B1 Preliminary for Schools Speaking Part 3
Description
This lesson plan has been created to help students prepare for B1 Preliminary for Schools Speaking
Part 3. This lesson plan can be delivered face to face or online. The ‘online options’ column gives
teachers ideas about how the stages could be adapted for teaching online.
In this lesson, students talk about their experiences and views of school trips. They brainstorm
vocabulary for discussing city visits, and categorise useful language for making suggestions, asking
for an opinion, agreeing and disagreeing. They use this language in a practice Part 3 Speaking task,
before reviewing some tips on how to be successful in this part of the exam.
Time required:
60 minutes (can be extended or shortened as required)
Materials
required:

Useful language table (see below)

Speaking Part 3 tips matching exercise (see below)

B1 Preliminary for Schools sample task (see below)

Prepared presentation/PowerPoint slides

to complete a Part 3 Speaking task for B1 Preliminary for Schools, in
the context of discussing
to analyse and practise language for making suggestions, asking for
an opinion, agreeing and disagreeing
Aims:

Procedure
Lesson Stages
Online options
Greet the students as they arrive.
Check they know how to switch
on their audio and video.
Warmer - speaking
Share your screen, or send the
picture or photo to students.
Display a picture or photograph suitable
for your context, showing children on a
school trip. Alternatively show them this
picture, taken from the Sample
Speaking task (see Materials).
Ask questions about the photo, e.g.
What can you see in the photo? What
are they doing? Where are they going?
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Write words and phrases that students suggest next to the picture. Clarify
that the students in the picture are going on a school trip.
Ask questions to the whole group, or put them into pairs to discuss:
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What school trips have you been on? When? Where?
What did you see? What did you do?
What was the best thing about the trip? What was the worst?
Which city would you like to go to on a school trip? Why?
What would you like to see and do there?
As students are speaking, take notes of other useful vocabulary they use.
If students were speaking in pairs, elicit some ideas during whole class
feedback. You could highlight some of the other good language students
have used and add this to the vocabulary record around the picture.
Vocabulary – school trips
Divide your class into pairs. Assign one or more than one picture from the
sample Speaking task to each pair (see Materials).
Ask students to discuss what they can see in their picture(s), and write
words or phrases connected to the picture, just like you did in the warmer
activity.
Elicit ideas from each group and write them on the board next to each
picture. Supplement their ideas with other useful vocabulary to describe
school trips and visits.
Use a shared whiteboard, and the
Annotate feature to write the
words/phrases students suggest.
Alternatively, use a shared
document such as Googledoc,
which students can save their
own copy of later.
Put students into breakout rooms
if you can safely monitor them.
Send them the questions or ask
them to take a screenshot so they
can see them in their rooms.
You could send the task sheet
with pictures to students, or share
your screen and ask them to take
a screenshot to refer to during the
pairwork. Alternatively, send
different pictures to different
students.
You could use breakout rooms for
the pairwork. Alternatively, give
students 1 minute thinking time
(they could make notes), and
then elicit words/phrases. Or,
they could type in the chat, e.g. “2
– a museum exhibit”.
Use a shared document or
Annotate to write the
words/phrases and save this to
share with students later.
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Useful language
Ask students to put the useful language in the correct category in the table
(see Materials).
Check understanding of the phrases students had difficulty with.
Answers
Making suggestions
Asking your partner
I think…because…
What do you think?
What’s your opinion?
How about…?
Agreeing
Disagreeing
Yes, I agree with you.
It’s a good idea, but …
Good idea / Good point.
I’m not sure about that.
Send the table to students in
advance of the lesson so that
they can fill it out during the
lesson individually – on their
computer or by printing it and
writing by hand.
Alternatively, open a shared
document, allowing students to
edit. Assign phrases to each
student/pair and ask them to type
them in the correct part of the
table. Once you have the correct
version, they can download a
copy of the document to keep.
You could dictate the phrases for
students to listen and write in the
correct column.
Pronunciation – sentence stress
Read the following phrases from the useful language table aloud one by
one, exaggerating the sentence stress.
Ask students to underline the stressed word in each sentence.
Answers
What do you think?
What’s your opinion?
Yes, I agree with you.
Good idea / Good point.
It’s a good idea, but …
I’m not sure about that.
Share your screen.
