Subject: English language

Class: VIII/9
Teaching unit: The Iceman
Type of lesson: Presentation of a new material
Teaching aims: to revise and contrast the past simple and past continuous; to practice reading and
listening comprehension, reading an article about a discovery, listening to a talk.
Grammar Past simple and past continuous
Teaching methods: communicative, work on text , task-based method
Form of teaching: individual, pair work, whole class,
Teaching aids and materials: Student's book, a CD, a CD-player, board, chalk, notebook, activity book

Introductory part:
Homework revision.
Students open their books on p. 8 and read the title. Then they tell me what they thinks the text is about
and do they know who was the Iceman.

Main part:
Now they look at the list of materials in the book and tell me:
How many of them do they recognize?
Which ones are they?
They try to find the meanings of these words and then put them in three groups:
which are metals which come from plants which come from animals
copper, silver, steel, gold, iron paper, cotton, rubber, wood wool, silk, leather

Now they tell me: Which materials can we use to make the clothes from?

plastic, silk, cotton, leather, wool, rubber, polyester

They write down new words in their notebooks:

copper /kɒpə(r) / steel / stiːl /
silk / sɪlk / leather / leðə(r) /

By putting two nouns together we can make compound nouns. I read the examples presented in the
book and students tell me whether they have understood how these are made.
There are also two words which don’t follow the given pattern. They are
wood a wooden box
wool woollen gloves

Working in pairs students think of something for each material and write out the list.
Possible answers:
plastic cups, cotton shirt, stone wall, woollen jumper, copper wire, wooden spoon, silver ring, paper
cup,
iron bridge, silk scarf, leather boots, steel pipe, glass table, polyester T-shirt, gold ring, rubber ball.

Students now look at the pictures and try to guess the answers to the two questions. I play the CD for
them to listen and read the text.
Who was the Iceman? (He was a Stone Age man who lived 5,300 years ago.)
What happened to him? (He probably died taking his sheep to the mountains.)

Working on their own students label the pictures and we check the answers together.

1 arrows 5 copper axe

2 cloak 6 knife
3 leather boots 7 bow
4 wooden tools
Now they write down new words.

a path / pɑːθ / a way or track that is built or is made by the action of people walking
the Stone Age / stəʊn eɪdʒ /
an archaeologist / ɑːkiˈɒlədʒɪst /a person who studies archaeology
corn / kɔːn / any plant that is grown for its grain, such as wheat; the grain of these plants
copper axe / kɒpə(r) æks / a tool with a wooden handle and a heavy metal blade, used for chopping wood,
cutting down trees, etc.
a bow / baʊ /
an arrow / ærəʊ /
tools / tuːl /
waterproof cloak / wɔːtəpruːf kləʊk / type of coat that has no sleeves, fastens at the neck and hangs
loosely from the shoulders, worn especially in the past
sophisticated / səˈfɪstɪkeɪtɪd / having a lot of experience of the world and knowing about fashion, culture and
other things that people think are socially important

Students read the text one by one and then answer my questions.

When was he found? – He was found in 1991.

How old was the body? The body was over 5,300 years old.
When did he live? He lived in the Stone Age.
Where did he come from? He came from Italy.
Between what years did he live? He lived between 3350 and 3100 sc.
How old was he? He was about 46 years old.
What did scientists find in his clothes? Scientists found pieces of corn in his clothes.
What was he carrying? He was carrying a copper axe, a bow and arrows, knife and some wooden tools.
What was he wearing? He was wearing warm, waterproof clothes and leather boots.

Grammar:
Students look at the sentences in exercise 3a) and try to complete the sentences. Then they tell me:
What are the two tenses?
Why are they different in the first sentence, but the same in the second?

1. They were walking along a path, when they saw something in the ice.
2. They stopped and looked.

I read the sentences to the students and we go through their suggestions and ideas. Then they tell me:
Which sentence describes an unfinished action? ( The first.)
The unfinished action, or action in progress, provides the background situation for another action.
What was that situation? ( The tourists were walking in the Alps.)
What happened? ( They saw something in the ice.)
Students now complete the diagram.

the past continuous tense – an action in progress when an event happened in the past.

the past simple tense – a completed action in the past

The action which is interrupted (i. e. which started first) has to be past continuous tense, and the
action which
interrupts (i.e. started while the other action was still going on) has to be past simple tense. The
conjunction
WHEN can go with either part of the sentence, so:

THEY WERE WALKING ALONG A PATH, WHEN THEY SAW SOMETHING IN THE ICE.
WHEN THEY WERE WALKING ALONG A PATH, THEY SAW SOMETHING IN THE ICE.

Students find examples of these forms for the past simple and continuous in the text.

Past simple affirmative statements:

They saw something in the ice.
They stopped and looked.
It was part of a body.
They thought it was a climber.
They were wrong.
This body was over 5,300 years old .
Archaeologists ... wanted to study the Iceman.
Otzi, ... lived between 3350 sc and 3100 sc.
He came from northern Italy and he was about forty six years old.
He was a farmer because scientists found pieces of corn ...
Stone Age people were very sophisticated.

Past simple negative statements:

People didn't live very long then.
Archaeologists thought that copper didn't arrive in Europe until 2000 sc.

Past simple questions:

Who was he?
How did he die?
Did he fall or did someone murder him?

Past continuous affirmative statements:

They were walking along a path ...
They were looking at a man from the Stone Age.
He was probably taking his sheep and goats into the mountains.
He was carrying a copper axe.
He was also carrying a bow and arrows.
He was wearing warm clothes.

Past continuous negative statements:

They weren't looking at the body of a modern climber.

Past continuous question:

What was he doing in the mountains?

We discuss about the form of the two tenses.

affirmative negative questions

past simple past form of did+ not+ base form (question word +) did+ base
verb form
past continuous was/were + not+ -ing
was/were + -ing ( (question word +) was/were +
subject + -ing

Students find the examples of the past simple and write them in their notebooks and on board.
How do you recognize regular verbs? The end in -d or- ed.

1 was, were
2 Possible verbs: stopped, looked, wanted, called, lived, died
3 thought, came
 Students try to write three true sentences about these people and then some of them read them out loud.

Now students quickly look at the interview. They must decide whether to use the verbs in the past
simple or the past continuous.
i.e. How did Otzi die?

Answers:
1. did…..die 11. attacked
2. Did .... have 12. escaped
3. didn’t fall 13. was running away
4. didn’t know 14. shot
5. X-rayed 15. ran
6. saw 16. lay down
7. was 17. was lying
8. did… kill 18. started
9. happened 19. froze
10. was taking

I play the CD for students to listen and check their ideas. Then two of them read out the dialogue.
The archaeologists describe what possibly happened, but no one actually knows what Otzi was doing
in the mountains when he died. Working in pairs students are going to think of a different theory and
then reda out their ideas.

Students read out questions in exercise 8. I play the Cd for them to listen and answer the questions.
Answer key
1. Old Stone Age people did not live in one place all the time.
2. around 4000 sc in the Middle East
3. from the New Stone Age- around 3000 sc (the Old Stone Age lasted to 4000 sc)
4. wood and animal bones
5. grew corn, kept animals, started to build towns and villages

Final part:

I write a couple of sentences on board and ask some of the student to come out, underline the verbs and
tell me what tense are these in and what are the differences between these.

When I was sitting down my friend pulled the chair away.

I sat on the chair and opened a book.
I was sleeping when my partner dropped the book on the floor and I woke up.
When the teacher was teaching grammar I fell asleep.
The teacher saw me when I was sending text messages in class.
I sent my friend a text message. The teacher saw me and took my phone.