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A2 Module 8Teacher Notes
Find all the resources you need to teach this module at www. TheTEFLLab.com
Complete lesson
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guide insid
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Dear all-star teacher,
Welcome to The TEFL Lab!
We understand that the work of teachers doesn’t just happen in the classroom. It’s a constant process of planning, teaching, and reflecting on each of your lessons. Our goal is to make your job a little easier by creating lessons for you; all you need to do is review the lesson ahead of time, show up, and work your magic! We’re happy you’ve chosen to use The TEFL Lab content for your lessons and hope that it makes your job a little easier, allowing you to focus on what you love - teaching! These ready-to-use-online lessons are designed to help you teach great lessons to English learners all over the world without needing to reinvent the wheel for each class!
Your students
The lessons we’ve prepared for you here for A2 Module 8 are intended to be used with elementary/pre-intermediate level (A2 CEFR level) business professionals. Please refer to the table of contents to review the target language and themes you’ll teach throughout the A2 level.
How to use The TEFL Lab lessons
The TEFL Lab lessons are designed for virtual English lessons but can be used in face to face classes as well. For virtual classes, open your lesson and have it ready before starting your class. Once you’re ready, activate the share screen function allowing your students to see the lesson. Be sure to open the presentation in full screen mode to have the full experience. You can advance the slides (or return to a previous one) by using your keyboard arrows ← → or clicking the arrows on the right or left sides of each slide. It’s important that you familiarize yourself with a lesson before using it in class. For each lesson there are a few recurring features and tools available to you. These include:
Full screen and view all pages feature - Located in the bottom right corner of every slide for every lesson. Useful for opening the full screen view of the presentation as well as quickly navigating to another slide. Don’t forget to use this tool at the beginning of each
lesson to open the presentation to full screen view for your students.
The paint tool - Located in the top right corner of each slide for every lesson. Useful for drawing visual concepts, underlining words, circling target language, drawing attention to areas of the slide, you name it! Simply click the icon, opening up a series of color options
and paint brush sizes. To delete your drawings, click the trash can. Click the paint icon to close the tool, doing this will allow you to access other features and tools on the slide but will also temporarily save any drawings you did not delete. When you click the paint tool again, you’ll see that your drawings will reappear.
The click and drag tool - Located in the top right corner of every slide for selected lessons. Useful for manipulating images and text on the slide to isolate ideas, sort target language, put concepts in order, create sentences with movable words, match words or parts of
sentences, and loads of other options! Simply click and drag the elements on the slide you wish to move. You can return elements back to their original position by using the click and drag tool or you can either advance the slide and go back to find that everything appears in its original place. Please note that some elements cannot be moved. A 4-way arrow cursor will appear over any elements that are not locked into place and can be moved.
Interactive elements tool - Located in the top right corner of every slide for every lesson. Useful for locating clickable, multifunction elements on each slide. Simply click the icon to reveal which elements on the slide have clickable features.
Imbedded teacher notes tool - Located at the bottom of every slide (except for the introduction and objectives slides at the beginning of each lesson). Useful for reviewing
the lesson’s teacher notes before class. Simply click the icon to open a window with complete teacher notes for the slide.
Invisible features - on some slides you’ll find that if you hover your cursor over elements of the slide, words or images may appear or change. These are “invisible features” that have been added to the slides and serve an important purpose. Please read the teacher notes for your lesson to see where these invisible (and other interactive) features appear.
Need to see something bigger on the slides? - There’s a simple fix! On your computer or laptop, just press Ctrl and + to zoom in on anything. If using your smart device, zoom in like you would for anything else using your thumb and index finger.
Unit 8: Past Progressive
(Slide 3): Warm-up Aim: Brainstorm verbs that are commonly used in the progressive form.
◉ Teacher skill: Warm-up activities Refer to Teacher Skills in the Appendix to learn about conducting warm-up activities. Step 1: Ask a student to read the brainstorming prompt aloud. To encourage ideas, ask students if they know the words for each of the images on the slide. Hover over the images to reveal the verbs.
(Slide 4): Grammar Presentation Aim: Introduce the grammar and function of the past progressive tense.
Step 1: Read the far right box aloud. Step 2: Ask a student to read the first sentence (blue) aloud. Direct the students’ attention to the times on the timeline to clarify when this action happened and for how long. Be sure to ask concept checking questions here about the time of the action. Continue this process with the other two sentences. Step 3: Click the “Let’s see how this grammar works” button to open a pop-up window with a breakdown of the grammar. Review the 3 forms in the pop-up and ask concept checking questions for each form. Ask students to share examples for each
sentence form using past progressive actions from their day or week.
(Slide 5): Match the Grammar Aim: Confirm understanding of subject verb agreement for the past progressive tense.
Step 1: Tell students to take a minute to look at these incomplete sentences and the verb pairs on the right. Step 2: After, select a student to (or as a group) elicit the correct verb pair for the first sentence. If students select an incorrect option, guide them by pointing out the subject and asking which form of “to be” matches. Then guide them through the vocabulary if necessary. Click and drag the correct option to the sentence and ask a student to read the complete sentence aloud. Continue this process for each sentence. You may choose to do this activity individually, silently, or orally as a group.
(Slide 6): Vocabulary Presentation Aim: Introduce new vocabulary terms.
Step 1: Ask students to look at the images on the slide and the accompanying vocabulary items. Remember to include CCQs after a vocabulary match has been made. Ask students a few CCQs such as: ● Who do you send a resume to? ● What do you use a resume for? ● What happens in a job interview? ● What do people do at a job fair? ● Where do you see/find job ads?
(Slide 7): Verb Presentation Aim: Introduce important verbs to use with the new vocabulary.
8. 1: Using the Past Continuous Objective: Use the past progressive tense to
talk about past actions.
About the features on this slide: Hover over the images to reveal verbs.
