Give at least 2 teaching ideas (suitable for the Activate stage of a lesson) for each of the tenses below and give examples of sentences that you would expect your students to produce:
To provide teaching ideas for the Activate stage of a lesson, I'll explain the general approach and then give examples for two tenses: present simple and past continuous.
The Activate stage is typically focused on providing opportunities for students to use the language they have learned in a freer and more realistic context. The main aim is to encourage students to communicate effectively and creatively. Here are two teaching ideas for each of the tenses:
1. Present simple tense:
a) Idea 1: Information Gap Activity
In this activity, divide the class into pairs. Give each student a different picture containing elements they can describe using present simple sentences. They will need to ask each other questions to complete the missing information. For example, one student's picture might have a person holding a book, while the other student's picture might have a person sitting on a chair. They can ask questions like "What is the person doing?" or "What does the person have?" to elicit responses using present simple, such as "The person is reading a book" or "The person has a chair."
b) Idea 2: Role-Play Game
Organize a role-play game where students take on different roles in various scenarios, such as ordering food at a restaurant or asking for directions. Provide each student with a role card that specifies their character and a list of suggested sentences they can use to interact with others. Encourage them to use present simple tense to describe their preferences, routines, or general facts about the characters they are playing. For instance, a student might say, "I usually go to the park on weekends" or "I like pizza with extra cheese."
2. Past continuous tense:
a) Idea 1: Picture Dictation
Select a series of pictures that tell a story with different actions happening in the past. Divide the class into pairs, making sure only one student in each pair can see the pictures. The student who can see the pictures then describes the actions happening in each picture, using past continuous tense. Their partner listens and tries to draw what they hear based on the description. Afterward, students can compare their drawings and discuss the events using past continuous, such as "The boy was playing basketball" or "The girl was reading a book."
b) Idea 2: Guessing Game
Create small cards with different sentences written in past continuous tense, such as "She was baking a cake" or "They were dancing in the rain." Distribute the cards among the students, ensuring each student has a different sentence. The students then take turns giving clues for their sentences without directly mentioning them, and the others have to guess what the sentence is using past continuous. For example, a student might say, "I was in the kitchen and using ingredients" for the sentence "She was baking a cake."
These are just a few teaching ideas for the Activate stage of a lesson, focusing on the present simple and past continuous tenses. You can adapt and modify these ideas to fit other tenses and further engage the students in meaningful language production.