Yesterday

In this lesson, learners practise asking and answering 'wh' questions in the past tense. They play a speaking game to find out what their partner did yesterday, do a mingling activity to discover what a boy, Danny, did yesterday, and practise interrupting to ask questions. The activities give the learners practice in speaking with various partners using the past simple. This will help them gain automaticity, fluency and confidence in speaking. They'll also revise vocabulary to talk about daily activities.

For more activities to practise the past simple, please see here: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/teaching-resources/teaching-secondary/activities/pre-intermediate-a2/pronunciation-past-simple and here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/teaching-resources/teaching-secondary/activities/pre-intermediate-a2/when-did-you-last  

Lesson outcomes

All learners will:

• have conversations about a day in the past
• practise asking and answering questions in the past simple
• practise interrupting politely
• revise vocabulary to talk about daily activities.

Materials

• Lesson plan
• Student worksheets A and B
• Text to cut up
• Presentation
• Scissors

Procedure

Lead-in – Miming game (5 minutes)

• This activity helps learners revise verbs for daily routines and introduces them to the topic of talking about their day.
• Play a miming game with learners. You can show Slide 2 or explain the game verbally.
• Divide the class into two teams. Set a time limit of one minute. Tell Team A it is their turn first.
• Mime a typical daily activity (e.g. wake up, eat breakfast, have a shower, go to school, read a book, make dinner, tidy up, play computer games, go to bed) and ask the team to call out the answer. When they get the correct answer, move on to the next mime. Count the points after one minute.
• Repeat with Team B. The team with the most points wins.

Paired practice 1 – Jumbled questions (10 minutes)

• This activity helps learners revise the order of past simple questions.
• Show Slide 3 or write these jumbled-up questions on the board:

– what / you / have / yesterday / did / for / breakfast?  (What did you have for breakfast yesterday?)

– did / eat / you / yesterday / lunch / where? (Where did you eat lunch yesterday?) 

– to / time / last night / did / go / you / what / bed? (What time did you go to bed last night?)

• Ask learners to write down the correct order. Show Slide 4 or read out the answers with the class.
• As an extension, if time, elicit more past simple questions.

Paired practice 2 – Guess the question (15 minutes)

• This activity helps learners produce past simple questions in a paired speaking activity.
• Demonstrate the game with the learners. Tell them your answer (only the answer) to the question: What time did you have a shower yesterday? Tell the class to guess the question. They call out until they get the correct answer. Now tell learners they will play this game with a partner.
• Put learners into pairs: A and B. Give learner As Student worksheet A and give learner Bs Student worksheet B. Tell them that the first task of each worksheet is different, and not to show it to each other. Learners read their five questions and write their answers. Then they fold their paper so that their partner cannot see the questions.
• Note: If teaching the class with the presentation but without printing (or teaching online using the presentation), show Slide 5. Tell learner Bs to close their eyes. Show learners As Slide 6 with the questions and tell them to write down their answers on a piece of paper. Then, move to Slide 7 and Bs open their eyes. Show Slide 8 with learner Bs questions, as learner As now close their eyes while learner Bs write their answers.
• Show Slide 9 or explain that learners A and B must work together to say only their answers, and their partner will guess the questions. Monitor learners and encourage them to help each other with guesses.

Mingling practice – Danny's day (15 minutes)

• This activity helps learners produce past simple questions in a group speaking activity.
• Before class, cut up the 'Danny's day text' into 12 – every learner needs one sentence each. (If you have more than 12 learners, you will need to cut up more copies.)
• Show Slide 10 or tell learners to look at the Danny's day task on the student worksheet.
• Share the strips out between the learners. Tell learners that to complete the sentences they must mingle with and talk to their classmates. To do that, they must ask questions.
• Learners all stand up and mingle, asking and answering questions to complete the sentences about Danny's day.
• Monitor learners to make sure they are formulating the past tense questions correctly.
• Stop the activity after most of the class have all the answers. Show answers on Slide 11 or read out the answers.
• If time, as an extension, ask the class what they have in common with Danny.

Conversation task – Interrupting politely (10 minutes)

• This activity practises past simple questions while also practising interrupting politely.
• Ask learners if they know any ways to interrupt politely. Show the interrupting phrases on Slide 12 or write up these phrases on the board: Excuse me, but ... / Sorry (name), but … / Can I ask a question? / Just one thing …  Drill these with the whole class (you speak, they repeat) so that they feel comfortable with saying the phrases. Make sure learners have a 'smiley' intonation but a loud enough voice to interrupt.
• Demonstrate the interrupting game with the whole class. Explain that you are going to tell them what you did yesterday. Your objective is to arrive at bedtime. The objective of your opponent (the class) is to stop you from arriving at bedtime by interrupting you politely to ask questions (using past tenses). 

• Show Slide 13 or read out the example conversation below with a learner. 

  Teacher: Yesterday I had breakfast and—

  Learner: Excuse me, but what did you have for breakfast? 

  Teacher: Actually, I had cereal, then—

  Learner: Can I ask a question? Did you have sugar on your cereal?

  Teacher: Yes, I did. After that—

  Learner: Just one thing, where did you eat your cereal?

• Stop after two minutes and comment on how far into yesterday you were able to describe (probably not far!).
• Put learners into groups of four to play the game. Learners take turns to describe what they did yesterday. The other learners interrupt politely to ask questions. Keep time and tell learners when to start and stop. The winner in each group is the learner who gets to the latest time yesterday.

Reflection (5 minutes)

• Ask learners to talk with their groups and answer the following questions: Which activity did you enjoy most today? Why? What have you improved today? (Slide 14)

Homework task

• As an optional homework task, learners can write a conversation between two friends. Show Slide 15 or write up the start of the conversation on the board:

A: I had a really interesting day yesterday.

B: You did? Tell me what happened!

A: I ...

• Tell learners that in the conversation the friend interrupts and asks questions, and learners must use the past simple. This can be real life or imaginary. Encourage learners to be creative!