Teacher’s name Angela Maria Vass

Class / Level 7th Intermediate

(4 hours a week)
Date 22nd March, 2016
Lesson length 50 minutes
Lesson type Grammar/Reading
LESSON PLAN

Main lesson aims:

By the end of the lesson the pupils will be able to provide controlled practice of the reported speech.

Subsidiary aim:
Improve reading & speaking & writing skills

Personal goals:
Giving clear instructions for the reading, speaking and writing tasks.

Materials (including source):

Power-Point presentation with a reported speech quiz
Photocopiable worksheet downloaded from www.longman.com
Coloured chalk, handouts, projector

Assumptions:
Students already have the basics of reported speech from previous lessons and from other sources
(books, films, etc.), so identifying, understanding and turning direct speech into reported speech or
reported speech into direct speech should not be a problem.

Anticipated difficulties with tasks:

Some of the students may have difficulty with the time limit. They may want to understand the meaning
of each word in the text.

Solutions:
To make students respect the time limit in the reading stage, I will tell them to try to focus on the
grammar task and not on the new vocabulary they might encounter and, in the writing activity, I will tell

1
them to write only the dialogue between Mrs. Greenfield and the fire officer referring to paragraphs 2, 3
and 4.

2
Language analysis
Form
A. ‘I will show you my new dress’, she said.
She said she would show me her new dress.
B. present simple (DS) → past simple (RS)
‘I work hard’, he said.
He said (that) he worked hard.
Meaning
A. In reported speech (RS), personal pronouns and
possessive adjectives change according to the context.
B. When the introductory verb (said, told, etc.) is in the
past and we report someone’s words a long time after they
were said (out-of-date reporting), the tenses change.
Anticipated problems
Students may forget either to change
the tenses or the time expressions.
Students might get confused when they
have to change the verb tenses and
when they don’t.
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present continuous (DS) → past continuous (RS) Keep PPP with the changes at hand and
‘I am working hard’, he said. highlight the verbs and the time
He said (that) he was working hard. expressions in the slides.
present perfect simple (DS) → past perfect simple (RS)
‘I have worked hard’, he said.
Give handouts with the forms and the
He said (that) he had worked hard. meanings.

present perfect continuous (DS) → past perfect continuous (RS)

‘I have been working hard’, he said.
He said (that) he had been working hard.

past simple (DS) → past perfect (RS)

‘I worked hard’, he said.
He said (that) he had worked hard.

future simple (DS) → present conditional (RS)

‘I will work hard’, he said.
He said (that) he would work hard.

BUT: past perfect cont. (DS) → past perfect cont. (RS) Note 1: The past perfect simple and the past perfect
‘I was tired last night. I had been working hard all day’, he said. continuous do not change in reported speech.
He said (that) he had been tired the previous night because he had been
working hard all day.

‘I was working hard on my project while Ann was watching TV.’ Note 2: The past continuous do not usually change the
He said he was working hard on my project while Ann was watching same in reported speech.
TV.’

Note 3: The tenses do not change in reported speech

when:
‘The station is far from here’, he says. a) the reporting verb is in the present, future or
He says the station is far from here. present perfect;

‘Water turns into ice’, he said. b) the speaker expresses general truths or
He said water turns into ice. permanent states;

She came into the room holding some letters in her hand and said, ‘I c) the speaker reports someone’s words
found these while I was tidying the desk drawers’. immediately after they were said (up-to-date
She came into the room holding some letters in her hand and said she reporting).
found them while she was tidying the desk drawers.

