Lesson Plan
Cambridge
Starter level Starter/Beginner
Quick Change! Margaret Johnson
Aims
To make students interested in the book.
To introduce some of the main characters from
the book.
To make students think about how it would feel to
have a super power.
NB You may find that many of the activities
described below can be exploited better in your
students own language or mother tongue, if you
speak it. The mother tongue, if used carefully as a
resource, can facilitate your students progress in
English and help them to understand the context
of the story, thus preparing them to understand it
better when they read it.
Pre-reading Activities
1 Tell students that the title of the book is Quick
Change! Make sure they realise that the title includes
an exclamation mark. Students guess what might
change quickly in this story.
Ask questions to stimulate suggestions: e.g. Is it is
clothes? Events? A person? Write their suggestions on
the board.
2 Write the following types of genres of story in a
list on the board: thriller, adventure story, fantasy,
horror, comedy. Check students understand
their meaning by eliciting films or books that are
examples of each genre. Students guess what type of
story Quick Change! might be.
3 Tell students that the genre of Quick Change! is
fantasy. Did anyone guess correctly? Elicit more
examples of fantasy stories or films.
Possible answers: The Lord of the Rings trilogy,
Harry Potter stories.
4 Tell students that the main character of Quick
Change! is Helen, a twelve-year-old girl, and
then ask them to read Extract 1. Discuss what is
happening in the extract.
Answer: A voice in Helens head is telling her how
she can change into the bed. She follows these
instructions and does change into the bed.
Cambridge Discovery Readers Cambridge University Press 2010
Lesson plan Discovery
Readers
Ask Why is this book called Quick Change!?
Answer: Because Helen has the power to change
into other things.
Now ask students to look at Illustration 1. Ask What
is happening in this picture?
Answer: Helens hands are yellow she is changing
into something else.
5 Ask students What other super powers or super
heroes do you know about from books or films?
Possible answers: Spiderman, Superman, Batman etc.
6 Ask Would you like to change into other things?
Write two headings on the board: Good things and
Bad things. Ask for suggestions as to why it might
be a good thing to be able to change into other
things, and why it might be bad thing. Write their
suggestions on the board.
Possible answers:
Good things: You can hide if you want to, you can get
into places without paying (!), you can go to places a
person cant go to etc.
Bad things: You can get stuck as one of the objects,
something can happen to you while you are
something else e.g., if you are an insect, someone
can step on you!
7 Ask students to work in pairs. Now ask Imagine
you can change into other things as Helen can, what
would you do with this power? How do you think it
can be useful? Students talk about this with their
partner then feedback to the whole class.
Now ask students to write down on a small piece of
paper what object or thing they would change into if
they were Helen. Put these pieces of paper into a box
then ask students to take one.
NB They must not choose their own idea. Students
write two lists one of good things that could
happen to them if they were this object or thing, and
one of the bad things that could happen.
8 Ask students to read Extract 2 and to look at
Illustration 2. Ask What is happening in this extract
and this illustration?
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 Answer: Helens parents are telling her that she is
their adoptive daughter and that Helens dad found
her in the back of his taxi when she was a baby.
(make sure students understand adoptive daughter:
the daughter of parents who are not her biological or
birth parents).
Now ask students Why do you think Helen has the
power to change into other things? If necessary,
remind students that the book is a fantasy story.
Suggested answer: Because her birth parents are
from another planet.
9 Ask students to work with a partner to talk about
and list details about the planet Helens parents come
from. Give them some questions to start them off,
e.g. What is its name? What does it look like? What
has happened to it? Feedback to whole class.
Now ask students to look at Extract 1 again. Ask
Who do you think the voice in Helens head is?
Possible answer: One or both of Helens birth
parents.
10 Tell students to look at Illustration 3. Ask What is
happening in this picture?
Answer: Two men wearing masks are pointing a
gun at Helen. She has the phone in her hand. Now
ask What do you think Helen is going to do next?
Dont tell them the answer at this stage let them
wait to find out when they read the book.
Post-reading Activities
1 Write on the top of a piece of paper In Quick
Change! I want to know more about Pass the piece
of paper around the class for students to finish the
sentence. Read out what students have written then
encourage students to invent information e.g., if
they said they wanted to know more about
how the story continues, ask them to invent
what happens next.
2 Ask students to think of an alternative book cover
for Quick Change and to make notes and/or do
drawings about it. Feedback to the whole class and
hold a vote for the most popular idea.
NB Students are not allowed to vote for their own
idea.
3 Ask students to imagine that Helen gets stuck as one
of the objects she turns into a bed, a bag, a chair,
money or a car. Working in pairs, ask them to talk
about what happens and how Helen feels.
4 Ask students to imagine that TV interviews Helen
about her adventures for TV news. What questions
do they ask her? How does she answer?

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Extract 1 My notes
The window is open and its cold in my room. But Im not cold.
My head feels hot. And my hands feel hot too. I look at them.
Theyre yellow. Yellow!
Then I hear a voice in my head. Put your hands on the
bed, the voice says. You can be the bed!
Who is talking to me? I dont understand, but I put my
hands on the bed. I am the bed, I think. I am the bed!
Then this is very strange, but its true. I start to change!
I look at my hands and they arent hands. I look at my legs and
they arent legs. Im not Helen now. I am the bed!
How am I a bed? I dont know. Why am I a bed? I dont
know. I just know I am. I am the bed and the bed is me!
Extract 2
We love you, Helen, Mum tells me.
Yes, Dad says. We love you very much.
But, Helen we must tell you something, Mum says.
I look at Mum. I dont understand.
What? I say.
Dad holds my hand. He looks into my eyes.
We love you, Helen. Youre our daughter. But youre
our adoptive daughter.
There is a noise in my ears. Someones shouting. Its me.
No!
Please, Helen, Mum says.
Dad takes something from the table and gives it to me.
Please. Read this, he says.
Im driving the taxi when I hear something. Something in
the taxi. I stop to look. And I see you.
He smiles. Youre crying and youre angry. But youre very
beautiful too. Just one look, Helen. One look and I love you.
I look at them. But who am I? I ask. Who are my ?
Your birth parents? Dad says sadly. We dont know. No
one knows.
He gives me something. This is yours, Helen, he says. I
think it comes from them.
I look at it. From my birth parents? I ask.
Yes.
What is it? I ask.
A baby blanket, he tells me.
Mum takes my hand now. Please dont be sad, she says.
We love you, Helen. We arent your birth parents, but that
doesnt change anything.
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Illustration 1 My notes
Cambridge
Discovery
Readers

Quick Change!
Margaret Johnson

10/02/2010 15:04

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Illustration 2 My notes

Illustration 3

Cambridge Discovery Readers Cambridge University Press 2010 www.cambridge.org/elt/discoveryreaders PHOTOCOPIABLE