1. TOPIC: TELLING THE NEWS
STUDENT: Diana Mayerlin Gómez
A. DESCRIPTION OF THE CLASS
Level: Upper-intermediate
Ss between 20 -28 years old either women or men. The class takes place on Mondays from 3 PM to
5PM and Wednesdays from 4PM to 6PM. Some of the Ss will tend to participate actively while some
others might show shyness when being asked to give their opinions.
B. RECENT WORK
Ss have already reported orally some articles related to health issues and have also participated in
debates about common daily life situations.
C. OBJECTIVES
1. To use adverbs with the Past and Past Perfect.
2. To learn new vocabulary from current news and to use Past Perfect and Simple Past
3. To distinguish between Past Progressive and Past Simple.
D. CONTENTS
Objective 1: (Estimated time: 20 minutes)
A. Context: Students’ real life
B. Activity: T explains the topic by giving some examples on the slides which stress the
adverbs used with the Past and Past Perfect. T makes groups composed of 5 Ss and
provides them with some strips of paper that contain a specific adverb. T asks Ss to create
some sentences with the adverbs.
T provides Ss with some strips of paper that contain “unexpected experiences”.
Ss must discuss with their peers about their own experiences and choose the most
interesting one to be reported to the class.
C. Aids: slides, strips of paper, Ss notebooks, markers, board
D. Language: adverbs with the Past and Past perfect: up until then, afterwards, when…
E. Possible problems: Ss might confuse the tense to be used when including a specific
adverb.

2. Objective 2: (Estimated time:20 minutes)
A. Context: Mass Media around the world
B. Activity: T asks Ss about the meaning of the word “News”. Ss give their own concepts of
this term. T explains the different kinds of news (and the sections where they are usually
included in a newspaper).
T asks Ss to think about the most recent news that they have seen. Some Ss are asked to
report them orally to the class.
T explains some grammar points related to the Past Perfect and gives some examples of its
use when telling news.
T makes groups composed of 5 people and provides each group with a short article that
contains different “nutty news”. Ss read this news on each group. T asks about what they
read to each group.
Ss listen to a news report on an online video and they are asked to report the main idea
about it and to give their personal opinions.
C. Aids: Online video, photocopies, board, markers.
D. Language: Past Perfect, news vocabulary.
E. Possible Problems: Ss might have some problems when reporting their news (using a
specific verbal tense). Ss might need some help with some vocabulary included on the news
articles.
Objective 3: ( Estimated time: 20 minutes)
A. Context: Students’ real life
B. Activity: T explains the use of the Past Progressive and Simple Past with the help of some
slides. T organizes three lines with the same amount of Ss. T shows on the slides three
sentences that contain “Embarrassing Moments”.
T assigns one sentence per line and asks Ss to pass a sheet of paper among them. T asks
Ss to create a story while they pass the paper. Ss are also asked to use only Past
Progressive and Simple Past.
T asks to one of the Ss of each line to read aloud their stories. The most creative one will
win some prizes for its writers.
C. Aids: Slides, sheets of paper, board, markers.
D. Language: Simple Past and past Progressive.
E. Possible Problems: Ss might present some problems when conjugating verbs and when
using either Past Progressive or Simple Past.
F. ADDITIONAL POSSIBILITIES
Ss might be asked to make two groups and organize in chronologic order a short story that
has been divided in two parts. Later, they must join the rest of their peers and complete the
whole story to read it aloud for the class.