WHAT ARE YOU DOING CIRCLE

Target Group: All grades Difficulty Level:

Fundamentals– Basic Conversation Activity
Objective: To practice using verbs in the
present progressive while using various
conjugations of the verb to be
Procedure:
Create an initial list of ten words, six familiar
words and four new words. On the board write
the present tense of the verb and then the
present progressive tense. Ex: Play=> Playing.
Review the list with the students and have
them repeat the words after the teacher while
also making an action to go with the verb.
While repeating the words, teacher should say
the verb in the plain form followed by , “I
am…” with the verb in the present progressive
form.
After students have become familiar with the
words, repeating them in random order about
5 or 6 times, have students stand and form a
semi-circle around the teacher.
On the board write “You are…” explain to the
students that the teacher will say the verb in
the plain form while doing the action, then the
students need to use the present progressive
form in the sentence, “You are (running).”
The teacher will say one of the plain form of
the verb and the students need to repeat the
“you are…” sentence while performing the
gesture.
At random the teacher will go through the list
of verbs with students repeating the sentence.
When student are familiar with the activity
outline and structure, trade places with a
student and have them call the plain form of
the verb and surrounding students repeat the
present progressive sentence.
When students are familiar with this structure,
on the board the teacher should write the
sentence structure,
“Mieko is…” and “He/She is…” The teacher
explains now, going around the circle each
student will choose an activity. They will do
the gesture and say “I am (running).” The rest
of the class in the circle will repeat, “He/She is
running.” then use the student’s name, “Mieko
is running.” The activity finishes with all the
students saying an activity and their
classmates repeating their activity.
At the end the students and teacher together
can say, “We are having fun!”
Materials and Preparation:
Chalk/whiteboard, chalk/markers… If
unavailable, prior to class, write large word
cards with the chosen activity words to put on
the wall as reference for the students.