LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

• talk about past times and childhood;
• learn and practise used to and would for past situations;
• watch part of a video on childhood memories.

Students talk about their childhood, compare past and present habits, and practise using ‘used to’ and ‘would’ to describe repeated actions or states in the past. They watch a video about people’s childhood memories and explore grammar points on how to use the structures. Students also work in pairs and discuss life changes using the target structures.

WARM-UP AND GRAMMAR

This lesson begins with a warm-up. Students look at different categories (e.g. a film, a food, a game) and give an example from their childhood for each. They explain their choice. Moving on, students look at leisure activities (e.g. play with building blocks, go skateboarding, play chess) and discuss questions about their childhood. Afterwards, they watch part of a video (to 02:20) where people discuss things they did when they were children. Students tick the activities from the previous task they hear. Next, they match pairs of sentences from the video that were said by the same speaker. Students then watch the video again to check their answers. After that, they look at examples of used to and would in sentences and complete a table with √ or X to show the use of each structure.

GRAMMAR PRACTICE AND DISCUSSION

In this part of the lesson, students read sentences about past situations and choose the correct option between used to and would. After that, they read statements and complete gaps with the correct form of used to and would (e.g. People didn’t use to stress as much in the past. Now there are too many worries to consider). Afterwards, students look at the statements from the previous task again and discuss whether they agree or disagree with them. They give reasons. Finally, students work in pairs. They choose a situation (e.g. before you had your first pet) and share how their life was different before it happened. Students use different forms of used to and would. Their partner asks them follow-up questions using used to. Students then swap roles.

HOMEWORK/REVISION

This lesson plan also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students find and correct mistakes in sentences. They then make one of the sentences true for them. The task is available in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. You can print it and hand it out to your students. It’s also included in the e-lesson plan.