English · Lycée général (C1 to C2), Bac pro (B1 to B2)
Session 8: Final task: Thanksgiving, a celebration to keep or a myth to rethink?
Recap check
Name two founding texts studied in this sequence.
Who was excluded in 1776?
What happened in Plymouth in 1970?
Answer key
The Mayflower Compact (1620), the Declaration of Independence (1776).
Women, enslaved people, Native nations.
The first National Day of Mourning.
Question: How can a nation tell the story of its beginnings?
Objectives
Use the whole sequence in a structured production
Present several points of view before giving an opinion
Reuse the passive and reporting structures
Documents
Task A, writing (about 250 words). Your school magazine prepares its November issue. Write an opinion article: “Thanksgiving: a celebration to keep or a myth to rethink?” Use at least three facts from the sequence, one reporting structure and three linking words.
Task B, speaking (3 to 4 minutes, groups of four). Plymouth, 2020, the 400th anniversary. Roles: a descendant of a Mayflower passenger, a member of the Wampanoag Nation, a history teacher, the mayor, who must decide what the commemoration will include.
Criterion
Insufficient
Satisfactory
Very good
Historical facts
Vague
Two precise facts
Three or more, dated and sourced
Points of view
One only
Two presented
Several, nuanced
Language
Many errors
Clear
Passive and reporting structures
Organisation
No plan
Introduction and conclusion
Clear plan with linking words
Activities
Choose task A or B.
Prepare: three facts, two points of view, one quotation.
Peer review with the grid.
Final production.
Exercise
Write the introduction of the article in three sentences: hook, context, question.
Answer keyExample: Every November, millions of Americans sit down to a family dinner. The holiday recalls a harvest gathering of 1621 between English settlers and the Wampanoag. But whose story does it tell?
Gap-fill worksheet
Word bank: commemoration, dispossession, memory, alliance, perspective
A public ceremony to remember is a ______.
Losing one's land is ______.
A national ______ can change over time.
In 1621 the gathering sealed an ______.
Each group brings its own ______.
Answer key
commemoration
dispossession
memory
alliance
perspective
Homework
Write the final version of your article or prepare your role card (five key words).
Answer keyModel answer: title, introduction with a question, one paragraph per point of view with dated facts, a nuanced conclusion (on balance...), a reporting structure such as is said to have.
Levels
Level
Adjustment
Première
Article frame with prompts, 150 words.
Terminale
250 words, two points of view.
C1/C2 extension
C1/C2: 400 words with concession and rebuttal, quoting Wamsutta and Lincoln.