Mike Ray !

2015

Present Perfect (for experiences) for Pre-Intermediate 50 mins

Ive chosen to initially introduce this tense with the context of life experiences (recycling
travel/vacation vocabulary) because it is a concrete context, which is less confusing for the
students. A difficult part of the usage is distinguishing between simple past and present
perfect for finished or unfinished time, which I would leave until further in the curriculum
once they have mastered the grammar form a little more. Many students will have studied
travel in previous courses, so hopefully some of the vocabulary would be familiar.
Teaching aims:
Introducing the present perfect tense. By the end of the class students will have raised
awareness about using present perfect tense for experiences, although may still have
some difficulty with differentiating its other usages which it would be inappropriate to
introduce together. They will have encountered the positive, negative and question
forms. Students will have used the basic grammar structure in the games and
encountered some irregular past participles if time/ability allows. Supporting goals include
recycling travel vocabulary, speaking practice to develop fluency (carousel).
PROCEDURE:
Warmer (5-7 minutes)
Guess these places (8 photos on the board of different places in Japan and abroad
where you can speak English) with a partner (if students are slow, use a timer to increase
activity). (Interpersonal, visual, raising curiosity and transitioning into class mode.) (S-S)
Context (2 minutes)
Ask the students if they have ever been to any of those places on the board (this helps
me test the water with the grammar point before explicitly outlining it). (T-S)
Reading exercise (10-15 minutes) (S)
Introduce a reading exercise to further cement the context (introducing the pictures first). I
would choose a reading about travel experiences, if of a celebrity that is popular with
teens, then so much the better. Alternatively as in this lesson something about the teacher
as this raises curiosity and provides a model for using English abroad. Mikes Travel
Log (teacher created content). This activity also gives the intrapersonal learners an
activity to raise confidence when a communicative class is often interpersonal. It might
also help to build vocabulary for the freer activity later and provides a reference point to
elicit the teaching point next.
1) Gist task for global understanding and skimming
timed questions: How many places did Mike travel to? What are they?
feedback to board. (S-T)
2) Detailed comprehension questions for specific information. (S)
3) Expansion question: Which country would you like to go to of the three? (T-Ss)
Grammar Focus (5 minutes) (T-Ss)
Elicit the teaching point from the text and go over the meaning, form and pronunciation.
Make sure to have boarded a formula for the grammar form. I/he/she etc. have/has + verb
3 (point out V3 is usually ___ed but that there are some exceptions). Elicit the positive,
negative, and question form, with the answers yes I have and no I havent.

Mike Ray !

2015

Underline the target grammar in the reading. (S) (Maybe at this point a student will ask
about some of the irregular verbs. If so talk about that, else leave it till later.)
Controlled practice (5-10 minutes) (T-Ss/Ss-Ss)
Question Line - An initially receptive class game whereby the teacher asks a question
and the students move to the left or right of the classroom to indicate their answers (yes I
have/ no I havent on each side of the board as a reference point). Start with the countries/
places on the board - Have you been to England? and see how they get on. If they are
doing well, some of the students can swap in to be the teacher, making it a productive
practice. If they need more support, get some ideas on the board to help.
Freer Practice (10-15 minutes) (Ss-Ss)
Question Carousel - Tell students to ask each other 5 questions about their travel
experiences. Make sure they have a model of some ideas either on the board, or orally or
both (depending how they are responding). They can switch partners in concentric circles
to rehearse their answers again and again, which will boost confidence and consolidate
learning. I would monitor at this point for major errors, but save most for a delayed error
correction slot.
Error correction slot (T-Ss Ss-T) - Put on the board some sentences for students to
correct as a class highlighting some important errors e.g. I have ever been to (I have been
to ____. Have you ever been to _____?).
Irregular verb 3 column sort (5-10 minutes) (Ss-Ss)
If the students look tired from talking a lot, then I would do an irregular verb sort as a
break from speaking whereby on slips of paper on their desk in groups of 3 or so students
can sort verbs with irregular endings into columns of eat/ate/eaten for example. When they
are done, encourage them to take a photo of the completed list on their phones (writing it
down will waste speaking time now).
Extension (10-20 minutes) (Ss-Ss)
At this point in the lesson, depending how well they are doing, I would either repeat the
carousel activity, feeding them with new ideas and doing language upgrading and error
correction, broadening the scope to not just travel, but other kinds of experiences, or if
they are a bit low energy, then we can play the two truths one lie game where they guess
the lie from three statements ( I have eaten crocodile, I have been to Australia, I have
hated wasabi all my life, for example). Then they can continue playing the game between
themselves in groups.
Closing (Ss-Ss)
For the last 5 minutes, to end on a high before going home, we can do vocabulary hotseating in two teams (one having their back to the white board) to recycle any new
vocabulary from the lesson and raise energy levels for the end of class.
Homework:
Write down 10 questions you would like to ask to your favourite celebrity, if you were
allowed to interview him/her. (This homework can also act as an extra class activity if they
burn through the activities faster than expected, as some classes do.)

Mike Ray !

2015

Additional:
The topic, being about travel and showing the teachers real travel experiences, shows
some use for English outside of the classroom. This helps to build real world relevance to
using English, which may be motivating for the students.
The teacher will have the homework to check as evidence of how successfully each of the
students has absorbed the grammar point and to what degree of success they can use it
on there own.
There are a number of follow up activities for this including writing the celebrity interview
into a magazine piece or group projects, or designing a class survey about travelling
which they could then do and write up for homework. If there is a lot of time and resources,
a podcast in which the celebrity is interviewed could also be an option.