Preintermediate English Lesson Plan: Present Continuous Tense

This lesson plan is designed for preintermediate English learners and focuses on the present continuous tense, building upon the simple present tense. The plan begins with an engaging memory game to introduce actions and then moves into a study phase where the structure of the present continuous tense is explained, including affirmative and negative forms, with examples. Activities include observing actions, using flashcards to create sentences, and completing worksheets to reinforce understanding. The lesson incorporates both teacher-led instruction and student-centered activities, such as mime games and surveys, to encourage active participation and practical application of the tense. The objectives are to help students use the present continuous tense to refer to actions in progress and to describe regular actions at specific times, with anticipated problems and solutions provided to support effective teaching. The plan includes detailed procedures, timing, and interaction methods for each phase (Engage, Study, Activate), ensuring a comprehensive and interactive learning experience.

LESSON PLAN
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Teacher: …….. Room: N/A
Observer: N/A Expected numbers: 9
Date & Time: 10/03/2016 Class level: Preintermediate
Language Points: Present continuous tense and a continuation of the lesson on simple
present tense.
Teaching aids: Whiteboard makers, papers, postits, markers, flash card and worksheets
Learner objectives:
To foucus on the usage of referring to the
actions in progress at the time of speaking.
Personal aims:
To conduct the lesson so all students are engaged
and enjoy the lesson in a way that will lead them
to learn the lesson objective in the process.
Anticipated problems for students:
Students maybe shy or reluctant to engage with
other student they don't know in class.
Solution:
Allow students to choose to sit and work with
who they are familiar with when doing exercises
in each phase. Also can start with students
turning to their neightbour introduce themselves
and say one thing that interests them.
Anticipated problems for teacher:
Not all students would be attentative and
engaged if they just listen to the teacher
speaking most of the time, in addition not
remembering the important things if explained
by lecturing only.
Solution:
Try to minimise speaking and write the key
concepts and explainations on the board in
summarised form and request students to take
note of them. Try to make sure students get
every oppurtunity to speak and discuss in each of
the ESA phases.
Procedure Phase Timing Interaction
Welcome class and explain how to play the memory game.
The teacher will begin with an example such as 'writing' then
students must continue to add on actions with 'ing' to the list.
Then the next student must list the actions then add their own
action to the list and so on until everyone has a turn. If a
student doesnt remember the list then the teacher can help
them then they can add their own action and continue to the
next student. The teacher should follow the list and write it
down to ensure no words are skipped or used twice. The teach
can ask questions to the students such as,
‘Can someone give me an example of when we would use this
sentence?’, ‘Is it the present simple or the present continuous
tense?’, ‘Do you do this every day?’, ‘Is it something you are
doing right now?
Engage 5 min T-S
For this activity, the teacher can take the students out of the
classroom. He/she can ask the students to look around and
Study 5-7min S-S

describe whatever they can see at that moment. The students
are expected to make sentences using the present continous
tense. The teacher can also ask questions like:
"What is that man doing?"
"What are they going?"
"Are you breathing?" etc.
Then explain to students that we will learn and study a
form of present tense that is used in our daily lives. Start
by writing the structures:
Affirmative: subject + aux. verb 'be' + verb+ing
Negative: subject + aux. verb 'be' + not verb+ing
Write examples: 'She is eating', 'we aren't coming' and
examples using the 'actions in progress at the time of
speaking' usage such as 'she is usually brushing her
teeth at this time', 'he's usually not exercising at this
time'. Ask students if they understand the structure and
if they have any questions.
Then the students will be chosen randomly to come up
with a sentence using this form and a ‘actions in progress
at the time of speaking’ that was used earlier in the
lesson. The teacher can help the student form the
sentence if they are having trouble.
If the students are not able to form the sentences then
the teacher should give more examples until they
understand.
Study 10-
15min T-S
The teacher can use word cards. The flash cards can have
random words in it. Each of the students has to choose a pair
of cards. There will be diffrerent rounds of this activity as
well. When the round comes to a student, he/she has to create
a sentence with the words in the cards. For instance, a student
has got two words 'walk' and 'dog'. A possible sentence with
these words would be: "I was walking on the street while I
saw a dog". The teacher can also ask the students to be more
creative with the words. This activity can be fun for them and
at the same time they can learn the grammer.
Study 5-7min T-S
Now hand out a worksheet that asks students to make
up present continuous tense phrases. (please see
worksheet i made up, attached to this lesson plan) then
go over any errors the students may have.
Study 10min S-S
Actions in progress: One of the students could use
mimes to demonstrate an action, animal or something
Activate 10min S-S

and the other students need to guess it. They could ask
questions like ‘are you a hamster?’ and ‘are you flying?'
Students are divided into groups. Each group is given 5
actions each and they must prepare a survey of 5
questions to find out whether the students are learning to
use the present and past continuous tense. The students will
describe their regular activities using continuous tense. For
example, "I was brushing my teeth in the moring when I saw
a bird." "I was walking towards school." "I am breathing right
now". The teacher can ask few questions as well, so that the
students get more comfortable with the usage of continuous
tense.
I expect students to be able to know some action
vocabulary and understand the present continuous form
and how it can be used when referring to a regular
action at a specific point in time.
Activate 10min S-S