Simple past ESL lesson plan by Robert Huth – TESOL Certificate graduate
Level of students: High Beginner
Total class time: 90 min.
Aims:
· To introduce new vocabulary about leisure activities
· To introduce the past simple with its function to talk about the past (comparing it to the present simple and present progressive)
· To introduce the affirmative and negative form of the past simple and the forms of regular and irregular verbs
· To review adverbials of time concerning weekdays (on Monday, on Saturday, on the weekend), here used with the past tense.
· To practice the pronunciation of the “-ed” ending in the past simple and the stress of the personal pronoun when using the same question to talk about another person
· To provide Ss with controlled and semi-controlled practice in speaking, listening and freer practice in writing in the context of reporting about past events using the past simple
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Assumptions:
· Ss have previous knowledge about vocabulary concerning a number of leisure activities and the vocabulary necessary to understand the teacher’s explanations and commands.
· Ss know how to use the present simple and present progressive to talk about the present.
· Ss have experience with the phonetic alphabet and know the meaning of “voiced” and “voiceless”
· Ss have experience with writing letters/e-mails in an informal style
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Possible Problems and Solutions:
· Ss might have difficulties to differentiate between regular and irregular verb forms. Sufficient explanation, practice and a list for reference will be provided
· Ss might confuse present simple verb forms and past simple forms to talk about the past. The difference will be highlighted and practiced in drills.
· Ss might use the verb be in front of a past simple verb form when forming sentences (like in “I am watched a movie.”). The correct pattern for sentences will be shown clearly on the board.
Materials: board, projector, recording, handouts with pictures, dialogue, grammar rules and practice exercises
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PRESENTATION STAGE
1) Create interest step or lead in
Purpose:
· To create interest in the topic of leisure activities (simple present tense)
Technique: personalisation and brainstorming with a mind map on the board.
Time: 10 min.
Interactive pattern: T-S, S-S
Procedure:
1. I draw a mind map with the title “leisure activities” on the board and add lines to connect possible sub-headlines. I explain “Leisure activities are activities we do in our free time.”
2. I show a picture of myself reading a book and say “This is me. In my free time, I often read a book.” Then I add “read a book” to the mind map.
3. I ask “What do you do in your free time?” and pair Ss up to add activities on a sheet that shows the mind map.
4. I let Ss collect their answers in the mind map on the board.
5. I show pictures showing the following actions: watch a movie/go on a picnic/go shopping/have a party/play sports/sleep/spend time with family/spend time with friends
6. I ask Ss to compare their answers to the activities in the pictures asking “Is there any new activity?”/”Do these people do the same things you do?”/ etc.
Option: Let each S rank the activities according to his likes and write them down in a list (as a reflective task and maybe to use the answers for a writing activity).
Material: Board, Pictures
2) Presentation of new language in context
Purpose:
· To introduce the past simple in the context of a conversation about weekend activities. To see regular and irregular verbs.
· To provide practice in listening for the gist
· To get a first idea about the pronunciation of the past simple “-ed” ending and some irregular verbs.
Technique: prediction, listening activity
Time: 10 min.
Interactive pattern: T-S
Materials: recording of the dialogue, handouts containing a printed dialogue and a picture of the scene
Dialogue:
Did you have a good weekend?
Tony: Hi, Sarah. Did you have a good weekend?
Sarah: Oh, yes! I watched a great movie on Friday. On Saturday, I went shopping with my friend Alice and then we had a party at our house. So on Sunday I slept all day.
Tony: That sounds good!
Sarah: How about you? You look tired. What did you do on the weekend?
Tony: Well, didn’t have much fun. I worked all the time and prepared our presentation.
Sarah: Oh, no! I totally forgot the presentation!
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Procedure:
1. I focus Ss’ attention on a picture of two people (Tony and Sarah) talking in an office. (Tony looks very tired, Sarah covers her mouth with her hand as if she realized something bad has happened.) I let Ss guess what the conversation is about.
2. I show the title of the dialogue (Did you have a good weekend?) and set the scene: “Tony and Sarah are co-workers. It’s Monday morning and they talk about their weekends.”
3. I ask “Who had a good weekend? Who had a bad weekend?” to give a specific listening task and let Ss guess.
4. I play a recording of the dialogue. Then I elicit the answers (Tony = bad weekend, Sarah = good weekend).
5. I hand out the printed dialogues and let Ss read while I play the recording again.
6. I elicit new vocabulary and write it on the board.
3) Elicitation of function and structure
Purpose:
· To elicit the function of talking about past events using the past simple
· To elicit the form of verbs in the past simple (regular and irregular)
Technique: elicitation through concept questions and use of time line.
