ESL WORKSHEET - The life story of an icon

LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

MARILYN MONROE

LinguaHouse
Oct. 1, 2021

Level: Pre-Intermediate (A2-B1)
Type of English: General English
Tags: American Culture; Celebrities and Historical Figures; Entertainment; Art; Adjectives; Describing Pictures and Photos; Describing People; Prediction and Speculation; Vocabulary and Grammar
Publication date: 10/01/2021

This audio-aided lesson tells the life story of Marilyn Monroe, a movie star with an iconic image. The lesson focuses on vocabulary, including noun + noun combinations, listening comprehension, and speaking. There is also an optional extension activity that focuses on jobs in the film industry (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 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 audios (Am/Br English).

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Historian: Marilyn Monroe was born to a single mother in 1926 in California. Her real name was Norma Jeane Baker. Her mother had mental health problems, and Norma Jeane lived with twelve different foster families. When she was sixteen, she married a neighbor to avoid going into an orphanage.
During the Second World War, men like Norma Jeane’s husband left home to help with the wareffort, while women like Norma Jeane worked in factories. A photographer working on a magazine story about female factory workers discovered her, and the story led to modeling work.
Eventually, Norma Jeane decided to make modeling and acting her main career, and she divorced her husband, changed her name to Marilyn Monroe, and began to work for the film company Twentieth Century Fox.
Monroe became very popular and performed in more important roles, developing an image as a “love goddess” and “dumb blonde.” She was briefly married to baseball player Joe DiMaggio in 1954.
Monroe then decided that she wanted to study acting seriously and moved to New York. She returned to Hollywood and made a number of iconic movies that showed her talents as a comedian.
One movie, The Seven Year Itch, included the classic scene where her skirt is lifted by hot air from a street vent. The late nineteen-fifties were the happiest years of Monroe’s film career.
She won a Golden Globe award in 1959. During this time, she was married to writer Arthur Miller, who created The Misfitsfor her to star in.
After she and Miller divorced in 1961, there were rumors that she was having an affair with US President John F Kennedy. This was a difficult time for Monroe, and she had a breakdown. She died of an overdose of sleeping pills in 1962.

Adapted from: https://www.linguahouse.com/esl-lesson-plans/general-english/marilyn-monroe. Accessed on April 23, 2024. © 2008–2024 LinguaHouse.com. All rights reserved.