S2E25 - On My Terms

Objective & content

In this episode, Mason, Tiago, Harper and Stella are at Café Marisol on the night Mason decides to reveal that he painted the walls of the town. Cole and Marcus appear in a short gallery scene. The grammar focus is the causative have/get something done, reprised from earlier in the season; Harper's line "I'm not having a single sentence of it published until you've said it yourself" is the model, and the present perfect is reviewed in Harper's "He's told the whole town that he's the artist." Learners work on listening comprehension and on vocabulary such as account, secret and deal, then take the in-app quiz.

Pedagogical guide

The lesson (50 minutes, B1-) treats the episode as a story about who tells your story. Learners follow five short scenes, then use the causative and the present perfect in their own sentences about decisions they control. The ending is open: do not explain why Stella leaves, and let learners suggest reasons. A support track ([S]) gives sentence frames and multiple-choice questions, and an extension track ([A]) asks for inference and original production.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Activate prior knowledge: write "Who should tell your story: you or someone else?" on the board; pairs talk for two minutes.
2. (5 min) Preview six words: account, charge, secret, truth, deal, stare.
3. (5 min) First listen without interruption; ask for the main topic.
4. (10 min) Second listen with three pauses (the storeroom scene, Mason's announcement, the gallery) and one question at each.
5. (5 min) Comprehension check with five questions from the in-app quiz.
6. (5 min) Vocabulary practice: matching game or the vocabulary tasks of the student sheet.
7. (5 min) Grammar focus: compare the causative line and the present perfect line from the script, then learners write three sentences.
8. (5 min) Speaking extension in pairs: Mason and a friend before the announcement.
9. (5 min) Optional writing: what does Stella say to Mason later?

Materials & prerequisites

• The student sheet and the teacher sheet (PDF and HTML) from the episode's printables, and the lesson plan.
• The audio of the episode or the Academy app, and the in-app quiz.
• Learners should already know the past participle and the basic present perfect.

Curriculum alignment

Cycle 4, class of 3e, axis "languages and communication" (`c4-languages-and-communication`), with the B1- half-level as the target.