Lesson plan
Unreal past
Task 1: Error correction (use of English)
Task description: The first task is going to be an error correction task. The students will get 10
sentences concerning the grammatical structures of the unreal past. Among the 10
sentences, there will be 5 correct and 5 incorrect. Students will have to determine whether
each sentence is either faulty or not, and if it is faulty they have to correct it.
After 7 minutes of individual work, we will check the answers one by one and give
explanations if needed.
Materials: Sentences presented on the board.
1. If only I had known something about first aid, I could’ve helped him when he fell off his
bike. (knew) *
2. That job of yours is really getting you down. It’s time you found one more suited to you.
3. We wondered whether you wanted to go out this evening. (were wondering) *
4. She behaved as though she had been the Prime Minister of Greece.
5. I’d rather you didn’t love that terrible boy!
6. Playing in the snow is so much fun! I wish it were snowing here more often. (snowed) *
7. It’s high time you had gone out and looked for a job! (went) *
8. If only I had known that you wanted to come to the cinema with us.
9. If I had gone out less, I would probably studied more. (have studied) *
10. Imagine you had been working on a project and somebody stole the credit from you.
What would you do?
Time: approximately 13 minutes with the answer checking
Work form: individual, written exercise
Aims:
o to check on the knowledge of the students concerning the topic
o to get feedback if there are any unclear parts of the topic
o to practice the grammatical structures of the unreal past
Task 2: Rapid dating
Task description: We will ask the students to create two concentric circles facing each other.
Then we will hand out slips of paper to every student with a scenario written in the unreal
past structure. After that, they will give a thirty-second-long monologue concerning the
content of the piece of paper. After 30 seconds the other person of the pair has to talk about
their scenario very shortly for the same amount of time. When both of them have finished
they switch papers and the inner circle moves clockwise and turn to the next person. We will
do this until our time is up.
Materials: Slips of paper with sentences that focus on the unreal past form.
1. Suppose it had been proved that aliens existed and were living among us.
2. Imagine that humans couldn’t speak. How do you think we’d communicate?
3. What if you were given 3 wishes by a genie in a bottle? What would you wish for?
4. Supposing you woke up one morning and found you’d gone back in time. What would
you do?
5. What if everyone in the world spoke the same language?
6. Suppose you could travel back in time. Where would you go?
7. Imagine you had just been told that a huge meteor was on its way to Earth. What would
be the best thing to do?
8. Supposing the sun stopped shining right now, how long would it take for us to realise?
9. What if the Internet hadn’t been invented? Wouldn’t that be weird?
10. Imagine you won the lottery. What would you do with the money?
11. Suppose all your friends were saying bad things about you behind your back and you
found out. What would you do?
12. Imagine you had a superpower. What would it be, and why?
13. Supposing you had a chance to spend a year in space, would you take it?
14. Supposing you became a millionaire, how would it change your life?
Time: 5-7 minutes
Work form: pair work, speaking
aims:
o oral practice
o involve everyone in the speaking activity
