discussion questions about opinions. They think about other topics people are divided on, what kinds of topics are easy or difficult to give opinions about, and what people should or should not do when they share an opinion with others.

After that, students complete missing letters in four verbs connected to opinion language. They work with the verbs express, support, disagree, and clarify in short definitions about saying what they think, giving reasons or examples, responding politely to another person’s opinion, and making a main idea or argument clearer.

TARGET LANGUAGE STUDY

Students read four short opinions about pets sleeping in the bed, reclining seats on planes, having a big wedding, and using air conditioning. They complete missing phrases using the verbs from the box in the correct form. The opinions include natural phrases such as "considering that", "To put it simply", "To be honest, I feel that", "Basically, what I’m saying is", "The way I see it", and "The point I’m trying to make is that".

Students then study the function of the phrases from the opinions. They write E, R, or C depending on whether each phrase expresses an opinion, gives a reason or example, or clarifies a main idea. They also return to the opinions and find more phrases that match these same functions.

PRODUCTION PRACTICE

Students rewrite or say two short opinions using phrases from the box. One opinion is about reality TV shows, and the other is about electric scooters in cities. The original opinions use simpler phrases such as "In my opinion", "because of", "For example", and "What I mean is that", and students upgrade them with phrases from the lesson.

Students then choose Kaylie’s or Ahmad’s opinion from the first activity and give a short response. They can agree, disagree, or add a different idea. In their response, they use at least two phrases from the box to express an opinion, give a reason or example, or clarify the main idea.

WHAT'S YOUR OPINION? SHARING PERSPECTIVES & MAKING YOUR POINT

In Option A, students think of and write two or three topics they have an opinion on. They can choose topics related to food and eating, travel and holidays, work or school life, entertainment and media, health and fitness, home routines, public behavior, transport, fashion or appearance, animals and pets, social life and celebrations, or something in their city. Then they work with a classmate or their teacher and take turns sharing their topics and opinions. If they have an opinion on their partner’s topics, they can share it too, while using some of the phrases from the lesson.

In Option B, students choose a few ready-made topics from the list and discuss what they think about each one. Topics include eating fast food, meal prepping for the week, big group vacations, exercising early in the morning, voice messages instead of text, self-checkout machines at stores, taking naps during the day, forbidding laptops at cafes, wearing pajamas or sweatpants in public, and second-hand shopping. They discuss their opinions with a classmate or their teacher and use the phrases they learned in the lesson.

BENEFITS OF USING THIS GIVING OPINIONS ESL LESSON PLAN

• Clear speaking tasks help students express opinions with more confidence.
• Natural phrases help students move beyond basic "I think" statements.
• Everyday topics create useful discussion without complex background knowledge.
• Guided practice supports stronger reasons, examples, and main points.
• Flexible activation options work well for one-to-one classes and groups.