About the features on this slide: Click the “Let’s see how this grammar works” button to open a pop-up window with a breakdown of the grammar.
About the features on this slide: Click and drag the blue verbs to fit into the matching sentence.
About the features on this slide: Click and drag the terms to the matching images.
Step 1: Looking at the verbs for candidates, first elicit the meaning of the word candidate. Then ask if they know any of the verbs in the yellow list. Ask students to share the meaning of the verbs they know. Don’t forget to include CCQs so you can be sure they know the meaning. Step 2: Teach the meaning of the unfamiliar verbs and click the “+” buttons to open a description and/or example of each. Remember, include CCQs like : ● Do you apply for a job if you love your current
job? ● What information do you look for when you
research a company? Step 3: Follow the same steps for the verbs for employers.
(Slide 8): Asking and Answering Questions Aim: Practice using the interrogative form of the past progressive tense.
Step 1: Say the instructions aloud to your students. Ask for two volunteers (Student A and Student B). Show them the example form at the top right of the slide. Step 2: Student A chooses a person, asks a past progressive question using the verb provided (hover of the person’s image to reveal a verb phrase) and time phrase below. Then Student B will respond using the answer provided by hovering over the time phrase below the person’s photo (eg. Ignacio, were you updating your resume this morning?). Encourage students to answer in complete sentences (No I wasn’t or No I wasn’t updating my resume this morning.). Repeat this
process until all of the people have been looked at in the question and answer task. Step 3: Click on the bonus question to open a pop-up with a question. Read the question aloud and elicit the answer. Guide your students if necessary by hovering over each of the images to remind them of the verbs for each.
(Slide 9): Common Questions Aim: Introduce common questions used to ask about progressive actions in the past.
Step 1: Read the far left information box to your students. Say the context for the top question and ask a student to read the question aloud. Elicit possible answers to this question to confirm that your students understand the question. Step 2: Click the “A” balloon to open a pop-up box with an answer to the question. Be sure to elicit and confirm the meaning of the response with your students. Step 3: Follow the same steps for the second question. Please note! Your students may need extra pronunciation help with “where” and “were”. It’s common for students to say these words with the same pronunciation. Take some time here to show the difference (asking students to watch you pronounce the word) and ask your students to try.
(Slide 10): Question Practice Aim: Practice formulating questions.
Step 1: Say the instructions aloud. Ask a student to read the first sentence aloud. Elicit the question form that matches the response and ask students to provide examples of questions that match this response.
About the features on this slide: Click the “+” buttons to open a description of each verb.
About the features on this slide: Hover over the images to reveal a verb phrase. Hover over the time phrases to reveal a response. Click the bonus question button to open a pop-up with a question.
About the features on this slide: Click the “A” balloons to open a pop-up box with an example answer to the question.
About the features on this slide: Click on each sentence to open a pop-up box with an example question.
Step 2: Click the sentence to open a pop-up box with an example question. Step 3: You may decide to complete the rest of the activity silently, assigning sentences to different students to work on independently, or you can ask students to write examples of questions for each response OR you can choose to complete the activity in the same manner you completed the first one, orally as a group.
(Slide 11): Time Words and Phrases Aim: Introduce time phrases commonly used with the past progressive tense.
Step 1: Read the far left information box description aloud to your students. Have students take turns reading the example sentences aloud. Elicit the meaning of each to see if they can express the meaning of each of these time words and phrases. Step 2: Direct your students’ attention to the first time word “All”. Hover over the “period of time” portion of the sentence to reveal a list of words used with all. Click the Examples speech bubble to open a pop-up box with a complete sentence frame and example. Follow the instructions in the pop-up box, asking students to make their own example sentence with the provided prompts. Step 3: Follow the same steps for “during”.
(Slide 12): Using “While” Aim: Introduce “while” as it relates to past progressive and past tense actions.
Step 1: Say the sentence at the top of the slide to introduce “while”. Show students that “while” is used with two actions, either with both actions
being in the past progressive or one in the past progressive and the other in the simple past. Step 2: Click on the Examples speech bubbles to open a pop-up with examples for each. Follow the instructions in the pop-up box, asking students to make their own example sentence with the provided prompts, guiding them where necessary.
(Slide 13): Reading Comprehension Aim: Practice reading the target language in context and confirm comprehension.
Step 1: Click the “+” icon to show the context of the reading activity. Ask a student to read the context box aloud to the class. Say the instructions and ask students to read, one by one, the information from each person. Click the names of the people to open pop-up boxes with information. Step 2: Draw students’ attention to the highlighted portions of the pop-up boxes, noting the use of the target grammar and vocabulary. Elicit the meaning and use to confirm understanding. Ask additional CCQs where needed. Step 3: After reading all of the pop-up boxes, answer each of the questions on the right side of the slide. Open the pop-up boxes back up if students need more information in order to answer the questions.
(Slide 14): Time Phrase Matching Aim: Confirm understanding and practice the sentence structure and meaning of “during” and “while”.
Step 1: Say the instructions aloud to your students.
About the features on this slide: Hover over “period of time” to show examples of each. Click the Examples speech bubbles to open pop-up boxes with examples.
About the features on this slide: Click the Examples speech bubbles to open pop-up boxes with examples.
About the features on this slide: Click the “+” icon to show the context of the reading activity. Click the people’s names to open pop-up boxes with information. Click the question flags to open pop-up boxes with questions.
About the features on this slide: Click and drag the yellow sentence pieces.
Step 2: Ask students to read each of the sentence pieces silently before matching any pieces together. Then, Ask for a volunteer to read the first blue piece aloud. Elicit the matching response (in yellow) from students and come to a consensus on a matching piece before moving it to the correct spot. Ask guiding and confirmation questions to students about the matching pieces as the activity progresses.
