Summary
This lesson explores its actual origins linked to Philadelphia police and historical events, not just accounting practices. Students will analyze a video, discuss consumerism and shopping traditions, and expand their vocabulary with terms related to retail, commerce, and academic discourse. The session also includes a grammar focus on the passive voice, essential for describing historical developments and commercial phenomena, encouraging critical thinking about information sources.
Activities
Video analysis and comprehension: Watch an engaging video to uncover the authentic history of "Black Friday," answering questions to debunk popular misconceptions and understand its true etymological journey and cultural adoption.
Vocabulary expansion: retail and academic: Learn and apply essential vocabulary for discussing commerce (e.g., retailers, profit, consumers) and academic contexts (e.g., originate, distinct, etymology) through contextual exercises and matching tasks.
Grammar practice: the passive voice: Focus on understanding and using the passive voice (be + past participle) to describe historical events and commercial practices, transforming active sentences into passive forms.
Critical discussion and research: Engage in discussions about consumer culture, the spread of misinformation, and the global impact of shopping events, culminating in a short research presentation on related etymologies or historical events.
Vocabulary focus
This lesson enhances vocabulary related to commerce and history. Key terms include retailers, consumers, profit, balance sheets, congestion, and speculation. Students will also master words describing origins and impact, such as etymology, manic, derives, precipitated, cornering, make inroads, originate, distinct, intense, increasingly, refer to, respectively, and devastating, enabling nuanced discussions.
Grammar focus
The primary grammar point is the passive voice. Students will learn its structure (be + past participle) and its common usage in formal and academic writing, particularly when the action is more important than the agent, or when the agent is unknown. Activities involve transforming active sentences about Black Friday’s history into accurate passive constructions, improving descriptive writing skills.
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