Teaching Notes – Unit 18

Introduction
Ss learn/practise used to and verbs with prepositions in the context of life changes.

Warm up
Show Ss recent photos of two famous people, e.g. Beyonce and Lionel Messi. Ask: What are they
famous for? What are they like? What have they done recently? Then show photos of the same people in
the past. Ask: What were they like then? What did they do? How have they changed? Elicit statements,
e.g. Beyonce wasn’t famous then. Now, she’s famous, successful artist. Show/Distribute more photos. Ss
work in pairs and describe how the people have changed. Elicit/Discuss their answers. (NB: If you haven’t
got photos, Ss could talk about their country/town as it was ten years ago and as it is now. Give them
prompts, e.g. entertainment and leisure, transport, housing, health, shopping, education,
employment/salaries, cost of living, politics.)

Vocabulary
Exercise A
Check the title of the lesson and ask: Are you living the dream? Do you know anyone who is? In what
way? Elicit and discuss Ss’ answers. Then give them 3-4 mins to discuss the questions in pairs and report
back to the class.

Exercise B
Give Ss 2-3 mins to read the text and answer the question. Elicit Ss’ answers (but wait until after Exercise
C to check the key vocabulary). Then ask: Have you ever wanted to change your life?

Exercise C
Ss do the exercise alone and compare answers in pairs. Check answers in feedback.
1. think about

Exercise D
Ss tick the sentences that are true for them. Give them 3-4 mins to discuss and compare their ideas in
pairs. Ss then report back to the class about themselves and their partner, e.g. I wouldn’t like to move to
another country, but Julia dreams about living by the beach in the Caribbean.

TIPS
Read the tip with Ss. They copy the verb + preposition collocations into their notebooks, preferably with
an example sentence. Take this opportunity to check how well Ss are organising new vocabulary. Ideally,
they should create a separate section in their notebooks, to make it easier to access and review new
words/phrases.
Teaching Notes – Unit 18

Optional extra activity

Check verb + preposition collocations from the text. Read out the text, pausing at each verb. Ss tell you
what the correct preposition is, e.g. Perhaps it’s time to look ______ (for) something new. Do this activity
now or as a warmer/filler in the next lesson.

Listening
Exercise A
Invite Ss to speculate about the woman in the photo. Give them 1-2 mins to discuss in pairs, e.g. her age
and job. Then, in open class, discuss the questions in the rubric. Elicit Ss’ answers to the question Why
do you think she moved? and write them on the board.

Exercise B
Ss listen and check their ideas on the board. Check answers in feedback.

Exercise C
Ss first read the questions. Check realise her dream. Play the recording again, then give Ss 2-3 mins to
answer the questions and compare answers in pairs.

Exercise D
Elicit initial responses to the questions before Ss discuss them in pairs. Encourage them to use the
phrases with prepositions from Vocabulary section, particularly when they answer Exercise C. Note how
well they do this while you monitor. In feedback, elicit/discuss Ss’ answers. Give feedback on language
you noted while monitoring.

Optional extra activity

Exploit the recording further. Play it again and pause it at suitable points to ask Ss for more specific
details, e.g. What was Jessica’s job? How did she stay in touch with the bookshop owner?
Teaching Notes – Unit 18

Audioscript
P= Presenter
J= Jessica

Part 1
P: Now, have you ever daydreamed about changing your life forever, about giving up your job and
setting off for a distant country where you could find love and happiness? Well, Jessica Fox did just
that and she’s on the line now to tell us about her journey. Jessica, welcome to the programme.
J: Oh, thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.
P: Now, you started your journey in Los Angeles. Tell me about your life there. What was your job?
What sort of lifestyle did you have?
J: Ah, I was consulting for NASA and I was doing what I loved. I was living in a city that I adored and I
had an extraordinary network of friends. There was, I can only describe it as like a … a … an abstract
taste that I was missing. And so I really began … it was about a year … I began daydreaming of
something quite different.
P: Did you have an actual vision of what the change might be?
J: I would often sit down in my studio and just dream of different things, and usually they turned into the
screenplays I was writing, and this dream kept on coming back of working in a used bookshop by the
sea. And I …
P: Working in a used bookshop by the sea?
J: In Scotland, yes.
P: In Scotland, right. Had you ever had any connection with used bookshops or Scotland before?
J: None, absolutely none.

