Gentrification: Reviving or Replacing Communities? (B2-C1)

What happens when a neighborhood starts to change, and longtime residents are left behind? This lesson explores gentrification through the eyes of someone living in East Harlem, raising questions about housing, identity, and fairness.

What you’ll find inside:

• Warm-up

Engaging discussion questions on urban change, local identity, and community ties to introduce the topic and activate personal reflection.

• Video: “Why He’s Holding Out in East Harlem”

Real-life story of a man resisting displacement. Includes comprehension tasks, vocabulary prep, and guided opinion questions for deeper reflection.

• Reading: “What is gentrification, really? Why should we care?”

Adapted from Forbes, this article explains the push and pull of urban redevelopment. Pre-reading tasks, vocab matching, and post-reading questions help process key ideas.

• Share your thoughts

30+ open-ended prompts on fairness, modernization, and cultural change; ideal for conversation and debate-based practice.

• Vocabulary practice

40+ terms related to gentrification, housing, and social impact (e.g. sweep across, paint over the cracks, revamp the skyline, the bone of contention, cookie-cutter houses, and more), taught through matching, gap‑fills, and creative use.

• Role-based debate

Argue from different perspectives (such as a longtime resident, real estate developer, small business owner, or policy expert) to examine whether gentrification helps or harms communities.