Notes on teaching this form

You need to plan a 50 minute PPP lesson to introduce and practise the past continuous to describe interrupted
actions in the past to a class of 14-16 year old students.

Lesson content: At this age students are normally taught formal grammar, so you should look at MFP with them
in the presentation stage. Include concept checking.

However, you should not forget that they are still young learners so the context and activities you use should be
selected to appeal to children of this age. You should include a board plan for the presentation stage and use at
least one more of the teaching aids discussed in Unit 9.
Use a timeline to help explain meaning, and concept check questions (CCQs) to check student understanding.

You can use or adapt practice activities you have found on the Internet or in teachers' resource books,
providing they fit in well with your lesson, but please provide a reference, even if you have adapted the
material.

Do not use whole lesson plans or presentations you have found on the Internet. The presentation and the
lesson plan and must be your own work.

Aims of this lesson: To introduce the past continuous

Function – to describe interrupted actions (ONLY look at this function)
To contrast past continuous and past simple in sentences such as 'We were eating dinner when John came
round.'
To provide controlled and freer practice of past continuous and past simple in this function.
Assumed knowledge: Students would already know present simple, present continuous and past simple for
common verbs, including commonly used irregular verbs.
They would be familiar with grammatical terminology such as the names of the tenses, auxiliary verb, negative
form, etc.
Language grading: The students are quite low level, so you need to be very careful about the language you use.
Include a separate document entitled 'Teacher language,' showing the actual words you would use when
eliciting the target language in the presentation and the instructions you would give for one activity.

Past continuous: Revise this form (for yourself), see Unit 4. You will find it useful to do some further research
online as we have not covered the functions of this tense in the unit. See, for example
The English Page http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/pastcontinuous.html
English Tenses.com http://www.englishtenses.com/tenses/past_continuous
Learn English The British Council https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/verbs/past-
tense/past-continuous

This function of the past continuous (describing interrupted actions in the past) is usually used to introduce
students to this tense. It shows the contrast between the new tense and the past simple, which students
already know, so you can relate the target language to something they are already familiar with.

Examples are:
I was having a shower when the phone rang.
We were walking to the shop when it began to rain.
Until he hit his boss, he was doing very well in his new job.
Remember to include MFP
Meaning – what does the use of this form convey about the time and duration of the action? Devise concept
questions and a time line to help you convey the meaning and check students' understanding.
Form – what is the form (structure)?
Pronunciation – How is it pronounced? Which words are stressed and where are the weak forms? What
contractions are normally used (e.g. I'm, haven't)?
In the presentation stage avoid examples where the main verb begins with same sound as the final sound in the
auxiliary e.g. 'I was sitting.' This sounds the same, or almost the same, as 'I were sitting.'

Think carefully about an appropriate context in which to present the new language.
That means think of a situation in which the target form would naturally be used and use this as a way of
introducing the language. For example, you might tell a personal anecdote using examples like those above.
Choose a context that would be appropriate and interesting for this age group.
Begin the lesson with the context you have chosen. Think about how you could elicit the target language
from the students.
Choose practice activities that would be appropriate and interesting for this age group.

Your lesson should have five main stages. Make sure you have a warmer and a plenary as well as the three PPP
stages.