Lesson Plan: The Art of Being Happy Takes Work
II. While Reading Activities
Word Inference
- niche |niCHnēSH| noun 2 (one’s niche) a comfortable or suitable position in life or employment: he is now a partner at a leading law firm and feels he has found his niche.
- Commedia dell’arte |kəˌmādēə ˌdelˈärdā| noun an improvised kind of popular comedy in Italian theaters in the 16th–18th centuries, based on stock characters. Actors adapted their comic dialogue and action according to a few basic plots (commonly love intrigues) and to topical issues.
- pandemic |panˈdemik| adjective (of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world.
- resilience |rəˈzilyəns| (also resiliency) noun 1 the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness: the often remarkable resilience of so many British institutions.
- improv ˈimpräv| noun informal improvisation, especially as a theatrical technique.
- kibbutz |kiˈbo͝ots| noun (plural kibbutzim |kiˌbo͝otˈsēm| ) a communal settlement in Israel, typically a farm.
- mime |mīm| noun 1 the theatrical technique of suggesting action, character, or emotion without words, using only gesture, expression, and movement.
- peddle |ˈpedl| verb [with object] try to sell (something, especially small goods) by going from house to house or place to place: he peddled art and printing materials around the country.
- breadwinner |ˈbredˌwinər| noun a person who earns money to support a family.
- gig |ɡiɡ| informal noun • a job, especially one that is temporary or that has an uncertain future: he secured his first gig as an NFL coach.
Grammar Focus: Structure and Usage
I – 3 –who
The only person I knew who made masks was in Italy.
II – 1-a
Mr. Sherman had found a niche in the community.
III -2 -days
It can take Mr. Sherman a few days or as long as a year to make a mask.
Reading Comprehension Fill-ins
There was an old couple with a giant pot of chicken soup that fed people for hours. All these beautiful things happened. Then seeing the line of refrigerator trucks on the West Side Highway was just disturbing. People in their 20s have no memory of this. They hear about Sept. 11, but they don’t know how the energy in the city was so amazing. It was a magical time.”
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