This lesson is designed around a beautiful and poignant short film called Vovô (Portuguese for grandfather) by Luiz Lafayette Stockler.  Students practise listening, reading, speaking and writing.

Language level: Intermediate  (B1) – Upper-intermediate (B2.1)

Learner type: Teens and adults

Time: 90 minutes

Activity: Watching a short film, listening, speaking, reading, writing a narrative and description

Topic: Grandparents

Language: would + infinitive to describe a past habit, language to describe old people

Materials: Short film

Downloadable material: grandfather lesson plan instructions     grandparents discussion questions     grandfather transcript

Step 1
Tell your students that you are going to tell them something about one of your grandparents. Give them some general information about your parent such as where they were born, what they look or looked like, and their character. For example I would explain the following information about my grandmother:
My grandmother was born in the West of Ireland. She lived on a farm and had 14 children. When I was a child I remember her as having white hair, lots of wrinkles and the most beautiful blue eyes. She was always positive, happy and joking with everyone.
After describing your grandparent get your students to ask questions to find out more information about your grandparent and their life.

Step 2
Tell your students you would like them to tell a partner something about one of their grandparents. They should use a similar structure to your description: general information, physical description, and character. Give them a few minutes to prepare their description and help them with any vocabulary they’d like to use. Next, get them to describe their grandparent to their partner.
Get feedback from the whole class and ask students to give information about their partner’s grandparent.

Step 3
Give students the discussion questions about grandparents and ask them to choose 4 of the questions to talk about in small groups.

Step 4
Pre-teach the following vocabulary:
liver spots
bristly
broom
to sneak
cream crackers
to doze off
to rest your eyes (a humorous euphemism for sleeping)

Step 5
Tell your students they are going to watch a short film called Vovô in which a man tells a story about growing up with his grandfather in Brazil. Write up the following questions:

What is the story the man tells?
What did his grandfather look like?
What do you think his grandfather wanted to show him?
How do you think the man feels?
How does the film make you feel?

Show the film.

Step 6
Get students to discuss their answers and then get feedback from the whole class.

Step 7
Give your students the transcript of the film.

Tell them to read it and explain any vocabulary they don’t understand. Point out the use of would and infinitive. Write up the sentence:

He’d share cream crackers with me.

Ask your students why we use would in this situation. Try to elicit that we use it to describe a past habit.

Step 8
Show the film again and asked students what they think of the film and the story.

Homework
Tell your students you would like them to write a description of a grandparent and a story about something which their grandparent would do when they were a child. Tell them they should use would and infinitive.

I hope you enjoy the lesson.