What would you take?

Objective & content

By the end, B1+ pupils can choose, compare and justify with would, unless and although: I'd take the torch, because we couldn't see anything at night. The guitar would be fun, although it wouldn't keep us warm. The bank is 9 projectable slides: a how-to slide, then 8 situations (lost in a forest for one night, stuck on a desert island, no electricity for three days, a twelve-hour train journey, snowed in at a mountain hut...), each with nine pictured things and the useful phrases.

Pedagogical guide

Use it as a five-minute warm-up for real negotiation. Each group can keep only three things, and everyone must agree, so pupils have to compare, persuade and give way, which brings out would, unless and although naturally. The nine things always mix the useful, the comfortable and the fun, so groups rarely agree at first. Hearing each group's three things and best reason gives the class something to argue about. The slides are interchangeable: one situation per lesson.

Suggested procedure

1. (1 min) Show the how-to slide and read the example together.
2. (3 min) Show one situation. In groups of three, pupils agree on three things.
3. (1 min) Each group tells the class its three things and its best reason.

Adaptations

• [S] Pupils choose alone first and say one sentence each with I'd take ... because ..., then the group agrees.
• [A] Groups put all nine things in order, from the most useful to the least useful, or invent a situation and nine things for the class.

Materials & prerequisites

A projector or screen; the bank is a 16:9 PDF, one slide per page, with no printing needed. Assumes would for imaginary situations and because for reasons.