Junior High School - Year 2
Past Progressive Tense
| Unit | Lesson Number | Topic | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 2 | 2.1 | Past Progressive Tense | A: What were you doing yesterday? B: I was swimming. |
| Resource Information | |
|---|---|
| Level | Beginner |
| Age | This course is for 13-14 year olds, but of course any age is OK if the level is right. |
| Number of Players | This is a whole class activity. |
| Object | To practice reading, writing and speaking examples of past progressive tense. |
| Language Skills | memory, speaking, listening, communication, writing, reading |
| Resources |
worksheets - pdf game cards - pdf flash cards - pdf board game - pdf |
| Time | A whole class (50 minutes). |
| Advantages | This lesson includes some writing exercise on a worksheet which combines images to facilitate learning. The language used when playing the board game can be adjusted to the speaking ability of your class (more on this later). |
| Disadvantages | No comic for this lesson as yet, and the board game Bowel Cow doesn't well accommodate learning to actively communicate. This lesson primarily targets forming the correct syntax and practicing speaking it. |
Preparation
- Use the flashcards to practice the target language.
- It might be best to practice using only the pronoun 'I'. The main point at this stage is to review the progressive tense of the main verb and whilst inserting a past tense adverb before it. As demonstrated in the worksheet, whether to use 'was' or 'were' can get quite confusing.
Worksheet
- Use the grammar box in the worksheet to expand the students understanding of how to build the sentences.
- Tell students to do the writing section of the worksheet.
Game - Bowel Cow
- The purpose of the game is really just to practice forming and speaking the target language. It doesn't incorporate
communication as well, which is unfortunate, so if you think your students can easily handling switching between was and
were while speaking the target language of
this lesson then perhaps pair collect would be a better game.
This game is explained within a lesson on 'hobbies', but it can easily be incorporated into this lesson.
If you don't, then read on... - Make groups of 3, 4 or 5 students sitting around their desks with the board game, playing pieces and dice in between them.
- This game in like Snakes and Ladders but there are no ladders and no snakes, only intestinal worms.
- Very simple, a student roles a dice and counts the spaces along the cows intestine.
- When they land on a segment of intestine, they pick up a card and use the answer form of the target language as specified by the worksheet.
- Another way to do it is to specific the key form of the target language and tell your students they must form the sentences in accordance with the cards. For example, I might write on the blackboard 'I was...'. If the student picks up a swimming card, they must say 'I was swimming'.
- I set a timer for 5 minutes and then change the target sentence, for example 'They were...'.
- If a student lands on the head of an intestinal worm, then they slide down the worm to the position where the tail ends.
- If the students are having no problem then you can introduce a question answer structure into the game. In this case, I would write on the blackboard, for example 'What was he doing?'.
- The student must then choose another person in their group and complete the conversation.
- Keep changing the language periodically until the end of the class or until the students finish by getting to the cow's bum.
- That's it!
Could you pass the cow, please?