Hi, I need some Past Continuous activities/games. It's an introduction to the Past Continuous. Any ideas appreciated.
Class background:
1. smart class. All learn quickly.
2. Textbook: English Time 5
3. I cannot find good material in my resources for activity games/supplemental marterial.
I have a time line on the board and the basic, I was ____-ing, when you ____ past simple.
Any help is greatly appreciated. -Brix
Past Continuous Activities needed
Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2
-
fluffyhamster
- Posts: 3031
- Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 6:57 pm
- Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
About the simplest activity I can recall is to complete a stem like '(Just think,) (T)his time last year/(A) year ago, I was...(!)'. This would seem to suit "fondly reminiscing" more than not (unless people really like to talk about awful pasts!), but if your students aren't in exactly slightly less pleasant circumstances this year LOL then maybe you can show them people who are! For example, a cartoonishly raggedy castaway guy on a desert island still, and now on Christmas Day (according to the days he's been crossing off on a washed-up calendar he'd salvaged and religiously kept track of time on ever since being shipwrecked) thinking to himself... (about all the fun he was having last year, eating turkey, drinking, watching TV etc etc, when safe and sound in the lap of luxurious civilization).* Or you could show a banker...(oh, wait, they're still doing OK aren't they!). But it would of course also be fine to complete the stem in a much more factual, matter-of-fact manner (hence the bracketing in the above "example" stem).
A variant on the above is of course the 'Where were you (and/)what were you doing when ((in)famous, reasonably contemporaneous event) happened? Can you remember?' (For example, ...when Desert Storm began? Or ...on 9/11? etc).
Or you could simply use (or even recycle) pictures that have a lot of activity/activities in them or are telling a story (even if such pics have been used previously, for more present-tensed language practice).
Putting the onus more on the student's own imaginations, though still giving them some sort of storytelling structure/organizing framework, you could try the 'Fortunately/Unfortunately' activity outlined here: http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewtopic.php?t=9143 . This activity definitely suits the use of narrative 'I/X was ...ing...', but I'd allow simple co-ordination (or indeed no explicit linking of clauses at all: I was sitting in the park (and/?when) # There was an old man sitting next to me...), and note that prepositions can do a lot of easy work: I was in O'Malley's bar (is it really necessary to say 'drinking', unless it happened to be a particularly strong/rare/expensive drink we were having?); see also the 'on' in the 9/11 example above.
More genuinely dialogically, Past Progressive (just varying the terminology used, for the purposes of whoever may be searching in future for info/activities for this form/construction) can be associated with questions that demand answers/explanations, with the classic activity being 'Alibi'.** But rather than having cops and robbers being played out in yet another classroom, you might instead like to consider the more down-to-earth activity of making excuses for e.g. failing to turn up for a meet(ing): Why did(n't) you...?/Where were you? What were you doing?! It wouldn't take long to think up and make a deck of simple pictures illustrating various problems/excuses (that the students in a group can take turns turning over, thinking about then trying to formulate/"answer" - the question always stays the same (perhaps the person who answered last can then ask the question of the next answerer), but make sure that you include at least a few things that might not require progressive aspect (e.g. My car (had) broke(n) down, rather than ?My car was breaking down), or do but can also be expressed without (I was fixing the front door lock (to the house)/I had to fix the front door lock; ?I fixed the front door lock).
You might also like to try searching (structurally) the BNC @ BYU for authentic Past Continuous examples - good contexts can suggest further activities or variants of activities. Instructions here: http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewt ... 1753#41753 .
Hope this gives you a few ideas that you can work with, develop and use successfully, Brix!
*If you aren't much of an artist, or you (or others) would like to see what sort of picture I might come up with to illustrate this activity, I can crack out my marker pen and paper, draw something, and post it on Imageshack!
**The set up I'm familiar with (the Idea Cookbook here on Dave's may have some variant) is that you announce there was a robbery last night e.g. at some local bank or store, then two students are chosen as suspects, sent out of the room and given a few minutes to work out what they were both doing (they'll supply each other with an alibi) whilst the rest of the students are assigned the police role (and potential subroles: good cop, bad cop, shorthand notetaker(s) etc) and anticipate/practice what sort of questions they might ask in order to uncover inconsistencies between the two stories. You'll need to flit in and out and monitor/help with how the suspects and police are each preparing for the coming "interrogation". Each suspect is then led in separately and questioned individually/alone. If the police can uncover (n) number of inconsistencies between each story given say five minutes questioning of each suspect, then the implication is that the suspects are guilty, meaning the police have got their men/women and thus won/solved the case.
A variant on the above is of course the 'Where were you (and/)what were you doing when ((in)famous, reasonably contemporaneous event) happened? Can you remember?' (For example, ...when Desert Storm began? Or ...on 9/11? etc).
Or you could simply use (or even recycle) pictures that have a lot of activity/activities in them or are telling a story (even if such pics have been used previously, for more present-tensed language practice).
