Lesson Plan: 2021

What would you say are the important events for 2021? For the world, your country, yourself? What about the associated emotions?

Watch Google’s year in search. Were any of your things mentioned? What sort of year has it been, according to the video?

Language

What are the following adjectives and verbs mentioned in the video?

• c_________g (adjective,11 letters)
• a___________y (noun, 7 letters)
• g_____ t_________ (multi-word verb, 3-7 letters)
• c__________ b________ (multi-word verb, 4-4 letters)
• p______d (adjective, 5 letters)
• b___________ t_______________ (multi-word verb, 4-8 letters)

Discussion: From the issues touched on in the video, which ones would be the most relevant for your year?

Investigation: Do you think the «Year in Search» would be different for your country?

Go to this website and find out:

https://trends.google.com/trends/yis/2021/CL/

Why do you think people searched for these things? Are they different from topics in another country?

Part 2 : Reading

• What search trends do you think these words refer to: Sea shanty, mittens, power outage, staycation, red light green light, vigil

Find out by searching for them here: https://about.google/stories/year-in-search-2021/trends/sport/ Click on the picture to find out what they mean. Tell your partner what you think were the most significant trends of 2021.

Presentation: Choose two to three words that represent the year for you.

Prepare a presentation about these three words: Say:

• What do these words mean for you?
• What events do they represent?
• What feelings do they represent?
• How do you think you will remember them in the future?

Listen to the presentations of your colleagues and ask questions about them.

Part 2: Numbers

Lead – in: What do you think these numbers refer to: 12 million, 18 million, 5 million

Find out by listening to minutes 0.00-3.00 of this podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0bcjt8x

Detail

• What is the job of the guest?
• Why is it difficult to measure COVID deaths?
• What things could contribute to that figure?

Language

Match the halves of these sentences:

The 12 million represents	it can be surprisingly difficult to attribute a test to COVID.
That means	the true impact of the pandemic has been on deaths.
This is useful because	the estimated number of excess deaths that have ocurred globally this year.
They don’t take into account	12 million more people died in 2021 than in a normal calendar year.
It gives us some inclination of what	indirect, knock-on impacts.

Presentation: Choose three numbers that have been important in your country/in your life.

Prepare a presentation on those three numbers. Say:

• What do they represent?
• Are they part of a trend?
• What implications could they have for the future?
• Can you use the phrases in the left column to describe your number?

Give the presentation to your classmates, and ask each other relevant questions.