Past Modals Intermediate Lesson Plan: "The Worst Week Ever"

Here's a lesson plan that is suitable for Intermediate and Upper Intermediate language students with past modal verbs being the focus. The lesson requires only about 15 minutes of prep to pull off and has a heavy focus on speaking. I recommend doing this lesson for groups of students who already have a decent understanding of past participles. Take a look! I also have a video demonstration of this lesson plan in action that I've posted below.


Intro: 1 minute
Come into class asking students how their day is going. Have a glass of water with you that you are drinking. When you they ask you about your day, spill the water all over yourself. Elicit the concept of having a bad day.


Lead In: 5-7 minutes
Demo out the questions and put students in groups
1. Do you often have bad days?
2. What are three things that can typically happen to make a day go wrong?
3. What are 4 bad, but funny, things that have happened to you this year?


Target Language: 10 minutes 
Before introducing past modals, I think it's wise to review present modals first. Board Could, Should, Would and elicit their meanings and structures briefly. Mention that these are in the present. Elicit from the class how to create a past modal. Board Could/Should/Would + Have + Past Participle. From here, you can elicit the functions and have students give some sample sentences using past modals. Since the use of the past participle is so prevalent in this lesson, it's a good idea to review this as well. Once your students have a handle switching between present and past modals correctly, you can move to your first study.

Study 1: Worksheet 10 minutes

Create a worksheet that has about 5-8 different scenarios on it all related to bad things that can happen during a regular day. Students will comment on the scenarios using all the past modals previously presented. Make sure to put students in pairs/groups for this activity to increase STT

Example

1. You didn't set your alarm and were late for work.
A You Should Have Set your alarm
B You Could Have Called your job and told them you would be late
C I Would Have Been more careful

*Other examples can include: Forgetting your wallet, slipping and falling in mud, forgetting your husband's/wife's birthday...etc.

Note: Monitor through this activity and help the students if they make any mistakes. It's common in the beginning for students to forget the past modal structure and revert back to present modals. If you don't catch these mistakes early, they will make the same mistakes throughout the entire lesson.


Study 2: 10-15 minutes Strips. Students create their own scenarios.
Have a couple of pre-made scenarios (funny ones if you can think of them) that you'll demo with the class. Have these preprepared on strip paper and demo both the scenario and the answers using past modals. In the demo, begin to use natural language and not just past models.
After the demo, put students into small groups and pass out a few strips of paper for each group. Instruct students to create their own scenarios. Once these are done, the group can give advice using past modals to each other. For more practice, have the students switch scenarios with other groups.

Note: When students are using past modals, get them to also use natural language around the past modals. Have them say things like 'That's horrible' 'I'm sorry that happened to you' 'Here's some advice'...etc.

Note: Push contractions! Native English speakers rarely say 'I should have....' Get your students to say Should've/Could've/Would've...etc.


Activation: The Worst Week Ever 10-15 minutes 
Board Monday-Friday on the board. Tell students you've had the worst week in your life and get them to ask you about it. Have them ask you specifically for each day. From here, demo out (if needed) some possibly responses to each of your bad days. Once students have the patterns down, have them give you advice using could have/should have/would have freely. Make sure that they are also using natural language as well

Once this is done, put them into groups and instruct them to create their worst week ever. Tell them to not worry about past modals just yet. They should only be focusing on creating their worst week.
After this, get them to stand up and interact with each other. Their output should sound something like this:
StudentA: Hello Klara how's your week?
StudentB: Not good at all
Student A: What happened?
StudentB: Well on Monday I forgot to do my homework
StudentA: Oh that's horrible. You shouldn't have forgotten to do it. What else went wrong?

   ...and so on.


Have the students switch with the other groups for extra practice. As the activation moves forward, push students to respond faster and more fluidly with their responses. Afterwards, have the class vote on which student had the worst week.

Here's the video!