Past Simple and Continuous - lesson plan

LESSON PLAN - Past Simple and Continuous

Learners: pre-intermediate, primary school students

Aims:
students learn how to use past continuous with when&while,
students revise past simple and past continuous

PROCEDURE

Warm-up/Revision:
(a)
The teacher prepares coloured slips with verbs. The student draws one slip and supplies the past form of the verb (green slips) or the gerund (red slips) and forms sentences using the verbs. Good answers will be rewarded with a piece of candy.

(b)
past picture activity. The teacher shows his/her photo to the Ss and comment on it. Then teacher asks students to write down 10 questions addressed to “you now” and about “you when”. Questions should be in the past continuous and past simple e.g. What colour were your clothes you were wearing? Did you live in the town? Then students ask the questions.

Presentation:
(a)
Then, the teacher introduces ‘when’ and ‘while’ using the same photo. The teacher introduces the following sentence: When I was young, I was wearing glasses. My dad took the photo while I was sitting in the chair. The teacher writes these two sentences on the board for students to form their own sentences with ‘when’ and ‘while’. Some students are asked to present their sentences to the class.
(b)
Consolidation. Students are encouraged to formulate rules which they think apply in the new structure. The teacher checks the information is correct and corrects mistakes.

Practice:
(a)
Joining ideas. Students are asked to write down the activities on slips of papers and then match the sentences and complete the story using when&while.

(b) Speaking. In pairs or groups, take turns asking and answering questions using Past Continuous and Past Simple.
1. What were you doing at 8 PM last night?
2. What happened while you were studying last weekend?
3. What were you doing when you last got a phone call?
4. Can you remember something funny that happened while you were traveling?

Close-up/Summary:
(a)
Special moments - activity. The students are asked to think back to important moments in their lives and say what exactly they were doing at those moments. Example ideas: when they first realized they could read, when they were invited on the first date, when your parents told you had a baby sister, etc.