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SYSTEMS FOCUS-UNASSESSED 1

LESSON PLAN
PASSIVE VOICE
DENZ GLERN

CONTENT
1. Learner Profile .3
1.1 The course.3
1.2 The Learners....3
1.3 Level of the Learners...3
1.4 Motivation and Group Dynamics...3
1.5 Details of Individual Students.....4
2. Aim.... 5
2.1 Main aims....5
2.2 Subsidiary Aims..5
3. Language Analysis ...5
3.1 Form.5
3.2 Meaning and Use....5
4. Timetable Fit.6
4.1 Previous Learning..6
4.2 Later learning.6
5.Assumed Knowledge.....6
6.Anticipated Problems and Solutions....6
7. Materials....7
8. Commentary..7
9.Procedure9
10.Appendix 112
Appendix 213

1.0 LEARNER PROFILE


1.1 The course
This is a preparatory course at a Turkish university in the city centre of Istanbul. The university
focuses only on Health Sciences like Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Audiology, Health Management
and Physical Therapy. Attendance to the English classes is requisite in order to sit in the final exam
at the end of the academic year before they start studying their degree courses. The prep programme
is on general English. At the beginning of each academic year a proficiency exam is given to the
students and the ones who cannot pass the exam are given a placement test and the classes are
formed as A level ( Elementary), B level ( Pre Intermediate) and C Level (Intermediate).
The semesters are divided into 2 tracks. The tracks last eight weeks and they take a comprehensive
exam based on skills and grammar at the end of each track. Within each track they also take two
quizzes based only on skills. The lessons last 45 minutes and there are 15 minutes breaks. Students
come to school 5 days a week. The classes start at 8:45 and they leave school at 14:15 or 15:15
depending on their weekly schedule as there are usually portfolio classes in the afternoon sessions.
Three teachers work in this classroom. The main course classes that I teach are 14 hours a week for
the pre intermediate class. They also have grammar and writing classes for 6 hours and reading
classes for 3 hours a week. The teachers have to follow a syllabus and a text book according to the
schedule given by the administration. In my main course classes, at the moment, I have to cover 2
units of The New Interchange 2 per week. At the beginning of each track students start an upper
level of the course book.
1.2 The Learners
My class consists of 19 monolingual Turkish students; 15 girls and 4 boys. They all attend the
classes regularly. Their mother tongue is Turkish. The average age is 18 and most of them come
from similar cultural background. As they do not live in an English speaking environment, their
only chance to be exposed to the language is the school if one of their parents or siblings or friends
cannot speak English.
1.3 Level of the learners
At the beginning of the academic year, my students were in elementary level. This is the second
track and they are in pre intermediate level now. Although most of the students don't have problems
about understanding the lessons some of them still need clarification for some topics especially in
grammar. Their grammatical knowledge is apposite to their present level. However, some of the
students still cannot use the language properly while speaking or writing.
1.4 Motivation and Group Dynamics
The students in the class are very much aware of the importance of learning English and from the
first day on, they are motivated and eager to learn. They always try to do some extra curricular
activities like watching films, listening to music in English or do some extra listening at home from
the internet. Most of the students come and ask me for advice to find different ways of improving
themselves. They love to be active in the classroom rather than just to sit and listen to the teacher. It
is easy and enjoyable for them to work in groups because they all like each other and it is fun with
them to work with different groups. Even when sometimes there is a competitive atmosphere in the
class, they try to their best to be useful for others.

1.5 Details of Individual Students


STUDENTS

PROFILE

Zeynep, eyma,
Merve, Beria,
Kbra

They are the most willing students to be active in the classroom. They
Zeynep and Beria love participating in class discussions and they
always have a word to say. Sometimes they dominate the class though.
eyma is also an active participant. However, she is so much afraid of
making mistakes . Whenever she realizes one mistake she says sorry
Merve is the most fluent and accurate speaker in the classroom.
Kbra is another accurate speaker, but she doesn't participate as much as
Zeynep, Beria or Merve.
They prefer to work things out with themselves instead of especially the
grammar being presented to them.

