Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone

Harry Potter has led a whole generation of children into the pleasure of reading a long book, but, advanced learners of English may find it quite hard to read a Harry Potter book because they will certainly come across a large number of unknown words in the descriptions of the book.

This lesson focuses on the descriptive vocabulary that is often found in fiction by analysing a passage in chapter 3, The Letters from No One, from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The lesson also incorporates two scenes of the film (The Hogwarts Letter and A Visit from Rubeus Hagrid) to set the background and to show the aftermath of the text. The task includes a reading comprehension exercise, a short vocabulary matching exercise, and a longer word pairing task, which can be used as a revision, after the oral discussion. You can find all the materials on this link.

As a lead-in, you can ask students if they have read Harry Potter's books or seen any of his films. Then, you can elicit information about Harry Potter and his adopted family, uncle Vernon, aunt Petunia, Dudley, and how they treat Harry. Finally you should introduce "The Letter Scene", which describes the days before Harry's 11th birthday.

After reading the description of the rickety, old shack on the coast and doing the exercises, you can play the second film clip, A Visit from Rubeus Hagrid.

The speaking part of the lesson can be a discussion about books and reading:

What do you prefer, reading print or e-books?

What is better, reading the book or wathching the film?

Which was the first book that you read as a child?

How can you introduce children to reading books?

Do you read for pleasure or for school?

Do you read more or less than years ago?

This lesson is suitable for C1 students.

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