(Slide 15): Attending a Job Fair Aim: Practice using “during” and “while” to explain an absence from an event.
Step 1: Click the INSTRUCTIONS button to open a pop-up with activity instructions and read (or ask a student to read) them aloud. Step 2: Going in order of the events/workshops from the job fair schedule, click the checkmark icon to see a list of people who attended. Identify the missing person and ask a student to pose a question to this person (eg. Where were you during the resume workshop Dean?). Step 3: Together, respond to the question using the information from the photos (hover over the person’s photo to reveal the reason for their absence). Guide students in using “during” or “while” in their responses (eg. While you were at the workshop, I was introducing myself to some of the recruiters.). Continue this process for each event.
(Slide 16): Error Correction Aim: Identify and fix errors.
Step 1: Say the instructions aloud and ask students to silently read each of the sentences. Step 2: Then, ask your students if the first sentence is correct or incorrect. Click and drag the corresponding icon over to the sentence. If the sentence is incorrect, elicit the correction. Then click on the sentence to open a pop-up box with the correction.
(Slide 17): Build a Sentence Aim: Practice the past progressive sentence structure with the target time words.
Step 1: Review the target time words from the lesson. Ask students to say words that typically go with “all”, “during”, and “while”. Step 2: Click the dice to reveal a number and refer to the legend to see which time word to use. Together, with your students, build a sentence using the time word you rolled. Please note: It is okay if students need some help building these sentences (especially using “while” as they tend to be long). If necessary, give your student the first part of the sentence and ask them to complete it (While you were having lunch, I . . .). This approach still tests their understanding of the words you provided as well as their ability to formulate a past progressive sentence.
(Slide 18): Final Task Aim: Give students a chance to use what they’ve learned today in their own personal context.
About the features on this slide: Click the INSTRUCTIONS button to open a pop-up with activity instructions. Click the checkmark icons beside the event names to see a list of people who attended the event. Hover over the photos to see reasons for their absence. Hover over the green marker for sentence frames.
About the features on this slide: Click and drag the checkmark and x icons to indicate correct or incorrect sentences. Click on
incorrect sentences to open a pop-up box with the correction.
About the features on this slide: Click the dice to reveal a number. Click the “+” balloon to open a pop-up box with sentence frames. Hover over each time word shape to reveal examples.
About the features on this slide: Hover over the green marker to reveal example sentences.
Step 1: Show students the final task. Step 2: Give students time to formulate their responses. If students need help remembering the structure for each sentence, hover over the marker to reveal the guide. Step 3: Have students take turns sharing their responses. Tip: If your students don't know a specific word they need for their answer in English, encourage them to use a translation tool to search for the WORD they need (try to discourage them from using translators at the sentence level). Be sure to ask some CCQs to be sure that they've found the correct English words.
(Slide 19): Exit Ticket Ask this question to your students and encourage them to share their answers before the class ends. You can also share some of your lesson highlights with students here.
(Slide 3): Warm-Up Aim: Get students engaged in the lesson. ◉ Teacher skill: Warm-up activities Refer to Teacher Skills in the Appendix to learn about conducting warm-up activities. Ask students to share their answers to the question to help them get warmed up to talk about events from the past.
(Slide 4): “Before” and “Last”
Aim: Examine the difference between using “before” and “last” as time markers in past simple and progressive sentences.
Show students the difference between using these time markers, as well as how we can position the clause with the time marker at the beginning or end of a sentence.
(Slide 5): Reading Aim: Read and answer questions using the past progressive.
Step 1: Invite students to read the dialogue aloud. Step 2: Hover over each of the “Q” markers to reveal a question. Invite students to share their answers. To confirm the correct answer, click the “A” marker and ask a student to read the answer.
(Slide 6): Jen’s Career Aim: Create sentences using the past simple and past progressive to demonstrate the order of events in the past.
Step 1: Invite students to work individually, in pairs,or in teams based on the configuration of your class. Show them how the timeline moves from left to right in chronological order to show the different jobs that Jen had in the past. Step 2: Next, highlight the sentence frame. Tell students that we will create sentences that Jen can use to describe her career trajectory. Model a
This is the final activity in the lesson before the exit ticket. This is a great moment to include group wide error correction and provide some praise to your class as a whole and for individuals.
8.2: Describing Past Progressive
Actions Objective: Describe past actions using the
past progressive and past simple.
About the features on this slide: Hover over the exclamation point marker to reveal more information about a word. Hover over the “...” marker to reveal examples.
About the features on this slide: Hover over the “Q” markers to reveal a question. Click the “A” marker to see an answer in a pop-up.
About the features on this slide: Hover over each hexagon to see the job title Jen had when she was working there.
sentence for the students. Be sure to show students how, in this structure, we use the past progressive to talk about the action that was happening before the past simple action. If your students are up for the challenge, you can also model how to invert this structure. Step 3: Give students some time to prepare their sentences and practice if they’re in pairs or teams. Then invite them to take turns sharing. Elicit self and peer correction prior to providing it yourself.
(Slide 7): Sentence Chunks Aim: Combine different clauses to create a full sentence using the past progressive and the past simple. Step 1: Show students the sentence chunks, or clauses, on the slide. Invite students to take turns reading them aloud. Step 2: Tell students that they have 2 minutes to create as many different sentences as possible. You can have them work individually, in pairs, or teams. Remind them that each sentence must have one clause using the past simple and the other clause using the past progressive. Step 3: After the 2 minutes is up, invite students to share their answers aloud. Elicit self and peer correction prior to providing it yourself. Extension: If your students are up for the challenge, invite them to try to create some of their own alternate endings to the sentences they’ve created.
(Slides 8-10): Before the Meeting Aim: Describe what different employees were doing before the meeting started.