Melek

She is one of the active students in the class, but she is not very fluent
and accurate. While trying to avoid making mistakes, she loses the
fluency. She is also very interested in different forms of the language
which have not been taught yet. She asks questions about them
whenever she comes across with one.
Sena and Yasin
Sena is one of the most hardworking students in the class, but she is not
very active. She is fluent and 70% accurate and she has self confidence,
but she prefers to be quiter. Yasin is a student who sometimes does not
attend the classes. He sometimes prefer to be quiet just like Sena. He
usually tries to show himself by using new words while speaking or
writing. They both like working things out with themselves.
Ildeniz
She is the unique character of the class. She is different from other
students when her personality is concerned. She has so much self
confidence. She tries to speak all the time. She is not accurate or fluent
though. She just speaks bringing whatever she has in her mind together
because of this it is sometimes impossible to guess what she is trying to
mean. Surprisingly, she is good at writing accurately. She is into learning
things by being told.
Cansu, Yamur,
They are the silent group of the class. They are not very eager to be
Betl, Yusuf , Tuba, active. Whenever they are pushed, they participate, but they never do it
Rabia, same, Seren themselves. Yamur, Cansu and Betl love learning English and they
sometimes do their best. From my observations, I sometimes think that
because of more dominant students, they are a bit hesitant to take part.
When they are supposed to find out some language structures
themselves, they enjoy the grammar classes more.
Seren is a student who prefers to be inactive, too. She is the weakest link
of the class. She likes the instructions to be given and rules to be told.
Tuba and Rabia almost never give opinion about anything and they are
a bit reluctant to learn. They enjoy the class when they are asked to find
things out by themselves and may have some words to say then. Among
these three, Yusuf is a more accurate user of the language. However, he is
not very enthusiastic.
Rabianur and Umur They are in between the quiet ones and the active ones. They like
learning English and they have self confidence. They can use the
language quite accurately. They are willing to take part in the activities
when they are in the mood.

2.0 AIM
2.1 Main Aim
By the end of the lesson learners will be able to

identify the difference between the active and passive voice


use the correct form of present simple and past simple passive structures.

2.2 Subsidiary Aim


By the end of the lesson students will have

revised the past participle forms of the verbs

3. LANGUAGE ANALYSIS
3.1 Form

Passive structures are formed simply as the verb to be followed by a past participle form
of the verb. (Third form). The verb to be is changed according to the tense intended to be
used.
While am/are/is are used in present simple passive, in the past simple passive was and
were are used with a past participle verb.

Example: These cars are manufactured in factories in Japan.


The man was taken to the hospital immediately.

When the agent is to be mentioned, it is added to the sentence by using the preposition by.

Example: The bank was robbed by a man with long hair.


Antibiotics were invented by Alexandre Fleming.
3.2 Meaning and Use

The passive voice change the focus in the sentence from the subject to the object and in such
cases, as the agent is not important, obvious or unknown, we do not need to mention it.
The use of the agent in a passive structure is needed when the doer of the action is important.

Example: The photocopier can be used only by the teachers.


Chocolate was first made by the Aztecs.

4. TIMETABLE FIT
4.1 Previous Learning
In previous classes, students came across passive structures in different parts of the lessons. In one
of the units in their course book, they are asked to answer the questions like What is a table made
of?/ What are your shoes made of? while they are learning vocabulary about the materials the
things are made of. In another class, while learning the use of for and to in the sentences
expressing purpose, they formed sentences as given in the examples below.
What are satellites used for? Satellites are used to transmit signals to cell phone.
Some of the students asked a question about the use of a past participle and the present form of the
verb to be. I just told that those were different sentence structures which is called passive and I
added that I would cover them in more details later on.
4.2 Later Learning
After covering all the aspects of the use of present simple and past simple passive, students will be
able to identify the form of this new grammatical structure and they will have the awareness to use
it in proper context at the end of this lesson.
In the following lessons, I will concentrate on the use of passives with different tense forms and
modal verbs which will give the students more chance to use the passives while speaking or
especially writing.
5. ASSUMED KNOWLEDGE
As they have already learnt some of the perfect tenses, the learners are familiar with the past
participle form of the verbs. This means that they wont have much difficulty in forming structures
in passive voice. They also know the difference between a transitive and intransitive verbs as it was
covered in their grammar classes before.
6.0 ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

Problem 1: Some of the students may not be as active as the other ones.
Solution 1: I will prepare activities that all students will be actively participating. (see in
the procedure part).

