TEFL Training

Lesson Plan & Learning Objective: Discuss past activities, particularly last weekend’s, using the verb tense Simple Past

Level: Basic

Ages: Teens or Adults

STAGE OBJECTIVE PROCEDURE - TEACHER PROCEDURE – STUDENT T/S RATIO

Warm up / Activity – The Sentence Game

Review Divide the class into groups of three or four
students. Give each group a sheet of paper with
(15 minutes) five letters at the top e.g. A, D, M, N, W (all groups
get same letters). Groups must then write as many
words starting with one of these five letters, with
Lower the
the theme being ‘Items found at home’, they can
affective filter of Complete the set activities.
think of.
the students to 10/90
ensure optimal Be an active participant in the group.
3, 4 & 5 letter words are worth 1 point and 6 or
learning ability.
more letter words are worth 2 points.

At the end of five minutes or so, the scores are

tallied and the team with the most points wins the
round. Play 2-3 rounds with different letters and/or
themes.

Write lesson objective on the board including the

Introduction Establish content Students will primarily be reading and listening to
day’s topic, verb tense simple past. Goal is for
for the day’s the plan for the day, but they may ask questions as 90/10
students to be able to discuss their past activities,
(5 minutes) learning. we go along.
with a focus on the weekend.
 Students will be responding to the questions 40/60
Presentatio To teach the Open lesson by re-affirming what a verb is from asked.
n learning previous lessons. Elicit examples from students.
objective. For
(25 minutes) today’s lesson Once certain students understand, move on to
this is the verb asking students what they did in the past, such as:
tense simple
past. What did you do at lunchtime yesterday?

What did you do on the weekend?

Include student’s
responses. What did I do at the start of the lesson?
Students will record notes and timeline in their
Draw a timeline on the board, and show the workbooks.
students when these events occurred on it. This
helps students who learn better through visual
rather than auditory means.
Past Present Future Students will be encouraged to ask questions on
---------------------------------- anything they do not understand, so that this item
may be discussed in more depth.
Establish with students that the Past Simple tense
is used to describe completed activities in the past
(i.e. only things that DID occur, not things that
COULD HAVE occurred).

For the second stage of the lesson provide

students with sample sentences involving the
simple past tense.

Draw a timeline. Affirmative sentences:

I walked yesterday.
 I ate breakfast this morning.

Describe when Negative sentences:

and how this
language is used. I did not sit at the start of the lesson.

Question sentences:
Provide examples
using affirmative, Did you exercise last week?
negative and
questioning Describe the structure of the tense:
structure. Affirmative Structure
[SUBJECT] + [VERB IN PAST TENSE] +
[COMPLEMENT]
Negative Structure
[SUBJECT] + [NEGATIVE MODIFIER] + [VERB
INFINITIVE] + [COMPLEMENT]
Question Structure
Did + [SUBJECT] + [VERB INFINITIVE] +
[COMPLEMENT]

Show each part in the sentences written on the

board.

Describe the two verb types, regular and irregular,

to students. Regular verbs are created by adding –
d or –ed to the end of a verb. Elicit examples from
students (expect answers such as walked, talked,
danced, etc). Irregular verbs do not follow any
particular set of rules.

Examples include:
 Drew
Drank
Hid
Rang
Spoke

50/50
Practice Provide activities Activity 1 – Dialogue
for practice to
build skills in This is a dialogue of two people discussing their
(45 minutes)
communication weekends.
and fluency.
Hand out the following dialogue to students, and
write it on the board.
Students will work as pairs.
The dialogue
activity Mick: Hello, how are you?
emphasises Fiona: I am good thank you. How was your
communication weekend?
skills, whilst also Mick: My weekend was great! How was yours?
encouraging Fiona: Mine was not all that fun. What did you do?
fluency. Mick: I fished off the jetty, I hiked up the mountain
and I caught up with some friends. How about
you?
Fiona: Wow! That sounds great! I only cooked and
cleaned. Oh! And I walked the dog
Mick: Thanks for the chat! Bye!
Fiona: No worries! Seeya!

Provide feedback After reading this as a class several times to ensure

Once they finish, they must switch roles.
as necessary. student understanding, split the class into pairs to
practise the dialogue. Walk around the room,
providing feedback as necessary.
 Note: Questions for comprehension could be along
the lines of: What are the activities Mick did on his
weekend? What are the regular verbs in this
dialogue? Are there any irregular verbs? Etc.
Students will continue pair work.
The Interview Activity 2 - Interview:
Activity has a Assign students into pairs for this activity. The
major emphasis objective of this activity is for students to find out
on building about their classmates past.
fluency and Students will be using the knowledge gained from
understanding, as both previous and today’s classes.
well as
promoting the Instructions:
growth of I want you to tell each other some of the activities
communication and events that occurred in your past. They can be
skills. from years, months, weeks or even days ago.

We will spend a few minutes on this. Make sure

you both contribute to the conversation, and then
we will share the answers you learnt in your pairs
with the class.

Once enough time has passed, nominate a pair to

go to the front and tell the rest of the class what
they have learnt about each other.

After they have finished, the class has the

opportunity to ask one question of each pair
member, to learn something else not already
stated.

Give feedback to Continue this routine until all pairs have had an
students. opportunity to speak.
 Going around the room, each student must state a
Evaluation verb, and then give the past tense version of the
To ensure
verb (e.g. walk = walked). Then they must give a Students will be using knowledge gained in
learning done in
(15 minutes) sentence containing the past tense version (e.g. I previous classes and from today’s class to compile
the lesson has
walked to class today). the list, and construct past tense sentences.
been retained.
20/80
As we go around the room, I will write the list on They will copy the list from the board.
Time to provide
the board. We will continue this activity for 10
feedback to
minutes, or until the students run out of words. Whole class activity, but brainstorming is
students on
individual.
progress, etc.
If a student is struggling to think of a verb, you can
provide one for them to then give the past tense.
Assignment of the task.
Homework
Students will record what is expected of them for
Task is to write a list of verbs (10 regular, 5
Assign homework the homework activity and make note of the
(10 minutes) irregular) and then use each in a sentence, using
to consolidate expected due date.
correct grammar and syntax. 10/90
the student
learning. They may ask questions regarding anything they
Bring to next lesson.
don’t fully understand.
See you all later, and have a great day/evening.