PEDAGOGIC ACTIVITY

A Story to Tell CURSO 4

Programa de Adultos

Pre:Think about the issue...

Read the following facts about the history of Valentine’s day. Which do you
think are true? Choose the best option. Then write the past tense of the
Interaction verbs in the chart. What do these verbs have in common?

a. In the U.S Valentine’s day is celebrated on PRESENT PAST

a. February 14th b. February 4th
1. marry 1. ______________
b. The tradition originated in 2. convert 2. _____________
a. the new continent b. the old continent 3. need 3. ______________
4. live 4. ______________
c. According to legend Valentine was 5. ______________
5. discover
a. a soldier b. a priest 6. ______________
6. start
d. The cause of Valentine’s death was 7. die 7. ______________
a. a death penalty b. an illness 8. challenge 8. ______________
9. share 9. _____________
e. Valentine was sentenced to die because 10. _____________
10. celebrate
a. he disobeyed the 11. _____________
b. he had a girlfriend 11. rule
emperor’s rules
12. prohibit 12. _____________

Listening

A teacher narrates her favorite version of how Saint

Valentine’s Day: Valentine’s day originated. Listen to her story and
A Legend of Love complete the ideas with some missing verbs from the
chart above.

1. Yesterday we _______________ Valentine’s day in school.

2. The history of how this tradition actually ________________, tells a story of love,
compassion and sacrifice.
3. Valentine _____________ in Italy at the time emperor Claudius second __________
the country.
4. Claudius ______________ lots of soldiers to protect the country in war.
5. He _______________ marriage, but Valentine ________________ his orders.
6. Valentine secretly ________________ the couples to Chrisitanity and _____________
them.
7. Claudius’s soldiers ________________ Valentine and put him in prison.
8. Valentine ______________ on February the 15th, after he was beheaded.

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While:Build your language skills
CURSO 4
verbs Programa de Adultos
adjectives
no
un
s Language
Structure

PAST TENSE: Regular Verbs Most Regular Verbs are formed

by adding +-ed to form the past.
However, some other changes in
Affirmative Form spelling may take place:
• add only +-d when the verb ends in -e:
started classes in school
Present Past
+ a nice Valentine’s describe described
shared
celebration share shared
I, you, he, she,
it, we, you, they a fun game during • add +-ed when the verb ends in -y
_ played break time preceeded by a vowel:
Present Past
studied for the English test
play played
stay stayed
*Remember: • For verbs ending in -y preceeded by a
The Past Simple is used for actions that started and consonant, change -y into +-ied:
ended at a particular time in the past. In most cases Present Past
past tense expressions (yesterday, last night, two years cry cried
ago, in 1980, etc) are used. Look at these examples study studied
from the listening on the previous page:
• For verbs ending in consonant-vowel-
• Yesterday we celebrated Valentine’s day in school. consonant, double the final consonant
• Valentine lived in Rome when Claudius was an emperor. and ad +-ed:
• Claudius II ruled the country in the third century.
• Valentine helped lovers. He married them secretly. Present Present
• Valentine died on February the 14th. travel travelled
stop stopped

Practice
Complete Mark’s description of his Sunday look open organize rain play
with suitable verbs from the box in past. share start walk laugh explain
Make sure you apply appropriate spelling stop stay help clean call
rules. hurry enjoy study invite

It was a gray Sunday. It ________________ all morning long, so I ________________ home and
____________________ mom with the house chores. I also ___________________ my bedroom,
which was a complete mess. After that, I _____________________ my best friends, Tom and Alice, and
_____________________ them to come home. We _____________________ videogames for a while
and we _________________ for our math exam. When the rain finally _____________________,
we ___________________ to our favorite park. By then, it was 2:00 p.m., and Mr. Sullivan, the gardener, was around cutting some grass.
He is a nice, talkative, interesting gentleman who tells the best stories about the time he was a child. He _________________ some of his
funny anecdotes with us and we surely ____________________ a lot. When we ___________________ at the time in our watches, it was
almost 7:00 at night! It was very late, so we ____________________ to get home as fast as we could. I was sure mom was very upset by then.
I _____________________the door and there she was, sitting in the livingroom looking really upset, so I __________________ the
reason for our delay. Before going to bed, I _____________________ my backpack with all my school supplies to get ready for a new week.
Sunday ____________________ a little slow and boring, but after all, I certainly ___________________ this day with my friends.
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 Say it Correctly
CURSO 4
Programa de Adultos

