Lesson Plan Training (Present Continuous Tense)
Level: I Lesson: Present Continuous Tense Lesson Aims:
- – to highlight some of the uses of Present Continuous.
- – to contrast Present Simple and Present Continuous.
- – to give students practice in using Present Continuous Tense.
- – to develop Ss’ speaking competences.
Skills involved: listening, speaking, reading, writing. Aids: blackboard, textbook, work-sheet, images, video sequences.
Warm-up General competence: to interact in spoken communication (complete date, recall the activities done the day before in Present Tense: On Thursdays I wake up at 7 o clock, then I have breakfast.
At 7:30 I go to my job. I work there from 8 to 4 p. m. , etc. ) Specific competence: to correct mistakes. Method: dialogue with the teacher who is going to lead the conversation making them answer at what time they wake up, at what time they go to work, what they do after work, etc…
Procedure: Teacher (T) checks homework first. Students (Ss) read their homework and correct it if necessary. Interaction: T-Ss; Ss-T.
Class management: whole-class activity
Timing: 5′-10′ Orientation
Towards the Objective of the class: In today’s class you are going to begin working with a new tense, which is very important due to it expresses, most of the time, the actions that are taking place at this moment. These actions began some time ago and are still happening. This tense is called: Present Continuous (Present Progressive).
Explain by means of a timeline the position in a time of Present Continuous Tense:
- The main characteristics of this tense are the use of the verb To Be before the main verb and the addition of the ending –ing to them. For example, in Simple Present we say: I listen to music in my bedroom every day. o If the action is taking place right now we can say by means of the Present Continuous:? I am listening to music in my bedroom now.
- The teacher will make a brief comparison between Simple Present and Present Continuous: I watch T. V. in the afternoon. I am watching T. V. at this moment. You wash your car on weekends. You are washing your car now. Oscar eats pupusa in the kitchen. He is eating pupusa in the kitchen. We paint our house for Christmas. It’s Christmas now, so we are painting our house.
- They call their daughter every Saturday. They are calling their daughter right now.
- Repeat after me the following examples of the conjugations of the Present Continuous Tense. (individual repetition for slow learners) I am drinking water. You are drinking coffee. He is reading a book. She is watching T. V. now. We are studying English. They are writing their names.
- Now that you know how to form the Present Continuous, let’s do an exercise named: What’s Happening? where you are going to put into practice this new tense: o Give cards to the students with commands for doing a short sequence of actions written in Simple Present Tense. They will be the only ones who know the content of them. He/ She will act out the actions written on the card. The rest of the students will guess these actions by using the Present Continuous Tense. (The exercise will be done be oral. ) As they do their performance I will write the verbs in their basic forms on the board. e. g.Walk-in circles, then jump for 5 seconds. After that, go to the board and write your name. Finally, return to your chair. ? Walk to the podium, read a book for a while.
After that, open the window and watch the people in the street. ? Walk to the center of the room, open the umbrella. Sing and dance the song “Singing in the Rain”. Organize the chairs of the classroom, clean the classroom, and throw the garbage into the wastebasket. Go to the board and draw a picture of your teacher. ? Walk to the center of the classroom and read the newspaper. There is something funny in it, so smile. Turn to another page, there is something really sad, so cry. The students will watch some pictures and video sequences for them to say what those people are doing. Give some commands to the students (secretly) and they will perform them. The rest will guess by means of this new tense: o run, clean, dance, play soccer, brush your teeth, brush your hair, eat, paint the wall, sleep, smoke.
Written Activity General competence: comprehension of what the written form means in context.
Specific competence: to identify the uses of Present Continuous. Method: completing a work-sheet. Procedure: Ss receive a copy of a work-sheet and they are asked to work individually to enter the uses of Present Continuous in the sentences and then to compare in pairs. Together with the teacher, they go over the answers. (Pay special attention to slow learners) Interaction: T-Ss; Ss-Ss-T. Class management: individual/pair work, whole-class activity. Timing: 5′-10′. Make sentences in Present Continuous according to the pictures on the worksheet.