Putting the onus more on the student's own imaginations, though still giving them some sort of storytelling structure/organizing framework, you could try the 'Fortunately/Unfortunately' activity outlined here: http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewtopic.php?t=9143 . This activity definitely suits the use of narrative 'I/X was ...ing...', but I'd allow simple co-ordination (or indeed no explicit linking of clauses at all: I was sitting in the park (and/?when) # There was an old man sitting next to me...), and note that prepositions can do a lot of easy work: I was in O'Malley's bar (is it really necessary to say 'drinking', unless it happened to be a particularly strong/rare/expensive drink we were having?); see also the 'on' in the 9/11 example above.
More genuinely dialogically, Past Progressive (just varying the terminology used, for the purposes of whoever may be searching in future for info/activities for this form/construction) can be associated with questions that demand answers/explanations, with the classic activity being 'Alibi'.** But rather than having cops and robbers being played out in yet another classroom, you might instead like to consider the more down-to-earth activity of making excuses for e.g. failing to turn up for a meet(ing): Why did(n't) you...?/Where were you? What were you doing?! It wouldn't take long to think up and make a deck of simple pictures illustrating various problems/excuses (that the students in a group can take turns turning over, thinking about then trying to formulate/"answer" - the question always stays the same (perhaps the person who answered last can then ask the question of the next answerer), but make sure that you include at least a few things that might not require progressive aspect (e.g. My car (had) broke(n) down, rather than ?My car was breaking down), or do but can also be expressed without (I was fixing the front door lock (to the house)/I had to fix the front door lock; ?I fixed the front door lock).
You might also like to try searching (structurally) the BNC @ BYU for authentic Past Continuous examples - good contexts can suggest further activities or variants of activities. Instructions here: http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewt ... 1753#41753 .
Hope this gives you a few ideas that you can work with, develop and use successfully, Brix!
*If you aren't much of an artist, or you (or others) would like to see what sort of picture I might come up with to illustrate this activity, I can crack out my marker pen and paper, draw something, and post it on Imageshack!
**The set up I'm familiar with (the Idea Cookbook here on Dave's may have some variant) is that you announce there was a robbery last night e.g. at some local bank or store, then two students are chosen as suspects, sent out of the room and given a few minutes to work out what they were both doing (they'll supply each other with an alibi) whilst the rest of the students are assigned the police role (and potential subroles: good cop, bad cop, shorthand notetaker(s) etc) and anticipate/practice what sort of questions they might ask in order to uncover inconsistencies between the two stories. You'll need to flit in and out and monitor/help with how the suspects and police are each preparing for the coming "interrogation". Each suspect is then led in separately and questioned individually/alone. If the police can uncover (n) number of inconsistencies between each story given say five minutes questioning of each suspect, then the implication is that the suspects are guilty, meaning the police have got their men/women and thus won/solved the case.
I like to use this activity for students to understand the difference between simple past and past continuous.
I write two sentences on the board:
Example:
The students were studying when the teacher entered the class.
The students studied when the teacher entered the class.
Then the students work in a group to act out the two different scenarios.
For this example, they would need to make it clear that in one example they are studying before the teacher enters, and in the other, after the teacher enters.
It helps to get them to understand the differences, and highlights how interruptions are used with past continuous.
Other examples I've used that work well.
They were dancing when the country music came on.
They danced when the country music came on.
She was talking to him when her boyfriend entered.
She talked to him when her boyfriend entered.
The sentences can change depending on the level and maturity of the students. But, promote acting and role-playing to get the most out of the activity.
I posted this activity on one of my sites, and you can find it here:
http://eslteachingideas.blogspot.com/20 ... ivity.html
Good luck!
Dave
I write two sentences on the board:
Example:
The students were studying when the teacher entered the class.
The students studied when the teacher entered the class.
Then the students work in a group to act out the two different scenarios.
For this example, they would need to make it clear that in one example they are studying before the teacher enters, and in the other, after the teacher enters.
It helps to get them to understand the differences, and highlights how interruptions are used with past continuous.
Other examples I've used that work well.
They were dancing when the country music came on.
They danced when the country music came on.
She was talking to him when her boyfriend entered.
She talked to him when her boyfriend entered.
The sentences can change depending on the level and maturity of the students. But, promote acting and role-playing to get the most out of the activity.
I posted this activity on one of my sites, and you can find it here:
http://eslteachingideas.blogspot.com/20 ... ivity.html
Good luck!
Dave
-
fluffyhamster
- Posts: 3031
- Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 6:57 pm
- Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
Nice activity idea generally Dave, but I'm not sure that 'The students studied when the teacher entered the class' (etc) sounds quite as natural as, say, 'The students started studying/to study (again?) when(ever?) the teacher (re?)entered the class'. (I know that potentially having 'studying' in each sentence of the paired contrast perhaps makes things appear a bit blurry, but with my proposed change you do get the quite salient 'started' for, er, a start! Which could in fact help with all that before, after and interruptions stuff: simply compare 'were...' (comparatively stative) with 'started' (exactly what the word itself says! More "punctual", relative to, indeed related to, contingent upon, the other action etc)).
