DECISIONS, DECISIONS

Autoria: Profa. Mariana Zeferino

Nível: B2 

1. Comece perguntando aos alunos as seguintes questões, como forma de revisar todo o conteúdo já trabalhado sobre as formas will, be going to, simple present present continuous:
   • Your arrangements for this evening.
   • Your intentions for the rest of the year.
   • Your predictions for the planet for 2030.
   • Now, make to promises for the next year!
   • A place you’d like to visit one day.
   • Something you’re not looking forward to.
   • A person you’d like to meet one day
   • A person you’re going to see today
2. Peça aos alunos que façam uma leitura silenciosa do artigo Young people are having to take career. decisions too early (The Guardian, 2013) e respondam às questões. Se for possível, faça uma leitura em voz alta com a participação dos alunos.(O handout com o texto e as atividades estão disponíveis no final do plano de atividades) 
3. Em seguida, faça a correção das atividades. Após as atividades, faça a discussão proposta ao final do handout.
4. Peça que os alunos escutem e acompanhem a música Who will I be, da cantora Demi Lovato.

1. Proponha uma discussão de teor crítico-comparativo aos alunos, a fim de questioná-los sobre os pontos de vista apresentados no texto e na canção. Há diferenças? Quais? Por quê?
2. Como uma atividade divertida de fechamento, proponha um Leilão Gramatical à classe. Serão apresentadas algumas sentenças e os alunos deverão fazer uma oferta (bid) somente para as orações consideradas gramaticalmente corretas.
3. Ao final da atividade, revise as sentenças e, junto com os alunos, faça uma discussão sobre elas oralmente, explicando o porquê de estarem gramaticalmente certas ou erradas.
4. A fim de evitar um clima competitivo ruim entre os alunos, peça que cada um confira os seus itens corretos individualmente.,

Handout com texto e atividades 

YOUNG PEOPLE ARE HAVING TO TAKE CAREER DECISIONS TOO EARLY (The Guardian, 2013)

1.  Read the passage and answer the questions.

With the retirement age rising to 67 by 2026-28, young people will soon work for 50 years or more. I realise that choosing the profession I want to follow – and the A-levels and university courses that will get me there – is a decision of paramount importance. But I can’t help thinking that it’s too much for an inexperienced 17-year-old to make. What you want to be when you grow up requires careful thought: we need time to learn about and consider all the options. But the rush to get good grades – and the fact that our grades heavily influence what we can and can’t do – means that some students make hurried, expedient decisions, which may not be for the best in the long-term. Pressure is piled on young people to choose qualifications for a career they want now but will wait five years to get. GCSEs came and went in a blur. Then I was preparing for the next hurdle – A-levels. As soon as these were under way, I found myself on the busy road of university open days, prospectuses and student finance talks. In the midst of all of this, employers expect you to be building relevant work experience. And none of this can be easily undone – if I suddenly find that being a doctor is the only career for me but I don’t have any science A-levels, I face a long hard trip back through education. The higher education system doesn’t help much either. Universities often demand top grades and experience for certain courses. In the crush to get all this sorted, it’s hard to find the time to consider your options. It’s not like there’s no support out there. There is, but sometimes it can be as much of a curse as a blessing. Vast amounts of guidance has introduced me to the various career routes I could take. But, on the flip side, the variety of careers that I have become aware left me, and doubtless many others, even more uncertain of which I want to pursue. While it’s better to be over-informed than uninformed, at the tender age of 17, I have been bombarded with numerous options. But telling me about the many options – while piling on the pressure to make a snappy decision – isn’t really helping. With students choosing careers that they may not suit them, a worrying scenario could emerge: we could be stuck in careers like square pegs in a round hole. This is detrimental for the students because reconsidering a career is an enormous decision. But it’s also detrimental for employers who will struggle to keep excellent students interested in careers that they no longer want. The majority of us do not know what we want to do when we finish education – let alone when we’re halfway through. And the few who do know what they want often rethink their choice as they develop and grow. Who I am now isn’t who I might be in the future, and the education and recruitment system needs to give us the space and time to make the right career choices.

Adapted from: https://www.theguardian.com/careers/young-people-take-career-decisions-too-early

1. In paragraph one, why does the author mention the rising of the retirement age?
   • To show that young people have to make a difficult decision that will have a great impact in their future careers.
   • To show that people have a long time to choose what they want to work with. 
   • To prove that the job market will not accept people older than 67 years old.
   • To show that young people have to make the difficult decision of choosing a career very soon but that is no problem because they will not work for many years.
2. Based on your reading, who do you think is the author of this text? Why do you think that?
   • A specialist in Educational Psychology
   • A teenager’s mother
   • A teacher
   • A teenager
3. According to the text, we can infer that the main reason for students to make hurried decisions is that
   • students do not have responsibility and leave everything to the last minute
   • students are inexperienced and, therefore, cannot make a sensible decision
   • there is too much pressure to get good grades, have a pertinent experience, decide what you want and a very little time to reflect about it.
   • there are too many options and students are over-informed, which is something very bad for them at this age.
4. Is the following sentence TRUE or FALSE: “Young people are making hurried career decisions too early, and it’s detrimental for them as well as employers.”
   • True
   • False
5. The word detrimental in paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to:
   • negative and harmful
   • fundamental
   •  interesting
   • positive
6. Match the words in bold with their meanings

i.  ______________________ – quickly made or done

ii. ______________________ – people pressed against other people or things

iii. ______________________ – a document giving details of a college, school, or business and its activities

iv. ______________________ – a day when an organization such as a school, college, or factory allows members of the public to go in and see what happens there

v.  ______________________ – an obstacle or difficulty

vi.  ______________________ – something that you cannot see, remember or understand clearly

vii.  ______________________ – more important than anything else; supreme

viii. ______________________ – the opposite

1.  Discussion:

• Do you agree with the text?
• Do you think things will change in the future?
• Would you like to change your course or job?
• Would you like to be something different?
• What does it mean to feel a square peg in a round hole?