Lesson Plan: Apartment Block

Lesson Level: Junior 1 and 2 (Grades 7 and 8) Duration: 45 Minutes

Lesson Title: The Apartment Block

Grammar and Vocabulary

Present continuous

Vocabulary of various activities

Lesson Objectives

To understand and use the present continuous.

Materials Required

Drawings of 15 people/groups engaged in different activities plus a drawing of a front door.. Drawings should all be the same size big enough to fill the height of classroom board with four rows of four)

Drawings can be of stick figures as long as the activity is clear.¹

Magnets or other method of attaching pictures to board.

Two sponge balls

Answer key. (A list of room numbers and what is happening in them.)

An easy, prepared short dialogue using present continuous forms.

e.g.

John: Hello Billy, what are you doing?

Billy: I'm reading a book.

John: Are you enjoying it?

Billy: Not really, we are reading it at school. This is like doing homework.

John: Where is your mother?

Billy: She is shopping. Today is Saturday, she always goes shopping on a Saturday.

John. Oh. Where is your father.

Billy: he's working. He's always working.

John: What about your sister?

Billy: She's playing out in the garden.

John: Well, I'm going to the park now. Are you coming.

Billy: Yes. All right. I'll do my homework later.

Preparation

Prepare materials.

Place “door” picture on the board in a position where it can be bottom left in your 4x4 apartment block.

Write the dialogue on the board (or give page reference if using a dialogue from a book.)

Procedure

1

Choose two stronger students to read the dialogue.

Go through the dialogue with the class identifying the uses of the present perfect. (5 Minutes)

Write a grammar table at the side of the board.

I am going We are going

You are going You are going

He is going They are going

She is going

It is going

(2 Minutes)

2

Tell students to close all books and put away all pens and pencils. They must not write anything.

Put room 1 to the right of the door..

Toss the ball to a student and ask what is happening in that room.

Choose a new student if first student can't answer.

Repeat on bottom row with rooms 2 and 3, then on other rows with 4,5,6,7 and 8,9,10,11 and 12,13,14,15

(10 Minutes)

3

Briefly (no more than two examples of each) practice question forms.

“What is happening in room...”

“Where is someone...”

(2 Minutes)

4

Put students into groups of 4-6.

Take down all the pictures except the door.

Ask groups questions in turn using the forms practiced. If group answers correctly put the corresponding picture on the board. If not ask next group the same question.

Repeat until all pictures are back on the board.

(16 Minutes)

5

Use double ball toss between groups. A student in one group must ask a student in the other group a question as practiced. The student in the other group musty answer and then ask a different question to the first student.

(10 Minutes)

6

Strong classes may complete this lesson very quickly.

A good extension activity is to choose a student to come to the board. The student draws a picture of someone doing something and the class must guess what it is.

The person who guesses becomes the next artist.

Remove all pictures first.

Notes

1. I Use the following pictures

1. I use the following set of pictures.