ELT Network Lesson Plans Past Simple/Past Continuous

Speaking, Listening and Reading Created by: BCHK ELT Network Team Class Type Aim(s) Time Assumed Knowledge Materials/Preparation Secondary To teach past continuous To use the past simple and continuous when talking about what you were doing at a time in the past 2 x 50 minute lessons Past simple Pictures/flashcards that can be used to tell a story Handout as below Picture of a busy scene

Procedure Lesson 1 1.Play a quick warmer with the class, for example, Alphabet Ladders. To play alphabet ladders, put the students into groups of equal sizes and put the teams in lines facing the board. On the board, ask the students to give you a long word, e.g. Elephant and write the word lengthways down the board as many times as there are teams. The first person in each team runs to the board and writes a word beginning with the letter E then runs back to the line, passes the chalk onto the next player and then goes to the back of their teams line. The second player then runs to the board and writes a word beginning with the letter L. This continues until a word has been written for each letter. The first team to do this wins a point. 2. Using your pictures or flashcards to start telling a story to your students. It may be a good idea to tell a story about a crime to set the scene for the alibi game later in the lesson. Ensure that you include a lot of examples of the past simple and past continuous. For example, the story may start with: It was Monday afternoon and the sun was shining. I was walking down the street when my mobile phone rang. I stopped walking and answered the phone. While I was talking on the phone a dog came running up the street and jumped up at me. 3. After telling the story for the first few pictures ask students for their contributions and elicit their ideas for the other pictures, encouraging use of the past continuous where appropriate. 4. Once the story is finished, get students to re-tell you the whole story. Ask some concept questions to ensure students have understood the use of the past continuous, e.g. What happened whilst I was walking down the street? Your phone rang. What was I doing when the dog jumped up at me? You were talking on the phone. Which started first me walking down the street or the phone ringing? You walking down the street. Did I stop walking down the street? Yes. Why? Because your phone rang.
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Past Continuous
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6. Controlled Practice. Do a controlled practice activity such as the gap fill activity given in the handout below. 7. Do a second controlled practice activity by showing students a picture of a busy scene where something is happening, e.g. a bank robbery in progress. The picture can be shown on OHT to the whole class or give groups a copy of the picture. Give them a time limit for studying the picture.

ELT Network Lesson Plans Past Simple/Past Continuous

After time is up take the picture away. Students in groups should now write as many sentences as they can describing the scene. Start them off with a past simple sentence, e.g. When the bank robber entered the bank.. Students then complete the sentence in as many different ways as possible, e.g. two girls were talking, the man was reading the newspaper, etc. To make it more fun you can award points for number of sentences and points for correct sentences. Lesson 2 Use this second lesson to set up a large communicative activity. 1. Review the past continuous by asking students questions about their day so far, e.g. What were you doing when the bell rang at the end break? What were you doing when your alarm went off this morning? 2. Set the scene for the alibi activity by telling students that there was a crime last night (make up an appropriate crime for your class) and that they are all suspects. Tell them the Police wish to question everyone in the class so they have to work out their alibi for 6 to 8 oclock last night. Put students into groups of 3 and give them about 15 minutes to work out their alibis together. Tell them the Police may ask them anything, so they have to think of everything! For example, if they went to the cinema together, make sure they think about who sat next to who, how busy was the cinema, who paid for the tickets, etc. 3. When the time is up, choose one group to be questioned first. Two of the group should leave the room and the third member should sit at the front of the class. The rest of the class act as the Police and ask the suspect questions about his/her whereabouts at the time of the crime. The Police should make a note of the answers so that they can compare with the other suspects in their group. After a set amount of time, bring the next suspect into the class for the Police to ask them the questions again. Of course, the questions need to be the same for each group of suspects so the Police can see if there are any discrepancies in their stories. 4. Continue as above until all groups have been questioned. Then, ask the class who they think the guilty group was (i.e. the group whose stories were inconsistent) giving reasons for their choice. Finally hold a class vote to decide which group is the guilty group.

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Past Continuous
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ELT Network Lesson Plans Past Simple/Past Continuous

Fill in the gaps in the following sentences using either the past simple or past continuous form of the verbs in the box below.

shine kick

play ring

carry slip

receive

cook walk run

fall

have wake up

look arrive

1. The phone _______________ whilst I ______________ a shower.

2. My brother ________________ the piano when I _______________ into the room.

3. I ________________ a text message from June whilst I _________________ to Lisa on the phone.

4. The sun _________________ when I _____________ this morning.

5. The boy __________________ down the hill when he ____________ over.

6. When Dan _____________ home from work Julia __________________

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dinner. 7. The referee ________________ the other way when Jack _______________ another player on the shin.

8. I __________________ a bag of bottles when I ________________ and dropped them.

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Past Continuous
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