Topic: happiness, ageing, closing the age gap
Level: B2+, C1
Aims::
- to raise awareness to an important issue - to expand students’ knowledge about a wide-spread phenomenon - to develop students’ self-awareness, EQ and empathy - to develop students’ critical thinking - to develop student’s listening, reading and speaking skills - to develop students’ autonomy, presentations skills, research skills and cooperation
Equipment/materials needed: video (https://www.ted.com/talks/robert_waldinger_what_makes_a_good_life_lessons_from_the_longest_study_on_happiness), worksheet for each student
The sequence of activities
1. Warmer - What makes a good life? What do you think are the ingredients of a so-called good life? Ask students to list 5 things that come to their mind.
If you feel so, ask some pairs to read out their answers and maybe list these ingredients of the board. You can also ask them to rank them in order of importance in pairs.
Also, ask them to discuss these 2 questions in pairs and ask for feedback if you feel so (but it may be a sensitive issue to share in front of the whole group):
Do you consider yourself a happy person? What makes you happy?
2. Play the video (please note that it’s a 12 min clip). Before watching the clip, you can ask your students to read the questions in exercise 3 to know what to expect.
3. Comprehension questions
1. When millennials were polled about their life goals, what did 80% of them claim to be their life goal? a. get married b. get rich c. have children d. eat healthier
2. How long has the Harvard Study of Adult Development been tracking the lives of these men? a. 25 years b. 50 years c. 75 years d. 100 years
3. Why do long term studies like this typically not work?
4. Briefly describe the 3 big lessons about relationships the study has offered.
4. Discussion - Ask your students to discuss the following questions either in pairs or in small groups and then ask for feedback about the answers you’re interested in.
1. What would be your answer to the first question in the previous exercise? Which one is your life goal? 2. What do you think about this study? Do you agree with the findings? Would you participate in a similar study? 3. “The good life is built with good relationships.” – Do you agree with this statement? Is it enough? What else is needed for a good life? 4. The speaker implies that all you have to do to have a good life is work on your relationships and it’s not that difficult. What about those people with low EQ, for whom building relationships is quite difficult? Could they ever be happy?
4. Vocabulary - Match the word with its meaning
5. Vocabulary – Ask your students to fill in the questions with one of the words/expressions from the previous exercise.
Check the answers together, then ask them to discuss the questions with their partner.
6. Discussion - As the speaker put it, one of the findings of the study was that “loneliness kills”. Here you can find some quotes on loneliness for discussion starters. Ask your students to fill them in with a suitable word from the box.
Check the answers together and then, ask them to choose 2-3 quotes with their partner and discuss them.
7. Loneliness and ageing – Analysing an infographic
Ask your students to discuss these questions:
1. According to this infographic and the TED talk, why is it a problem that ageing people feel lonely?
2. How do they try to substitute their family’s and friends’ presence?
You can ask your students to choose between the following two projects to do as homework or you can ask them to do the first one in class and the second one at home.
PROJECT 1
What do you think could be done to tackle the epidemic of loneliness among the elderly?
What do you think they should do?
How could other people help them?
Your task is to create an infographic on loneliness in later life. First, try to find some statistics on loneliness among the elderly in your country and also look for different ways of helping them feel less lonely. Look for great initiatives with good results and present them to your classmates.
PROJECT 2
When was the last time you talked to an ageing person? Your task is to interview one of your ageing relatives/your ageing neighbour about the important milestones in their lives and the moments they felt the happiest. Next time, you should talk about your findings in class in a short presentation.