In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Course

Teaching and Assessment of Grammar

Submitted by: Kate M. Surban

BSED – English 2nd Year

Submitted to: Prof. Esmeralda T. Metillo

October 2022
 Grammar Lesson Plan

Modals

Background Information:

This grammar lesson is intended for a high-intermediate or advanced level class in an intensive
English program such as the ELC. The target class size would ideally be no more than 15
students.

Organization:

This lesson is intended cover three 50 minute class periods. It is not exhaustive in its coverage of
the functions of modals in the English language. The assumption is that the high intermediate
learners will already understand many common functions of modals, such as asking permission,
making requests, and being polite. The focus of this lesson, then, is to broaden the students
understanding of other appropriate and useful situations where modals are used. Finally, the
order of the days is intended to move the students from more simple examples to more complex.
If the students prior knowledge lends itself to changing the order of days, the lesson plan should
still be effective.

Unit Goal:

Students will build on basic knowledge of English modals to understand more complex usages.

Objectives:

1. Students will give and receive instructions using modals.

2. Students will differentiate between the modals used for possibility, obligation, and
necessity by identifying theses types of modals in the language around them.
3. Students will demonstrate an ability to reason deductively using modal forms.

Materials Needed:

 Excerpt from the TOEFL testing booklet (example included)

 blindfolds for half of the students
 photocopies of a Dear Abby letter or letter to the editor
  (optional) a copy of the rules for a well known game
 list of dilemmas (example included)
 worksheet displaying several public signs with well known meanings (example included)
 an action photograph of someone in your family
 excerpt from a mystery novel
 a video clip

Day One

Topic: Giving and Receiving Instructions or Advice

Objective: See objective 1 above

Warm Up Activity

(5 min)
Use the information in the TOEFL preparation booklet to ask students if they can answer some
of the commonly asked questions about the TOEFL exam. Focus on the questions which use the
words “can” and “may” so the students responses come in the form of “can/can’t” and “may/may
not.”

**Reference: TOEFL 1998-99 information bulletin for computer-based testing. Educational

Testing Service.

Deductive Instruction

(10 min) Ask students to list the modals in English. Then remind them of the basic structural
principles, such as modals only have one form and do not change in the third person singular or
in the plural form. Then have students discuss the different functions of modals they have studied
previously. The teacher may want to make a list of these functions on the board. This will also
give the teacher an opportunity to assess whether this lesson’s information is too hard or too easy
for the students.

Listening/Speaking activity

(10 min):
Explain to the students, if it didn’t already come up in the above discussion, that giving
instructions and advice is one use for modals. Then have the students get into pairs and blindfold
one of the students in each pair. Give the blindfolded students a task to complete. There are
many possible kinds of tasks, such as drawing a picture, building a house or other structure with
legos, maneuvering through a maze of chairs, etc. Any activity will work as long as the
blindfolded student has to ask questions about what to do next and the seeing student has to help
them get the task completed.

Listening/Speaking/Writing activity
(15 min):
Put the students into groups and allow them to play a common board or card game. After they
have played, have them silently write all of the instructions and rules from the game they can
remember. Stress that they should use the modals in their instructions as they write. Then have
the students volunteer their answers and compile a complete list of the rules and instructions for
the game as a class. The teacher could then compare the students’ list of rules with the real game
instructions, or use the instructions to clarify any differences of opinion which arise among the
students.

Reading/Writing activity

(10 min):
Clip a Dear Abby letter from the newspaper and give a copy to each student. Explain what a
Dear Abby letter is so the students understand what they are reading. Ask the students to read the
letter silently and then talk with a partner about the problem the person is having. After reading
the letter, ask the students to pretend that they are Abby and write a response to the person about
what s/he should do.

Evaluation/Homework:

Tell the students that they need to find one more example of how modals are used for giving or
receiving instructions and advice at home that night. Then they should write a paragraph
describing the circumstance which requires modals.

