World book day — is reading trendy?: lesson ideas

World Book Day was created by UNESCO on 23rd April 1995 as a worldwide celebration of books and reading. It is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. World Book Day changes lives through a love of books and shared reading. The mission is to promote reading for pleasure. If you want to talk about reading books with your students to find out whether reading is trendy or not, here are some ideas for a speaking lesson suitable for Pre-Intermediate learners.

Task 1: Warm-up

Look at the pictures. What similarities and differences can you see there? Which picture is typical of your country? Do you think nowadays people read books more or less?

Task 2: Lead-in

Let’s do the quiz and check how much you enjoy reading.

Task 3: Discussion

Discuss the questions in pairs.

1. Do you agree with the results of the quiz? Why?
2. Do you consider going to the libraries outdated? Why? What do you think of the idea of e-books?
3. Have you ever tried to read a book in English?
4. What factors are important to you when choosing a book to read reviews, a recommendation from a friend or the front cover?
5. What is the last book you have read? What was it about?
6. Is there a book that you have read more than once?
7. Do you judge a book by its cover?
8. If a movie is made of a book, do you prefer to read the book or see the movie first?

Task 4:

A) Match the most popular genres with their definitions.

1. romantic fiction
2. poetry
3. mystery
4. science fiction
5. biography
6. fantasy

a) A book about a person’s life

b)A book or a story about police investigations

c) Stories about love and romance

d) Literature that creates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm

e) A speculative fiction set in a fictional universe, often inspired by real-world myth and folklore. It includes mythical creatures and supernatural powers

f) A genre in which the actions take place in a dystopian society sometime in the future and contains elements of advanced technology

B) Look at the covers of the books and guess their genres.

C) Which genre from the list do you enjoy reading most? Why? Which of them do you think are really popular nowadays?

Keys:

A)

1 — c

2 — d

3 — b

4 — f

5 — a

6 — e

B)

The Solar War — science fiction

The Sherlock Holmes — mystery

Harry Potter — fantasy

Love poems and sonnets of William Shakespeare — poetry

Jane Eyre — romantic fiction

Albert Einstein — biography

Task 5:

Watch the video (till 01:37). What’s the main idea of it?

Possible answer:

The main idea of the video is that reading books is important for society, because great readers make great writers, whilst great writers make great communicators, and great communicators make great persuaders and great persuaders make good societies.

Task 6:

Watch the video (till 01:37) again and mark the sentences true/false.

1. Nowadays people enjoy talking about books and literature.
2. It is a real absurd that people talk mostly about games, TV shows, social media, etc.
3. The speaker doesn’t like social media and playing games.
4. Some adults spend six and a half hours on a screen a day.
5. Not reading can result in making your brain less active.
6. The speaker has read the Harry Potter series with eight books in one month.
7. Not having a book next to him, makes the speaker unhappy.
8. The speaker enjoys reading books, especially in queues and vehicles.

Keys:

1 — false

2 — true

3 — true

4 — false — Kids spend six and a half hours on a screen a day

5 — true

6 — false — Just over the past year he has enjoyed reading several books including the Harry Potter series

7 — true

8 — false — The speaker enjoys reading books in places like his bed, on the move while walking, in the toilet, in queues and in vehicles. But more importantly, he likes reading books at home

Task 7:

Think about your favourite place for reading. Describe it and explain why you love reading there.

Useful language:

— I absolutely love reading …

— I really enjoy reading …

— I quite like reading

— I don’t really like reading …

— Speaking personally I enjoy…