Tag Archives: AI

Lesson Plan: Economy and Business Made Palatable with Elon Musk’s Visit

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Oh! We’ve all seen it happen—students start a speaking task, and suddenly, their vocabulary shrinks to the same five words they always use! Why? Because without revisiting and retrieving vocabulary first, their brains take the easy route. That’s why retrieval practice is golden! A quick vocab review—whether it’s a fast-paced game, a word association challenge, or a quick brainstorm—gives students the words they actually know but might not remember under pressure.

But how do we make economy and business—a topic that can feel dry or intimidating—actually exciting? Simple: we call in the richest man on the planet to help.

Warm-up

Imagine starting the lesson by asking, “If the richest person on the planet walked into this room, what would you ask them?” Boom—instant engagement!

Display a photo of Elon Musk and have students ask him questions. Now, open ChatGPT and write this prompt, “can you act like Elon Musk and answer a few questions?”Give students a minute or two to write their questions and type them in. Once ChatGPT answers, click the loudspeaker and let ChatGPT speak as Musk—just make sure you’ve chosen a masculine voice in advance.

Here’s the link to ChatGPT with the questions my students asked Elon. Excuse my typos. It was a quick exercise not meant to correct grammar or spelling.

By the way, lots of skills involved in this simple exercise: writing questions, understanding complex answers in both written and spoken form (remember by clicking on the Read aloud icon).

Retrieval Practice: Revising Vocabulary from their Textbooks

Now, tell students that Elon Musk has a challenge for them: “Guess my 10 favourite words about economy and business!”. The words he’s thinking of? They’re the same ones my students have been learning in class. But can they predict which ones made his list?

  1. Ask students to write 10 words related to business and economy that they have learned in the lesson on a separate sheet of paper. Give them one minute to do this.

  2. Swap papers with a classmate. Now, each student will read the list of words that their classmate wrote. This helps reinforce vocabulary because by reading someone else’s choices, they’re likely to remember even more words!

  3. While students are swapping papers and reflecting, the teacher has previously copy-pasted all the vocabulary that students have learned in this lesson into ChatGPT. Now, ask ChatGPT:”Can you act like Elon Musk and choose 10 words from this list that relate to business and economy?

  4. Once you’ve got your list of 10 words from ChatGPT, go back to the students and ask them to compare their list with the words that ChatGPT (as Elon Musk) has provided.  Again, more words reinforced

And, in my case, because I love playing around with AI, I’ve taken it up a notch by creating a talking avatar of Elon Musk to introduce the activity!  He’ll be the one saying the 10 words and getting everyone excited. I’m hoping he doesn’t take offence (but honestly, I think he’d be all for it)!

Note: you might need to pause the video in-between words. He speaks a bit too fast.

 

Elon Retrieval de cristina.cabal

Vocabulary. PDF with a vocabulary exercise.

Eight pages in their textbooks talking about economy? Far too much! So, I have decided to ask them to stick to a few words, learn them and use them. On this list, I have included the vocabulary from the book, plus a bit more. Enough. Plus, a fill- in the gaps exercise to see them in context.

  • To be involved in malpractice
  • Shareholders
  • A period of recession and austerity
  • Creditors
  • Deposits
  • To bankrupt
  • Raise start-up funds
  • To run your own business
  • To invest in networking
  • Assessing and taking risks
  • Upturn or decline in sales
  • Customers or clients
  • Overheads
  • Lay off people
  • Floating or launching the firm
  • To be flooded with orders
  • Business is picking up
  • To make cutbacks
  • Business ends up going under
  • We are hanging in
  • To take on staff
  • To make staff redundant
  • A downturn in sales
  • A drop in sales
  • Terminate a contract
  • Pitch for a contract

 

Crazy Writing: Activating Vocabulary in Writing

Time to write! This activity is a bit crazy, highly engaging, and exactly the kind of challenge C1 students need! So, instead of the usual sit-down-and-write approach, students will work in pairs, standing up and using the whiteboards to do the activity. No whiteboards? No problem! They can write on paper and then display their work on the classroom walls for everyone to see.

The key question they’ll have to write about is: How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your country’s business landscape? To “force” vocabulary, I will be suing two wheels. One wheel will be packed with key vocabulary (some they know, some they don’t), while the other will have grammar structures they will be asked to use. I’ll spin each wheel five times, and whatever lands, they must incorporate into their response. This twist adds an element of surprise and  forces them to adapt their writing on the spot.

This is what it looks like

Link to wheel

 

Speaking: Activating Vocabulary in a Speaking Activity

Business and economy de cristina.cabal

Yes, if you are wondering, I have asked AI to create the slides and the content in the questions. No need to waste some precious time doing things AI can do for you. You only need to know how to ask. Remember that.

Now, in my case, and for this activity, I have used the Speed Dating strategy. Always a hit.

