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Two lesson suggestions
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Naomi Clift
Literature Department, the British Council, London

Below are two lesson ideas for using the readers' survey on childhood published in 'British Studies Now 12'. 

Level: late intermediate upwards

If there is time, the teacher may want to do both lessons, with a break of at least a day between them. In this case, it would be advisable to start with the 60-minute lesson to introduce the theme. If the teacher wishes to do the shorter lesson only, it would be advisable to precede it by step 1 of the 60-minute lesson, in order to introduce the theme of childhood.

A 60 minute lesson

1. First in pairs then as a group, brainstorm words around the theme of childhood. Put results on the whiteboard using a mindmap/spidergram [10 min.]

2. Put students into small groups. Each group chooses two different themes from the diagram (e.g. TV programmes, school dinners) and writes 3 questions for each. Make sure that each group chooses different themes. [10-15 min.]

3. Each student joins up with other students from different groups.

4. Students interview each other. [20-25 min.]

5. Brief feedback as a class [10 min.]

A 35-40 minute lesson

1. Choose a selection of about eight questionnaires from different countries, photocopied and cut out, with names and countries missing. Give each questionnaire a number or a letter in order to be able to identify it.

2. Divide class into small groups and give each group a copy of the questionnaires.

3. Each group discusses the questionnaires and tries to guess which country the person is from (obvious textual clues might need masking) [15-20 min.]

4. Feedback and discussion as a class. What made students come to their conclusions? What similarities and differences did students note between different cultures? [15-20 min.]

Follow up activities

Students carry out their own questionnaire with English speakers: other teachers, local expatriates, contacts from the WWW, e-mail, pen pals etc and compile a class report on the findings. Gender differences could also be explored.

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