Language and Content: Past Simple / Present Perfect

GRADES 3-5; 6-8; 9-12

VOCABULARY

LESSON PROCEDURE

Vocabulary

1. Watch the Vocabulary movie to introduce the new words, stopping to ask questions, give examples, and ask students to make connections to the words.
2. For homework, have students find and bring in pictures for the following words: avalanche, glacier, summit, peak, border, and mountain range. They can use any resources, including magazines, the Internet, or they can create their own pictures. Have them glue or draw their pictures on large index cards or 5X8 size card stock (the size of half a sheet of paper). On separate cards, students write information for each word, including the definition, examples, and features. Divide the class into small groups. Mix up all the cards (making sure to keep pictures together with their definitions), and pass them out to the groups. Students play a Memory or Matching game with the cards and definitions. To differentiate, students can use the word in a sentence or give an interesting fact they found out about the word.
3. Project the picture side of Flash Words onto the board or interactive white board. Students label the words they know and then flip the pictures to check if they are correct.

Grammar

1. Watch the Grammar movie.
2. Write the sentences on the board that we used in the Facts to Know section of the previous lesson:
   A. I lived in Paris for three years. I’ve lived in Paris for three years.
   B. I saw that movie yesterday. I’ve seen that movie.
   
   Have students discuss the differences between the sentences with a partner, and then report to the class. They should note differences in meaning and use, as well as form. Alternatively, do it as a Think-Pair-Share activity.
3. To practice using the Past Simple and Present Perfect, have students create their own timelines of important events spanning a decade of their lives. Partners ask and answer questions using the Present Perfect and for and since. For is always followed by a specific point in time. It tells how long the action has continued up to now. Since is always followed by a period of time, and tells when the action began. To ask about specific times, they use the Past Simple. To differentiate, put a bank of needed expressions on the board. Alternatively, partners can write and present mini-dialogues.
   
   For example: How long have you lived in this city?

   I’ve lived here for five years.
   Why did you move here?
   We moved here for my mother’s job.

Movie

1. Before watching the movie We Have Climbed It (L3U3L2), have students do a KWL Chart or an Anticipation Guide to activate prior knowledge and make connections to the topic of Mount Everest. For more about the Anticipation Guide procedure, click here.
2. On a second viewing, have pairs of students find sentences in both the past simple and present perfect tenses (2-3 examples of each). They should write down the sentences, discuss, and practice explaining why the two tenses are used in their examples.

Features

1. Watch Hear It, Say It. Students may listen and repeat sentences from the movie.
2. The following is a cloze/gap-fill activity students can do while listening to Hear It, Say It. To differentiate, students can identify the verb tenses and the reasons the past simple or present perfect were used. Remind students that some of the missing words may be contractions.
   
   a. We _____________________ this mountain before.
   b. You_______ never ____________ of Mount Everest?
   c. I______ only __________ Mount Everest in pictures.
   d. Then, about 50 million years ago, India ____________ into Asia.
   e. India _________________ away from Africa.
   f. It __________________ 3-6 millimeters each year.
3. Students do the remaining interactive features of the lesson: Play It, Warm Up, and You Can Do It.