Problem 2: Students may want to speak Turkish or may expect explanations in Turkish
when they are not sure whether they understand the explanation correctly or not.
Solution 2: Explaining things in a simpler language and giving more examples may solve
this problem.

Problem 3: Students usually have timing problem while doing the activities. They dont
stick to time given to them and sometimes activities takes longer than expected.
Solution 3: They may have given a clear instruction about finishing the activities in the
given time.

Problem 4: Students may get confused about the use of the verb to be and a past
participle form of the verb together especially in present simple passives as they find the use
of a present and a past participle verb together irrelevant.
Solution 4: The problem can be resolved by giving a clear explanation of the formation of
passive structures which are different from the ones they have learnt before.

7. MATERIALS
Whiteboard and Board markers
Handouts of Jumbled Words
Pictures of Inventions and Pieces of Art
8.COMMENTARY
Rationale for the lesson:
I chose to teach passive structures because the students are in pre-intermediate level and in two
weeks they will start their intermediate classes. They will read and listen to upper level text in
which they will come across passive structures more often. In order for them to understand and use
the passive sentences correctly, this is the best time for them to teach it. Although we will only
focus on present simple and past simple passive, they will get used to using them and in the future
when they need to learn the other forms or uses, they will not have difficulty grasping them.
The Procedure:
The reason why I prefer to start the class by asking questions to students is most of them enjoy the
lessons, especially the grammar, when they are also active instead of just sitting and listening to the
teacher. By asking them the questions about active and passive sentences given, I would like them
to focus on trying to discover the form and use themselves. I believe this is one way that the
students learn and use things more efficiently. My role in this stage is to make the students engage
in the learning process rather than presenting the topic myself.
In the presentation phase, I have a precise and clear explanation of the use of the structure as it
should be treated carefully as I mentioned in the introduction part of my background assignment
because passive is a structure that students do not prefer to use while using the language.
My aim in giving a handout full of jumbled words and making them work as a group is trying to
create an encouraging atmosphere. While students are competing with each other, they are much
more willing to participate in the activity and all students are active. It is preferable activity for the
learners who are weaker than the others as they feel safer when working in a group rather than
working individually.
The activity with the pictures in the production part will give students a good chance of producing
their own passive sentences. This part will also be a bit challenging as they have to deal with the
verbs they are going to use while talking about the pictures. This is also good for the visual learners
when they associate the pictures to the verbs they use. Making each student pick one picture and
talk about it is a better way than showing the pictures to the students, so I prefer the former one as
all the students will be active and have a chance to speak.

The lesson will resolve some of the problems one of which is the confusion about the use of the
verb to be with a past participle verb. At the end of the lesson, students will have a better
understanding of using the language structures in different ways with a clear instruction and enough
exercises and examples. They will also be sure of the meaning given to the sentence when it is
changed into passive form which I also mentioned in my background assignment. (Part 2.2)

Time

Stage /Stage Aim

Procedure

Interaction

10:45-10:46
(1 min)
10:46 -10:51
(5mins)

Greetings

The T asks the students how they are.

TS

Warm up
To arise the interest in
the topic

The T writes two active sentence on the


board.
People grow banana in Anamur

T S

Materials

Whiteboard and Board


markers

Then the T asks a question Who grows the S T


banana?
As the Ss answer, the T writes a passive
sentence this time.
Banana is grown in Anamur. and asks the
same question.
After the Ss give the answer the T asks the
next question. Is it important? With the
students answers, the T clarifies the issue by
saying in this second example action is
more important than the subject.
The T asks the students to focus on the
difference of these two sentences in
meaning. The Ss give their opinions.
10:51 -11:11
( 20 minutes)

Presentation 1
To make the students
identify the
differences between
active and passive
verbs.
The students will be
able to identify the use
of passive voice in
present simple and
past simple.

