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
Warm up /
Review
(15 minutes)
Lower the
affective filter of
the students to
ensure optimal
learning ability.
PROCEDURE - TEACHER
Activity – The Sentence Game
Divide the class into groups of three or four
students. Give each group a sheet of paper with 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
the theme being ‘Items found at home’, they can
think of.
3, 4 & 5 letter words are worth 1 point and 6 or
more letter words are worth 2 points.
PROCEDURE – STUDENT
T/S RATIO
Complete the set activities.
10/90
Be an active participant in the group.
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.
Introduction
(5 minutes)
Establish content
for the day’s
learning.
Write lesson objective on the board including the
day’s topic, verb tense simple past. Goal is for
students to be able to discuss their past activities,
with a focus on the weekend.
Students will primarily be reading and listening to
the plan for the day, but they may ask questions as
we go along.
90/10
Presentation
(25 minutes)
To teach the
learning
objective. For
today’s lesson
this is the verb
tense simple past.
Open lesson by re-affirming what a verb is from
previous lessons. Elicit examples from students.
Once certain students understand, move on to
asking students what they did in the past, such as:
What did you do at lunchtime yesterday?
Include student’s
responses.
Students will be responding to the questions asked.
What did you do on the weekend?
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.
Past
Present
Future
----------------------------------
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.
40/60
Students will record notes and timeline in their
workbooks.
Students will be encouraged to ask questions on
anything they do not understand, so that this item
may be discussed in more depth.
I ate breakfast this morning.
Describe when
and how this
language is used.
Negative sentences:
I did not sit at the start of the lesson.
Provide examples
using affirmative,
negative and
questioning
structure.
Question sentences:
Did you exercise last week?
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
(45 minutes)
Provide activities
for practice to
build skills in
communication
and fluency.
The dialogue
activity
emphasises
communication
skills, whilst also
encouraging
fluency.
Provide feedback
as necessary.
Activity 1 – Dialogue
This is a dialogue of two people discussing their
weekends.
Hand out the following dialogue to students, and
write it on the board.
Students will work as pairs.
Mick: Hello, how are you?
Fiona: I am good thank you. How was your
weekend?
Mick: My weekend was great! How was yours?
Fiona: Mine was not all that fun. What did you do?
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!
After reading this as a class several times to ensure
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
50/50
Once they finish, they must switch roles.
weekend? What are the regular verbs in this
dialogue? Are there any irregular verbs? Etc.
The Interview
Activity has a
major emphasis
on building
fluency and
understanding, as
well as promoting
the growth of
communication
skills.
Activity 2 - Interview:
Assign students into pairs for this activity. The
objective of this activity is for students to find out
about their classmates past.
Students will be using the knowledge gained from
both previous and today’s classes.
Students will continue pair work.
Instructions:
I want you to tell each other some of the activities
and events that occurred in your past. They can be
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
students.
Continue this routine until all pairs have had an
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
(15 minutes)
learning done in
the lesson has
been retained.
Time to provide
feedback to
students on
progress, etc.
verb, and then give the past tense version of the
verb (e.g. walk = walked). Then they must give a
sentence containing the past tense version (e.g. I
walked to class today).
classes and from today’s class to compile the list,
and construct past tense sentences.
As we go around the room, I will write the list on
the board. We will continue this activity for 10
minutes, or until the students run out of words.
Whole class activity, but brainstorming is individual.
They will copy the list from the board.
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
(10 minutes)
Assign homework
to consolidate the
student learning.
Task is to write a list of verbs (10 regular, 5
irregular) and then use each in a sentence, using
correct grammar and syntax.
Bring to next lesson.
See you all later, and have a great day/evening.
Students will record what is expected of them for
the homework activity and make note of the
expected due date.
They may ask questions regarding anything they
don’t fully understand.
10/90