GESE 7 Early Memories Lesson
In this download you can find an integrated skills lesson to help prepare students for the GESE Grade 7 Early Memories subject area. It includes a listening activity using a video, a reading text, a writing activity and lots of speaking practice!
How to Use the GESE 7 Early Memories Lesson
At the beginning of the lesson, you need to introduce the topic. You could write ‘Early Memories’ on the board and ask students what it makes them think of, or you could share an early memory of your own. Next, tell students they are going to watch a video where UK celebrities share their favourite early memory. They should think about what types of memories they think they might see and share their ideas with the class.
Using the video
The video can be found on the Action Aid webpage and is an example of an authentic material, not a video that has been specially prepared for language learning. Therefore, students will need some support in understanding the text. Ask them to watch the first 20 seconds where you can see how the celebrities prepared for their photos. This will help them to predict the content of the memories. Then, they can watch and match the title with the person. This should help them to understand the gist of the memories. Finally, they can watch for a second time all the way through and answer the questions which test more detailed understanding.
After watching the video, it is useful to ask students to react to the content and discuss their ideas. This can further aid comprehension and provides an opportunity for speaking about their own experiences.
Language Focus
The next part of the lesson has a short language focus on would/used to/remember + ing. The students would probably have covered this before hand, but you can always expand this section if it is the first time the students have met this language. They have the opportunity to use this language to talk about their own memories.
Using the reading
In the next section, there is a reading text where celebrities have written short descriptions of their favourite childhood memory. Ask students to predict the content first using the words from the text and then they read and check their answers. There is also some vocabulary work as, again, this in an authentic text, and there will probably be a lot of new language for them. Ask the students to find the meaning of words and phrases they didn’t know before and then teach their findings to the class. This is better when students work in small groups or pairs.
Writing
Finally, students use all they have learnt to write a short description of their own favourite childhood memory to share with the class.
Overall, there is around 3-4 hours of class work in this lesson, depending on the size of the group and their level. Enjoy using the lesson plan and let us know how it goes in the comments :)
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File: GESE 7 Early Memories Lesson
Don’t forget to try out our other GESE 7 resources and Early Memories resources there are lesson plans, vocabulary handouts, conversation question cards… and more!