Regular verbs follow three different pronunciation

Pronunciation tip patterns:

/d/ /t/ / Id /

Verbs ending in b, g, l, m, Verbs ending in f, k, p, s, Verbs ending in t or d are

n, r, u, v, w, y, z and vowel sh, x, ch are pronounced pronounced /Id/in past.
sounds, are pronounced with with a /t/ sound in past. Listen to your teacher and
a /d/ sound in past. Listen Listen to your teacher and practice:
to your teacher and practice: practice:
open opened work worked want wanted
share shared wash washed need needed
live lived laugh laughed paint painted
call called stop stopped shout shouted
move moved look looked attend attended
love loved watch watched assist assisted
stay stayed dance danced end ended
clean cleaned finish finished graduate graduated
rain rained talk talked invite invited

Dictation Exercise: Student A

Get in pairs. Student B goes to page 4. First, circle the verbs in your
Interaction group of sentences and think about their pronunciation. Then take
turns dictating the sentences to your classmate. He / She will write
them on the lines. Once both finish, correct your work.

A B
1. We lived in New York for many years. 1. _______________________________

2. I invited ten friends to my party. 2. _______________________________

3. We cleaned our desk after class. 3. _______________________________

4. The baby cried all night long. 4. _______________________________

5. She planted a tree in the yard. 5. _______________________________

6. Mom cooked a delicious dinner for us. 6. _______________________________

7. My parents traveled in July. 7. _______________________________

8. We studied a lot for our quiz. 8. _______________________________

9. The teacher talked about friendship. 9. _______________________________

10. We shared a pizza for lunch. 10. ______________________________

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 Dictation Exercise:
Interaction STUDENT B CURSO 4
Programa de Adultos

A B
1. _______________________________ 1. The car stopped at the red light.

2. _______________________________ 2. Our class started on time.

3. _______________________________ 3. I stayed in my friend’s apartment.

4. _______________________________ 4. The boss called us for a meeting.

5. _______________________________ 5. I attended an interesting conference.

6. _______________________________ 6. Dad graduated in 1980.

7. _______________________________ 7. My sister wanted a book for her birthday.

8. _______________________________ 8. THe artist painted a beautiful landscape.

9. _______________________________ 9. We walked along the beach on Sunday.

10. ______________________________ 10. I worked until 10:00 at night yesterday.

July and Mark tak about what they each did last weekend. Listen to
Listening them describe some of the activities and write the regular verbs you
hear in the correct tense under each picture.

Pronunciation tip
July Mark
a. ___________________ a. ___________________ Linking sounds in English:
Linking is a common phenomenon in spoken
b. ___________________ b. ___________________ English, which consists of moving smoothly
from one word to the next without stopping.
Speakers from other languages may think only
c. ___________________ c. ___________________ one word is being pronounced. The past of
Regular Verbs /t/, /d/ or /Id/ is clearly more
noticeable when the first sound of the following
d.___________________ d.___________________ word is a vowel sound. Listen to your teacher
and compare:

e. ___________________ e. ___________________ Present Past

We study a lot We studied a lot
f. ___________________ f. ___________________ /d/
I work on Sunday I worked on Sunday
/t/
g. ___________________ g. ___________________ He plants all the He planted all the
/Id/
trees trees

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 Vocabulary
Building CURSO 4
Programa de Adultos

Irregular verbs in past

Irregular verbs generally change both: spelling and pronunciation in the past
tense. However, a few have the same spelling in both tenses. Can you circle
SPELL those verbs in the honeycomb? Write the past tense of all the verbs in the
IT chart.
RIGHT 1. Forgot
2. _____________________
1. Be 3. _____________________
4. _____________________
2. hit 3. go 5. _____________________
6. _____________________
4. run 5. cut 6. hurt 7. _____________________
8. _____________________
7. DO 8. GET 9. MAKE 10. READ 9. _____________________
10. _____________________
11. _____________________
11. run 12. SLEEP 13. DRINK 14. LET 12. _____________________
13. _____________________
15. EAT 16. DRIVE 17. LOSE 18. BUY 14. _____________________
15. _____________________
16. _____________________
219. SPEAK 20. Be 21. BEGIN 17. _____________________
18. _____________________
22. write 23. come 19. _____________________
20. _____________________
21. _____________________
24. come 22. _____________________
23. _____________________
24. _____________________

