LESSON PLAN

School: Scoala Gimnaziala “Mihai Eminescu” Roman- Neamt

Name: Gradinariu Crenguta
Form: VI
No. of expected Ss: 24
Date/ Lesson start time: 9th March 2020
Length of lesson: 50 minutes
Textbook: Snapshot Elementary
Extra materials: worksheets
Unit 9: What was it doing?
Lesson: Past Simple vs. Past Continuous

Target language items: Vocabulary: Rooms and parts of the house

Advantages and disadvantages of keeping
animals in captivity
Structures: While they were walking back from the
cinema, they saw a parrot.
They were walking back from the cinema when they saw a
parrot.
Language in use: Describing past events

Main lesson aims:

 to understand and demonstrate good use of the Past Continuous tense
 to ask and answer questions about pictures
 to use the conversation and their imagination to talk about past events
 to develop the skills of reading, writing and speaking
 to communicate through complex sentences

Personal goals:
In this lesson I’m going to bring forward typical situations that request the use of
Past Continuous tense like describing past events in progress that were interrupted by
sudden and unexpected actions. I plan to use visual aids so that Ss can visualize better the
actions happening.

Timetable fit:
Pupils have practised talking about past events for the past lessons. They know
they use Past Continuous for an action that was in progress at a certain moment in the
past and Past Simple for the short action that interrupts the longer one.

Assumptions: T assumes the Ss use correct forms of Past Simple (regular and irregular)

Predicted problems: Ss may have difficulties when making questions and negatives in
both Past simple and Past continuous.
Possible mistakes: Did she went?, She didn’t went., Was she come on Sunday?
Was he go?, You wasn’t go, What did you doing?

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Materials used: textbook, handouts, pictures

I. Warming-up activity
Aims:
 to tune Ss in
 to revise Past Simple and Past Continuous structures

Procedure Time Interaction

Routine checking of the presence. 5’ T<S
Check homework : Homework is checked with
the whole class S<T

II. Lead in
Aims:
 to lead into the theme of the lesson
 to check Ss’ ability of describing past events

Procedure Time Interaction

Activity 1 10’
Pre-reading activity: Picture exploitation
T asks students to look at the picture in the SB. T<S
Then elicits relevant vocabulary by asking
questions:
Does any of these people look familiar to you? S<T
Have you heard of Bruce Willis?
What about Mel Gibson?Brad Pitt/ Julia
Roberts/ Sandra Bullock/ Madonna/Kate
Winslet/ Nicole Kidman/ Tom Cruise?
Now let’s describe the pictures. What are they
doing?
Where are they?
T checks if Ss know the rooms and parts of the T<S
house.
(page 56, ex. 8)

III. Speaking and writing

Aims:
 to use the context to decide which actions were in progress
 to give correct answers to questions
 to develop their speaking skills
 to speak about familiar topics

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Procedure Time Interaction
Activity 1
T presents the background of the next ‘story’ 10’
and explains the task of the next exercise:
A group of film stars were spending the weekend T<S
in a Hollywood mansion. At 7 p.m. on Saturday
they heard a scream in the garden.
Task1
Say where the film stars at 7p.m.
Where were Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson?
Where were Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts?, etc.
(page 56, ex. 9a) S<T

Task 2
T uses check questions to make sure Ss have
understood the task they are requested: follow
the cues and use the past continuous tense. Ss
take turns to ask and answer about the film stars.

What were Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson doing?

They were playing cards.
T<S
Who was Brad Pitt sitting next to? S<T
He was sitting next to Julia Roberts.
(page 56, ex. 9b)
Activity 2
T continues practising Past Continuous asking
Ss to speak about familiar topics, like things
they were doing at certain times. T<S
What were you doing at these times?
yesterday at:
a.m. 7.30 8.15 10.00
p.m. 1.30 7.00 10.00

At half past seven yesterday morning I

was watching...
S<T

IV. Reading
Aims:
 to check Ss’ understanding of new words (items of electrical equipment)
 to practise reading in the target language
 to give students the opportunity to speak about their own life experiences
( incidents)

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Procedure Time Interaction
Activity 1 10
Pre-reading activity
T introduces the topic of pets and asks students
questions like: T<S
Why do you think people keep dogs as pets?
Have you got any animals at home?
Which animal would you like to have as a pet? S<T
Why?

Activity 2
Reading
T asks Ss to read the text. Then T initiates a
discussion about the meaning of words and
phrases from the text A lucky escape at page 58.
(to crawl, narrow ledge, to fear the worst, to
repay). After having checked the understanding
of the text, T asks students comprehension
questions: T<S
Why was the dog a problem? S<T
What did Leif see when he walked into the
bedroom?
How did the dog rescue the girl?
Who had the ‘lucky’ escape?

Activity 3
Post-reading activity: T<S
Keeping pets: right or wrong? 13’ S<T
What about zoos? Is it right or wrong to
keep wild animals in zoos?
T goes through points in favour and against
keeping animals with the whole class and
accepts alternative answers if they can be
justified. T gives Ss cards on which she has T<S
previously written ‘facts’ about animals and asks
Ss to stick them on the board in the right S<T
column:
Advantages:
1. Zoos are great places that attract tourists
and thus benefit the local economy.
2. Some people argue that wild animals are
not free, even in their natural
environment. They live in busy areas,
where they face danger from every
corner.
3. Zoos protect animals from predators and

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 habitat loss.
4. If zoos offer much more than
entertainment, they will give people the
possibility to study wildlife at a closer
range as this could help them with their
education.
5. Many zoos have captive breeding
programs in order to replenish the
populations of endangered species( the
spotted leopard, the lynx, the panda).
They aim to preserve, protect and study
the species.
6. Animals kept in zoos live longer and are
protected from extinction.
7. If they get sick they can be treated.

