Activity 1: Speaking/Listening

Put the students in small groups. Ask them to discuss what they remember resilience means.

• Ask groups to share what they remembered and talked about.

Perseverance: determination to keep trying to achieve something in spite of difficulties. 

Resilience: the ability to become strong, happy, or successful again after a difficult situation or event

• How are perseverance and resilience connected? 

Definition retrieved from https://edtechbooks.org/-PvBr

Activity 2: Vocabulary

Go over the following words together. 

• hope
• determined
• faith
• persist
• goal
• decision
• resilience
• diligence
• dedication
• endurance
• patience
• failure 
• try 
• give up 
• work hard 

Have students choose which words are related to perseverance. 

Activity 3: Reading/Speaking 

Read the following passage as a class. You may want to go over vocabulary words before, during, or after reading. 

Thomas Edison, born in 1847, had a lot of trouble in school. He got poor grades and didn’t listen to the teacher. Instead, he would daydream. Perhaps he daydreamed about interesting things he could make. His mother decided that she would teach Thomas at home. He started reading as many books as he could to learn a lot about many different subjects.

Edison was most interested in learning how things were put together and how they worked. He became a great student when he was able to study what interested him.

Thomas Edison went on to become a very famous inventor. He invented the motion picture camera and the phonograph. He also improved the light bulb, electric motor, and typewriter. He invented too many things to list! Edison created over 1,000 new things. His home and laboratory in New Jersey is now a museum.

Retrieved from: https://edtechbooks.org/-dCig

• How did Thomas Edison persevere? 
• How was he resilient?  

Activity 4: Speaking/Listening

Watch the following video: Perseverance - a 2D Animated Short Film

Ask students to discuss the following questions: 

1. What is the problem? 
2. What does the mouse want? 
3. What does he do to get what he wants? 
4. How many times does he try? 
5. Does he get what he wants the first time? 
6. How does the mouse persevere? 

Activity 5: Writing/Speaking

Think of an example from your life about when you persevered. Write the story down using these questions: 

1. What was the problem? 
2. What did you want? 
3. How did you get what you wanted? 
4. How many times did you have to try? 
5. How did you persevere? 

After answering the questions, have students share what you wrote with a partner. Each partner should interview the other by asking the questions. 

• Example: 
• Partner A: What was the problem? 
• Partner B: I failed a math test.