Past Simple And Past Continuous Lesson Plan for 8th Grade Example Students

Topic: Past Simple and Past Continuous Tenses

Objectives & Outcomes

• Students will be able to use the past simple and past continuous tenses correctly in written and spoken English.

Materials

• Copies of the text for the lesson
• Handouts with examples of sentences using past simple and past continuous tenses
• Pen or pencil for each student

Warm-up

• Ask students to recall when they last did a hobby or activity that they enjoy doing regularly. Ask them to share their experiences with the class and use the past simple tense to describe their actions (e.g. I played football yesterday).
• Then, ask students to think of a hobby or activity that they used to do regularly in the past but no longer do. Ask them to share their experiences with the class and use the past continuous tense to describe their actions (e.g. I was watching TV yesterday).

Direct Instruction

• Introduce the past simple tense and explain that it is used to describe actions that happened once and have already finished (e.g. I played football yesterday).
• Then, introduce the past continuous tense and explain that it is used to describe actions that were happening for a period of time in the past (e.g. I was watching TV yesterday).
• Model the use of both tenses on the board or through examples and provide students with handouts or worksheets to practice using the tenses.

Guided Practice

• Provide students with sentences containing action verbs and ask them to identify the past simple or past continuous tense.
• Write the answers on the board or on a separate sheet of paper.
• Repeat with additional sentences.

Independent Practice

• Provide students with a list of action verbs and ask them to create sentences using the past simple or past continuous tense.
• Encourage them to use their own vocabulary and to be creative.
• Allow time for students to share their sentences with the class and for the teacher to check the answers.Independent Practice
• Provide students with a passage about a hypothetical event and ask them to identify the past simple or past continuous tense in each sentence.
• Encourage them to ask questions if they are unsure about the tense of a particular sentence.
• Allow time for students to read the passage and for the teacher to check the answers.

Independent Practice

• Provide students with a list of past simple and past continuous verb phrases and ask them to create a sentence using each verb phrase.
• Encourage them to use their own vocabulary and to be creative.
• Allow time for students to share their sentences with the class and for the teacher to check the answers.Independent Practice
• Explain that past simple and past continuous are used to talk about completed actions in the past.
• Ask students to imagine a timeline on the classroom wall and to place markers to represent different events in their lives in the past, such as birthdays and holidays.
• Ask students to share a past event they remember and to use past simple or past continuous to describe the event.

Closing Activity

• Have students look back at the sentences they created during the independent practice activity and encourage them to revise their sentences to use past simple or past continuous correctly.
• Alternatively, the teacher can lead a class discussion about the difference between past simple and past continuous and the importance of using the correct tense when writing about the past.