Part 2
P: And so did you set about doing something to realise the dream?
J: Yeah, it happened quite quickly actually. I typed in ‘used bookshop, Scotland’, into Google ad
Wigtown came up, Scotland’s national book town of, I think, it was about sixteen bookshops and I
thought, ‘Oh my gosh, one of them, hopefully, will take me in,’ for a kind of live/work exchange while I
was on holiday and I could realise this dream of …
P: So, did you just send an email to these bookshops and ask them to take you in?
J: I sent one email to the first bookshop on the list, which was The Bookshop, and it was the largest
used bookshop in Scotland, and within a couple of emails this sort of extraordinary, generous
bookshop owner said, ‘Yes, I host a lot of other artists. Come on over for the festival.’
P: And so you cam over and you stayed at The Bookshop, and what sort of a bookshop was it? What
sort of impression did it make on you when you first arrived?
J: I would describe it as, if Harry Potter had a bookshop, this would be it.
P: And what about the bookshop owner? Did you get on with him?
Teaching Notes – Unit 18

J: I did. You know, I was … I was here for a specific reason. I really wanted to get away from things, I
wanted to write, so when I first met the bookshop owner I, it was just … it was a friendly, a kind of
friendly relationship I had with him. I didn’t get to know him very much until towards the end of my
stay.

Part 3
P: Your month ended and you went back to LA. Did you find yourself missing the shop and missing the
owner?
J: Yeah, I loved the shop, I loved the town itself and the people there. And it took me a while to admit
that it was actually most of all the bookshop owner that I was missing.
P: And how did you find out that he was missing you too?
J: We would correspond over email and Skype and I’d get lovely packages from his with things I missed
about Wigtown.
P: Such as?
J: Such as, this is terrible, such as the biscuits, the digestive biscuits I absolutely adore, um, and a lot of
the sweets and movies. I fell in love with Scottish films.
P: So your relationship deepened? Did you think, ‘Well maybe I’m falling in love with this man’?
J: Yeah, and I think the reason why it took so long for me to admit was that it meant a radical life shift.
And luckily, my job shifted at NASA; so suddenly, I had this freedom of being able to be anywhere in
the world that I wanted. And I just thought, ‘Well, why let all my characters in my movies have all the
fun?’ I really wanted to jump in and try this. This was a true challenge, an adventure.
P: So, tell me about your life now, living above the bookshop in Scotland.
J: Well, right now there’s a heater underneath my legs – it is absolutely freezing – there is ice crawling
up the windows, but it’s very cosy, um, and the snow has just hit here, it’s beautiful outside, and
Wigtown remains, four years on, remains as charming as when I first came.
P: And how is it going with the bookshop owner?
J: Wonderful! You couldn’t find a more beautiful place, and you couldn’t find more excellent people, and
you know … the love of my life is here so …
P: Jessica, it’s been wonderful to speak to you.
J: Thank you so much for having me.

Grammar
Teaching Notes – Unit 18

Exercise A
Write sentences a) – c) on the board. Underline the form in each sentence (used to live, didn’t use to
work, did she use to dream). Then ask concept questions 1 – 5 and elicit/check answers carefully.
Model/Drill the sentences, highlighting the pronunciation of used to.

Exercise B
Ss read the rules and discuss their answers in pairs. In feedback, do a personalised substitution drill to
check the form and pronunciation of used to further. Give Ss prompts, e.g. watch cartoons when you
were a child. Elicit/Drill I used to / didn’t use to watch cartoons when I was a child.

Exercise C
Ss work alone and then compare answers in pairs. Monitor and note any problems they have with the
target language. Do not confirm answers yet – Ss will check them in Exercise D.
Play the recording, pausing after each sentence for Ss to make changes to their answers if necessary.
Check answers with the class.

Ss listen and repeat the phrases. Highlight and drill the pronunciation of use(d) to and drill the sentences
chorally and individually.

Exercise D
Elicit sentences for question 1 that are true for Ss. Give them 3-4 mins to do the exercise alone. They
then compare answers in groups. In feedback, nominate Ss to tell the class about themselves/their
partners, e.g. When I was a child, I used to walk to school, but Marta used to cycle five miles every day.
Teaching Notes – Unit 18

Speaking
Exercise A
Elicit some examples, e.g. I didn’t use to wear glasses. I used to live in a flat. Ss then note down three
things that used to be true about them ten years ago.

Exercise B
Ss compare sentences and discuss how their lives have changed. Remind them to use used to when
possible and monitor to see how successfully they do it. Ss should be prepared to tell the class about
their partner. In feedback, Ss decide whose life has changed the most in the last ten years. Do remedial
work on used to If necessary.

Writing
Exercise A
Check unfamiliar language in the sentences. Ss then order them and compare answers in pairs. They
must be able to justify the order they decide on. Check answers in feedback.

Exercise B
Check the meaning of support/conclude and elicit the answers for paragraph 1. Ss then check paragraph
2 and discuss whether it follows the same pattern.

Exercise C
Ss can invent a decision. With weaker classes, elicit an example first, using the framework here. Give Ss
8-10 mins to write their paragraph. Monitor and support them where necessary. Also encourage them to
read/comment on each other’s work.