I hope you have enjoyed the lesson. Keep posted for more creative ways to use technology in the classroom!

Creating a Personalized Story Book with AI: Fun, from Start to Finish!

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Ever wanted to create a personalised storybook, for children or adults, with a touch of creativity,  AI magic, and a lot of fun? Well, I decided to try this recently, and let me tell you – I had a lot of fun! The best part? It didn’t take me more than 15 minutes! Of course, I’m not going to promise that it’ll always be that fast, but trust me – it can be an efficient, enjoyable process if you know where to start.

This time, I didn’t create a storybook per se, but I made a unique, personalized book aimed at B2+ adult English students, focusing on the theme of New Year’s Resolutions. I’m going to walk you through the steps I took – and how you can do it too!

Step 1: Crafting the Perfect Prompt for ChatGPT

The first thing I did was think about what I wanted in my book. Since it was for adult students, I decided to base the content around New Year’s resolutions – a topic that would naturally spark reflection and conversation.

To get started, I crafted a detailed prompt for ChatGPT, which went like this:

Create a short story for adult English learners at the C1 level about New Year’s resolutions. Provide a bit of context at the start, introducing Cristina, the main character—a cheerful woman in her 40s, with blonde hair, brown eyes, and a friendly smile, who lives in Pravia, Asturias. Each page should have a brief narrative appropriate for language teaching, followed by a question related to New Year’s resolutions to engage learners. For each page, also describe the image in Pixar style, ensuring Cristina’s physical description (blonde hair, brown eyes, friendly smile) is consistently included to maintain visual continuity. Design about 10 pages for the story.  Repeat cristina’s description for each image prompt. 

This was my blueprint. By clearly outlining the structure, theme, and tone, ChatGPT knew exactly what I was aiming for. You’ll notice I emphasized consistency in both text and illustrations because I wanted the book to feel cohesive and visually engaging.

Step 2: Generating the Content with ChatGPT

Once I hit “send,” ChatGPT took the prompt and began generating responses that were thoughtful and perfect for my goal. The AI produced a series of pages, each with:

  • A little context about New Year’s resolutions
  • An engaging question about resolutions
  • Suggested words or grammar structures for students
  • A prompt for illustrations

 

Step 3: Designing the Visuals in Canva

  1. Choosing a Story Book: I took the content I generated with ChatGPT and jumped into Canva to design the book. In the search box, I wrote Story Book and took my pick.
  2.  Creating the images:OK. I have the design and the text but what about the visuals?  For the illustrations, I used the prompts ChatGPT provided, foung Magic Media on Canva and c pasted the prompts ChatGPT had provided for  each page. I made sure  the images maintained a consistent style.

 

Step 4: Publishing the Book – Canva + Heyzine Flipbooks = Magic!

Now that my book is ready,  “How do I share this with my students or readers?”  Easy! Canva has partnered up with Heyzine Flipbooks, which gives my book a whole new level of interactivity. This feature allows me to create a digital flipbook experience – just like flipping through the pages of a physical book! Oh, and did I mention it adds sound too?

But how do I take  my storybook and take it to HeyZine? No worries, follow these simple steps

How to Use Heyzine Flipbooks on Canva:

  • Click on the “Share” button
  • Select “See All”:
  • Scroll Down and Find Heyzine Flipbooks:
  • Click on Heyzine Flipbooks:

And here’s the result.

Writing a News Article: From Theory to Engaging Practice

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I know,  teaching students how to write a news article can feel a bit… uninspiring, right? Sure, we’ve all given them the “who, what, where, when, why, and how” spiel and shown a couple of examples. But then comes the big question: how do we make it exciting, hands-on, and memorable?

Picture this: your classroom is buzzing like a newsroom. There’s a clothesline of headlines strung across the room, and students get to pick one that sparks their curiosity. They, then, start writing their stories. Now, what? After that, each student’s headline goes back to the clothesline. Now, instead of just presenting their work, students pick a headline that catches their interest and become the audience for their peers’ stories. Sounds intriguing, right? If I’ve piqued your curiosity, keep on reading and below I’ll explain how this clothesline activity can transform the typical writing exercise into a dynamic and memorable learning experience!

Before we dive in, just a quick reminder: this is Part 3 of our series leading up to writing a complete news story. If you missed Parts 1 and 2, be sure to check them out to catch up on the grammar and writing activities that set the stage for this exciting final step

Step 1: The Theory; a.k.a the uninspiring part.

