TEACHER’S NOTES

Topics: Family
by Adrian Tennant
Ask students to read through the letters
and see if their ideas were correct. While
they are doing this, they
LEVEL: Pre-intermediate should also try to complete each letter with
AGE: Teenagers / Adults the correct
first line (if you want, you can give a short
TIME NEEDED: 90 minutes + project time limit, i.e.
LANGUAGE FOCUS: Modal verbs, two minutes). Tell them they don’t need to
understanding vocabulary in context, understand
every word in the letters. Get students to
topic words check their
answers in pairs before checking as a class.
LEAD-IN
Remember to discuss their predictions from
the previous stage.
Ask students to look at the word-snake and
try to
© Macmillan Education Limited, 2012
find the ten words connected to family. INTEGRATED SKILLS / Topics /
Encourage Family / Pre-
students to work in pairs. Check the answers intermediate
together.

Key

FIRST SENTENCES

Explain to the students that they are going to read

four
sentences that are the first lines of four different
letters to
an agony aunt (someone in a magazine or
newspaper who
tries to help people with their problems). First,
check to
see if your students know what an agony aunt is,
then
get them to read the sentences. They should then
discuss
in pairs what they think the problem is in each
situation.
Elicit ideas from students as a whole class
discussion.
Don’t confirm whether their ideas are correct yet.

READING: LETTERS
 functions and point to the five words in the box.
Then
ask them to match the functions in the box to
Key a
the
1. b; 2. d; 3. a; 4. c
correct sentence. Monitor and help where
necessary.
Next, ask students to read the four sentences and
Get students to check their answers in pairs
decide if each one is true (T) or false (F). Again,
before
get
checking as a class.
pairs to check their answers together before
checking as a class.
Key
1. necessity; 2. obligation; 3. advice; 4. certainty;
Key b
5. possibility
1. F (Aaron doesn’t like his stepbrother.); 2. T; 3. T;
4. F (Barbara was 25 when she had her daughter.)
WORKING WITH VOCABULARY
After this, ask the students to read through the
two replies and match each one to the correct Focus 1: Meaning
letter. Get them to check their answers together in
pairs, then check as a class. Ask students to look back at the letters and
replies and find words that match the
Key c definitions. Encourage them to work in pairs
A. Letter 4; B. Letter 1 and discuss their ideas as they look at the
texts. Monitor and help where necessary.
Check the answers as a class.
WORKING WITH THE LANGUAGE
Key
Ask students to look at the five sentences and the
1. share; 2. raise; 3. adopted; 4. bumped into; 5.
underlined modal verbs. Check that everyone knows
identical;
what modal verbs are. Explain that they have
6. blame; 7. tough
different
ndm
TEACHER’S NOTES

Topics: Family
by Adrian Tennant
© Macmillan Education Limited, 2012
Focus 2: Topic-related words INTEGRATED SKILLS / Topics /
Family / Pre-
intermediate
Ask students to look back at the letters and
replies and circle all the words connected to
family members. Then, ask students to work in
pairs and complete the table. Encourage
students to add any other family words they
know. Check the answers as a class.

Key

male female either / both

father / dad mother / mum parent(s)
son daughter child(ren) / kid / baby
brother sister sibling(s) / only child
twin brother twin sister twin(s)
stepbrother stepsister
husband wife spouse
father-in-law mother-in-law in-laws
grandfather grandmother grandparent(s)

LISTENING

Ask students to listen to a short extract from a

radio show and decide which of the letters

from the
Reading: Letters exercise it is most closely
related to.

Transcript:

Host: OK, so let’s go to our next caller … Trudy:

Hi, my name’s Trudy and I’m 35 years old. Host:
And what’s your story, Trudy?
Trudy: I always thought I was an only child but now
I’ve discovered I have a brother.
Host: Wow! I guess that was a surprise.
Trudy: Yes, it was.
Host: So what actually happened?
Trudy: I got a phone call from a man who said he
was my brother. Of course, I didn’t believe
him, but then he seemed to know a lot about
my parents.
Host: So what did you do?
Trudy: Well, I met him and he told me his name
was Kieran and he was my older brother.
He was adopted before I was born and my
mother didn’t tell me about him.
Host: Wow! And what are you going to do now?
Trudy: I don’t know. I’m a bit worried that we won’t
like each other. That’s why I’m phoning you.
Can you give me some advice?
Host: Mmm. Trudy - I think you should call …
 he / she was adopted; his name is Kieran / her name is
Karen
Key
letter 3 SPEAKING

Ask students to read letter 3 and circle any Put students in small groups and ask them to
differences discuss the advice that they would give to the
between that and the radio show. Put students in other two
pairs letters that Betty didn’t reply to. Monitor
and ask them to discuss their answers together. Play and help where necessary. Afterwards, ask a
the recording again, if necessary. Check the answers few groups to report back on their
as suggestions.
a class.
PROJECT
Key
brother / sister; he phoned her / she bumped Ask students to carry out the project for
into her; homework and follow it up in the next lesson.
he is older than her; they are the same age
(twins);