Lesson plan

Saint Patrick’s Day

Topic

Saint Patrick’s Day

Learning outcomes

• Practice reading for detail

• Discover the significance of St Patrick’s day
• Use subheadings to organise a written article
• Collaboratively write an article about a cultural event

Age group and level

Aged 13-17 and Adult B2+

Time

70 minutes + extension activity

Materials

Reading text (if offline lesson) – 1 per pair

Comprehension questions – document makes 2 worksheets. 1 worksheet per pair. There is an online
and offline version.

Blank paper -enough for group of 3 or 4 to have 5 pieces of paper for making notes

Writing template (if needed)

Timer – this could be a clock, watch or mobile phone.

Introduction

The aim of this lesson is to give students practice in reading an article about St. Patrick's Day for specific
information and then the opportunity to talk about the customs and traditions of their own country's national
day.

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© The British Council 2021 The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.
 Lesson plan
The plan is based around a text from the British Council Learn English Central website at:
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/magazine/saint-patricks-day

The webpage also has a variety of online interactive activities.

We have also included the text for students and teachers without Internet access in class.

Procedure

1. Lead-in • Ask students what they know about St. Patrick’s Day. When is it? Where is it
(10 mins) celebrated? What happens on that day?
:

Note: Don’t give much information at this point as learners will find out more in the
following activity. If appropriate, you could ask them if they know any other Saint’s
days and how people celebrate them.

2. Reading (20 Note: This could be an online or offline activity

minutes)
• Write the following on the board:
a) Shamrock 1) A strong motivation to follow a
career (using a religious one)
b) Leprechaun 2) A small plant with 3 leaves.
c) A calling 3) A kind of naughty elf
d) Pagans 4) A public celebration that
involves marching
e) Parade 5) People who believed in a very
old religion, usually connected
to nature

• Ask learners to match the word with the meaning

Answers
A2; b3; c1 ; e4
Online version
• Put learners into pairs and assign them a device for Internet access
• Ask them to go to this webpage about St Patrick’s Day:
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/magazine/saint-patricks-day
• When all pairs have the webpage open elicit the subheadings:

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© The British Council 2021 The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.
 Lesson plan
⎯ Patrick, the man
⎯ Patrick and the snakes
⎯ International popularity
⎯ Big parades
⎯ More 'modest' parades
⎯ A day for green
• Ask learners if the subheadings are useful. Elicit why? Why not? Check where
they’d see this genre of writing.
• Give learners the comprehension questions. Allow 10 minutes for them to find
the answers.
• Ask 2 pairs to work together and check their answers before taking whole class
feedback

Answers

1. March 17th
2. Scotland and Wales
3. In Ireland and internationally
4. He was kidnapped and sold as a slave.
5. To talk to Irish people about God
6. Because Irish people migrated to other countries
7. In the large events there are huge carnivals, people dress up and eat
special food. In the smaller events there are local schoolchildren and a few
tractors
8. the Colosseum in Rome or the Christ The Redeemer statue in Rio de
Janeiro are illuminated green. In Chicago they dye the river green. In Ohio
they drink green beer.
9. Some people believe that, but scientists think there are no snakes due for
geographical reasons
10. The flag of Ireland is green, so it is a colour associated with the country.

• Commentary: This is part of learner training and prepares learners for their
own writing task. Learners should notice that using subheadings breaks down
the information and makes it easier to understand and find information within a

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© The British Council 2021 The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.
 Lesson plan
long text. This genre is used in coursebooks, magazines, newspapers and
online articles.

Offline version

• Give pairs a copy of the reading text. Elicit the titles of the subheadings:
⎯ Who Is St. Patrick?
⎯ History of St Patrick
⎯ Legend and folklore
⎯ What Do People Do on St. Patrick’s Day?
⎯ Traditional Food and Drink on St. Patrick’s Day
⎯ Irish proverbs
• Ask learners if the subheadings are useful. Elicit why? Why not? Check where
they’d see this genre of writing (see commentary above)
• Give pairs the comprehension questions. Allow 10 minutes for them to find the
answers.
• Ask 2 pairs to work together and check their answers before taking whole class
feedback

Answers:

Note: Some of these answers are not obvious and require using critical thinking
skills.

11. March 17th

12. It is the date of his death
13. In Ireland and internationally
14. He was kidnapped and sold as a slave. He turned to God for help.
15. To try and convert all the pagans in Ireland into Christianity.
16. To explain the Holy Trinity (the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost) to his
followers.
17. Ask him where his pot of gold is
18. Northwest of the Irish village of Cork. I?t is believed to be magical. If you
kiss the stone, one will be given the gift of eloquence, meaning to have
beautiful speaking abilities
19. We don’t know. Some people believe he did, many others don’t
20. Green clothes

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 Lesson plan

3. Writing task Note: This is a learner training/ scaffolding exercise.

preparation
(15 minutes) • Put learners into small groups. Tell groups they must decide on an important
national day or event to write an article about.

• Once groups have decided on the topic, give them 5 pieces of blank paper,
and ask them to brainstorm subheadings for the article. Tell them they will be
adding more information to the paper, so they don’t write too large. Allow 5
minutes

• Monitor and support as needed throughout this task. Write any useful
vocabulary on the board as needed.

• Now ask learners to select one subheading and write down as many key words
associated with that heading in one minute. Use your timer and tell learners to
stop at the end of a minute.

• Tell learners to select another subheading and to repeat the activity. Do this
until there are keywords for all the subheadings.

4. Writing (25 Note: This written task can be done offline or online.
minutes)
• Give learners the writing template or display the format on the board.
• Tell learners that they should write a subheading in each row. They then refer
to their notes and make them into paragraphs under each subheading. Allow
15-20 minutes. Monitor closely.

Tip: If it is difficult to fit this into your lesson timing, his task could be started in
class and finished for homework. In that case, make sure all group members have
copied down their notes.

5. Peer check • Number the groups. Ask group 1 to give their article to group 2; Group 2 to give
(10-15 their article to group 3, etc. The final group give their article to group 1.
minutes)
• Tell groups to read the article and to add one comment on the content. At this
OPTIONAL point they do not comment on the language. Encourage groups to be
supportive.

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© The British Council 2021 The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.
 Lesson plan
• Ask groups to read again and to note any language improvements. Allow 3-5
minutes for this. Monitor and answer any queries from groups.
• The article is then returned to the group that wrote it. Allow 1 minute for them to
check the comments.

6. Follow up • The articles could be displayed on the wall.

• If online they could be put on the school website, added to an online notice
board, such as Padlet or send to [email protected]

• Learners could present their articles in the following lesson. Or you could
arrange for learners to read the articles if on the wall or an online platform.

7. References • https://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day
• http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/magazine/saint-patricks-day
• https://padlet.com/

Contributed by
Original activity by Alastair Bassett
Edited by Suzanne Mordue

www.teachingenglish.org.uk
© The British Council 2021 The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.