Superheroes

Objective & content

Two friends talk about American superheroes: what a superhero is (superpowers, a costume with a cape or a mask, a secret identity) and the comic books they come from, magazines with stories in pictures and speech bubbles. The friends meet the first big heroes: Superman in 1938, the idea of two high school friends from Cleveland, Ohio, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, in a first comic that cost ten cents; Batman in 1939, with clever gadgets but no superpowers; Wonder Woman in 1941, one of the first women superheroes; and Spider-Man in 1962, a New York teenager with homework. They also find out why a lot of superheroes live in New York, how one of the first Superman comics sold for six million dollars in 2024, and what fans do at Comic-Con in San Diego. What superheroes are and do is told in the present simple (they wear a costume, he has homework), with can for abilities ("Can Batman fly?"), the past simple for dated events (was, arrived, came, cost, sold) and questions with who, what, why and where. Learners listen for the names, the dates and the numbers, then answer the quiz in the app and the one-page pupil sheet.

Materials & prerequisites

• The episode in the app, with its quiz.
• The one-page pupil sheet (18 items: facts, vocabulary, grammar) and its answer key, in the episode's printables.
• Prerequisites: present simple, can for ability, the past simple of a few common verbs (was, came) and years and big numbers in English.

Curriculum alignment

Tagged c3-child-and-imagination and people-and-characters, so it fits cycle 3 (6e): the theme The child and imagination ("L'enfant et son imaginaire") and the 6e axis People and characters ("Personnes et personnages"). The episode targets CEFR A1+.