Day Two

Topic: Possibility, Obligation, or Necessity

Objective – see objective 2 above

Warm up activity

(5 Min)
Show students pictures of signs which represent specific information. Ask students to tell you
with each sign what obligation the person is under. There is a sheet included of possible signs to
use. Could ask students to list other common signs. May also ask if they can think of any signs
which offer a possibility rather than an obligation.

**Reference: Fuchs, M. & Westheimer M. (1994). Focus on Grammar: An Intermediate Course

for Reference and Practice. Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.

Listening/Speaking activity

(10 min or longer if groups discuss more than one situation):

Give the students a list of dilemmas which involve serious circumstances. You can use situations
like the ones on the list provided or come up with your own. Put students into groups of three or
four and have them discuss the possible solutions. They should decide what all of their
possibilities are as well as what they are obligated to do. You may also want to push them to
come to a consensus as a group as to which is the best solution.

**Reference: Ur, P. (1988) Grammar Practice Activities: a practical guide for teachers.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (p. 176-177)

Reading/Writing activity

(20 min)
Have students imagine that they are in charge of finding someone to fill a job they know
something about. Ask the students to write a paragraph about the qualifications that this person
who gets the job must have as well as the qualifications s/he should have. (This may be a good
time to review which modals allow for possibility and which only allow for obligation or
necessity.) Students could then read each other’s paragraphs and put an * by obligatory
requirements and a # by possible requirements.

Reference: Ur, P. (1988) Grammar Practice Activities: a practical guide for teachers. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. (p. 175-176)

Reading/Writing activity

(15 min)
Give students a syllabus for a content course. Allow them to read the syllabus completely. Then
have them get with a partner and go through the syllabus underlining the parts of the syllabus
that are necessary as opposed to those that are optional. May discuss afterwards which type of
instructions are most common on a syllabus and why.

Evaluation/Homework:

Ask students to listen for modals in the conversations around them. Have them record at least
three examples of each type of modals -- possibility, obligation, and necessity. The teacher
should then assess the students’ understanding based upon what is turned in.

Day Three

Topic: Deductions
Objective: See objective 3 above

Warm Up Activity

(5 min):
Play a game of 20 questions with the students. Choose a person, animal, or object instruct the
students to ask you questions about the kinds of functions this person, animal, or object can do.
For example, you may choose a horse and tell the students that the category is an animal. Then
they would ask questions such as, “Can this animal run fast?” or “Can this animal carry
humans?” You are really eliciting can/can’t questions from the students. From asking these
questions, they should be able to eventually deduce the person, animal, or object you are thinking
of.

Deductive Explanation

(5 min):
Briefly explain how the modals are used in deductive reasoning. Give examples of the modals
which lend themselves to deductions. These would include modals and phrasal modals such as
must, could have, might be, can’t be true, etc.

Listening/Speaking activity

(10 min):
Bring a picture of one of your family members or friends. Make sure the picture is an action shot
and not a static pose. Then show the picture to the class and ask them to make deductions about
who this person is, how you know them, and what happened before and after the picture was
taken. You may also ask the students the day before to bring pictures as well. Then the activity
could be expanded to discuss their photos too.

**Reference: Ur, P. (1988) Grammar Practice Activities: a practical guide for teachers.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (p. 180)

Reading/Writing

(15 min):
Give the students an excerpt from a novel, preferably a mystery or otherwise suspenseful story.
Ask the students to read the passage and then write their ideas about what will happen next. The
class could then compare and contrast their opinions about what they deduced.

Listening/Speaking

(15 min):
Show a video clip of a movie. Be sure to turn off the movie just as the scene is reaching a
climax. Again, have the students predict what the outcome will be. The teacher may take this
opportunity to discuss how we make deductions. For instance, have the students list the
information they know as fact and then they can talk about what usually happens in that kind of
situation, or how movies usually have a certain outcome, etc.

Evaluation/Homework:

Have the students write a one page story in which they present a situation – either real or
imagined – which requires the use of all of the different usages of modals discussed throughout
the week. You may suggest that they come up with a dilemma like the ones you did in class since
that would provide the opportunity for making deductions, stating possibilities and obligations,
and giving instructions.