Speaking Lesson Plan: Modals of Advice

1. Goal:

Students will use learn how to give polite advice in conversation by softening their tone using the

modals should, ought to, and had better.

2. Objective:

Students will correctly use the modals should, ought to, and had better, to give each other

advice.

Terminal objectives:

1. Students will understand that the modals should, ought to, and had better, move

from stronger to weaker in terms of tone.

2. Students will give each other verbal advice on a problem they are currently having.

Enabling objectives:

1. Students will know and understand what modals are (modals handout).

2. Students will understand that should is the most common modal.

3. Students will understand that ought to is rarely used.

4. Students will understand that had better is usually used as a warning or threat and

therefore has the strongest tone.

5. Students will understand how to form grammatically correct pieces of advice with the

modals should, ought to, and had better. (modals handout)

6. Students will learn how to form negative modals.

7. Students will learn how native speakers tend to contract negative modals.

8. Students will write down one piece of advice in response to a problem given to them.
 9. Students will listen to a problem their partner is currently having and respond by giving

them advice using one of the modals should, ought to, and had better, depending

on the severity of the situation.

10. Students will engage in a pair discussion activity using should, ought to, and had

better, to give each other advice.

11. Students will participate in a full class version of the advice activity in number 5.

12. Students verbally share favorite situations.

13. Students will brainstorm when they will use the modals should, ought to, and had

better, in real life.

14. Kahoot quiz on grammatical concepts surrounding should, ought to, and had

better.

3. Materials and equipment:

1. White board, eraser, & white board pens.

2. Modals grammar handout.

3. Modals grammar worksheet.

4. Mason jar with problems written on strips.

5. Strips of paper for students to write their current problem.

6. Laptop to access Kahoot.

4. Procedures

1. GRAMMATICAL REVIEW: MODALS OF ADVICE SHOULD, OUGHT TO,

AND HAD BETTER

(Pass out the modals of advice review handout) To draw on students prior knowledge ask

them if they have been exposed to modals in the past. If so, I will ask what they remember
and transition to the handout using their input. We will read the handout together and check

for knowledge by having students produce their own sentence verbally after covering each

section.

2. GROUP PRACTICE

Students will practice with the form modal + base verb as a group by giving me verbal

examples I record on the board.

Zoe: Who can give me an example of a piece of advice you would give to your daughter?

Koorosh: to my daughter I would say, you should finish your homework before you

watch television.

3. MODALS OF ADVICE WORKSHEET

Students will pick a strip of paper out of a mason jar with a problem written on it. The

problems have varying degrees of seriousness/severity to provide students with the

chance to use modals of different strengths. Ex: I crashed my car last night and have no

way to get to work. There is a ghost living in my bathroom. My cat wont stop eating.

Students will write down a piece of advice on their worksheet specific to the problem

they picked.

4. MODALS OF ADVICE WORKSHEET: PAIR ACTIVITY

Students will ask their partner one problem they are having. I will warn students that this

is a problem they should be comfortable sharing with their partner and possibly the whole

class. Partner A will write down Partner Bs problem, and Partner A will give verbal

advice using should, ought to, or had better, then record the advice they gave

partner B on the worksheet.

 5. GROUP ADVICE ACTIVITY

Each student will write down a current problem they are having in their life. They should

be comfortable sharing this problem with the class. Each strip with a problem will be

placed in the mason jar, shuffled, and each student will take a strip. Students will stand

up and ask each other for advice.

Student 1: My cat meows so loudly every night that it wakes me up.

Student 2: You had better remove your cats voicebox.

Then the students will trade strips and continue this activity for 20 minutes.

6. KAHOOT ASSESSMENT

Kahoot questions:

What is the most commonly used modal?

o Answer choices: should, ought to, had better, none of the above

Which of the following is not true about modals?

o they are helping verbs, they are always used with the base form of a

verb, they can never end in s, modals can change form

Which is the strongest modal? It is often used to express a warning or a threat.

o should, had better, ought to, none of the above

True or False: "Had better" is more commonly used in speaking than in writing
o True, False

"Should" means the same thing as which of the following modals?

o had better, ought to, both, whats a modal?

5. Assessment

Formative assessments will occur throughout the speaking activities, as well as by circulating

and observing the written sentences produced by the students. The kahoot assessment will be a

more summative grammatical quiz about the rules about modals.

 Modals of Advice Handout
Modals are helping verbs that come before a main verb to change the tone of the
sentence. There are MANY ways that we can use modals! One of the most common ways
you can use modals is to give advice, make suggestions, and give warnings.

Ought Had
Should
to better
Tone: weakest Tone: weakest Tone: strongest

Uses: general advice or Use: to express the best Uses: strong advice,
suggestions possible action warning, or threat

Negative form: had

Negative form: should Negative form: ought better not
not (shouldnt) not to (oughtnt)
*This is very
uncommon in speaking

Rules about Modals:

1. Modals are always used with the base form of a verb

2. Modals never end in -s
3. To make modals negative, use the word not
4. Some modals have contractions in the negative
5. Dont use two modals in a row

Should + base verb

Used to give general advice
Simple present: Zoe should brush her cats every week.
To make negative statements using should, add not after the modal should
Simple present: Zoe should not eat so much sugar.
Note: should not is almost always said, shouldnt
Ought to + base verb
Note: this is NOT commonly used by native speakers!
Used to give general advice

Simple present: Zoe ought to call her sister more often.

You will hear: Zoe oughta call her sister more.

To make negative statements, add not after the modal ought

You will almost never hear this used!

Had better + base verb

Used to give strong advice or to give a warning

Simple present: Zoe had better start writing her paper before the day that it is due.

To make negative statements, add not after the modal had better

Simple present: Zoe had better not watch TV late at night.

Note: You will hear Zoed better not, because native speakers drop the
had when speaking

Had better is more commonly used in speaking than in writing.

Sounding like a native speaker

Should is the most commonly used modal of advice.

Native speakers almost always use shouldnt when making a negative statement.
You will almost always hear oughta instead of ought to.
Native speakers almost always drop the had in had better, and combine it with
the subject of the sentence. Examples: Youd better/shed better/hed better/wed
better/etc.
 Modals of Advice Worksheet

Ought Had
Should
to better

Help! I have a problem, and dont know what to do about it. Write me
one piece of advice below, based on the problem I give to you:

Below, ask your partner about a problem they are having. Write down their
problem, then give them one piece of advice about how they could fix their
problem.

Partners problem:

Your suggestion: