Lesson Topics: colonialism, reconciliation, history
Skill Focus: Reading, Speaking, Vocabulary, Writing
Approximate Class Time: 2 hours
Lesson Plan Download: truthtelling-colonialism-upper-intermediate-052025.docx
- The lesson begins with warm-up questions about the student's family history, the value of rehashing the past, and the subjects students learned in history class.
- The reading passage is 274 words. It introduces colonialism and the distinctions between settler and extractive colonialism, while citing examples. Overall, the passage provides a critical view of colonialism and the harms it has caused. The lesson touches on neo-colonialism and the reconciliation movement between indigenous and non-indigenous people to help rebuild trust.
- The passage is followed by comprehension and follow-up questions.
- Next, students match vocabulary from the passage to their definitions. Then students form discussion questions with the target vocabulary.
- The lesson has three debate prompts about the value of apologies, globalization, and the overall effects of colonialism.
- This is followed by a student council scenario in which students propose changes to their high school history curriculum. For their change to be accepted, they must explain what must be removed from the existing curriculum and why.
- The lesson has two roleplay scenarios. The first is between two friends, one of whom wants to boycott her home country's national holiday because of its colonial past. The second is between two friends again. One wants to join a religious group that is volunteering in Africa, while the other worries that this repeats colonial patterns.
- Next, students review famous quotations related to colonialism (the Jomo Kenyatta quote is really profound).
- Finally, students review vocabulary and collocations before discussing some final discussion questions and two writing prompts.
UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2/C1) Lesson on Colonialism & Truth-Telling
Warm-up-Questions
- What is the history of your family in your home country?
- If you had to immigrate to another country, which would you choose and why?
- Is it better to forget past mistakes and move on, or to bring them out in the open and discuss them?
- What topics did you learn about in your high school history class? Are you satisfied with your history education?
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This lesson plan was created by Matthew Barton of EnglishCurrent.com (copyright). Site members may photocopy and edit the file for their classes. Permission is not given to rebrand the lesson, redistribute it on another platform, or sell it as part of commercial course curriculum. ChatGPT was used to generate answer keys and some famous quotations. For questions, contact the author.
Comprehension Question Answer Key
1) ...
2) Settler colonialism involves people moving to and living on colonized land. Extractive colonialism is about taking resources (like gold or coffee) from the land for the benefit of the colonizer.
3) To show the extreme violence and injustice of extractive colonialism, especially how local people were denied rights and many died.
4) Many colonial powers were weakened after World War II, which allowed colonized countries to regain independence.
5) They want to raise awareness of colonialism’s effects and build more equal relationships based on trust and respect.
6) Critical. The passage highlights violence (e.g. “10 million Congolese died”), injustice, and the lasting harm of colonialism. It uses strong language like “brutal” and “overlooked,” suggesting disapproval.
7) ...
8) ...
Vocabulary: 1-e, 2-d, 3-g, 4-h, 5-i, 6-j, 7-a, 8-c, 9-f, 10-k, 11-b
Collocations 1-b, 2-g, 3-a, 4-c, 5-f, 6-d, 7-e
[1] Sources: https://education.cfr.org/learn/reading/what-colonialism-and-how-did-it-arise , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonialism , https://www.criaw-icref.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Local-Women-Matter-3-Colonialism-and-its-impacts.pdf