Questions in the past tense

Question formation in general causes problems. Students get easily confused and they feel that they are not able to form the questions. But in fact, it is very simple. If you follow the steps below you can teach the questions in the past tense in no time. The lesson is based on the principles of Visible Learning as described by Hattie.

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Before you start teaching, ask your students to try the following pre-test. Write the questions in the past tense:

What / you / do / yesterday?
Where / you / go / after school?
When / you / get up / this morning?
Where / you / were / at the weekend?
you / watched TV / last night?

Display the correct sentences and ask the students to write down how many questions they formed correctly:

What did you do yesterday?
Where did you go after school?
When did you get up this morning?
Where were you at the weekend?
Did you watch TV last night?

Ask the students to work in pairs and ask and answer the questions in their pairs.

You might want to play the following video where the grammar is explained before you explain it yourself.

Display or print out the following mind map and explain the formation of questions to students. At the end of your explanation ask the students to name the sectors. Each student should work on their own and name the categories in a way that suits them.

Now tell the students the tale about the DID train. It might seem silly but that is on purpose. Students remember stories and they remember silly stories best. You might tell the story in students MT and you may ask the students to lie on their desks while you tell the story. But please do not leave the story. It is crucial to the success of the lesson.

Practice makes perfect, however, the practice has to be varied and reasonble. Only drilling will not get you anywhere.
First ask your students to ask and answer the questions in the mind map.
Second, students write their own questions and ask them in pairs.
Third, here is a HTML5 quiz and games for your students. In the first part students should put the words into the correct order. If they pass the quiz they can play a game called Indiara. If your students have smartphones and internet connection you can ask them to play it there.
After the game there is another quiz. This time students should write the questions in past tense. Once again if they pass the test they can play a game. It is called Make them fall and it is really short. Again, each student can play the game on his/her mobile device.

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Questions in the past tense

Now, that you are at the end of the lesson, it is time to see what the students have learnt. Ask them to form the following questions in the past tense:

What / your friends / do / yesterday?
Where / your parents / go / on holiday?
When / you / go to bed / last night?
You / were / happy / yesterday?
you / like / this lesson / last night?

Display the following correct answers and ask the students to count their correct answers and compare them to the scores from the beginning of the lesson. By now you and they should see that they have improved a lot. The correct answers:

What did your friends do yesterday?
Where did your parents go on holiday?
When did you go to bed last night?
Were you happy yesterday?
Did you like this lesson?

Here is the summary of the lesson:

1. Pre-test
2. Discussion
3. Grammar – explanation
4. Naming the sectors
5. Did train story
6. Discussion
7. Write your own questions
8. Discuss
9. Online games
10. End of lesson test

If you do not have an internet connection in your classroom, you can download the following zip file and use it in your classroom. Moreover, you can share the quiz on your website 🙂 (Sorry, the games do not work offline, only the quizzes)

Questions_past simple_ (Web)