Simple Past
A2 level
Materials
Main Aims
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By the end of the lesson students will be able to talk about past actions and experiences by using the simple past tense with common regular and irregular verbs in short sentences
Subsidiary Aims
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Students will be able to recognize and understand the meaning of the simple past tense when listening to and reading short texts about past experiences
Procedure (18-24 minutes)
The class will be started by briefly talking about how I spent my last weekend using simple, clear examples and time expressions such as last weekend and yesterday. I will then ask students general questions like Did you have a good weekend? and Was it busy or relaxing? and allow them to answer freely without correcting their grammar at this stage. This will activate their background knowledge and introduce the idea of talking about past experiences.
I will write a few sentences about my weekend on the board and underline the verbs. I will then ask students to share similar ideas. I will choose three of their sentences, correct them if needed, and write them on the board. I will ask students to look at the verbs and notice how they change when we talk about the past.
I will draw a simple timeline on the board and ask ccqs such as "Are these sentences about the past, present, or future?" Past, "Are the actions finished?" Yes, and "Can we say exactly when they happened?" (Yes). I will then have students say the structure by asking about the order of words in the sentence and how the verb has changed, guiding them to the form "subject + verb (past simple)". I will explain that regular verbs take -ed in the past and that irregular verbs change form completely. A short list of common irregular verbs will be given to students for reference. Finally, I will model and drill the pronunciation of -ed endings using examples such as played, asked, and created, and I will also model the correct pronunciation of irregular verbs such as said.
Students will complete a controlled activity where they choose the correct past simple form of the verb. Sentences such as "Last weekend I (go/went) out with my friends" and "Yesterday I (watch/watched) a movie" will be written on the board or given on a worksheet. Students will work individually first and then check their answers in pairs and then we will check the answers as a whole class
Students will work in pairs and talk about their last weekend using their own ideas. They will be encouraged to ask and answer simple questions such as "What did you do?" and "Where did you go?" while I monitor and note common errors without interrupting fluency. After the activity, a few students will share their partner’s experience with the class.
