💡 What Changed Everything
Students read an original long-form article by fictional journalist Marta Kowalski about 'butterfly moments' — small, accidental events that changed lives. Four stories: Adrien the accountant who became a ceramicist after a delayed train, Priya the engineer whose rejection letter taught her storytelling, Tomasz the teacher who became a bestselling novelist after a stranger's comment, and Fatima the paediatrician who redesigns hospital wards after a child's question. Cleft sentences (it was...that, what...was, the reason...was, the thing...is, all...was) are embedded naturally throughout all four narratives. The game challenges students to transform normal sentences into cleft forms.
Lesson Plan
- 3 warm-up questions about turning points
Key Vocabulary
Grammar Points
- It-cleft: It was/is + focus + that (things/time) or who (people)
- Wh-cleft: What + clause + is/was + focus (emphasise action/thing)
- Reason-cleft: The reason + clause + is/was (that) + cause
- Thing/All-cleft: The thing/All + clause + is/was + focus
- Cleft = 'split' a sentence to emphasise one element
- Use for storytelling, correcting, emphasising, formal writing
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