Time: 5 min.
Interactive pattern: T-S
Procedure:
1. Now I draw a timeline on the board and mark “NOW”, “PAST”, “FUTURE” and, pointing at the picture, I ask “What day is it in the picture?” Then I add “Monday” after Ss have answered.
2. I elicit that the conversation is about past events by comparing it to the present progressive:
T: Is Sarah watching a movie now?
Ss: No.
T: Is she having a party now?
Ss: No.
T: Is she sleeping now?
Ss: No.
T: When did Sarah watch a movie?
Ss: On the weekend/On Friday.
T: When did she have a party?
Ss: On the weekend/On Saturday.
T: Right, on the weekend; not now. (I add “weekend” to the timeline.)
Tony and Sarah are talking about the past.
3. I elicit the form of verbs in the past simple by comparing it to the present simple. I write the following pairs of sentences on the board:
a. I go shopping with my friend Alice.
I went shopping with my friend Alice.
b. I work all the time.
I worked all the time.
4. I ask “What is different in these sentences?” and, highlighting the past simple forms in the examples, I explain that the verbs in the dialogue are in the past simple.
5. I put the word “past simple” on the board (near “PAST” on the timeline) and explain that we use it to talk about the past.
6. I let Ss underline the verbs in the past simple that appear in the dialogue and let them collect them on the board (regular on one side; irregular on the other).
4) Modelling
Purpose:
· To raise Ss awareness of the formation and sentence structure of the past simple and provide Ss with a chance to use past simple sentences for speaking (they do it for the first time)
Technique: mechanical drill
Time: 1-2 min.
Interactive pattern: T-S
Procedure:
1. I point at the sentence pairs from the previous step and explain that we form the past simple by changing the verb form. The sentence structure is the same as that of the present simple.
2. Then I read out a verb and the sentence it appears in and let Ss repeat after me. After doing it twice I read out only the verb and let Ss read out the full sentence.
Ex. T: watched.
Ss: watched.
T: I watched a great movie on Friday.
Ss: I watched a great movie on Friday.
T: went.
Ss: went.
T: Sentence? (Pointing to a sentence if Ss have difficulties)
Ss: I went shopping with my friend Alice.
5) Pronunciation
Purpose: to make Ss aware of
· the pronunciation the “-ed” ending in past simple verb forms
· the stress of the personal pronoun when using the same question to talk about another person
Technique: chain game, listening task (option)
Time: 5-10 min. (or more with option)
Interactive pattern: T-S, S-S
Procedure:
1. I draw Ss’ attention to the verbs in the table again saying “Let’s take a closer look at the pronunciation of these verbs on the left.”
2. I explain that they all end with “-ed” but have a slightly different pronunciation.
3. I explain that we pronounce “-ed” like
a. /t/ when the verb ends with voiceless consonant sounds like in “watched” and “worked”
b. /d/ when the verb ends with vowel sounds or voiced consonant sounds like in “prepared” and “played” (I add “played” to the table and model an example sentence)
c. /Id/ when the verb ends with /d/ or /t/ like in “visited” (I add “visited” to the table and model an example sentence)
While I explain I add phonetic symbols to the table and let Ss repeat the pronunciation of each category after me.
watched /t/
worked /t/
prepared /d/
played /d/
visited /id/
4. I let Ss copy the phonetic symbols to the table in their handouts.
Option: I give Ss another list of verbs, play a recording and let them sort the verbs according to their pronunciation (/t/, /d/, /Id/).
5. Now I focus Ss’ attention on the “you” in italic that’s found in the dialogue (see above). I ask “Why is this you special?” and elicit some answers.
6. I explain that when we ask the same question as before but about somebody else, we stress the personal pronoun to make clear that we now talk about another person.
7. I read out the dialogue once again putting special emphasis on the pronunciation of “you” and emphasise and illustrate the meaning with gestures.
Option: I let Ss practice in a question chain (I ask them to point at the person they’re talking to when saying the “you” to emphasise meaning):
Ex. T: Did you watch TV on the weekend?
S1: [Yes/No] Did you watch TV on the weekend?
S2: [Yes/No] Did you watch TV on the weekend?
S2: [Yes/No] Did you watch TV on the weekend?
6) Systematization on the board
Purpose:
· to present and explain the formation of verbs in the past simple (regular/irregular) and the patterns for sentences (affirmative/negative)
Technique: (encourage development of deductive skills through) elicitation
Time: 10 min.
Interactive pattern: T-S
Procedure:
1. I say that I’m now going to explain the rules for verbs in the past simple.
2. I focus Ss’ attention on the left side of the chart and ask Ss what these verbs have in common to remind them that all verbs end in “-ed”.
