Ayesha Mushtaq Pasha Ayesha Mushtaq Pasha

Reading: The American Dream
Upper Intermediate level


The purpose of this lesson is to get the students thinking and discussing about what the sentence 'I'm Living the American Dream' means. Then they will read the text The Epic of America (1931) by James Truslow Adams once for gist (get vocabulary after this) and then for detail and find out what the American Dream means. They answer some questions with regards to this. Finally students come up with a national dream of their own.


Abc Speaking ex 3
Abc The American Dream handout

Main Aims

  • To provide gist and detailed reading practice using a text about Living the American Dream in the context of what a good lifestyle constitutes of.

Subsidiary Aims

  • To provide fluency in speaking practice in a conversation in the context of a good national dream.


Warmer/Lead-in (0-5 minutes) • To set lesson context and engage the students to get them thinking about the American life

1) Tell students they are about to watch a power point presentation and they have to answer the following question after this (in pairs) : a) I would(n't) like to live in the US because... Show them a power point presentation with the American Flag, a typical house in America with picket fences and the ideal family and some basic amenities every American has which can be considered luxuries in other countries. (The Star-Spangled Banner will be playing in the background) 3) Get feedback from few pairs.

Pre-reading (ex 1) (0-5 minutes) • To prepare students for the text and make it accessible/understandable

1) Ss read the sentence in ex 1 : I'm living the American Dream! 2) Tell them to discuss in pairs what they think this sentence means and what the American dream is 3) Call out on some to share

Reading for gist (0-4 minutes) • To provide students with less challenging gist information regarding reading task

1) Ask the Ss to read the paragraph by James Truslow Adams, 'The Epic of America' (1931) on pg 90 quickly for gist i.e. to get a general idea about what the American Dream is (give them 30secs) 2) Then they check in pairs and compare what they discussed about the American Dream in the previous stage.

Pre-teach Vocabulary (0-5 minutes) • To expose students to some vocabulary in the paragraph before they get on to the detailed reading

1) Give them the list of the following words and definitions. Ss match words with their definitions i.e. in groups of 4 1) Attain (verb) 2) stature (n) 3) fortuitous (adj) 4) capable (adj) 5) innately (adverb) 2) Show them answer key.

Reading for detail ex 2 (0-10 minutes) • Read the text for detail about what 'The American Dream' is as per Adams

1) Ss read the text in detail individually 2) Discuss and answer the following questions together in pairs

Speaking task (0-15 minutes) • Provide the students an opportunity to talk about their own national dream

1) In pairs Ss discuss about what a good national dream would be for their country (keep in mind the referendum about to happen) 2) Create two suitable sentences (Give them about 7.5 minutes for this stage) 3) Divide class into gorillas and kangaroos: Gorillas go speak to gorillas and Kangaroos speak to Kangaroos about their national dreams. (About 7.5 minutes for this stage)

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