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Stage Stage aim Procedure Inter- Time
action
Lead in To introduce the Greet the students, ask for the absentees and announce the topic of the lesson. Ask students to T-Ss 3 mins.
topic of the lesson keep their books closed and make them tell you why it is important to know how to report what
and get learners somebody else said.
interested in it
Language To get learners to Review reported speech by asking three students to make imaginary or real statements about S-S 5 mins.
focus focus on the themselves in the past/present/future (e.g. I bought an I-phone last week. / I am working hard on
changes in the my History project. / I will turn thirteen next month). These students say their sentences to other
reported speech students in the class who must report to the class what they have learned about their mates. To
emphasize reporting in the past, make sure you ask ‘What did Mark say?’ The student having the
answer stands up and says: ‘Mark said he had bought an I-phone the previous week’). Then the
other students guess whether the sentence was a truth or a lie.
Group activity To involve all Show the Reported Speech quiz. Ask learners to discuss the statements in four groups of seven S 10
students students and find out the correct answer. The leader of each group writes down the answers. mins.
Monitor learners to check that they are completing the task. Set a time limit of five minutes.
Invite leaders to the front and let them reveal their group answers by showing the class a card
with one of the letters A, B, C or D. Discuss in open class.
Feedback To check learners Elicit the answers to the exercises in open class. T-Ss 5 mins.
have the correct
answers
Reading 1 For students to Give out the photocopiable worksheet downloaded from www.longman.com. Ask students to do S 5 mins.
practice reading for a silent reading of the story The Most Unsuccessful Pet Rescue and underline all the sentences in
gist the reported speech. Set a two-minute time limit for the reading. Monitor students to check they
are completing the task.
Pair check To allow learners Invite students to check that they have identified all reported statements. T-Ss 2 min.
discuss the
underlined
structures
Pair work To provide further Ask students to do Exercise 1 (worksheet) in pairs and complete the gaps with the characters’ S 3 mins.
practice of reported names. Set a time limit of two minutes. Monitor students to check they are completing the gap
speech fill.

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Correcting gap To check learners Ask learners to check that they have the correct answers to Exercise 1 (worksheet) and make T-Ss 2 mins.
fill task have completed the them notice the differences between direct speech and reported speech. e.g. ‘It’s all right! I got
task successfully him!’ is reported in the text as follows: The fire officer told her he had caught the cat.
Practice To prepare for the Tell learners to look at the text again and ask them to suggest a few direct statements for the S 2 mins.
pair practice indirect speech in the text. (e.g. ‘My cat is in a tall tree in the street. Come and save him’ or ‘Hey,
activity kitty, kitty!’)
Pair practice To provide further In pairs, students write the story The Most Unsuccessful Pet Rescue using only direct speech. Tell S-S 7 mins.
practice of direct them they have five minutes to do this. Monitor students to check they are completing the writing
speech task successfully.
Feedback To check learners’ Have students present the dialogues in open class. Evaluate their work. Draw conclusions. T-Ss 5 mins.
understanding of
the task
Set homework To provide an Tell students that their homework is Exercise 3 (worksheet). It’s similar to the exercise 1 they T-Ss 1 min.
opportunity for have already done.
students to practise
writing at home

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Worksheet downloaded from www.longman.com
Reported Speech (Telling stories)
Read

THE MOST UNSUCESSFUL PET RESCUE

Mrs Sarah Greenfield was worried because she hadn’t seen her pet cat, Percy, for nearly two days.
She told her neighbour, Frank Armstrong about it. Frank said he knew where Percy was and took
her to a tall tree in the street. He pointed up at a branch near the top of the tree where Percy was
sitting. Mrs Greenfield called out to her cat but it did not move. Then she asked Frank Armstrong
what she should do. He suggested that she should telephone the fire brigade and ask them to help.

Mrs Greenfield went back to her house and phoned the local fire station. She told them about the
cat and asked them to come and save the cat. Twenty minutes later, a big red fire engine parked
outside Mrs Greenfield’s house. Mrs Greenfield showed the fire officer where Percy was sitting
in the tree. The fire officer asked Mrs Greenfield what the cat liked eating. She told him that
Percy’s favourite food was sardines. The fire officer said it would be difficult to catch the cat
because it would be very frightened and asked her if she had got any sardines.