Step 1: Tell students that we are going to describe what these employees were doing before their meeting started. Highlight the speech bubble with them and hover over the “+” icon to reveal a useful sentence frame for answering that question.
Step 2: Select a student A. Ask that student A to ask the question about any employee in the image. Ask student A to also select student B. Student B will answer, using the verb phrase revealed by hovering over that employee’s “+” icon. Step 3: Now have student B become student A and repeat this process over again. Elicit self and peer correction before providing it yourself.
(Slide 11): Rupi’s Jobs - Listening Aim: Listen to Rupi describe jobs she had in the past, and put them in chronological order on the timeline.
Step 1: Ask a student to read the instructions. Then, tell students we will listen to Rupi two times. Play the audio the first time. Ask students to summarize what they understood. Step 2: Now play the audio again and ask students to try to focus on the jobs Rupi says and the order she lists them in. Step 3: After listening the second time, ask students to direct you to drag and drop the jobs on the right side of the slide into the timeline on the left side of the slide based on what they heard. You can ask them questions like “Was Rupi working as a (job title) before she worked as a (job title)?” to help them sort out the order. After getting an initial sorting, invite students to listen again and try to make note of any changes they want to make. Step 4: Make any changes students suggest after listening again. Then, hover over the eye icon to reveal the script for the audio and invite students to take turns reading. Then, use that script to check their answers.
(Slide 12): International Work Tours- Reading Aim: Read about the concept of international work tours and how different companies used them to solve problems.
About the features on this slide: Hover over the “+” icon on the speech bubble to reveal useful sentence frames. Hover over each of the “+” icons next to the employee names to reveal a verb phrase.
About the features on this slide: Click the play button to play the audio file. Hover over the eye icon to reveal the script for the audio. The hexagons can be moved using the drag-and-drop function.
Step 1: Invite a student to read the instructions. Step 2: Click on the blue button that says “What is an international work tour?” to see an explanation in a pop-up. Invite students to read about international work tours. Step 3: Ask students to look at the graph that shows sales at each of these companies for the years 2017, 2018, and 2019. Ask students to explain in their own words what the graph shows us. If necessary, ask questions to elicit this information, such as “Did sales increase or decrease?”, “Which companies had sales increases?”, etc. Step 4: Click on a logo. A pop-up will appear that explains that company’s experience with international work tours. Invite students to read this information aloud. If there are any questions about vocabulary, invite students to search for examples, translations, or definitions to share with the class. Step 5: Hover over the “Q” marker to the side of the company’s logo to reveal a comprehension question. Ask a student to read the question aloud. See if any student can answer the question. If not, open the pop-up again and ask students to find the information in the text and share with the class. Step 6: Repeat the process with the remaining 2 companies.
(Slide 13): Last Year’s Work Tour Aim: Ask and answer questions using the past progressive.
Step 1: Invite a student to read the instructions. Reveal the instructions by hovering over the “instructions” button. Step 2: Hover over Estelle’s and Vicente’s photos to reveal a text that describes their work tour. Invite students to read this information aloud. Step 3: Remind students that we are going to roleplay as Estelle and Vicente and take turns asking each other where they were working in different months last year. Show students that each square on the slide has an image of Estelle next to a flag and an image of Vicente next to a flag. If a student doesn’t know the name of the country that the flag represents, don’t worry! Hover over the flag to reveal the name of the country-- you can rely on this throughout the activity. Step 4: Finally, highlight useful sentence frames for asking and answering questions in this activity by hovering over the “Q” and “A” markers. Step 5: Invite a student to model an exchange with you. Then, ask that student to choose another student to complete the exchange with. Have students take turns being Vicente and Estelle. Make sure each student gets a chance to ask and answer a question during the activity. Elicit self and peer correction prior to providing it yourself.
(Slide 14): Speaking Practice Aim: Answer questions related to students’ lived experiences using the past progressive.
Step 1: Invite a student to read the instructions aloud. Step 2: Ask another student to choose a number. Hover over that number to reveal the question. Ask that student to choose another classmate to ask the question to. Once that student responds with
About the features on this slide: Click on the blue button that says “What is an international work tour?” to see an explanation in a pop-up. Click on each company’s logo to read a text that appears in a pop-up. Hover over each “Q” marker to reveal a comprehension question about the text.
About the features on this slide: Hover over the “instructions” button to reveal the instructions for the activity. Hover over Estelle’s and Vicente’s photos to reveal information about their work tours. Hover over
the “Q” and “A” markers to reveal useful sentence frames for asking and answering questions. Hover over each flag to reveal the name of the country.
About the features on this slide: Hover over each number to reveal a question.
their answer, repeat this process so that each student has a chance to ask a question and to answer it. Elicit self and peer correction before providing it yourself. Extension: If you want to extend this activity, you can have 2-3 students share their answers for each question.
(Slide 15): Final Task Aim: Give students a chance to use what they’ve learned today in their own personal context.
Step 1: Show students the final task. Step 2: Give students time to formulate their responses. If students need help remembering the structure for each sentence, hover over the marker to reveal the guide. Step 3: Have students take turns sharing their responses. Tip: If your students don't know a specific word they need for their answer in English, encourage them to use a translation tool to search for the WORD they need (try to discourage them from using translators at the sentence level). Be sure to ask some CCQs to be sure that they've found the correct English words.
(Slide 16): Exit Ticket Ask this question to your students and encourage them to share their answers before the class ends. You can also share some of your lesson highlights with students here.
(Slide 3): Warm-up Aim: Introduce the theme of the lessons and get students engaged with the topic. ◉ Teacher skill: Warm-up activities Refer to Teacher Skills in the Appendix to learn about conducting warm-up activities. Step 1: Ask a student to read the cloud bubble text aloud. Then ask another student to read the two questions below. Give students a minute or two to think of an example and then share aloud. Encourage a more open discussion here rather than just simply answering the prompt (if your students are able to produce more, allow space and time for this).
