Alibi

Lesson 1 The Present Perfect Continuous

Discovery Draw a sketch, showing a sunny day, a stickman with a To introduce the
folded umbrella and some puddles. Present Perfect
Elicit a sentence about the weather: ‘It’s sunny.’ Continuous

Ask: ‘Why has the man got an umbrella? Was it sunny about
20 minutes ago?’
(Answer: ‘It was rainy 20 minutes ago.’)
We do not know when the rain started or finished but can
see that it has recently stopped. There is a connection with now:
‘It has been raining.’

Read the 1. Jack had a swimming lesson and didn’t dry his hair. You You might want to
following meet him. He’s got his swimming kit and his hair is wet. give students some
situations and So, he …(‘s been swimming) time to write down
elicit sentences their ideas and
compare them in
pairs. Or students
2. You meet Jane, she’s wearing a tracksuit and is out of might volunteer
breath. So, she…(‘s been jogging.) their sentences in
open class.

Accept all the

3. Your younger brother came home and his clothes are ideas with the
torn and dirty. right concept.
So, he…(‘s been playing football/’s been playing with his There are no
dog.) wrong or right
answers here.

Controlled Do the previous activity the other way round.

practice
Give the students the last line of a situation:
• He’s been packing for the holidays.
• She’s been crying.
• She’s been cooking.
• She’s been painting.
• He’s been having a party.

In pairs students come up with the situations

(write 3-5 sentences.)
A pair of students reads or describes their situation for
others to guess the ending.
 Alibi

Grammar Choose three grammar exercises from your course-book. Use any present
exercises It would be better if they are of different levels of difficulty. perfect continuous
exercises from your
Each exercise has its own level, i.e. how many points you course-books.
can earn when you complete the task.
The level is marked on the title page by a different number
of asterisks: 1, 2 and 3.
Each task should be done by two students. But only the To drill grammar
student with the biggest number of correct answers gets using the ‘Caves’
points. Students decide which exercise to take up and the technique.
person they want to choose as a competitor. It is important
to play 2 or more rounds so that students can think about Follow the link
their strategy. “This student is very strong, I don’t want to https://medium.
compete with him”. com/@peresada/
Don’t worry if a student chooses one and the same task how-we-work-with-
several times. At this stage we are focused on teaching caves-3b9a510bae1d
and not testing. This is how he or she masters his/her to find more
skill. In the first round the student can do only 2 out of 10 information about
sentences correctly. In the second round with the same task the ‘Caves’.
his result will become better.
Print out several copies of each exercise, each on a separate
piece of paper.
On the reverse side, draw 1 asterisk for exercise #1, 2 —
for exercise #2, 3 — exercise #3.
Put the papers on the table with asterisks facing up.
Announce the first round.
Ask students to decide which exercise they want to do.
Stress the idea that only 2 students can do each exercise.
Students make their choices and put on the task they are
going to do a game piece or any other small item, which
will represent them.
Give students a minute and a half to do the tasks in pairs.
When the time is up, everybody should stop, put down
his or her pen. Students swap their papers and check their
partners’ works.
The person in the pair with the biggest number of correct
answers wins the points indicated.
Go for the second round.

Analyze Elicit how to form the Present Perfect Continuous and

when to use it.
Draw a grammar table on the board for students to copy
into their notebooks.
 Alibi
What’s the Use evidence cards from Alibi Game.
matter? Show a card and ask, for example: ‘Your hair is wet. What’s
the matter? What have you been doing?’
Students look at the card and answer, for example:
‘I’ve been swimming.’ or ‘It’s been raining.’

Divide students into pairs or small groups, give them some

evidence cards.

One of the students draws a card from the pile and asks the
partner questions about the card, for example:
‘Your hair is wet. What’s the matter? What have you been
doing?’

example: ‘I’ve been swimming.’ or ‘It’s been raining.’

Play the game Play the game Alibi according to the rules.
https://trendyenglishgames.com/product/alibi/

Lesson 2

Warm-up On the board draw a symbol of some activities.

(It might be a book, a football, a word ‘Merci’, etc.
Write the question frames on the board:
Have you been (doing smth)?
How long have you been (doing smth)?
Ask the students to guess the activity
Have you been (reading HP, playing football, learning
French, etc.)?

Controlled Ask the students to do the same: think of a symbol of an

practice

Ask the students to mingle, ask and answer questions about

their symbols.

At the end of the activity ask the students if they found

someone with the same activity or report any interesting
facts they have learned about each other.

Follow-up
Ask the student to write a detective story and describe
Activity what had been happening in the hotel and who was guilty.
Freer practice