T divides the students into two or three groups depending on the number of students. Then he hands each group three cut-up jumbled words and they need to arrange the letters to know the topic of the lesson. This will create attention to the topic accordingly.Once they have worked out the topic, T can display a photo of ''three men robbing a bank'' via the overhead projector and clarifies that the robbery took place last week. This will ease setting the context of using past simple and continous through speaking and writing activities as the teacher will ask them Feedback: T elicits students' ideas and enable some personalisation by letting them give names to the robbers. also a few Checking-questions could be used in the next stage to activate their background about expressing past events

Teacher starts to explain the task by showing a photo of ''Three masked men robbing a bank''.T inovlves the students more in the task, by asking them a few questions to best analyse the scene. For example, Are they good people? "who are they?, How many robbers were there? Where was the robbery?. These could work as Concept-Checking questions and draw students' attention that they are referring to a story that took place in the past e.g. last week. Students are instructed to imagine that they are journalists and need to write a short story about this robbery in a newspaper article. By the time students start writing, t will have pinned a list of basic verbs in the past simple tense (regualr and irregualr) on the wall to help them make up ideas in the story. Questions on the whiteboard to help students Were they wearing Masks? Were they armed? How many robbers were there? What did the workers and customers do? Was anybody injured? What did the robbers take? How did they get away? Who called the police? When did the police arrive? Have the robbers been caught yet?

T divides the class into two or three groups depending on their number of students. Each group is handed a blank sheet which starts only with a sentence that is the beginning of the article they need to develop its events. they need to write beginning, actions and finally the ending of the crime. By finding answering to the questions on the board, they are likely to write complete story.

Before the task has been completed, the students are invited to the board and try to draw any actions that they think they were happening outiside the bank--while the robbers were robbing the bank. Teacher can pave the way for introducing the past continous tense by showing two photos of other actions that were happening in the street and then students need to draw any actions on the board to make a bigger scene. e.g. A man walking his dog. Students prepare a report to present the results of their task to their classmates by developing the story they have written through integrating some longer actions ''past continuous'' which they are interrupted by ''past simple actions'' during the robbery. In this stage, they are more likely to ask for assistance with language, so the teacher should be available to them while he is monitoring around.

In this feedback stage, T encourages each group to represent their story in front of the class (they may delegate one student to represent). The teacher has a good opportunity to elicit feedback and develop the accuracy of the Target Language by taking notes on their story events and correct using past simple and continuous tense in their writing on the board. a few of the following examples are to be covered if needed: I was watching TV when she called. When the phone rang, she was writing a letter. While we were having the picnic, it started to rain. What were you doing when the earthquake started? I was listening to my iPod, so I didn't hear the fire alarm. You were not listening to me when I told you to turn the oven off. While John was sleeping last night, someone stole his car. Sammy was waiting for us when we got off the plane. While I was writing the email, the computer suddenly went off.

Past simple MEANING: We use the Simple Past to express the idea that an action started and finished at a specific time in the past. Sometimes. FORM [VERB+ed] or irregular verbs Examples: I saw a movie yesterday. I didn't see a play yesterday. Last year, I traveled to Japan. Past Continuous MEANING: We often use the to indicate that a longer action in the past was interrupted. The interruption is usually a shorter action in the Simple Past. This can be a real interruption or just an interruption in time. [was/were + present participle] Examples: You were studying when she called. Were you studying when she called? You were not studying when she called. Complete List of Past Continuous Forms USING Interrupted Action in the Past Examples: I was walking home, when I saw three masked men run out of the bank I was watching TV when she called. When the phone rang, she was writing a letter.

In this final stage, Teacher focuses on students fluency through a semi-controlled practice. As a speaking activity, students are invited to play interactive ESL game 'alibi' which is often suggested for rehearsing past continuous and past simple, yet in my experience students often revert to the past simple. However, it’s still an often hilarious game which encourages the student to think inventively while both asking and answering questions to solve certain crime that happened in the past. (see teacher's notes) When to play