(Slide 4): Introduction Aim: Introduce the target language through example. Step 1: Ask a student to read the speech bubble at the top of the slide. Elicit the meaning of this person’s comments before moving on. Step 2: Ask another student to read the text at the bottom of the slide, indicating that it is the woman’s response. Elicit the meaning of this person’s comments.
(Slide 5): Introduce the Grammar Aim: Explore the target grammar/sentence structure.
Step 1: Looking at the same sentence from the previous slide, ask students to look at the first part in past progressive. Elicit the use of this verb tense and ask students why they think it’s used here. Hover over the hand icon to reveal a note about this part of the sentence. Step 2: Continue working through the sentence in the same way.
(Slide 6): Target Language
About the features on this slide: Hover over the green marker to reveal example sentences.
This is the final activity in the lesson before the exit ticket. This is a great moment to include group wide error correction and provide some praise to your class as a whole and for individuals.
8. 3: Making Decisions Together Objective: Use the past progressive to talk
about making decisions at work.
About the features on this slide: Hover over the hand icons to reveal a note about each part of the sentence.
Aim: Review the target structure in another example. Step 1: Ask a student to read the speech bubble at the top of the slide. Elicit the meaning of this person’s comments before moving on. Step 2: Ask another student to read the text at the bottom of the slide, indicating that it is the woman’s response. Elicit the meaning of this person’s comments.
(Slide 7): Sentence Parts Aim: Practice formulating and saying the target sentence structure.
Step 1: Say the instructions aloud and elicit the form for the far left purple square (“We were discussing the project earlier...”). Step 2: Then hover over the far left blue square to reveal the second part of the sentence. Elicit the second part of the sentence (“...and we decided to confirm some details with the client.”). Be sure to allow students the space to formulate the sentences and self-correct when necessary. ◉ Teacher skill: Error correction and praise Refer to Teacher Skills in the Appendix to learn about correcting student errors and giving productive praise. Step 3: Continue this process for the remaining sentence pieces. Include CCQs to confirm the understanding of both the sentence structure and meaning.
(Slide 8): The Negative Form Aim: Introduce the negative form of the target language.
Step 1: Say the instruction.
Step 2: Ask a student to read the first speech bubble aloud. Elicit the negative form (students will most likely take guesses at this point). Step 3: Hover over the speech bubble to reveal the negative form and ask a student to read it aloud. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for the next speech bubble. Step 4: Hover over the hand icon for #3 to reveal task instructions. Ask a student to complete the task (or have your students attempt it together). You can choose to ask your students to say the text first in the positive and then make it negative or simply attempt the negative form. Do the same for #4.
(Slide 9): Any News? Aim: Practice using the target language in a brief exchange between two people.
Step 1: Say the instruction. Step 2: Ask a student to read the woman’s speech bubble and hover over the blue letter A to reveal the rest of her question. Step 3: Ask another student to read the man’s speech bubble and click on the grey letter A to open information for his response. Ask the student to follow the target structure to formulate the complete response. Step 4: Repeat the process for the remaining letters (B, C, and D).
(Slide 10): Fix the Form Aim: Use the target form to relay a quote from someone to another person.
Step 1: Read the instructions aloud. Together as a group, look at the top far left box. Elicit the change from quote to the target form.
About the features on this slide: Hover over the blue squares to reveal part of the sentence.
About the features on this slide: Hover over the speech bubbles to reveal the negative form. Hover over the hand icons to reveal a task prompt.
About the features on this slide: Hover over the blue letters (A-D) to reveal projects or unresolved tasks. Click on the grey letters (A-D) to open pop-ups with responses.
About the features on this slide: Hover over the boxes to reveal the correct form.
Please note: If students need help with the first one, hover over it to reveal the correct form. Then elicit the changes. While you attempt the next boxes, refer back to this one as a guide to prompt your students in formulating the correct sentence. Step 2: You may wish to have your students attempt the other boxes on their own, silently using their notebooks (if so, give them 5-6 minutes to do so) or you may want to conduct the activity orally as a group. Continue to work through each of the boxes, revealing the correct form by hovering over each one.
(Slide 11): Conduct a Listening Activity Aim: Practice listening skills and check students’ understanding and use of the target form.
◉ Teacher skill: Conduct a listening activity Refer to Teacher Skills in the Appendix to learn about effectively conducting a listening activity. Step 1: Say the instruction aloud. Then as a student to read the first text message on the far left. Step 2: Press play to listen to Jessica’s audio message. Listen a second time to ensure clarity and understanding before asking students to share what Jessica said using the target form (She said to try to get the updated graphics - or some similar answer). If students require the audio script, click on the eye icon to access it. Step 3: Repeat this process for the next text message exchanges.
(Slide 12-14): Roadblocks Aim: Analyze an issue or a situation that requires a decision. Use the target language to respond.
Step 1: Click the Instructions box to open a pop-up with activity instructions. Step 2: Ask a student to read (aloud) the speech bubble about the situation. Elicit the situation/ problem from students to confirm their understanding. Step 3: Click the Q flag to open a pop-up with a task prompt. Ask students to share their ideas. Step 4: Click the “+” balloon to open the final decision and ask students to use this information to relay the message. Encourage them to use the target form from class (eg. “I was talking to Isaac and he said not to hire a full-time fundraising consultant . . .”). Step 5: Continue the same steps for slides 13 and 14.
(Slide 15): Hiring Decisions Aim: Assess a situation and consult a team to see what they say. Then, relay their decision to your classmates.
