The Story You Tell About Yourself
Grammar: None
A Level 5 English lesson exploring media.
What's in this lesson
A Level 5 (advanced) ESL lesson on media. The worksheet has a reading, target vocabulary and discussion questions.
From the reading: The Story You Tell About Yourself
In 2006, the psychologist Dan McAdams published a quietly radical claim: people do not simply have identities — they narrate them. What we call the self, McAdams argued, is less a fixed entity than an ongoing story, revised and retold across a lifetime. The character who fails in chapter three is redeemed by chapter seven. The setback becomes a turning point. The wandering becomes the search. We are, in McAdams's formulation, the authors of our own lives — and like all authors, we select, shape, and occasionally fabricate.
Vocabulary
- carry the audience
- lodge in memory
- lowers defences
- shift attitudes
- across
- at risk
- in
- of
Discussion questions
- Do you think your life story has a main character?
- What makes you trust a story more than a statistic?
- Has a book or film ever genuinely changed how you see yourself?
The Story You Tell About Yourself
Grammar: None
What's in this lesson:
Full lesson plan with reading, grammar, vocabulary, and discussion.
Sign up to access full lesson plans
Start with a free trial — 5 lesson generations included
Get Started Free