Level 1 courses: Module 2.Part B question 8
Level 2 courses: Module 2. Question 12
In this question you are asked to expand the idea of verb pelmanism into a full lesson based around irregular past tenses. The question asks your to choose a theme for the verbs and outline a lesson plan for a group of intermediate adult students studying English for pleasure on a four-week course in the UK. You are to assume the students are from more than one country and speak different languages. This question is not particularly difficult but often students do lose marks here by not providing enough information or perhaps misinterpreting what we are asking for.
The most common question we are asked is ‘What do you mean by the theme?’
Quite simply most of your lessons will have some kind of theme running through them. A theme is a topic or subject around which are based the activities you work on to develop student learning. For example, in Module 1 we used the theme of the Circus in question 11 – the text was based around 2 people who were watching a show.
Popular themes for this lesson plan for irregular verbs include:
- Holidays
- Travelling to the UK
- A day out
However feel free to choose your own theme.
After you have chosen your theme, think of irregular verbs, appropriate for the Intermediate level at which this lesson is pitched, and write some down. Try to get at least 10 verbs in your list that you will have students work with, including some that perhaps will be new to them.
Then set the objective for your lesson. What are you going to try to achieve here? Later on you are also asked how you would measure whether you had been successful in your teaching. Therefore don’t set unrealistic objectives such as ‘speak fluently in the past tense’, but make you objectives more specific and link them to the verbs you have chosen or the particular skills that you wish to develop in this lesson.
Again getting a balance of activities is important here, as well as timing each component part of the plan. If possible provide examples of what you will ask your students to do and also say what you will be doing at each stage. Include the pelmanism game but build in other activities (writing, reading, speaking etc.) too.
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