Step 1: Click the INSTRUCTIONS box to open a pop-up with activity instructions. Read the instructions aloud or ask a student to do so. Step 2: You may conduct this activity verbally as a group, or ask your students to do the activity individually silently first before sharing their information. If you choose to do the activity individually, give your students 4 minutes to review the information in the resumes and ask them to choose their favorite person for the job. If you choose to do the activity as a group, ask for a volunteer to read the information from the far left resume aloud. Ask what your students think about
About the features on this slide: Press play on the audio files to play the clip. Click the eye icons to open a pop-up with the audio script.
About the features on this slide: Click on the Instructions box to open a pop-up with activity instructions. Click on the Q flag to open a pop-up box with a question. Click on the
“+” balloon to open a pop-up with the final decision.
About the features on this slide: Click the INSTRUCTIONS box to open a pop-up with activity instructions. Hover over Q1 and Q2 to reveal questions. Click the lower speech bubble to open a pop-up with information.
this person as a possible good fit for the job. Continue this process for the other resumes. Step 3: Hover over Q1 to reveal a question. Elicit responses from your students and ask them to give reasons why. Step 4: Click the middle speech bubble to open a pop-up with information. Ask students to read the conversation in the pop-up aloud. Ask students who the hiring committee chooses and ask them if they agree. Then, hover over Q2 and ask students to share the decision using the target form from the class.
(Slide 16): Final Task Aim: Give students a chance to use what they’ve learned today in their own personal context.
Step 1: Show students the final task. Step 2: Give students time to formulate their responses. If students need help remembering the structure for each sentence, hover over the marker to reveal the guide. Step 3: Have students take turns sharing their responses. Tip: If your students don't know a specific word they need for their answer in English, encourage them to use a translation tool to search for the WORD they need (try to discourage them from using translators at the sentence level). Be sure to ask some CCQs to be sure that they've found the correct English words.
(Slide 17): Exit Ticket Ask this question to your students and encourage them to share their answers before the class ends. You can also share some of your lesson highlights with students here.
(Slide 3): Warm-Up Aim: Get students engaged in the lesson. ◉ Teacher skill: Warm-up activities Refer to Teacher Skills in the Appendix to learn about conducting warm-up activities. Invite students to start the lesson with a brainstorming activity in which they list words that come to mind when thinking about the jobs they had in the past and their current job. Invite students to add their words to a list using the chat function of the VC platform you’re using.
(Slides 4, 4A-4J): New Vocabulary Aim: Introduce new vocabulary for discussing employment.
Step 1: Show students the words on the list. Ask students if there are any words here that they can provide an example, definition, or translation for. Step 2: Invite students to select a word to view as a class. Click that word on the menu. It does not matter what order you use to select each word. Step 3: Upon clicking a word, you’ll be taken to one of the slides from the 4A-4J range. Slide 4A-4J: On each of these slides, invite a student to read the definition aloud. Invite another student to read the example aloud. Then, elicit examples from students using the words correctly. To return to the menu and select a different word, click the “return to list” button in the lower left corner of the slide. Once you have reviewed each
About the features on this slide: Hover over the green marker to reveal example sentences.
This is the final activity in the lesson before the exit ticket. This is a great moment to include group wide error correction and provide some praise to your class as a whole and for individuals.
8.4: Discussing Employment Objective: Students can discuss current and
previous jobs using new vocabulary.
About the features on this slide: IMPORTANT: Each of the squares with a vocabulary word will direct you to a slide for that vocabulary word. Use the “back to the list” button in the lower left hand corner of slides 4A-4JJ to return to the list. Do not use the left/right navigation arrows until you are ready to leave the vocabulary introduction activity.
word from the list, use the normal navigation arrows to continue to the next activity.
(Slides 5-6): Questions and Answers Aim: Use the contextual information of the questions and answers to create dialogue matches.
Step 1: Invite a student to read the instructions. Decide if you want students to participate individually, in pairs, or in teams. Step 2: Tell students to take a few moments to read the information in the different shapes. Remind them that all of the blue shapes contain questions, and the purple shapes contain answers. Ask them to create their matches on their own or with the classmates they’re working with. Step 3: After 3-4 minutes, invite students to share their matches. You can give students control of your screen to drag and drop the answers next to the question they think they belong to. Otherwise, you can have them direct you to make the pairs they have decided on. Step 4: Check students’ answers by asking them to complete the Q&A mini-dialogue together and confirming that the match is correct, or otherwise searching for a better option to answer the question. Elicit self and peer correction before providing it yourself.
(Slides 7-14): Pop Quiz Aim: Review the functions and uses of new vocabulary words
Step 1: Tell students now we will check our understanding of the new vocabulary words. Tell students whether they will work individually, in pairs, or teams for this exercise.
Step 2: Each slide contains a question that must be answered. Invite students to share what they think the correct answer is. Click on an answer to see a correct/incorrect message in a pop-up. Complete this process for each of the questions. Tip: When an incorrect answer is selected by students, elicit the correct answer from other students. After the correct answer is found, review the meaning of each of the options on the slide. Encourage students to try to create sentences with the new vocabulary in question to confirm their comprehension of the word.
(Slide 15): When / While Aim: Analyze and create examples of the different uses of when and while with the past simple and past progressive. Step 1: Invite a student to read the instructions. Step 2: Start with the first column, the past simple + the past progressive. Ask students to read the two examples aloud. Show students how these two sentences have the actions inverted, so that in one sentence, the progressive action is working, and in the other, it is learning. Step 3: Ask students to work individually or in pairs to create a past progressive and past simple sentence similar to the ones on the slide. Invite them to share their sentences with the class. Then, ask them how the sentence would be if they inverted the actions from one tense to the other! Step 4: Complete the same review-and-exemplify process for the remaining two columns.
(Slides 16-18): Vocabulary Challenge Aim: Identify the context in which each vocabulary word makes the most sense.
Step 1: Invite a student to read the instructions aloud. Inform students if you want them to complete this activity individually, in pairs, or in teams.
About the features on this slide: The purple shapes with letters A-D can be moved using the drag-and-drop function.