no

Language
rbs
veadjectives
un
s

Yes/No questions and negative

Structure statements in past tense require the
use of auxiliaries Did/Didn’t:
PAST TENSE: Questions and Negative Forms
• Did you eat breakfast this morning?
Question Form Short Answer: Yes, I did. / No, I didn’t.

Long Answer: Yes, I ate a good breakfast.

cook breakfast?
I, you, he, she, No, I didn’t eat breakfast.
Did sleep well?
it, we, they
? go to the park?
Information questions in the past
_ cook breakfast. are always answered with verbs in past:
I, you, he, she, Did (not)
sleep well.
it, we, they Didn’t
go to the park. • Where did you study English?
I studied English at Universidad de Antioquia.
Information Questions
• What did you do last weekend?
I went to the movies with a friend of mine.
Where you study English?
What Did you do last weekend? * When using auxiliary Did, the verb is written in Present,
How they come to school? even when referring to something you did in the past.

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 Listening
CURSO 4
Programa de Adultos

Fernanda is an immigrant in the U.K who relates an event which inspired

Who Inspired her current job.
Your Work? First Listening:
Listen to her description and circle only the letter of those statements
that are true to her story:

a. She was born in Honduras. f. Fernanda worked for orphans.

b. She was born in 1963. g. She opened an orphanage in

2016.
c. She had many siblings.
h. She didn’t get married.
d. Her parents didn’t work.
i. Mother Teresa inspired her
e. She went to school. work.

Second Listening:
Listen to the interview again. In a few lines describe the event that inspired her current work.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

Practice: Follow up questions

In conversation people usually ask
follow up questions to show interest
and keep communication flowing.
Read this example:
I had my first English class yesterday
How nice! Was it interesting?
Did you like your English teacher?

Read the statements below. Write two possible follow up questions in past using verb Be
or other verbs like in the example above.

1
___________________________________________
I went to a party last Saturday.
___________________________________________

2
___________________________________________
I met a nice girl last weekend. ___________________________________________

3
___________________________________________
I travelled in Europe on vacation. ___________________________________________

4 ___________________________________________
I started a new job yesterday. ___________________________________________

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 Reading &
Listening CURSO 4
Programa de Adultos

Samiya and Lidia were born in two different countries and had
TWO LIFE STORIES different life opportunities. First, guess the sequence of each
story and number the lines separately. Then listen to both life
stories and check your work.

Samiya was born in Nigeria on 18th August 1993, in a
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village near Lagos. _______
When she was fifteen she went to university and
studied information technology. In her fourth year at
university she met her future husband, Obi, and after
they finished university, they got married. ______
Her parents didn’t have a lot of money, and the fami-
ly lived in a small house. Samiya’s father Worked as a
taxi driver and her mother was a teacher. ______
Their apps made a lot of money and with the money,
Samiya bought her parents a new house. ______
In her childhood, Sami was shy, but her parents
knew she was very intelligent; she was really good
at maths and computer games. _______
Samiya and Obi had some great ideas for apps and
together they started a company. The company made
apps for teaching children maths and English.______
Lidia was born on 18th August 1993, in Poland in a
large town near Gdansk. ______
One day she went to a park in Rome to play basket-
ball, and a man walked up to her and took pictures
of her. ______
It was her big moment, but she didn’t become a
basketball star; the man was a fashion photographer
and Lidia became a professional model. With the mon-
ey from her first year’s work, she bought her parents a
new house. ______
When she was fifteen, her family moved to ltaly. _____
Lidia thought ‘This is it, it’s mybig moment! _____
She was tall for her age and very beautiful, but she
was shy. She hated school, but she loved sport
and played basketball every day after school with
a group ofboys. She wanted to be an internation
basketball star. ______
Source: Eales, F., & Oakes, S. (2016). Speakout Elementary Book
(pp. 60-61). New York: Pearson.

