S2E23 - What She Chose

Objective & content

Harper, who runs the school paper, receives a call from her father Grant telling her to be ruthless and find the mystery artist first. She has already worked out that the artist is Mason, and she decides to help him and Stella instead of printing the story, while Brody shows what the other choice looks like. The script reviews the third conditional and wish lines ("If I'd wanted the easy version of this story, I would have printed it an hour ago") for recognition only, with no new structure to produce. The vocabulary covers choices, approval, credit and exclusivity, and the skill is listening comprehension followed by giving an opinion with "I would (not) ... because ...".

Pedagogical guide

The lesson lasts 55 minutes (about 5 minutes of audio). Learners explain why Harper's father calls, what advice he gives and why she will not print the secret, use six words (ruthless, hidden, credit, version, gallery, genuinely), and notice past-choice lines without producing them. For production, use "decided to", "have to" and "I would (not) ..." only. The episode touches a parent who is warm on the phone but hard to trust: keep the discussion on Harper and do not ask students to share family stories.

Suggested procedure

1. Activate prior knowledge (5 min): "Would you rather be first with a story, or be fair to the people in it?" Students think alone, then share with a partner.
2. Vocabulary preview (5 min): present the six words with simple definitions and a context sentence from the episode for each.
3. First listen (5 min): play the episode without interruption and ask for the main topic.
4. Second listen (10 min): pause at 1:33 (how does Harper feel about the call?), at 2:53 (why will she not print the story?) and at 4:32 (what separates Harper from Brody?).
5. Comprehension check (7 min): five oral or written questions, with the in-app quiz as a follow-up.
6. Vocabulary practice (5 min): match the six words to their definitions, then write one short sentence with one of them.
7. Grammar focus (8 min): students underline the verb forms in three lines from the script, for recognition only.
8. Speaking extension (6 min): in pairs, "What would you have done in her place?", then a class vote: print the story or protect the secret.
9. Writing extension, optional (4 min): three sentences about Harper's choice with "decided to", "had to" or "I would (not) ...".

Materials & prerequisites

• Student sheet and teacher sheet (PDF and HTML) from the episode's printables.
• Lesson plan, a device with the Academy app or the audio file, a whiteboard or projector, and sticky notes or scrap paper.
• Prerequisite grammar: the past simple, the first conditional and "would" for opinions.

Curriculum alignment

This episode is tagged to the cycle 4 axis "encountering others" (c4-encountering-others) and suits a 3eme class. The CEFR half-level is B1-.