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Pre-teach certain vocabulary from the text. Along with the Vocabulary Match from the PDF, there are plenty of vocabulary words to review that will show up on the Kahoot!

A bump
​A skull
Decade
Mostly
To bend (our necks)
To hunch (over)
An angle
​       An unnatural angle

If you've never used Kahoot before: 

1. Go here to play the Kahoot! with your students!
2. Have your kids take out their phones or classroom computers and go to Kahoot.it
3. Enter the game ID
4. Create a Name

Bring a scale.
Put things on the scale and review numbers and weights.
Choose something in the class or bring something in that weighs 4.5 kg to show how much the head weighs.
Time our how long some students can hold that in an unnatural position.
              (Ex. Hold a heavy book out to the side.)

​This will give a didactic touch to the article.

Let's face it, sometimes our classes can see a Kahoot lesson as a free class. (Especially teens)
​
To keep your students honest and giving effort PLUS an extra reward for the winners, give a small assignment to everybody except the top three teams​ as a prize.

Assignment Ideas:

• Define or write examples of vocabulary words
• Write answers for a 3 to 5 Discussion Questions from the article
• Choose an activity from the Breaking News English mini lesson

- Learn about some of the dangers of using mobile phones too much
​- What else can you find?

If you're interested in other classes like this or getting worksheets and PDFs to take to your classes, support Jesse on Patreon, and he will help you in the classroom.

To print out the article, go to BreakingNewsEnglish.com or go here to print it out. Thanks!

Creativity - Students will get a chance to actually create something similar to things that they may have seen on YouTube.

Instagram - They will be able to improve their Instagram game, learning about photography.

What else can you find?

If you're working with business or professional English, this interview is fantastic to work through in a series of lessons. 
I would probably go over a bit of who Chris Voss is and his background. This would interesting to learn about and make the interview more meaningful. 

This would be perfect for adults or students looking for professional or business English. 

This could be used for many lessons that are more than just English. For example:

• negotiation
• business vocabulary and expressions
• listening to different accents
• listening comprehension
• crime vocabulary
• advertising and marketing
• entrepreneurs 

Background information about Chris Voss. Here is a link to his bio in his company's website The Black Swan Group. Knowing information about the author/speaker will give more meaning to the video to the students.

Information and Vocabulary to highlight and/or pre-teach:

Split the difference - 
High-stakes negotiations - 
The lead (adj) - 
Kidnapping - 
Prior to... - 
... on such cases as... - 
Hostage (n) -
Tenure (n) - 

Listen and discuss what you heard in the video. I suggest you break it up in 3 or 4 different classes (or parts).

VIDEO PART ONE: 0:00-11:44
 
I. Comprehension Questions: Watch the video and then answer the following questions based on what you hear.
 

1. What does Chris Voss mean by “trapping people with yes”? (3:30)
   
   
2. Why is this a bad thing? (4:42) 
   
   
3. What cultures and countries are these tactics effective? (7:27)
   
   
4. What is the first step to talk people into doing things? (8:35)
   
   
5. Why is, “Have you given up on <something>?” such a powerful question to in persuasion? (9:05)
   
   
6. Why are “no” questions so powerful?

 
II. Vocabulary:Match the words with the meanings and then fill in the blanks for the sentences from the video.
 
____ 1. A follow-up                                                 a. a strong reaction based on emotion
____ 2. Jump into                                                    b. a specific warning before information
____ 3. Caveat                                                         c. instinctual
____ 4. Predicated                                                  d. founded or based on something
____ 5. To tap into something                              e. to reach something on a deeper level
____ 6. Innately                                                       f. to start something immediately
____ 7. Visceral                                                       g. something that comes after a thing
 

1. Know what their religion is, and __________________.
2. It’s almost ___________ of what we talked about last time.
3. One _________ is if you talk somebody into doing something they really don’t want to do, they’re not gonna do it.
4. Do we know this kind of thing _______________, or do we need to learn them.
5. With that all said, let’s __________ today’s episode.
6. Everything is kind of _______________ on you’re coming from a moral place.
7. That phrase causes a ________________ reaction by the reader.

 

ANSWERS I:Comprehension Questions

1. Manipulative questions that trap people into continuing to say yes to things. For example: Do you want to make more money? Would you like a nicer car? Etc.
2. Because the results won’t last and it’s not morally responsible.
3. All cultures because it’s human nature. 
4. Look at ‘no’ as a means instead of an obstacle. 
5. It triggers a fear of loss and empowers people to make decisions.
6. If I say ‘no’, I feel more protected and I’m open to listen more.

​ANSWERS II: Vocabulary
1.G  2.F  3. B  4.D  5.E  6.C  7.A
a.tap into itb. a follow up of c. caveat d.innately e.jump intof. predicated on g.visceral 

If you'd like a worksheet to bring to your students, I'll see you on Patreon. If not, feel free to copy and paste the information above onto a document.

Begin with a hangman game or another vocabulary game to see what airplane vocabulary they know. Pre-teach words you want to focus on in the lesson. This will vary depending on the level of your classes and the language focus you want to have for each lesson. 

Give the students a set time to design and build their airplanes. 4-6 minutes is usually plenty unless the students are young and learning how to make paper airplanes. This will take a lot longer with a class of 9 or 10 year-olds.

Pro Tip:
Give students a set time to design and build. Time them with a stopwatch they can see to give them a sense of urgency. 
​
When everybody has their airplane, start the competition. Have a starting point and measure the flights.

Have students record the distances of each player or group. We will use this later in the class.

Come back to their seats and make sure they have all of the flight records. Fill in the worksheet attached below and write comparative and superlative sentences based on the competition. Get creative as you want!

Enjoy teaching the younger ones the important skill of building the perfect paper airplane, and watch them drive other teachers crazy!

Let me know how it works for you and if you added any tricks to the lesson!