PROJECT (SIMPLE PAST TENSE)

Project

Course: 3º ESB (9º)

Shift: Morning

Time table: Wednesday from 9:40 to 12:00.

Numbers of students: 33 students

Level of the student: Elementary. “Elementary students are no longer beginners and are able to communicate in a basic way (…) they can take part in predictable spoken interactions” (Jeremy Harmer, “How to teach English”, chapter 2, page 12. What are the different levels?)
It is the level for the students of this course because they understand and produce simple WH- questions such as: What is your name? How old are you? What time is it? And yes/no questions. They can make affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences using the verbs to be and simple present. They can express their routines, too.

Theme: Stories
Topic: Different kinds of stories

Final task: The student will invent their own stories and make a book in pairs. The purpose will be to encourage students to write and use the vocabulary and the past simple structure as well as have fun and learn new stories.

Goal of achievement: during the whole unit students are expected to develop the ability and knowledge to:

Comprehend and produce new and recycled vocabulary.
Understand written and oral stories.
Understand and produce sentences according to a story format.
Express ideas in the Simple Past.

Linguistic Objectives: during the whole unit of work students will develop the ability and knowledge necessary to:

Express ideas in the Simple Past
Produce affirmative and negative sentences
Answer Wh- questions in order to give information about the past events
Use past connector as: yesterday, ago, last weekend.
Use time connectors as: first, then, next, after that, finally.




Content:

a- Thematic aspect : vocabulary: new (N) and recycled (R)




WH-QUESTION (R)

SIMPLE PASTKinds of stories
When
Fantastic What
Where Amusing Who How
Horror

Tragic



CONNECTORS (n)

After
TIME EXPRESSION Finally
Next
Yesterday(n) VERBS First
Ago (n) Regular verbs (N) Then
Last (r) Irregular verbs (N) After that
To be (past) (N) Later
Infinitive verbs (R) Suddenly
In the end
When
ADJECTIVES (R)
Happy
Angry
Bright
Dark
Dead
Empty
Frightened
Quiet
Strange
Terrified
In love
Rich
Poor
Dangerous



b- Linguistic content:
Grammar:
Simple past (affirmative, negative and interrogative)
Verb to be (past)
Time expressions and connectors
Base verbs (infinitive verbs to form negatives and questions)

Function:
Expressing past ideas and events in a story


Process:

Day 1: Fantastic stories. The teacher will show some pictures of a story about a UFO mystery. The teacher will encourage the students to make predictions (brain storming) and then, the students will listen to the story. The students will put the story in order and make a true or false?. The regular past form of the verbs will be inferred from the text. Finally, the students will write some sentences so that they can describe the pictures of a fantastic story.

Day2: Amusing stories. The teacher will present some characters and objects of a story. The students will match the pictures to the names. The teacher will give them a story in order to be completed. Then, some of them will read the story to compare the different versions. Irregular verbs will be infered from the text.
Finally, they will have to create a fantastic story in groups taking into account characters and setting.

Day 3: Tragic story. The students will see a video clip about Titanic so that they can predict the story. The teacher will give them the Titanic´s story and the students should put the missing parts of the story in the correct place. Negative and interrogative sentences will be infered from the text. Then, the teacher is going to give them an outline. The students have to read and tell the story as if they were passengers of the Titanic.

Day 4: Horror story. The teacher will show them a cover of a book. The students have to predict what it is about. Then, the teacher will give them a text about Dracula. They will read and complete some activities (multiple choices, true or false). Next, the students will listen to the second part of the story and they will put some pictures in order on the board. The teacher will encourage them to tell the second part of the story by looking at the pictures.
In pairs, they will design a cover of a book taking into account a horror story.


Day 5: Test. During the first hour the student will do the test. Next hour, they will invent and write their stories in pairs. The students have to hand the stories in so that the teacher can correct them.

Day 6: Final task. During the first hour the student will put their ideas about their stories and the teacher’s corrections in order. They have to make their books and during the next hour, they are going to deliver a short presentation about their stories.

Evaluation:

The student will be evaluated during all the process. There will be a formal test; however the student will get three marks, one for the final task, one for the formal test and one for daily work and participation.
The evaluation instruments will be: teacher’s observation, tasks’ development, students’ self assessment and feedback form, and students’ production.

motivation

What do you think about MOTIVATION ?

According to Wikipedia: Motivation is the activation or energization of goal-oriented behavior (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation)

I think that motivation is a very important factor that teacher should take into account when they prepare their classes.

You can use the videos from youtube to encourage your students and tell them that if they want they can...!!!

Este video cambio mi vida y se que la tuya tambien

THIS IS NOT IN ENGLISH BUT THE VIDEO IS FANTASTIC TO MAKE PEOPLE THINK

El Circo de la Mariposa (2a parte) subtitulada The Butterfly Circus

THE SECOND PART!! YOU CAN GET THE VIDEO WITHOUT SUBTITLE IN YOUTUBE

El Circo de la Mariposa (1a parte) subtitulada The Butterfly Circus

HELLO!!

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