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Used to lesson plan for intermediate learners (PPP)

old man

Used to lesson plan for intermediate learners (the PPP approach)

This is a lesson plan suitable for intermediate level learners. The aim is to develop students’ ability to talk about past habits using ‘used to’ in the context of childhood. The lesson plan follows a PPP (i.e. Presentation, Practice, and Production) model of grammar teaching and starts with a situation that generates the target structure.

  • Materials needed: pictures of an old man and a child
  • Level: Intermediate
  • Timing: 45 min
  • Objective: The students will be able to use ‘used to’ to talk about past habits.

Preparation

Warm up:

The teacher starts with a warm up to put the students in the mood of learning.

Command drill:

  • Sit down.
  • Hold up your right hand.
  • Show me your pen…

Lead-in:

To prepare the students to the target structure, the teacher reviews the simple past tense

Presentation

The teacher shows a picture of an old man:

old man - used to lesson plan
old man

The teacher asks the following questions:

  1. In your opinion, where is this man from?
  2. Is he married?
  3. Does he have children?
  4. Does he work?
  5. What did he do when he was younger?

After discussing the above questions, the teacher provides the following information:

  • This man is retired now.
  • He used to be a teacher of English.
  • He used to teach both little children and adults.
  • He used to make his students laugh with his funny way of teaching.
  • His students used to love him.
  • Now he is very old. He is retired.

Then the teacher writes the following sentence on the board:

He used to be a teacher

The teacher proceeds to check comprehension and asks the following concept checking questions:

  1. Was he a teacher?
  2. Is he still a teacher now?

Then the teacher elicits the rule of use and form

Use:

We use ‘used to’ to talk about habits or repeated actions in the past which are no longer true.

Form

Used to + bare infinitive

The teacher provides a diagram to clarify the use of the target structure:

Grammar : used to
Grammar : used to

Practice

Matching

1. It’s strange that she works with dogs now
2. I was very healthy when I was
younger
4. He used to be a teacher of English.
5. They live in a huge house now.

a. But when they were poor, they used to live in a tiny flat.
b. But now he is retired.
c. I used to exercise regularly.
d. She didn’t use to like animals.

Put the verbs in brackets in the correct form:

He … (live) in a small house.
He … (take) the dog out in the evening.
He … (wake up) early in the morning.
He …. (not go) to bed late.
He … (read) one book every week.
What about your grandfather. … (be) a teacher too?

Production

child playing
child playing

What was your life like when you were young?

Use the phrases:

  • ‘used to’
  • ‘didn’t use to..’

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