Students can use Annotate to
identify the stressed word, or
underline it on their own copy of
the table.
Drill the phrases, encouraging students to copy your sentence stress.
For a quick, fun controlled practice, read out some of the statements
below, or create your own. Students respond using one of the phrases,
either agreeing or disagreeing. You can do this as a competition, seeing
who responds first, but make sure everyone is included.
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Students can work in pairs in
breakout rooms. Or you could use
the alternative whole class activity
instead.
School trips should be just for fun.
Teachers should decide where students go on school trips.
Schools should give students money to spend on school trips.
Students should go on no more than one trip a year.
Students work in pairs, briefly stating their opinion; their partner
agrees/disagrees.
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Alternative: Ask one student to give a statement of their own opinion
about school trips and visits. The rest of the class listen and
agree/disagree using one of the phrases. The first person to respond
gives the next statement.
Speaking
Divide students into pairs. Make these different pairs from the vocabulary
task earlier. Set the speaking task:
Some students from a small village school are going on a trip to their
capital city. Here are some activities they could do there. Talk
together about the different activities they could do in their capital
city, and say which would be most interesting.
Remind students to use the useful language, and some of the vocabulary
they brainstormed earlier.
Students complete the task. Ensure they spend at least 3 minutes talking.
Monitor and make notes of errors and examples of good language use.
Optional extensions
You could change pairs and ask students to repeat the task with a new
partner, for further practice.
Ask students to take it in turns to ask and answer the questions from Part
4 (see Materials). Tell them that these questions are for Part 4, not Part 3.
Feedback
Praise students for extending their discussion, and for examples of good
language that they used to complete the task. Highlight these on the
board. Share common errors (grammar/vocabulary/pronunciation) for
students to peer correct.
If you have not already given
students a copy of the speaking
task, send it now, or share your
screen and ask them to take a
screenshot to look at during the
pairwork. You could share the
speaking task instructions too.
Use breakout rooms.
Alternatively, give them some
thinking time and then ask each
pair in turn to speak together. If
you choose this option, tell
students that in the exam, they
won’t have thinking time. To keep
students engaged while listening,
ask them to tick phrases from the
useful language table that the
other students use.
Share your screen with examples
of good language and errors.
Students could use Annotate or
the chat to write corrections, or
you could elicit them orally.
Tips for success in Speaking part 3
Display the table (see Materials) and ask students to match the sentence
halves to make tips for success in this part of the speaking.
Answers
1d, 2e, 3b, 4a, 5c.
Ask questions to check students understand what is expected from them
in this part of the Speaking examination.
Optional extension
Play the video of an example Speaking task part 3 (4:52-7:01).
Viewing task: Which of the tips did the students follow?
In feedback, clarify that the students followed all the tips and were
Share your screen or send a copy
of the table to students to
complete individually.
You could use Annotate to draw
arrows on the table as you elicit
answers.
Share your screen and sound to
play the video. Alternatively, send
students or their parents the
YouTube link to play at this
stage of the lesson.
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successful in this part of the Speaking exam.
Homework
Ask students to write a paragraph about a school trip or a place they
visited with their family. They can use these prompts to help:
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When did the trip happen?
Where did you go?
Who went with you?
How did you travel?
What did you see and do?
What was the best thing about the trip?
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Materials
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4
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Useful language for Speaking Part 3
Put the phrases in the box in the correct part of the table. There are two phrases for each part of the table.
I’m not sure about that.
It’s a good idea, but …
How about…?
I think…because…
Yes, I agree with you.
What do you think?
Good idea / Good point.
What’s your opinion?
Making suggestions
Asking your partner
Agreeing
Disagreeing
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Tips for success in Speaking Part 3
Match the sentence halves to make tips.
1. Listen carefully to
a) your partner says.
2. Talk to
b) his/her opinion.
3. Ask your partner for
c) the examiner tells you to stop.
4. Listen and respond to what
d) the examiner’s instructions.
5. Keep discussing until
e) your partner.
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