The future: choices and plans

Objective & content

This sheet on choices for the future opens on four posts on a school forum, "What are you going to do after this year?". Chloé, in France, is going to the general lycée and keeps her options open; Ryan, in England, has applied for an apprenticeship as an electrician; Mei, in Wales, dreams of studying medicine; Sam, in Scotland, has no idea yet, and that's OK. The posts carry all the target words in context, from career, options and pressure to apprenticeship, qualification, degree, gap year and vocational. By the end, pupils understand and use the words to talk about their choices after this school year and their plans for the future ("I'm going to...", "I might...", "If I get good grades, I'll...").

Pedagogical guide

The vocabulary work comes out of the posts, never from a list. Page 1 checks understanding with six multiple-choice questions. Page 2 matches eight words with their meanings (a career, a gap year, vocational, ambitious) and uses ten words from a box of twelve in new sentences; two words are extra. Page 3 builds opposites with un-, in- or im- (sure, unsure), with a worked example and five items, matches six collocations (make a decision, keep your options open, follow your passion) and ends on Sam's letter to his future self, where each of the nine gaps is a choice between three topic words. It is the hardest task: the wrong words come from the same topic (degree, pressure or gap year). Every task tests words, never grammar. Let pupils share their own plans only if they want to: "I don't know yet" is a good answer too.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Ask pupils what options there are after this school year; write the words they know on the board.
2. (10 min) Pupils read the four posts and answer the six questions.
3. (15 min) Page 2: match the meanings, then complete the ten sentences.
4. (15 min) Page 3: the opposites, the collocations, then Sam's letter.
5. (10 min) Correct with the answer key on page 4; pupils read Sam's letter aloud with the right words.

Adaptations

[S] Read the posts aloud together first; do the first two meanings on page 2 together.

[A] After the collocations, pupils write four sentences about their own plans.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy per pupil of the three pupil pages, in colour or black and white. Page 4 is the answer key with teacher notes: keep it. Pupils should know will, going to, might, the first conditional and the present perfect. To take it further, pupils write a real letter to their future self, to open when they leave school.