Which could in fact help with all that before, after and interruptions stuff: simply compare 'were...' (comparatively stative) with 'started' (exactly what the word itself says! More "punctual", relative to, indeed related to, contingent upon, the other action etc)).Not too sure what you mean exactly.
I was just trying to show the difference between an action that was continuing when the interruption happened, and an action that started when the the interruption happened.
I find students never seem to understand how to use the past continuous regarding interruptions. They need to improve on the difference between:
I called the police when the accident happened
I was calling the police when the accident happened. (calling about something else)
Taking out the continuous means they can't practice actions that were occurring when something else happened.
I was just trying to show the difference between an action that was continuing when the interruption happened, and an action that started when the the interruption happened.
I find students never seem to understand how to use the past continuous regarding interruptions. They need to improve on the difference between:
I called the police when the accident happened
I was calling the police when the accident happened. (calling about something else)
Taking out the continuous means they can't practice actions that were occurring when something else happened.
-
fluffyhamster
- Posts: 3031
- Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 6:57 pm
- Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
I'm just wondering if there are subtler semantics at play regarding the verb-examples used (invented?). For example, it would obviously be natural (indeed the expected, done thing) to call the police straight after/when an accident (had) happened, though as you say, one could (albeit very coincidentally) have already been calling them about something else just prior to the accident. But to me, studying is an activity that is better in the progressive and/or "quantified" in some way (e.g. its starting point marked - 'started studying' - or its duration or nature given: I studied (Macbeth/) for an hour last night). That is, the Simple tense given here to one apparent exemplar of STUDY sounds IMHO a bit too "general" (like, but not quite as acceptable as the non-past generalization 'The students study when the teacher enters'), in this specific verb-example-context. But hey, I could be wrong (and am probably not writing very clearly still!), and I am only wondering, like I say! 
-
longshikong
- Posts: 88
- Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2009 1:49 am
Why not edu-tain them?
Give a student a set of actions to mime (or do them yourself with shy ss):
1. Prepare to cook a meal
2. Cook the meal
3. Serve the meal
4. Eat the meal
5. Wash the dishes
6. take out the trash
At each stage, have something hilarious happen that you know ss will have the language for. For example, at stage 1, cut your finger and over-react as you cut vegetables or squint and wipe your eyes as you chop onions. At stage 2, burn yourself by touching the hot element. At stage 3, drop something...etc.
When finished, elicit #1 from the class. Before you pair/group up ss to discuss 2 to 6, preteach any vocab they might need.
You can even follow up by asking pairs/groups if they remember what stage they were discussing when you stopped to listen, help them.
Give a student a set of actions to mime (or do them yourself with shy ss):
1. Prepare to cook a meal
2. Cook the meal
3. Serve the meal
4. Eat the meal
5. Wash the dishes
6. take out the trash
At each stage, have something hilarious happen that you know ss will have the language for. For example, at stage 1, cut your finger and over-react as you cut vegetables or squint and wipe your eyes as you chop onions. At stage 2, burn yourself by touching the hot element. At stage 3, drop something...etc.
When finished, elicit #1 from the class. Before you pair/group up ss to discuss 2 to 6, preteach any vocab they might need.
You can even follow up by asking pairs/groups if they remember what stage they were discussing when you stopped to listen, help them.
Quite a few worksheets for fun practice of Past Continuous on my blog here:
http://tefltastic.wordpress.com/workshe ... past-cont/
http://tefltastic.wordpress.com/workshe ... past-cont/
Last edited by alexcase on Sun Oct 14, 2012 9:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
-
longshikong
- Posts: 88
- Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2009 1:49 am
It's obvious you've never done TEFL as you'd soon realize by living overseas how much of what you take for granted is totally new. Furthermore, if someone already understands your highly contextualized language such as the in this miming exercise, why bother having them mime it:alexcase wrote:Quite a few worksheets for fun practice of Past Continuous on my blog here:
http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheets ... st-tenses/
You are opening up your in-flight meal
You are searching a passenger’s hand luggage
You are waiting for your bags to appear on the carousel
There's too many websites like yours that I don't even waste time visiting.
As I offer my activities for free and make no money from them, I don't make any particular claims for them or how they will work with other people's classes, but with the classes I wrote these for they worked really well. They give the idea that Past Continuous is basically Present Continuous in the past (especially if they've done Present Continuous mimes in the past and you get them to say "When I said stop..." before each sentence). The travel language was really useful for students who only heard English when they went on holiday and so we did other lessons on typical phrases they would hear, and we also tied it into compound nouns, especially ones that are different in "Japanese English"