The T explains what type of sentences are


the ones that she wrote on the board.
T: The first sentence is an active sentence
and we know the subject, but in the second
sentence we do not know the subject and it
is not a necessary information for us.
The T writes a few more passive sentences
on the board as examples.
The table is made of wood.
Computers are used for sending emails.
English is spoken all over the world.

TS

Whiteboard and Board


markers

The teacher asks the students to look at the


sentences and tell her how are the sentences
formed.
Then T explains the to be +past participle
rule. Then the T gives examples of passive
sentences formed in past simple and
explains that they are the actions in the past.
The rooms was cleaned yesterday.
The hotel was built here 10 years ago
All the tickets were sold last week.
11:11-11:21
(10 mins)

11:21-11:25
(4 mins.)

Practice 1
To make the students
use the passive forms
correctly by using the
given words.
To revise the past
participle forms of the
verbs
Presentation 2
To make the students
identify the use of
agents by using the
preposition by

The T gives some handouts to the students


in which there are jumbled words after
dividing the class into groups of 3-4
students. The T asks them to write as many
sentences as they can in 5 minutes. Then the
Ss read some examples from the sentences
they have made and the others Ss will try to
find their mistakes
The T shows some pictures of inventions or
pieces of art to the Ss and ask them the
questions
Who invented the telephone?
Who painted Mona Lisa?
After getting the answers the T gives one of
the answers by using a passive sentence and
adding by at the end of the sentence like
Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo Da
Vinci and explains them that as the person
who is doing the action is also important in
this context , we also mention the person by
using by.

10

ST
ST

Whiteboard and board


markers

TS

S S

Jumbled words handout

SS

TS
ST

TS

Pictures of Inventions and


Pieces of Art

11:25-11:35
(10 min)

Production
To make the students
make sentences by
using the passive
structures.

The T make each pick one picture and make


a passive sentence by using the agent with
the preposition by

11

ST

Pictures of Inventions and


Pieces of Art.

APPENDIX 1 Jumbled Words Handout

break

speak

kill

make
of

Everyb
ody

read

yesterda
y

the bike

Germa
n

The
shoes

arrest

everyday

two
days
ago
to the
party

build

In
1976.

Ten
question
s
leather

the old
man

ask

In the
exam
these
newspap
ers
give

steal
the
thieves

the
in
the
bridge Austria window

At night
invite

break

speak

kill

make
of

Everyb
ody

read

yesterda
y

the bike

Germa
n

The
shoes

arrest

everyday

two
days
ago
to the
party

build

In
1976.

Ten
question
s
leather

the old
man

ask

In the
exam
these
newspap
ers
give

steal
the
thieves

the
in
the
bridge Austria window

12

At night
invite

APPENDIX 2 Pictures of Inventions and Pieces of Art.

GRAHAM BELL

THOMAS EDISON

13

14

THE SUN FLOWERS-VAN GOGH

THE UEFA CUP -GALATASARAY/ 2000

15

SULEYMANIYE MOSQUE

16

THE AMERICAN CONTINENT


CHRISTOPHER COLOMBUS

THE SWATCH COMPANY DESIGN


~

17

ISTANBUL SULTAN MEHMET

MONA LISA
~

18

Director: James Cameron

Song: Someone like you


Singer: Adele
~

19

White Uniforms- Doctors

The Eiffel Tower- Gustave Eiffel

20

Director :Peter Jackson

21

Mark Zuckerberg- Developer of Facebook

Song: My Lady Darbanville


Singer: Cat Stevens

Vladimir Kosma
~

22

TV Series-House
Creater :David Shore

Compass -The Chinese

Mustafa Kemal Atatrk-Founder of Turkish Republic


~

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