PDF

In the handout,

  • I’ll guide my students through the step-by-step process of writing a news article
  •  Provide two sample activities to get started. It begins like this

Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Newspaper Article

1.Outline the Article Structure

Draft an outline based on the inverted pyramid structure, where the most critical information comes first. This typically includes:

    • Headline: A catchy title summarizing the main point.
    • Byline: The author’s name and possibly their role.
    • Lead Paragraph: The introduction that covers essential details.
    • Body paragraphs: Provide details in descending order of importance
    • Conclusion: wrap up the story

2. Focusing on the Headline Characteristics

  • Always be  concise and direct
  • Typically use: …

(refer to the PDF)

Step 2: Creating the Prompts for the Fake News Stories. The Beauty of Belnding Old and New

Back in the day, crafting 15 fake news headlines for a lesson? Absolutely not. Too much time, too much effort! But now? With AI, it’s  so easy!!!.

I hopped onto Canva and  wrote the prompt below—and, in seconds, I had them all. Then, I printed them (yep, old-school paper!), and bam—ready for class.

I want to give my C1 English students news headlines and some details of the story. Students will need to write the news story and be creative. Can you provide me with 15 news headlines and a  couple of details about the story using bullet points? They will also be required to use reported speech  so some direct quotes from people involved in the story are welcome. Include some fun headlines about EOI Avilés, a state language school in Asturias.

Link

Newspaper headlines de cristina.cabal

Step 3. Fake News on a Clotheslines

Next, I hung the cards  on some cute clothesline.

Students stood up, browsed the “news,” and picked their favorite headline -the stories included some hilarious takes about my school, EOI Avilés (those got the biggest laughs).-Then, they got to work writing their stories. I gave them 25 minutes to write their stories.  And just like that, you can turn a writing activity into something dynamic and interactive.

While students wrote their fake news stories, I got to work correcting their most important mistakes. It took longer than expected, so I handed out an extra exercise to keep them busy while I finished.

 

Final Step: Headline Hunt and Story Swap

For the final step, I divided the class into journalists and audience members. The journalists hung their prompts for headlines on the clothesline, giving a glimpse of what their stories were about. I asked the audience members to stand up, browse the prompts, and choose the one they were most curious to hear. OOnce selected, the audience members read their chosen headlines aloud, and the journalists who had written the corresponding stories raised their hands. They then paired up, with the journalists sharing their stories directly with the audience members. While I didn’t ask them to memorize their stories, they were encouraged to speak naturally and avoid reading directly from their texts, making their storytelling more engaging and dynamic.

They, then, changed roles.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This whole process got me thinking about how magical it is to mix traditional teaching methodologies with the innovative power of AI. AI takes care of the boring work—brainstorming, designing, even personalizing content—while I get to focus on the hands-on, human side of teaching. It’s like having a super-efficient assistant who works behind the scenes while I take center stage in the classroom.

And honestly, I think that’s the future of education. It’s not about choosing between AI and traditional methods. It’s about finding that sweet spot where the two complement each other. AI gives us tools to do the heavy lifting, but we still get to add that personal, human touch.

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Engaging Students in Job Application Writing: from AI Tools to Traditional Clotheslines

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If you’re anything like me, you probably feel the time crunch every time you try to squeeze in a longish writing task during a lesson. Let’s be honest, finding time for students to practice writing in class—beyond those quick sentences or short paragraphs—is tough!
I mean, there’s so much to cover!!! Besides, the second I announce a lengthy writing activity, I can see how the general mood changes, even mine.I know it is going to slow the pace, break the  flow of our lesson and a long etc , but… we know deep down that this activity is important.

The truth is I’d love to offload some of this writing practice as homework. I mean, wouldn’t it be easier to ask students to draft an essay at home and then review it in class? Sure… in an ideal world. But we’re not living in that world anymore, are we?  ChatGPT or any of its friends sure have something to do here.  I know that if I want to ensure my students are actually developing their writing skills, it has to be done in the classroom.

PREP

Before we get into the writing task itself, I dedicated several lessons to exploring the topic of work—covering vocabulary, discussing job roles, and what makes a strong job application. As you can probably guess, being a bit of an AI enthusiast, I have used different  AI tools to make this lesson happen. Here’s the step-by-step:

Step 1: Create a Presentation with AI Tools to Introduce the Task
  •  I relied on Perplexity for this because it not only generated a well-structured overview but also provided credible sources. This was key for a topic like job applications, where students need to trust the information.
  • I took the generated text from Perplexity and pasted it into Brisk Teaching, which automagically turned it into a Google Slides presentation, complete with relevant images. Now, it wasn’t perfect—just a draft—but it saved me a ton of time! I was able to quickly refine it by adding sections on indirect questions and formal connectors, tailoring it to fit my lesson objectives.

Ready-to-Use Materials: presentation

Step 2: Prepare Sample Sentences and Emails
  • I used Perplexity again to create sample sentences for the opening of the email, as well as two complete sample emails.
  • I printed these out as handouts and gave students 10 minutes to read through them. This step was crucial for modeling good examples and helping students see the structure of a formal email.