Roleplay Time

Information Questions Practice

Imagine that Lidia and Samiya have the opportunity to meet and talk about their lives. Get in
pairs and choose one of the characters. Then create 8 questions (Yes/No or Wh) in past using
the information provided in the paragraphs. Look at this example:

Lidia: Nice to meet you, Samiya. Where Samiya: I was born in Laos. How about
were you born? you, Lidia?...

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 about it
Reading
CURSO 4
Programa de Adultos

Life’s Little
In the course of our lifetime, we have experiences which make
us change attitudes, views and leave us with important lessons.

Lessons
Read about Dany’s experience and discuss:
a. What was he like before the event?
b. What happened to him?
c. Was the outcome of the event?

A n accident I had when I was 12, taught me an important life lesson.

I’m Daniel, or “Danny the menace” as everyone called me as a child. I was a very
mischievous, curious, and stubborn boy, so it was difficult for me to follow rules.
I always got in trouble with my parents because I constanly disobeyed them, like
that day I had an accident that put me in bed for several weeks.
Dad planned a fun trip to Grandma’s country house, and we were all excited to visit
her in the suburbs since there was nature, pets and my favorite of all: trees; very
tall trees to climb up high. “Don’t climb up the trees without protection, Dany” _was
Dad’s first piece of advice as we arrived, yet I ignored it and went straight to the
garden.
When everyone was inside the house, I picked a nice tree, reached for the closest
branch, and started to climb it. It was a very tall tree, but I wasn’t scared at all; on
the contrary, I felt like a super hero. There was this big red apple I really wanted to
get to, but it was on the other side of the tree, and the branches weren’t very stable.
slowly, I started to move towards the apple, but as I was getting close to it,
I stepped on a weak branch and it broke. I went down to the ground like an apple
myself! I think I lost consciousness because the next thing I can remember is waking
up lying on a hospital bed with my head and right leg all wrapped in bandages. I got
12 stitches on my head and a cast on my leg for about a month.
Life certainly teaches us lessons that make us better everyday. That accident made
me a little more mature and less stubborn. I became a lot more sensible to my
parents’ advice.

no Object pronouns are used to

Language
rbs
veadjectives
un
s

Structure • substitute those nouns that receive the action

in a sentence. In other words, they become the
“object” of that action.
Object Pronouns
Lisa sent Juan a letter.
Subject Object
Pronouns Pronouns
She did He received
I me Dad gave me some advice. the action the action
She is the He is the
you you I sent you an email. subject of the object of the
action action
he him We bought him a nice present.

she her We visited her in the country.

• Indicate who the speaker is referring to. Look at
it it The tree was tall, but I climbed it. this excerpt from the story above:

we us Grandma told us a good story. “ Dad planned a fun trip to Grandma’s country house, and we
were all excited to visit her in the suburbs...”
they them Ana loves them very much.

Who does “her” refer to in the sentence?

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 Listening
CURSO 4
Programa de Adultos

During the course of our life we experience situations that lead us

to make changes marking the end of old habits and the beginning of new
behaviours. These “turning points”, usually benefit our lives with positive
outcomes.
First Listening
TURNING
POINTS Listen to Claire and Robert discuss some of their life-changing events and
fill in the chart with the information you hear.

What was he/she like How did he/she change

Speaker What was the event?
before the event? after the event?

Claire

Robert

Audio Source: Richards, J.C., Hull, J., & Proctor, S (2012). Interchange: English for international
communication: student’s book 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Second Listening
Listen to the rest of the conversation. What other turning points do they mention? What were
the positive outomes of their experiences? Take notes on the lines below and check your
answers in group.
Claire Robert
______________________________________ ______________________________________
______________________________________ ______________________________________
______________________________________ ______________________________________

Post:Share your knowledge

Think of 5 events that marked your life in ways similar to those described by the
speakers above and write the events in the timeline below. Prepare to present your
timeline in class. Make sure you feel comfortable discussing the events in public.
Interaction Your classmates and teacher may ask questions about them. This is a graded
activity. Grading criteria will be discussed with your teacher.

Example: I got my first job

1990

_________________________ _________________________ _________________________

_________________________ _________________________ _________________________

_________________________ _________________________
_________________________ _________________________
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