Fandom & Celebrities ESL Lesson

OBJECTIVE & OVERVIEW

This ESL lesson on celebrities, fandom, & Harry Potter provides activities, PDF worksheets, and digital materials designed for advanced C1 students. In this lesson, students will:

• Explore their fandom in various categories, including celebrities, media, etc.
• Learn some adjectives related to fandom and celebrities
• Watch a video about a Harry Potter “superfan”
• Study and use the second conditional with the subjunctive voice
• Create interview questions for a celebrity of their choice and conduct interviews
• Engage in in-depth discussions about fandom and celebrities

PREVIEW & DISCUSSION

In the first part of this ESL lesson on celebrities and fandom, students explore various topics, people, and subject matters of their fandom. They’re given a set of categories — including sports teams, celebrities, books, movies, TV series, and bands or musicians. Students discuss who or what they’re hardcore fans of and describe the background and history behind their fandom.

Moving on, students discuss additional questions about fandom.

Then, there is a vocabulary activity in which students evaluate the connotations of certain adjectives that describe fans of something. These include adjectives such as “obsessed”, “devoted”, “die-hard” and “nerdy”. Students are instructed to decide whether these adjectives have a positive, negative, or neutral connotation. Then, in the final activity in the preview section, students imagine that a girl named Katherine describes her fandom of Harry Potter. There is a set of nouns provided that students use to describe her fandom.

VIEWING ACTIVITY

In the viewing activity, students watch a short documentary-style video that features a girl named Katherine who is a Harry Potter superfan. In the video, Katherine details the history of her fandom, what sparked her Harry Potter obsession, and also describes an encounter she had with J.K. Rowling and some Harry Potter memorabilia she owns.

In the activities, students answer some questions and decide whether some statements about Katherine are true or false. In the final activity, students must write the word they hear Katherine use in a quote.

DISCUSSION & GRAMMAR

In the viewing follow-up, there are some discussion questions about the video. In the discussion, students reflect on Katherine’s fandom and answer a few more questions about fandom. Then, the grammar focus of this lesson plan is the second conditional using the subjunctive voice. Students imagine a mock interview that Katherine conducts with J.K. Rowling. Then, they complete a set of questions that Katherine might ask J.K. Rowling about being an author and Harry Potter. In these questions, students use the second conditional along with the subjunctive voice.

RADIO SHOW Q&A: INTERVIEWING THE ICONS

In the activation section for this ESL lesson plan on celebrities and Harry potter, students get two options. In the first option, students conduct celebrity interviews. They get to use the second conditional with the subjunctive voice in some questions to ask a celebrity. Essentially, they choose a celebrity and prepare some questions they would ask this celebrity in a radio interview. Then, in the second step, students swap the questions they wrote with a classmate or their teacher.

Then, they conduct the interviews from the perspective of the person they chose and wrote questions for. There is a reflection section at the end.

FOLLOW-UP DISCUSSION ABOUT CELEBRITIES & FANDOM

In the second option, there is a set of discussion questions to choose from. The questions are focused on celebrities, fandom, and fan culture, and they’re all formed in the second conditional with the subjunctive voice. Students are encouraged to use this grammatical structure in their responses to the questions. There are some additional talking points students could discuss as well, all focused on similar topics.

BENEFITS OF USING THIS CELEBRITIES & FANDOM ESL LESSON:

Engaging Activities: The lesson offers a variety of activities, including discussions, viewing a video, completing worksheets, and conducting mock interviews, keeping students actively engaged throughout the lesson.

Personalized Learning: Students explore their own fandom and interests. This allows students to feel engaged in the lesson and make personal connections to the material.

Vocabulary Expansion: Students learn adjectives related to fandom and celebrities. These adjectives can help expand their vocabulary in the context of their own fandom.

Cultural Awareness: Through discussions about fandom and celebrities, students gain insights into different aspects of pop culture. As a result, they can enhance their cultural awareness and understanding.

Critical Thinking: Activities such as evaluating the connotations of adjectives and deciding whether statements about Katherine are true or false promote critical thinking skills among students.