Mrs Greenfield opened a tin of sardines and gave it to the fire officer. The fire officer extended
the tall ladders on the fire engine and climbed up to the cat. He held out the open tin of sardines
and called to the cat. Percy was very hungry and he could smell the sardines. He scrambled
towards the fire officer who caught him easily. From the top of the ladder, the fire officer called to
Mrs Greenfield and told her he had caught the cat.

Mrs Greenfield was very happy and thanked the fire officer as he was climbing down the ladder.
After the fire officer had handed the cat to Mrs Greenfield, she put it on the ground with the tin of
sardines. Mrs Greenfield thanked the fire officer again and invited him to have a cup of tea and a
slice of cake at her house. The fire officer accepted the invitation and they walked to her house.

Twenty minutes later, after two cups of tea and three slices of cake, the fire officer got into the big
red fire engine and started the engine to drive away. Unfortunately, as he was reversing the fire
engine, he ran over the cat and killed it.

Exercises
1 Read the story and work out who said…
a) “It’s all right. I’ve got him!” _________________
b) “Would you like to have a cup of tea and a slice of cake?” _________________
c) “I haven’t seen Percy for two days.” _________________
d) “He loves sardines.” _________________
e) “I know where he is. I saw him this morning.” _________________
f) “What do you think I should do?” _________________
g) “Why don’t you phone the fire brigade?” _________________
h) “The cat’ll be very frightened so it’ll be difficult to catch. _________________
i) “Have you got any sardines?” _________________
j) “Would you like another slice of cake?” _________________

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Reflection
2 Look at your answers to Exercise 1. Look at the way that the spoken words are reported
in the story. Notice the changes in verbs tenses between the spoken words and the report.
Notice that not all the spoken lines are actually reported.
Read

HOW NOT TO IMPRESS YOUR NEW BOSS

After Peter and Fiona Tompkins got married, they moved into a very nice suburban house just
outside Cardiff in Wales. Peter had just got a new job in the Welsh Tourism Board.

One Tuesday afternoon, just after Peter had started in his new job, Fiona was surprised when her
husband phoned and said he had invited his new boss, Gwyn Williams, and his wife to come to
dinner. Fiona was furious and told Peter she had no suitable food for them. He replied he was sure
she would think of something adding that they would arrive at 7.30.

Fiona searched in her freezer and found some salmon. It was about two weeks beyond it ‘sell by’
date but she decided to risk it. She cut the head and tail off the fish and gave them to the cat. Then
she used the meat to make a fish pie. She prepared some vegetables and found a bottle of German
white wine.

At 7.30 the house was looking beautiful when Peter arrived with Mr and Mrs Williams. Fiona
welcomed them to the house and offered them a glass of sherry before dinner. Mrs Williams
asked how long they had been married and Fiona proudly showed them the photographs of their
wedding.

Everyone enjoyed the dinner and Mr and Mrs Williams left at around ten o’clock. Peter and Fiona
discussed the evening and decided it had been a great success. Peter was taking the rubbish out to
the dustbin when he found the body of their pet cat lying on the front door step. He went back to
the kitchen where Fiona was washing the plates and told her about the cat. Fiona was horrified
and told Peter that the salmon had been beyond its ‘sell by’ date.

Fiona slept very badly. She was convinced she had not only poisoned her husband but also her
husband’s new boss and his wife. At three o’clock in the morning Fiona woke up her husband and
asked him if he was feeling ill. He said he was fine. Fiona told him about her worries. Peter said
there was nothing they could do about it and persuaded her to go back to sleep.

In the morning, Peter decided to bury the cat. He dug a hole in the garden and then went to the
front door to pick up the body of the cat. As he was picking up the body, he saw a small piece of
white paper on the door step. He picked up the paper and read it. It said, “I’m terribly sorry but
when we were reversing the car we ran over your cat.” The note was signed by Gwyn
Williams.

3 Read the story and write an exercise . Write the actual words which were spoken by
people in the story.