3. I add the headline “regular” to the left side of the chart and explain that the past simple form of regular verbs ends like this.
4. I ask Ss to look at their handouts which contains a column about the spelling of regular past simple verbs and explain:
Most verbs: +ed (e.g. watched, worked, visited)
Verbs ending with e: +d (e.g. prepared)
Verbs ending with a consonant +y: y to i +ed = -ied (e.g. studied)
Some forms need double consonant: (e.g. robbed, shopped)
5. Now I write “irregular” over the right side of the chart and explain that these are irregular past simple forms, that they’re not formed by adding “-ed”, and that we have to memorize them one by one.
6. I ask Ss to look at the dialogue again and let them guess the base forms of the verbs from the context. Then I write them behind the past simple forms.
7. Now I present the pattern for sentences in the simple past and write them on the board:
Affirmative: S + past simple form of the verb
Negative: S + didn’t + base form of the verb
8. Pointing at the chart I show that didn’t is the contraction of did not and did the past simple form of do. I explain that we use did for all subjects.
9. I add two example sentences to the systematisation on the board.
Ex. I watched a great movie on Friday.
I went shopping with my friend Alice.
I didn’t watch a great movie on Friday.
I didn’t go shopping with my friend Alice.
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PRACTICE STAGE
1) Mechanical drill
Purpose:
· To provide Ss with practice in transforming affirmative sentences in the past simple into negative sentences and the other way round
Technique: oral transformation drill
Time: 1-2 min.
Interactive pattern: T-S
Procedure:
I say “Let’s practice turning positive sentences into negative sentences and negative sentences into positive sentences.” and start with the examples on the board (later I use other sentences from the dialogue as well as sentences describing leisure activities from the warm-up, including Ss’ ideas):
Ex. T: On Saturday, I played sports. Negative?
S1: On Saturday, I didn’t play sports.
T: On the weekend, I didn’t have a party. Positive?
S2: On the weekend, I had a party.
…
2) Reading and written practice
Purpose:
· To provide Ss with practice in forming past simple verb forms (regular/irregular)
Technique: gap filling
Time: 10 min.
Interactive pattern: S, S-S
Procedure and materials:
1. I show Ss a picture of a young man having a hard time mowing the lawn. I ask “Did he have a good weekend?” to raise Ss attention. I let Ss guess and say “Let’s find out.”
2. I hand out a gap filling exercise with a story about a his weekend:
<Text>
I had a very bad weekend. On Friday night, I ________ (go) downtown to meet my friend Alex. We ________(want) to go to the movies, but he ________(not come), so I _________ (watch) the movie alone.
Early on Saturday morning, my Father _________ (call) me and we _________(work) in the yard. I hate working in the yard. In the afternoon, I ___________(go) shopping with my girlfriend. I _________ (see) a lot of nice things to buy, but I_________(lose) my wallet and _______(not buy) nothing.
On Sunday, my sister was sick so I ________(stay) at home and________(care) for her all day. It really ________ (not have) fun this weekend.
3. I let Ss complete the exercise alone and ask them to pair up to compare their answers.
4. I remind them not just show each other their sheets but talk about what they wrote and monitor their performance walking around in the classroom.
5. After Ss have completed the exercise we check the answers by reading out the dialogue aloud.
6. I ask “Now, did he have a good weekend or not?” and elicit Ss’ answers to check Ss’ understanding of the text and to close the activity.
3) Communicative drill
Purpose:
· To provide Ss with freer practice in listening, speaking and writing about past events using the past simple
Technique: personalization
Time: 10 min. (or more with option)
Interactive pattern: S-S
Procedure and materials:
1. I focus Ss’ attention to the worksheet and read out and explain the instructions for the activity:
Tell your partner about 5 things you did and 5 things you didn’t do last week. Use time expressions like on Monday/Tuesday/…/the weekend
in the morning/afternoon evening
at night
Then listen to your partner and write down what he/she did or didn’t do.
2. I monitor the activity and provide vocabulary or other help where there is need.
Option: For more practice, let Ss tell the class about their partner’s last week.
PRODUCTION STAGE
Purpose:
· To provide Ss with freer practice in writing about past events using the past simple
Technique: personalization
Time: 20 min.
Interactive pattern: S
Procedure and materials:
I read out and explain the instructions for the activity:
You are on a trip around the world. Write an e-mail to a friend or your family about your trip. What country/places did you visit? What did you see? What did you do? How was it? Where are you now?
Ss compose the text for themselves. They may use a dictionary. I monitor the activity and provide help.
Related Grammar Lesson Plans:
Present Progressive Lesson Plan
Comparatives and Superlatives Lesson Plan
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