TP 3: Perfect Tenses
Upper-Intermediate level
Materials
Main Aims
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To provide practice of past/present/future perfect in the context of unusual skills/achievements
Subsidiary Aims
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To provide writing and speaking practice
Procedure (40-63 minutes)
T will have students play the "Never Have I Ever" game. T will write the example on the WB: "Never have I ever been to Istanbul" and explain that students who have never been to Istanbul will go to one side of the room, and students who have been to Istanbul will go to another side of the room. Ask ICQs about which side to go to. In this example, they will all go to one side of the room. Students will stand and the T will make another statement: "Never have I ever fallen asleep in class." T will ask a student to take her place, and a student will take turns making statements, having the class divide into two sides, and choosing another student to take their place.
T will provide instructions for exercise 1: fill in the blanks with the correct form of "to have," and match a statement from column A with a statement from column B. Students will work individually, then check answers in pairs. ICQs about what will be in the blanks: "you will fill in the blanks with the correct form of which verb?" T will monitor to see if students have difficulty with any answers in particular, and may ask students to write particular answers on the board to discuss.
T will instruct students to complete exercise 2 (will be on the back of exercise 1) with answers that are true for them. Ss will work individually, then share their answers in pairs. T will monitor during the activity to check for common mistakes, and will ask pair groups to share any interesting answers. T will ask CCQs about some sentences to check if students understand which tense is being used (when do these actions take place? in the past, present, or future?) If mistakes are still being made in regard to the usage of "to have" or the different tenses, T may need to put model sentences on the board and use drilling/finger technique to demonstrate the meaning/form/phonology of the perfect tenses. The difference between present perfect and past simple may need to be explained again/examples provided to distinguish between the time specificity.
T will split the class into groups of three and instruct them to fill out a timeline (draw a timeline on the board). One student will write something in the future, one will write an event in the past, one will write an event in the present/past (mark these times on the WB timeline). T will ask ICQs ("How many events on the timeline will be in the past?" "How many in the future?" "How many in the present?" "How many sentences will you write?"). Students will then (in groups) write three sentences about the relationship between these three events. T will ask each group to share one sentence they wrote with the WC, and ask CCQs ("did the event take place in the past/present/future?") to check WC understanding.
T will break the class into pairs and instruct them to ask their partner the questions found in exercise 4 (on the other side of the paper with exercise 3). T will ask ICQs ("will you write just yes or no?" "will you write down your own answers?"). Students will write down their partner's answers using complete sentences with the perfect tense. T will monitor for common mistakes made by Ss. After Ss complete the activity, T will ask groups to share interesting answers and focus on error correction if necessary.
T will instruct students to stay in their pairs and have each person imagine they are a famous person; the pairs will ask each other questions (using the perfect tense) to determine who their partner is thinking of. T will read the example. If time available and students are comfortable with the form of the perfect tense, T can mention how the "have" is dropped in informal conversation when asking questions. T will monitor during the activity to make sure students stay on task. T may ask particularly successful pairs to demonstrate for the class and/or share some of the questions they asked to determine the celebrity their partner was thinking of.