Describing people

Objective & content

This sheet on describing people starts from Ella's article for the school magazine, "Meet the drama club!", where she presents her teacher and three club members: what they look like and what they are like. The article carries the target words, from curly, freckles and moustache to patient, bossy and hard-working. Pupils answer six multiple-choice questions on it, name six pictures from a box of eight words, match eight personality words with their meanings, complete nine sentences and make opposites with un-, im- and dis-. The sheet ends on "Who's who?": six short descriptions to match with six portraits.

Pedagogical guide

Pupils meet every word in a text before they practise it, then move from recognising the words to using them. Every task tests words only: no answer depends on a tense. The opposites task asks for one kind of change and opens with a worked example (kind, unkind). The final task is the hardest: two girls differ only by their glasses, and two men by a beard against a moustache and glasses, so pupils must read every detail. Looks are hair, face and height only.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Describe a famous person; the class guesses who it is. Write the looks and personality words on the board.
2. (10 min) Pupils read the article and answer the six questions, then compare in pairs.
3. (10 min) Pupils name the six pictures and match the eight words with their meanings.
4. (10 min) Pupils complete the sentences, then read the worked example together and make the opposites.
5. (8 min) "Who's who?": pupils read the six descriptions and write each name under its portrait.
6. (5 min) Check with the answer key on page 4.

Adaptations

[S] Pupils describe a famous person for the class to guess, with the words from the article.

[A] Pupils describe a classmate's looks in three sentences, kindly: hair, eyes, glasses. To take it further, they write a short magazine piece about a club they go to, like Ella's.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy of the three pupil pages per pupil, in colour or in black and white. Page 4 is the answer key: keep it. Pupils should know be and have in the present simple and the colours.