Ready-to-Use Materials: handout ,

Step 3: Generate Realistic Job Offers

Excited about writing? Let’s be honest: getting students excited about writing a job application can be really difficult. So, I decided to make it more engaging by giving them realistic job offers to choose from—just like they might find on LinkedIn. Did I create these from scratch? Nope! I used Canva’s AI tool to generate slides filled with job postings. It was fast and looked super professional.

I printed the job offers and hung them up on clotheslines in the classroom, creating a job fair atmosphere. I asked students to head over to one of the clotheslines and pick out the job they’d like to apply for. You can print them here

 

LinkedIn Job Listings de cristina.cabal

Step 4: Time to Write!

With their chosen job offer in hand, it was time to write the email. I set a timer and gave students 20 minutes to complete their task. I encouraged them to use the sample sentences and email structure from the handout as a guide. This focused writing time was key—it kept everyone on task and ensured that the writing was happening in class, where I could support them.

Step 5: Showcase and Feedback

Once the emails were written, we moved into a gallery walk activity. Students pasted their job offer and application email on the walls. They then circulated around the room, reading each other’s work. This was a great way to share ideas and see different approaches.
While they were reading, I walked around and provided feedback, focusing on the most noticeable errors. It was an efficient way to address common mistakes and give students a chance to learn from each other.

That’s all! I hope your students enjoy this activity as much as mine did!  Give it a go, and let me know how it works for you!

Prepping Students for Persuasive Role-Play: Remote Work vs. Office, and Reduced Working Week Debate

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If you’re like me, you’ve probably used role-play countless times to get students talking and thinking on their feet. But lately, I’ve found myself wanting to take it up a notch—giving students real-world topics that they’ll actually encounter outside the classroom. So, I created two role-play scenarios that bring today’s workplace debates right to our classroom: remote work vs. in-office and the reduced working week. These topics got my students diving into different perspectives and working hard to persuade each other.

ROLE-PLAY 1: Remote Work vs. In-Office Work Debate

MY PREP APPROACH

  1. Visuals.First things first—I kicked off the role-play by setting the scene with a quick, visual presentation. There’s nothing like a few eye-catching slides to spark interest. Don’t you agree?

Role-play: working remote vs in person de cristina.cabal

2. The Context. (also in the presentation above)

You and your next-door neighbor, who is also your best friend, have been working at the same company for five years. You carpool and split the costs, which has been convenient, especially with the high price of petrol.

Recently, the company has given employees the option to work from home, only requiring them to come into the office once a month.

3. Help is coming: Ideas. Here’s the PDF .I gave my students a handout laying out key points for each side. Students choose which position they want to argue, but I make sure we have an even split between pro-remote and pro-office advocates.. I encourage them to add their own points to this list to make their argument more personal and compelling.

CHOOSING ROLES AND PREPARING ARGUMENTS

Once they know their stance, students jot down three solid arguments that support their position

ROLE-PLAY AND PERSUASION TIME

Each student has 5 minutes to make their case, present their points, and then attempt to sway the other person.

 

ROLE-PLAY 2: The Reduced Working Week

This second role-play taps into another current trend: the reduced workweek. I wanted students to explore this not only from a productivity standpoint but also from a cultural and economic perspective. The debate centers around proposals to reduce the standard working week in Spain, traditionally from 40 hours to potentially 37.5 or even 32 hours, without reducing wages.

The procedure is just the same as above

MY PREP APPROACH

  1. Visuals.

    Role-play: The reduced working week de cristina.cabal

  2. Context: (also in the slides above)

It’s lunch break at a mid-sized company in Madrid. You and your colleague are discussing the news about possible changes to the work week while having coffee in the break room.

        3. Some Extra Help. Text? No, this time help comes in he form of a video

So this one  comes from a short, engaging video made on InVideo, an AI tool that helps you create quick, professional-looking videos. In this case, I found a piece of news in ElPais in English and just pasted it on Invideo. This tool is such a gem because I can tailor the content exactly to what my students need. It’s also great for visual learners who absorb info faster through media.

CHOOSING ROLES AND PREPARING ARGUMENTS

Students watch the video and then pick a side. I ask them to prepare 3-5 key talking points. Here’s where I get them to think critically: How could a shorter workweek boost mental health? What about the potential strain on business operations?

I challenge them to think beyond themselves and consider how this change might impact families, communities, and industries at large.

ROLE-PLAY AND PERSUASION TIME

Each student makes their initial case, and then they respond to counterarguments. It’s a great way for them to see how they need to think on their feet!

EXTRA SPEAKING PRACTICE

To wrap up the class on a high note, a whole-class speaking activity can be a great way to keep the conversation going and let everyone share their thoughts. A few open-ended questions about work culture can get everyone talking and reflecting on what they’ve learned.

Speaking de cristina.cabal