Imagine that your school is organizing “Role Reversal Day" when students have a chance to become teachers for a day. You are going to teach English and your teacher has asked you to plan lead-in activities based on three stories. Read the stories and choose all the lead-in activities that are related to them. The activities should cover the information in all stories.
Ben: The two people that I'm closest to are my mum and my sister, Emma. There's only a year between Emma and me, and we get on really well even though we don't really have a lot in common. I tend to go to her for advice and I often confide in her. Then there's my best friend Callum. We're in the same class at school, and we also play in the same football team at the weekends — actually, he is probably the person I see the most! I also see my cousin, Harry, quite often. Finally, there's Tom Fisher, our football coach. He's really hard on us, and we're not always sure of what his mood is going to be, but he's a great coach. We wouldn't be top of the league without him!
Mark: Apart from Mum and Dad, I'm also really close to my auntie, Julia. She's much younger than my mum, and she's more like a sister to me than an aunt. She's so outgoing and I really admire her. And obviously I'm really close to my identical twin brother, James, despite the fact that we spend a lot of time arguing! Outside my family and friends, there are two other people that are quite important in my life. The first is my maths teacher, Mr. O'Neil. I always used to hate maths, but this year I've started to understand it much better because of him. Then there's my judo teacher. He's great fun, and thanks to him, I'm about to get my black belt!
Amy: Well, I suppose like the majority of people, I'm closest to my immediate family. There's my mum and dad, and my brother and sister, Nathan and Molly. My granny, Alice, has lived with us since my grandad died, and we all love her a lot! Despite the age difference, we really understand each other well. We've got the same terrible sense of humour! Other people that are important to me are my cousin Leah and my best friend, Lily. I always have a good time with them when we meet up! And finally, I've got to mention my tutor from school, Mrs. White. Everybody thinks she's a great teacher, but I really respect her because she's so patient with everybody, and she's always positive about life!
- Split your students into pairs or small groups. Ask them to discuss who they are closest to in their life and why. Encourage them to share stories and anecdotes about the people they are close to. After a few minutes, have each group share their thoughts with the class.
- Give your students a list of professions, such as teacher, doctor, chef, etc. Divide them into pairs or small groups and ask them to discuss which profession they think is the most important and why. After a few minutes, have each group share their thoughts with the class and encourage respectful debate and discussion.
- Divide your students into pairs or small groups. Give each group a scenario, such as "You're stranded on a desert island and can only bring one person with you. Who do you choose and why?" After a few minutes, have each group share their thoughts with the class.
- Divide the students into small groups and ask them to discuss their favourite school subjects. Encourage them to share stories and anecdotes about funny moments at their lessons. After a few minutes, have each group share their stories.
- Ask the students to individually write down the names of three people who are important to them and why. Then, have them pair up with a classmate and take turns sharing their lists and discussing their choices.
- Give the students a list of adjectives \(e\.g\. kind, funny, patient, intelligent, etc\.\) and ask them to choose three adjectives to describe each of the people mentioned in the text. Encourage them to use examples from the text to support their choices. After a few minutes, have each student share their choices with the class.
- Ask the students to choose an unusual hobby from the text and write a short paragraph describing why that hobby is interesting for teenagers. Encourage them to use specific examples from the text to support their reasoning. After a few minutes, have each student share their paragraph with the class.
- Ask the students to form small groups and brainstorm a list of qualities that make a role model. After a few minutes, have each group share their list with the class and lead a discussion about which qualities are the most important and why.