About the features on this slide: Click on an answer to see a correct/incorrect message in a pop-up.
About the features on this slide: Each of the vocabulary words can be moved using the drag-and-drop feature.
Step 2: Have students/pairs/teams take turns moving the vocabulary words into the correct position. You can give students control of your screen and allow them to move the words to show their answers, or you can have them direct you to move them. Step 3: Check the answers by having the students read the full texts aloud with the new word included. Elicit self and peer correction before providing it yourself. Answer Key: Slide 16: Ceiling, Position, Background; Slide 17: Typically, Reference, Skills; Slide 18: Aspect, Field, Background.
(Slide 19): Jobs from the Past Aim: Ask and answer questions about someone’s time in a past job using the past simple and the past progressive.
Step 1: Invite a student to read the instructions aloud. Then, show students the structure for asking questions in the past simple and past progressive, and highlight the timing phrases on the right. Tell students we are going to ask and answer questions like this. Step 2: Ask each student to list in the chat function of the VC their name and 2-3 previous companies or professional positions from the past (they can also include their current job if they don’t have previous jobs). Step 3: Model a question for the class. Create a question using the past simple or the past progressive sentence frame at the top of the slide. Then, to answer that question, hover over the past simple or the past progressive buttons to show students some example answers. Provide the answer to your question, and ask for 2 volunteers to create the next exchange.
Step 4: Create a rotation so that the student who answers a question becomes the student that asks the question to someone else (remember they can use the chat function to see where others previously worked). Continue until each student has had at least one turn to ask a question and answer a question. Elicit self and peer correction before providing it yourself.
(Slide 20): My Time at Tamtoro Aim: Roleplay answering questions about one’s time at a company using the information on the slide.
Step 1: Ask a student to read the instructions. Step 2: Highlight the sentence frames in the speech bubbles below. Hover over the timing phrase text in each bubble to reveal a helpful list of time phrases to be used in the activity. Step 3: Invite a student to ask the question (speech bubble A) to any of the employees on the slide. Select another student to answer as that person, using the information on the slide as a guide for what they can say. Step 4: Create a rotation so that the student who answers a question becomes the student that asks the question to someone else (remember they can use the chat function to see where others previously worked). Continue until each student has had at least one turn to ask a question and answer a question. Elicit self and peer correction before providing it yourself.
(Slide 21): Discussion Questions Aim: Use the vocabulary words from today’s lesson to ask and answer discussion questions about employment.
About the features on this slide: Hover over the speech bubbles that say “past simple” and “past progressive” at the bottom of the screen to reveal helpful information for answering questions in those tenses.
About the features on this slide: Hover over the “timing phrase” text in speech bubbles A and B to reveal a helpful list of time phrases to be used in the activity.
About the features on this slide: Hover over each numbered cloud to reveal a discussion question.
Step 1: Tell students that now we are going to spend some time asking and answering questions about our own careers. Ask a student to choose a number. Hover over that number and ask a student to read the question aloud. Step 2: Invite multiple students to share their answer for each question. Complete this process for each of the questions on the slide. Elicit self and peer correction before providing it yourself.
(Slide 22): Final Task Aim: Give students a chance to use what they’ve learned today in their own personal context.
Step 1: Show students the final task. Step 2: Give students time to formulate their responses. If students need help remembering the structure for each sentence, hover over the marker to reveal the guide. Step 3: Have students take turns sharing their responses. Tip: If your students don't know a specific word they need for their answer in English, encourage them to use a translation tool to search for the WORD they need (try to discourage them from using translators at the sentence level). Be sure to ask some CCQs to be sure that they've found the correct English words.
(Slide 23): Exit Ticket Ask this question to your students and encourage them to share their answers before the class ends. You can also share some of your lesson highlights with students here.
About the features on this slide: Hover over the green marker to reveal example sentences.
This is the final activity in the lesson before the exit ticket. This is a great moment to include group wide error correction and provide some praise to your class as a whole and for individuals.
Teacher skills
Being a great teacher involves setting your students up for success. With a consistent structure, clear instructions, eliciting and guiding, appropriate error-correction, and many opportunities to practice language, you’ll give students all the tools they’ll need to succeed. This section outlines the importance of each of these skills and gives information on executing some different types of activities.
◉ Giving clear instructions Clear instructions are concise and include only the information students need in order to complete an activity. Follow these steps for clear instructions every time:
1. Action . Begin your instructions with a clear action word (e.g. Write, Read, Listen, Create, Imagine, etc.)
2. Partners? Be clear about your expectations for students to work in pairs, groups, or individually. Say this part of the instructions as simply as possible (e.g. Work with a partner, Work individually/alone, Julia, please work with Sam)
3. Step by step. Give only the instructions necessary for the step of the activity you are on. If the activity has multiple steps (e.g. First read this dialogue silently, then work with a partner to fill in the blanks, then choose one person to read the dialogue aloud), give the first step alone and when students are ready for the next step, give the instruction for it.
4. Time limits. If necessary, give clear timelines. Finish an instruction by giving a timeframe for students to work. Say “You have 2 minutes” or “Take 3 minutes”. Avoid using loose time frames (e.g. a couple of minutes, take some time, etc.)
◉ Error Correction and Praise Addressing errors in class first requires us to understand the different types of errors our students may make.
1. A lapse is caused by a memory lapse or a slip of the tongue. These errors rarely require error correction but if the lapse causes confusion, it can be addressed by asking the student to repeat themselves OR by simply repeating the word the student misused with an interrogative intonation (eg. His brother?)
2. A mistake is caused by a misuse or mispronunciation of a previously learned (or currently being taught) concept or vocabulary word. Students typically can correct their own mistakes with teacher or peer-guided correction methods. Mistakes, especially those that involve the target language of the lesson should be addressed in the moment.
