LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH TEACHERSSTEVE JOBS
Nov. 22, 2022
Level: Intermediate (B1-B2)
Type of English: General English
Tags: Celebrities and Historical Figures; Business People; Business Skills; People and Places; 16-18 Years Old; 18+ Years Old; Incredible Stories; Video Talk Speaking
Publication date: 11/22/2022
This audio-aided lesson tells the life story of visionary and entrepreneur Steve Jobs (1955-2011). The lesson focuses on vocabulary, listening comprehension and speaking, and includes a short look at expressions with went. There is also an optional extension activity featuring a short authentic video of Jobs sharing some of his personal philosophy (by Stephanie Hirschman).
- CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in American English.
- CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in American English.
- CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audio in American English.
- CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in British English.
- CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in British English.
- CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audio in British English.
AUDIO TRANSCRIPT
Narrator: Steve Jobs was born in 1955 and was adopted as a young baby. He lived with his family near San Francisco, California. Jobs was very intelligent but easily bored as a child, and he enjoyed helping his father with computer projects in their garage. After high school, he went to Reed College in Oregon for a while, but he never finished his degree. Instead, he briefly worked as a video game designer for Atari, before he went traveling in India to explore alternative lifestyles there.
When he returned, he reconnected with an old friend, Steve Wozniak, and together, they went into business to create a personal computer, the Apple One, working out of Jobs’ family garage. This completely new type of product was possible because individual computer parts were becoming both smaller and cheaper. After a redesign, the improved Apple Two launched. Sales went through the roof, reaching over two million dollars within three years. Investment in the company set new records in 1981 and Apple became one of the top US companies.
Wozniak and Jobs brought in a new leader called John Scully to manage the growing company, so that they could continue to focus on improving their computers, using cutting-edge design. The Apple Macintosh went on sale in 1984. Although this machine was one of the first to feature a mouse, it was disappointing in other areas, and the company was also facing increased competition from IBM. After a disagreement, Jobs left Apple in 1985, although he kept his position on the board of directors.
He went to work on other projects. He bought the computer graphics company Pixar, which went on to become a ground-breaking animation studio, producing the first feature film to be completely animated: Toy Story. In 1995, Jobs’ investments in Pixar made him a billionaire.
Unfortunately, Jobs’ other new project, an educational computer company called NeXT, was losing money. In 1996, Apple, who were in some financial trouble themselves, bought this company from Jobs and he went back to work for them. Under his guidance, Apple went from strength to strength, launching classic products like the iMac and iBook, and developing MP3 technology so people could download and play music using the iTunes and iPhone system.
In 2003, doctors told Jobs that he had a rare form of cancer. He delayed surgery for a few months so he could try alternative treatments, but finally, he had an operation and returned to work. In 2009, investors in the company noted that Jobs was losing weight and became worried. It seemed his cancer had returned. Jobs continued at Apple as long as he could, but he had to stop working in August 2011. He died in October, a multi-billionaire. He left a wife and four children.
Jobs was a true visionary and a completely self-made man. His story, with all its ups and downs, has inspired feature films, books and documentaries. Entrepreneurs are still interested in learning the secrets of his success.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Steve Jobs Motivational Speech
Steve Jobs: I was lucky, I found what I love to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents’ garage when I was 20. We worked hard and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage, into a 2-billion-dollar company with over 4000 employees. We just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier and I just turned 30. And then I got fired.
How can you get fired from a company you started? What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone and it was devastating. I really didn’t know what to do for few months, I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down.
I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me. I still loved what I did.
We are gonna make it or break it, based on whether we can provide products, to higher education and services and relationships to higher education, that no one else provides. And I think we gotta spend a 100 percent of our time thinking about that and if we can’t do that then we ought to go broke.
And so I decided to start over, I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness, of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar. And fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. I am pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.
Sometimes life’s gonna hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I am convinced that the only thing that kept me going was I loved what I did. You have got to find what you love and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is gonna fill a large part of your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet keep looking and don’t settle. So keep looking, don’t settle.
Adapted from: https://www.linguahouse.com/esl-lesson-plans/general-english/steve-jobs. Accessed on August 7, 2023. © 2008–2023 LinguaHouse.com. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment