Office or home?
Linking devices
60-90 min
Standard
Intermediate
Overview
In this intermediate-level (B1) lesson, students will learn how to formulate balanced arguments when comparing the benefits of working from home with the utility of a traditional office. They will focus on using contrast discourse markers, such as although, however, still, and on the one hand... on the other hand, to weigh up the professional pros and cons.
The lesson is built around an online article that shows two contrasting professional perspectives. After analysing these arguments and reviewing some linking devices, students progress onto a few practice activities before expressing their own ideas on work-life balance. The lesson wraps up with a structured discursive writing task for homework.
Our standard lessons follow a consistent six-stage flow: warm-up, a presentation based on real content (video, text or images), a contextual language focus stage, controlled practice, a free practice session, and a final homework task.
Each lesson includes a printable student worksheet and teacher’s guide with answer keys. For digital classrooms, we provide an editable Google Slides e-lesson, that is also compatible with PowerPoint.
Warm-up
The purpose of this stage is to activate your students' existing knowledge and prepare them for the lesson's theme.
Activity 1: The students will work in pairs to brainstorm words and phrases they associate with working from home and working in an office.
Presentation
During this part of the lesson, we will introduce the main content, presenting new language and concepts through video, text or images.
Activity 2: Students match key vocabulary from the text to their definitions to prepare for the reading task.
Activity 3: The students will read the perspectives of Clara and Oliver and complete the text by filling in the gaps with the key vocabulary from the previous activity.
Activity 4: Students read the text again and answer comprehension questions to evaluate the key ideas from the text.
Language focus
This stage of of the lesson includes a contextual, interactive activity designed for presenting the target language.
Activity 5: The students will examine several sentences about the reading activity to identify how different discourse markers are used to connect and contrast arguments.
Practice
To reinforce their understanding of the new language or concepts introduced in the lesson, the students will work on a couple of controlled practice activities.
Activity 6: The students unscramble jumbled sentences about general work situations to practise using contrast markers and correct punctuation.
Activity 7: The students combine pairs of opposing statements about professional situations to practise writing balanced sentences using contrast markers.
Activity 8: The students will work in pairs to discuss several questions about their workplace habits and productivity preferences.
Let's talk
We move into free practice for this stage, where the students apply the language in more open-ended, communicative activities.
Activity 9: Students will work in pairs to design a hybrid office layout by choosing and negotiating a limited number of workplace features from a list.
Activity 10: The students will discuss short hypothetical professional dilemmas to compare different work environments, schedules, and career values.
Homework
Finally, we'll encourage students to extend their learning outside of the classroom to reinforce the language and concepts covered during the lesson.
Homework task: The students will write a discursive essay exploring the pros and cons of remote work versus office-based work.
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