3. An error is caused by attempting a concept that has never been learned (eg. a student who has only learned the simple present tense attempts to talk about their last weekend but uses only present tense verbs). True errors require not just error correction, but teaching of the entire concept. We recommend making a note of these errors but not correcting them until you’re ready to teach the concept the student is attempting to express.
Approaches to error correction Learning to elicit corrections from your students (self-correction) or their peers (peer correction) in order
to correct is the best FIRST strategy in addressing a lapse or mistake. Indicate to your student that there’s been a mistake by:
● Raising your eyebrows or cocking your head to show that something’s not quite right. This is a physical reaction we make outside the classroom as well when we hear someone say something we don’t quite agree with or hear something that sounds strange.
● Making a short sound to indicate that something’s not quite right. You can say “hmm?” or hum with a higher intonation to indicate that they’ll need to repeat themselves and try again.
● Repeating a mispronounced word or incorrectly conjugated verb back to your student with the same intonation we’d use to ask a question (eg. “eated?”)
● Using your fingers or hands to indicate that there’s been a mistake with word order. ● If a more complex mistake has been made, you can also type it into the chatbox or use the
whiteboard tool on your VC platform.
It’s recommended that you take note (literally) of repeated mistakes your students make in class. Once you notice that students consistently make mistakes with one aspect of your lesson (pronunciation of particular words, verb conjugation, sentence structure or word order, etc.), make sure that you guide students to fixing these mistakes before the lesson ends. Uncorrected mistakes can lead to fossilized errors that are more difficult to correct later on.
If your students are performing a speaking activity (like a dialogue they created for a production activity), record their errors while they are speaking, allowing them the space and focus to complete their work. Then, mention their errors and give them an opportunity to self correct. If they need help, encourage their peers to offer corrections. Please note that error correction should be experienced as an opportunity for learning and a chance to improve; it is not something that should be avoided or seen as punishment. Keep this in mind when you’re guiding your students through error correction.
Praise Praise should be given in a present, genuine manner. Be conscious of the praise words you are using and keep it real with your students. When giving praise during a speaking activity, try to give students specific and enthusiastic praise about what they've done well. Phrases like the ones below tell your students more specifically what it is they've done so well, and are more motivating than a simple "great" or "good job":
● Great pronunciation, Lee! ● Your words flowed so well, Maria! ● You have a very big vocabulary, Guillaume!
◉ Conduct a listening activity Listening is an essential linguistic skill that students need to develop in order to communicate in their L2. However, it’s also one of the most challenging to develop in the classroom, given that a teacher only knows how well a student can listen by assessing their comprehension of the information listened to.
Low-level students often get overwhelmed when performing listening tasks because they have a tendency to try to focus on every word they hear. As soon as they encounter a word they’re not familiar with, they stay stuck thinking about that word while the audio keeps playing and then they miss the rest of the information that they might have understood, had they heard it.
To counter this, try a few of the following steps:
● Have students read the instructions for an activity aloud. Then ask them a few CCQs that help them to predict what it is they are about to listen to (Ok what are we going to hear? / What type of information answers these questions? / What do you think she will say?). The predictions about context and content will help to focus students’ thinking on language that’s useful for the context.
● Tell students they will hear every audio 2-3 times before you ask for the question. This alleviates some of the pressure to understand every word the first time around.
● Remind students that even in their first language, they don’t need to think about every word in order to understand something-- they take most of the words and build meaning from them. The same happens in our L2. It’s not necessary to understand every single word (although there are some words that are more important than others in a sentence).
● Success isn’t 100% comprehension. Total comprehension is great, but these are exercises to build the students’ listening capacity, not to test their already-perfect listening skills. If students aren’t able to answer a comprehension question after a few hints, show them the answer and then listen again to the audio where that answer appears.
● Invite students to repeat after the audio (or after you)-- perception and production skills are intertwined and research shows that working with both skills together is beneficial to adult language learners.
◉ Conduct a dialogue activity Dialogues are a great way to give your low-level students more speaking practice while their grammar knowledge is still being built. Using a dialogue is also useful for exposing students to natural sentence structures-- in the same way that reading helps students encounter more vocabulary and sentences, saying these dialogues aloud helps them to work on multiple skills at once.
Think of dialogues as a set of training wheels for a bicycle-- students have the necessary structure there to get going and have a conversation in a specific context. You can also think of dialogues as a science lab-- students have all the tools they need to try out different combinations, insert new vocabulary words and phrases, etc. and see what happens!
Some students may be nervous about participating in a dialogue because of their pronunciation. A great way to get a group of students warmed up for a dialogue activity is to invite all students to participate as Person B, simultaneously, while you act as Person A. The group of voices all speaking together means everyone gets a dry run of saying the pronunciation and no one feels too singled out. You’re also likely to get a laugh when everyone in the dialogue gets to a part where they need to add their own
information and the result is a jumble of words or names. Breaking the ice to get students to really work on their pronunciation, fluency, and the target language of the lesson is an important step to start with.
If your VC platform allows you to create small rooms for pairs or small groups and broadcast a slide to them, that’s a great way to get students to work together on a dialogue. However, if you need to keep everyone in the same room to interact with the slide, try a few of these tips to keep everyone engaged:
● Model the dialogue with one student and then ask that student to switch to Person A and select Person B. Then the new student will become Person A and select their Person B, and so on until everyone has had at least one turn speaking as both people. The possibility of being selected suddenly is a great motivation for students to stay engaged even when they’re not speaking.
● Ask students to find one thing to praise and one thing to improve for each round of the dialogue. This gives students who aren’t actively speaking a task to focus on that keeps them engaged in the activity.
● Ask students to seek out portions of the dialogue that they could rephrase (if you feel that they’re ready). This gives students an added challenge that will keep them focused as they await their turn.
