Family trees

The objective

To describe our families in an engaging way

The language

Family: brother/sister, cousin, nephew/niece, great-grandmother/father, etc.

Present simple (to be): My grandmother is 90 years old.

Past simple: My grandfather died.

Have (got): I have (got) two brothers and one sister.

Superlatives: The oldest person in your family is your grandmother.

Possessives: My grandfather..., His name is..., My grandfather´s name is...

Relative clauses: My grandfather, on my mother´s side, is 89.

The set-up

None.

The low-down

Assign each student a letter A and B and put into pairs. Tell A´s that they´re going to describe their families to B´s and B´s have to draw A´s family tree based on the description. Depending on the level you can demonstrate this two ways: One way is simply describe, "My mother´s name is..., My father´s name is..." and draw on the board as you describe. The other way is by asking one student about his/her family. "What´s your mother called? And your father?" and drawing the tree as you get answers. Even with the first method, students will have to ask questions but it´s a bit less of a cognitive load to question, process, draw. When they´re done, B´s can now draw A´s family tree.

Now what?

Now, using the family trees, students should ask questions to find the following information:

• the oldest living member
• the youngest member
• the most interesting member
• the most successful member
• the member closest to them
• etc.

The rule is that they can´t ask the questions directly. So, for example, for the first category, they have to ask, "How old is your grandfather?". Or for the third/fourth, "What does your cousin do?" Students then guess the correct answer and check with their partner to see if they were right, or simply agree.

Time to teach

This lesson is much more complicated than it seems so even intermediate students will commit errors. This could be with possessives, since there are many different forms. Or it could be with relative clauses. Listen and you´ll find something to help students with.

More talk-time

How important is family to you?

Is there anyone in your family you would consider your best friend?

Is there anyone you don´t get along well with?

Which do you prefer, large families or small families?