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 five
(15 minutes) 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.
Presentation To teach the Open lesson by re-affirming what a verb is from
learning previous lessons. Elicit examples from students.
(25 minutes) objective. For
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.
Students will be responding to the questions asked.
What did you do at lunchtime yesterday?

Include student’s What did you do on the weekend?

responses.
What did I do at the start of the lesson?

Draw a timeline on the board, and show the

students when these events occurred on it. This
helps students who learn better through visual
rather than auditory means. 40/60
Past Present Future
Students will record notes and timeline in their
----------------------------------
workbooks.
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
Students will be encouraged to ask questions on
COULD HAVE occurred).
anything they do not understand, so that this item
may be discussed in more depth.
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
and how this Negative sentences:
language is used.
I did not sit at the start of the lesson.

Provide examples Question sentences:

using affirmative,
negative and Did you exercise last week?
questioning
structure. Describe the structure of the tense:
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

Practice Provide activities Activity 1 – Dialogue

for practice to This is a dialogue of two people discussing their
(45 minutes) build skills in weekends.
communication
and fluency. Hand out the following dialogue to students, and
write it on the board.
The dialogue Students will work as pairs.
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 50/50
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!

After reading this as a class several times to ensure

Provide feedback student understanding, split the class into pairs to
as necessary. practise the dialogue. Walk around the room, Once they finish, they must switch roles.
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.

Activity 2 - Interview:
The Interview Assign students into pairs for this activity. The Students will continue pair work.
Activity has a objective of this activity is for students to find out
major emphasis about their classmates past.
on building Students will be using the knowledge gained from
fluency and both previous and today’s classes.
understanding, as
well as promoting Instructions:
the 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.

To ensure Going around the room, each student must state a Students will be using knowledge gained in previous 20/80
Evaluation learning done in verb, and then give the past tense version of the classes and from today’s class to compile the list,
the lesson has verb (e.g. walk = walked). Then they must give a and construct past tense sentences.
(15 minutes) been retained. sentence containing the past tense version (e.g. I
walked to class today). They will copy the list from the board.
Time to provide
feedback to As we go around the room, I will write the list on Whole class activity, but brainstorming is individual.
students on the board. We will continue this activity for 10
progress, etc. minutes, or until the students run out of words.

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
the homework activity and make note of the
(10 minutes) Assign homework irregular) and then use each in a sentence, using
expected due date.
to consolidate the correct grammar and syntax. 10/90
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.