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Are you ever too young for greatness?

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Read at home,
talk in class

ARTICLE: https://eslbrains.com/crc064
photo of the author Olia |

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of the lesson are to:

  • read and understand an article about a 14-year-old employee,
  • work with collocations,
  • improve speaking and critical thinking skills. 

This CRC lesson focuses on the topic of talent, age and employment. Students discuss the advantages and disadvantages of being different ages, talk about prodigies, and discuss people who became famous when they were children.

B1 / Intermediate
B2 / Upper Intermediate30 min
45 minCritical Reading ClubFree

This is a Critical Reading Club worksheet. With this format, students need to read an online article at home and do the exercises in the classroom. Learn more about how to use such worksheets and their benefits in our post.

ACTIVITIES

In the warm-up activity, students talk about different age groups and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each. The teacher can also decide to give students an additional task to work a bit with vocabulary. First, students choose correct collocations (e.g. tackle a person, miss out on social life, act with maturity, etc.). Then, they read a definition of a prodigy, look at the sentences and say whether the sentences describe a prodigy. After that, students think about the time when they were 14 and compare their lives to the boy’s from the article life. They also discuss questions and talk about employing young people. As a wrap-up activity, students discuss stories of famous children and talk about different aspects of their lives. 

ARTICLE

https://eslbrains.com/crc064

WORKSHEETS

4

Comments

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Leave a Reply

  1. ada_szwtwg

    Love it! I’m definitely gonna use it with my students.

    1. Olia

      Thanks! Let us know how it goes 🙂

  2. rosaleen

    I don’t understand the teacher’s note for exercise 2 and I’m teaching this class on Monday.
    “Before students start discussing the statements, ask them to choose the correct collocation.” Do I give the student both the options ‘miss out on a bus or miss out on social life’ and ask them if both collocations are correct? Just now sure how to phrase this with students! It’s a bit confusing – help!

    1. Olia

      Hi! You got it right 🙂 You should read both collocations and let students choose the correct one. You can also tell them that both collocations might be correct as well.

      1. rosaleen

        Thank you very much for replying! Can’t wait to teach this lesson now.

        1. Olia

          Sure, I hope your students enjoy it 🙂

  3. englishwithpati

    This is a free lesson plan, but in order to read the article this material is based on, you have to buy a subscription from Business Insider. This way my students cannot access the article, unfortunately, and it cannot be considered free anymore.

    1. Olia

      Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We believe the article shouldn’t be behind a paywall, especially since we can access it for free.

      1. ada_szwtwg

        Hi there! It used to be free because I remember accessing it without any problems, but now it’s behind a paywall 🙁 For now, I’m just gonna use a different article. I’ve found a brief one on Firstpost.

        1. Olia

          Hi! Can you check out this article and see if you can access it?

      2. Olia

        Hi! Can you check out this article and see if you can access it?

        1. Neus Ortega i Campillo

          Hello! It is totally accessible. Thank you so much!

  4. Sarah Steadman

    Hello, I cannot access the article. I just upped my subscription thinking it was part of the Unlimited plan but this is a free lesson. Every time I try and read the article I get a pop up to subscribe to a newsletter and I cannot get the article. Regards, Sarah

    1. Olia

      Hi! Can you check out this article and see if you can access it?

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