“You can choose your friends, but you sho' can't choose your family.

”
From To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1926 – 2016)

1. Family Discussion
1. What does 'family' mean? How important is family to you? How important is family in your
culture?
2. How many children does the average family have in your country? Do you think this will change
in the future? What is an ideal number?
3. How often do you see or speak to the members of your family?
4. Are the members of your family also your friends? What do you spend time doing with your
family? Who do you enjoy spending time with the most, your family or your friends?
5. Do you miss your family when you are away from them or are you sometimes glad to have some
space?
6. If you have siblings, do you get on well with them? Did you get on well with them when you were
growing up?
7. How do family members help each other?
8. Are the people in your family more important than people outside of your family?
2. Family Vocabulary
• blood is thicker than water (saying) – people who are members of the same family have a stronger
obligation to each other than to those outside the family.
• to fly the nest (verb) – to leave the house of one's parents and live elsewhere.
• to take after (someone) (verb) – to have similarities to an older member of one's family, either
physical features or behaviour.
• black sheep (noun) – someone who has brought shame or embarrassment to their family and is
outcast or shunned as a result.
• to raise / to bring up (verb), upbringing (noun) – to take care of a child until they reach adulthood;
the way a child was raised by its parents, including the values taught.
• extended family (noun) – the family beyond the immediate parents and children, including aunts,
uncles, cousins and grandparents.

Using the vocabulary words above, complete the following sentences (remember to use the correct
form of the word, e.g. verb conjugation or plural noun):
1. You really your father! You have his eyes and ears.
2. He had a terrible ; his parents neglected him and didn’t teach him right from
wrong.
3. Now we've moved to Portugal, I only ever see my at Christmas time when we go
back to the UK.
4. Even when my little brother got in trouble with the police, my parents still stuck up for him
because .
5. Paul is the of his family. He's been to jail twice, including for armed robbery!
6. We can't wait for our children to so we can start to enjoy our retirement!

Family vocabulary comprehension questions

1. Do you agree that blood is thicker than water? Why or why not?
2. At what age do children usually fly the nest in your country? How old were you / do you expect
to be?
3. Who do you take after in your family?
4. What could make someone the black sheep of their family?
5. Does it make a difference to a child's future if they were raised by a single parent?
6. How many people do you have in your extended family? How often and on what occasions do
you see your extended family? Do you enjoy these times?
3. Video: The Nuclear Family
You are going to watch a video by The Atlantic called “How the Nuclear Family Broke Down.”

Watch the video here: https://yourenglishpal.com/blog/esl-conversation-lesson-plan-family/

While you watch the video, answer the following questions:

Multiple choice
1. How many children does the ideal family have?
a) 2 b) 2.5 c) 3
2. What did the family provide through most of history?
a) financial support b) social cohesion c) strong values
3. In 1800, what proportion of Americans were farmers?
a) 73% b) 75% c) 77%
4. Why were black families separated in the 1800s?
a) small family businesses b) slavery c) segregation

Sentence completion
5. The size of families reached its peak during the victorian period.
6. The family was seen as a moral unit where children were taught right from wrong .
7. In the 1960s, there was a lot of children under 18to live in a nuclear family.
8. By 1965, nuclear families had been replaced by cult of togethernessfamilies.

Short answer
9. What kind of activities do women spend more time on than men? housfould house working
10. What can affluent people afford to buy? extended family
11. What is the average size of a family in Gambia? 13.7 pepole
12. What can a chosen family help to share the challenges and the rewards of? make it more equitable
4. Family Conversation Questions
1. How would you describe the 'perfect family'? What leads to dysfunctional families?
a family is made by two parents and children. It there is probleme between parents or divorce
2. Is it necessary to get married and start a family to be considered successful by society? Is there a
yes, f course, social value, sign of stability
lot of pressure to start a family? If so, where does this pressure come from?
3. What are some of the reasons couples decide not to have any children?
financial consideration, evolution in the career
4. How expensive is it to start a family? What are the costs involved? What help did you get, or
could you get, for starting a family? yes, marriage is expensive, rent ou buy house, work and financial support
5. What are the typical family roles in your culture? Do men and women or boys and girls have
to tough value to children, more physic activities for man, administrative for woman
different roles? How have these family roles changed since your parents' or grandparents' time?
less and less nuclear family, children are raised by the street
Do you think family roles will change in any way in the future? How? yes, they will be less nuclear family
6. What values did you learn from your family? What values did you learn from society? Is it more
be correct the courage to face problems
important for children to learn these values from their parents or from society? Why? from of both,
values are not always applicable in sociaty, we have to be able to accomodate
7. Has there been a decline in traditional family values and if so, how has this affected society?
yes, more crime rate, problem of drugs
Should society be built around traditional family values? What are these traditional family
values? yes, helping together, take care each other
8. What problems might families have in the future?
every one live to him self, no one takes care of each other

5. Family Writing Task

Write about the importance of family. Try to use some of the vocabulary you learned earlier in this
lesson. In your answer, you could include some of the following topics:
• Why your family is important to you.
• Why family is or is not important for society.
• How you think families will change in the future.
the family is important to build a healthy society. my family is important for me, because it make me better and help me to move
forward in life. a successful family is the gafe of sucessful society. Unfortunately, families will not be the same in future, it will be just
persons living together
Alternative exam practice question:
Some people think it is better to live in a nuclear family. Other people think that living in extended
families is more advantageous. What do you think?