Disadvantages:
1. People see zoos as prisons where animals
suffer from stress, frustration and
boredom.
2. If we ban zoos, are we expected to just
stand there and watch those animals get
eaten in the wild?
3. Animals are still not free because of
constant danger from humans.
4. Animals are kept in enclosures or even
cages that do not allow them to live their
lives in a natural way. They spend every
single moment of their lives living in the
exact enclosure. This makes their life
very boring.
e.g. Elephants are used to travelling
many miles a day in herds of about ten
related adults and their off spring . They
are very sociable animals). In captivity,
they do not do well at all: they live ab.
16-18 years, while wild elephants can
live 50-70 years. Why? Their enclosures
are incredibly small and they become
stressed or bored (they engage in
repetitive movements)
5. It is a lot more expensive to keep animals
in zoos than to protect them in the wild
( creating more protected reserves also
helps balance whole eco-systems).

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 6. Zoos’ main interest is to make money.
7. They don’t teach you about how wild
animals live and behave in nature ( an
elephant bathing in a river vs. An
elephant doing repetitive movements in
an enclosure)

Possible conclusion
People can learn about wild animals by
watching wildlife programs or by reading
about them on the internet or in books and
magazines.

Homework assignment
T explains the task Ss are given as homework: T<S
they have to use the story of Stig the Alsacian to
write magazine article about an animal. They
can use their imagination or write a story which
has been in the news recently answering the
following questions:
What kind of animal was it?
Where did the story take place?
Who were the people and what were they doing?
What did the animal do?
What reward did it get?

VII. Evaluation
Aim: to evaluate Ss’ participation and involvement

Procedure Time Interaction

Ss are graded and evaluated according to their 2’ T<S
participation and involvement through the lesson

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 Worksheet 1

Zoos are great places that attract tourists and thus benefit the local economy.

Some people argue that wild animals are not free, even in their natural
environment. They live in busy areas, where they face danger from every corner.

Zoos protect animals from predators and habitat loss.

If zoos offer much more than entertainment, they will give people the possibility
to study wildlife at a closer range as this could help them with their education.

Many zoos have captive breeding programs in order to replenish the populations
of endangered species( the spotted leopard, the lynx, the panda). They aim to
preserve, protect and study the species.

Animals kept in zoos live longer and are protected from extinction.

If they get sick they can be treated.

People see zoos as prisons where animals suffer from stress, frustration and
boredom.

If we ban zoos, are we expected to just stand there and watch those animals get
eaten in the wild?
Animals are still not free because of constant danger from humans.

It is a lot more expensive to keep animals in zoos than to protect them in the wild
( creating more protected reserves also helps balance whole eco-systems).

Zoos’ main interest is to make money.

7
 Worksheet 2

Animals are kept in enclosures or even cages that do not allow them to live their
lives in a natural way. They spend every single moment of their lives living in the
exact enclosure. This makes their life very boring.
e.g. Elephants are used to travelling many miles a day in herds of about ten
related adults and their off spring . They are very sociable animals). In captivity,
they do not do well at all: they live ab. 16-18 years, while wild elephants can live
50-70 years. Why? Their enclosures are incredibly small and they become
stressed or bored (they engage in repetitive movements)

They don’t teach you about how wild animals live and behave in nature ( an
elephant bathing in a river vs. An elephant doing repetitive movements in an
enclosure)

Elephants are used to travelling many miles a day in herds of about ten related
adults and their offspring . They are very sociable animals). In captivity, they do
not do well at all: they live ab. 16-18 years, while wild elephants can live 50-70
years. Why? Their enclosures are incredibly small and they become stressed or
bored (they engage in repetitive movements)

Elephants are used to travelling many miles a day in herds of about ten related
adults and their offspring . They are very sociable animals). In captivity, they do
not do well at all: they live ab. 16-18 years, while wild elephants can live 50-70
years. Why? Their enclosures are incredibly small and they become stressed or
bored (they engage in repetitive movements)

Elefants are used to travelling many miles a day in herds of about ten related
adults and their offspring . They are very sociable animals). In captivity, they do
not do well at all: they live ab. 16-18 years, while wild elephants can live 50-70
years. Why? Their enclosures are incredibly small and they become stressed or
bored (they engage in repetitive movements)

Elephants are used to travelling many miles a day in herds of about ten related
adults and their offspring . They are very sociable animals). In captivity, they do
not do well at all: they live ab. 16-18 years, while wild elephants can live 50-70
years. Why? Their enclosures are incredibly small and they become stressed or
bored (they engage in repetitive movements)

Elephants are used to travelling many miles a day in herds of about ten related
adults and their offspring . They are very sociable animals). In captivity, they do
not do well at all: they live ab. 16-18 years, while wild elephants can live 50-70
years. Why? Their enclosures are incredibly small and they become stressed or
bored (they engage in repetitive movements)