New lesson plan: A Writing Task on Narrative Tenses

Nuray Tugce Oguz

A Writing Task on Narrative Tenses - Intermediate level

A Writing Task on Narrative Tenses
Intermediate level

Description

This 40 minute lesson develops b1 learners' narrative writing skills through engaging activities. Students practice past simple and past continuous tenses, and apply narrative organization while writing a short personal story. The staged approach-from input and guided tasks to drafting, editing, and final writing- supports both fluency and accuracy in line with CEFR B1 writing descriptors and IELTS writing band requirements. The aim of this lesson is to enable learners to write a short, coherent, narrative using appropriate narrative tenses, to raise awareness of narrative structure and useful vocabulary for storytelling, to encourage students to go through the writing process (planning, drafting, editing, final draft.) By the end of this lesson students will be able to identify and use narrative tenses, organize a short written narrative with improveed clarity and coherence. (100-140 words):

Materials

No materials added to this plan yet.

Main Aims

To provide process and product writing practice of a a short narrative text in the context of a funny story/ a happy memory/ an exciting event

Subsidiary Aims

To review narrative tenses in the context of a funny story/ a happy memory/ an exciting event

Procedure (27-40 minutes)

Warmer/Lead-in (3-5 minutes) • To set lesson context and engage students

The teacher shows funny memes/screenshots about tech fails (e.g., autocorrect fails, clumsy Zoom moments). The students have pair discussion: “Have you ever had a funny or embarrassing moment with technology or friends?” Volunteers share.

Exposure (4-6 minutes) • To provide a model of production expected in coming tasks through reading/listening

The teacher shows the model text below: "Last weekend, I was on a Zoom class when something terrible happened. I was answering the teacher’s question when my little brother ran into the room wearing my mom’s pink dress! Everyone started laughing, and my microphone was still on. I tried to turn off the camera, but instead, I left the meeting by mistake! Luckily, my teacher also laughed and said, ‘That was the best part of the lesson!’" The teacher asks concept checking questions below and elicit the answers. 1. Which tense shows the background? → Past continuous (was answering, was on). 2. Which tense shows the main funny events? → Past simple (ran, laughed, left). 3. Can we use both in one sentence? → Yes (I was answering when my brother ran in).

Useful Language (4-6 minutes) • To highlight and clarify useful language for coming productive tasks

The teacher reminds the narrative tenses by showing a chart. The teacher emphasizes the spelling changes in these tenses. The teacher highlights the time expressions and adverbs used with this tense. Then, the students will complete a gap-filling exercise and check in pairs.

Productive Task(s) (10-15 minutes) • To provide an opportunity to practice target productive skills

The teacher delivers some sentences that are cut into two and the students match these halves in groups. In groups, the students expand these halves into a mini story by adding a word into the sentence. The teacher monitors the groups. The groups choose a mini story and read it aloud, the class votes for the funniest/ the happiest/ the most exiciting story. Then the teacher shows the model text again, highlights connectors and useful phrases. The teacher provides an opening sentence "It happened last year when I was..." then, the teacher tells the students that they should create their own narrative text about a funny story, a happy memory or an exciting event. The teacher informs students that this text should have 100-140 words. Then, the teacher tells students not to worry about spelling or grammar mistakes but to focus on their ideas and finish their story. The students write a short first draft.

Feedback and Error Correction (6-8 minutes) • To provide feedback on students' production and use of language

The teacher hands out a checklist. The students check their first draft according to that checklist. The students rewrite the final version after corrections. The volunteers read aloud, the teacher gives feedback.