Lesson Plan

Time: 10:00 P.M. to 10:50 P.M. Subject: English Language Language Focus: Grammar

Date: November 25, 2010 Class: 5th year primary students Topic: Revision of Past Simple Level: A2

Skills to be developed: Speaking, Reading, Writing Material: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Objectives: By the end of the lesson, the students will be able to describe past actions and habits using the simple past tense. After completing the lesson, the students will have developed the ability to express sequences of events in the past. By the completion of the lesson, the students will have developed their speaking, writing and reading skills.

Anticipated Problems: Students may not remember the form of the tense. Confusion of the regular and the irregular verbs.

Robinson Crusoe
Activity 1 Robinson Crusoe: List the thoughts that come to mind when you see the title and the cover of the book. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

This activity functions as a warm-up activity. The teacher gives it before the students read the story so as to stimulate their interest and imagination and practice their speaking skills. Estimated time: 2-3 Activity 2 Observe the pictures carefully. Can you guess what the story is about?

This activity is a pre-reading activity with the purpose of stimulating the students mind and arousing their interest about the story they are going to read. Moreover, they practice their speaking skills. Estimated time: 2-3

Activity 3 In pairs, imagine that you are stranded on a deserted island and your ship is stuck on rocks near land. You can swim out and bring five things back to the island before the ship sinks. What will you bring? In this activity, which is done after reading the story, the teacher divides the students to pairs in order to develop their collaborative skills and asks them to think of items they would want to have with them in the island. In that way the teacher achieves for the students to do some brainstorming and learn new vocabulary in an interesting way. The teacher writes the students list on the blackboard and then follows discussion over the selection of items to enhance their speaking skills. Estimated time: 10 Activity 4 Are these statements about events in the story true or false? True 1.Robinsons parents wanted him to travel at sea. 2.Robinson was rescued by a Portuguese captain. 3.Robinson didnt have a house to live in the island. 4.Robinson found a mark of a mans foot in the beach. 5. Robinson killed the cannibals. 6.Robinson never left the island. 7.He married and had three children. False

This activity is done by the students while reading the story in order for the teacher to check the students comprehension of the story and to develop their ability to scan the text and find the information needed. Estimated time: 5 Activity 5 Complete each sentence with one word from the box. beach food fruit house island jobs people places rain river ship vegetables

(a) I wanted to see the _____ (b) There were no _____ (c) Perhaps there were other interesting _____ (d) I went up the small _____ near my house. (e) I put some _____ very high in the trees. (f) The land was a garden with many fruits and _____ (g) My first home was near the _____ (h) I wanted to see a _____ one day. (i) So I stayed in my first _____. (j) There was _____ every day from August to October. (k) I couldnt always get _____ easily. (I) But I had _____ inside my house. Penguin Readers Factsheets Teachers Notes
http://plrcatalogue.pearson.com/Samples/PRFS_0582426960.pdf

This activity is done after the students have read the story. The objective of this activity is to learn new vocabulary and practice the already existing. Estimated time: 5

Activity 6 Put the verbs in the brackets in the Simple Past. I _____ (see) here abundance of cocoa trees, orange and lemon, and citron trees; but all wild, and very few bearing any fruit, at least not then. However, the green limes that I _____ (gather) _____ (be) not only pleasant to eat, but very wholesome; and I _____

(mix) their juice afterwards with water, which _____ (make) it very wholesome, and very cool and refreshing. I _____ (found) now I _____ (have) business enough to gather and carry home; and I _____ (resolve) lay up a store as well of grapes as limes and lemons, to furnish myself for the wet season, which I _____ (know) _____ (be) approaching. In order to do this, I _____ (gather) a great heap of grapes in one place, a lesser heap in another place, and a great parcel of limes and lemons in another place; and taking a few of each with me, I _____ (travel) homewards; resolving to come again, and bring a bag or sack, or what I could make, to carry the rest home.
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

This activity is a post-reading activity. The teacher after reminding the students of the form of the Simple Past tense and of its basic uses, gives to them this exercise in order to practice their grammar. Estimated time: 5

Activity 7 Suppose you were shipwrecked in an isolated island and you lived there alone for one month until you were rescued by a passing ship. Narrate your story to the captain of the ship. This activity is done after reading the story. The teacher after explaining to the students any unknown words that they may have from the story tells them to write a short essay in order to practice their writing skills, the use of the simple past that they revised, as well as the new vocabulary that they learned. Estimated time: 15

Robinson Crusoe Summary

Robinson Crusoe set sail on a sea voyage, against the wishes of his parents, who wanted him to stay at home and pursue another career. After a dangerous journey that saw his ship wrecked in a storm, his love for the sea remained so strong that he set out to sea again. This journey too ended in disaster as the ship was taken over by pirates and Crusoe became a slave. After two years of slavery, he managed to escape in a boat. Later, he was rescued and befriended by the Captain of a Portuguese ship off the west coast of Africa. The ship was going to Brazil. There, with the help of the captain, Crusoe became a wealthy and successful land owner. However, he was not satisfied with his success and he set sail from Brazil to pick up slaves from Africa but he was shipwrecked in a storm on a deserted island. His companions all died, except himself, and three animals that survived the shipwreck, the captain's dog and two cats. After he overcame his despair, he fetched arms, tools and other supplies from the ship before it broke apart and sank. He built a house for himself near the top of a hill and surrounded it with a strong wall for protection against animals and intruders. He kept a calendar by making marks in a wooden cross built by himself, hunted, grew corn and rice, dried grapes to make raisins for the winter months, learned to make pottery, using tools created from stone and wood, raised goats, and adopted a small parrot. Years later, he found the mark of a mans foot on the beach and he was both happy and afraid. Then, one day, he saw a boat at sea, and later, he found the bones of a man on the beach. He realised the island had been visited by cannibals! Some years later, the cannibals returned and Crusoe helped one of their prisoners to escape and befriended him. He named him Friday after the day of the week he appeared. He taught him to use his tools, his guns and to speak English. Friday told Crusoe about his homeland and that there were white men living there. They planned to visit Fridays country. When the cannibals came to the island again, Friday and Crusoe rescued two of their prisoners, a Spaniard and Fridays father. A plan was devised wherein the Spaniard would return with Friday's father to the mainland and bring back the others, build a ship and sail to a Spanish port. But before the two men returned, an English ship appeared which was under the command of mutineers and Crusoe and Friday helped the lawful captain to regain command. Five of the mutineers were left behind; Crusoe sailed from the island

and finally reached England thirty five years after he first left home. There he learned that he was very rich from his land in Brazil but his parents were dead. He helped the remaining members of his family and later married and lived in London with his wife and three children. When his wife died, Crusoe wanted to go back to sea again. He eventually returned to his old island, where he found that the mutineers and the original sixteen white men had become a complete colony, with men and women from Spanish America. He even thought about living on the island some day. Wikipedia (modified to match the students level)

The teacher gives to the students the summary of the story. After the students read it by themselves, follow their questions over unknown words and phrases. Estimated time: 510