60-Minute Lesson Plan: The Present Simple

Level: B1 | Focus: Form, Use, Spelling & Pronunciation of -s/-es, Time Expressions &
Adverbs of Frequency

1. Lesson Overview

Level B1 (Intermediate)

Time 60 minutes

Lesson type Grammar review & consolidation (accuracy-building)

Target Present Simple – affirmative/negative/question forms (ordinary verbs & to be),

language spelling rules for -s/-es, pronunciation of -s/-es (/s/, /z/, /ɪz/), time expressions,
position of adverbs of frequency

Skills Speaking (interview, presentation), Writing (gap-fill, sentence reordering),

integrated Listening/pronunciation (drilling, sound-sorting)

Assumption Since B1 students will already have partial exposure to Present Simple, this lesson
is framed as review-and-sharpen: fluency task first, then a tight focus on the
areas B1 learners typically still get wrong (3rd person -s/-es spelling & sound,
adverb placement, and the “scheduled event” use)

Learning Objectives
By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
1 Accurately produce affirmative, negative, and question forms of the Present Simple with both
ordinary verbs and to be.
2 Apply the correct spelling rule when adding -s/-es to a verb.
3 Correctly pronounce -s/-es endings as /s/, /z/, or /ɪz/.
4 Correctly position time expressions and adverbs of frequency in a sentence.
5 Use the Present Simple appropriately for habits, facts, feelings, and scheduled events.

Materials
• Board / slides
• Worksheet pack (Appendix B–E) — one per student/pair
• Set of verb cards or a printed word list for the sound-sorting activity

Methodology Note

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 The three methods are not run side by side — they're layered:

TBL gives the lesson its skeleton: a real communicative task opens the lesson (before any grammar is
named), and a second, freer task closes it.

Inductive teaching happens inside the language-focus stage: students examine authentic sentences
(their own, from the task) and work out the rules themselves in pairs, using the source tables only as
an answer key to confirm, not as the starting point.

PPP shapes the second half: once the rule is confirmed, students move from controlled Practice
(accuracy-focused worksheet) to Production (a freer, communicative task) — which doubles as the
TBL task-cycle repeat.

2. Procedure at a Glance

Stage Time Interaction TBL / PPP / Inductive role

1. Warm-up 5 min T–Ss TBL pre-task

2. Task: Daily Habits Survey 8 min S–S (pairs) TBL task

3. Report 4 min Pairs → whole class TBL report/planning

4. Language Focus 15 min Pairs → whole class Inductive presentation

5. Controlled Practice 10 min Individual → pairs → class PPP practice

6. Production Task 13 min Groups of 3–4 PPP production / TBL cycle 2

7. Feedback & Wrap-up 5 min T–Ss Delayed error correction

Total: 60 minutes

3. Detailed Procedure

Stage 1 — Warm-up / Lead-in (5 min)

Interaction: Teacher–whole class
• Ask 3–4 quick personal questions that naturally elicit the target language, e.g. “How often do you
check your phone?”, “What time do you usually wake up?”, “Do you like drinking coffee in the
morning?”
• Write 2–3 students' answers on the board as they are said, without labelling or correcting yet.
Aim: Activate the topic and build a bank of authentic example sentences for later analysis.

Stage 2 — Task: “Daily Habits Survey” (8 min)

Interaction: Pair work
• Give out the survey worksheet (Appendix B). Students interview their partner and note the
answers as full sentences.
• Teacher monitors and notes down errors silently — no correction yet (fluency stage).
Aim: Generate authentic, meaningful communicative output using the target structure before any rule
is presented.

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 Stage 3 — Report (4 min)
Interaction: Pairs → whole class
• 2–3 pairs share one interesting fact about their partner (“She usually goes to bed at 11pm.”).
• Add 4–5 of these sentences to the board sentences from Stage 1, building a mixed set of real,
student-generated examples covering different forms and uses.
Aim: Build the “text” that students will analyze inductively in the next stage.

Stage 4 — Language Focus (Inductive) (15 min)

a) Form & Use (5 min) — Pairs → whole class
• In pairs, students look at the board sentences (add 2–3 extra examples if a form is missing — e.g.
a negative, a question, a to be sentence) and complete a blank Rule-Discovery Grid (Appendix C)
by filling in the missing structure themselves (e.g. S + V___, do/does + S + V-inf?).
• Whole-class check: elicit answers, then reveal the reference table as confirmation — not as the
starting point. Ask students to match sentences to a use category (habit / fact / feeling /
scheduled event).
b) Spelling & Pronunciation of -s/-es (5 min) — Pairs → whole class
• Give students 9 base-form verbs (Appendix D). They add -s/-es, then sort the words into three
columns by the sound they predict: /s/, /z/, /ɪz/.
• Drill pronunciation aloud, let students self-correct their groupings, then ask “What do the endings
in each column have in common?” — building the rule from the pattern before confirming with
the spelling/pronunciation tables.
c) Time Expressions & Adverbs of Frequency (5 min) — Individual → pairs
• Show 4–5 sentences (mix correct/incorrect word order) containing adverbs of frequency and time
expressions. In pairs, students decide the correct position and try to state the rule themselves
(before the main verb; after “to be”).
• Confirm with the class, and briefly clarify the % meaning of key adverbs (always → never).
Aim of Stage 4: Students construct the rules themselves from real examples; the teacher's tables
serve only to confirm and tidy up what students already noticed.

Stage 5 — Controlled Practice (10 min)

Interaction: Individual (5 min) → pair-check (2 min) → whole-class check (3 min)
• Hand out the practice worksheet (Appendix E): a gap-fill exercise (mixed forms/uses), a
spelling-and-sound sorting item, and a word-reorder exercise for adverb placement.
Aim: Consolidate accurate form before moving to freer, communicative use.

Stage 6 — Production: Freer Task (13 min)

Interaction: Groups of 3–4
• Task: “Design a Weekly Routine for a New Exchange Student.” Each group creates a realistic
weekly schedule (classes, meals, free time, transport) using varied time expressions and
frequency adverbs, describing both habits (“She usually has lunch at noon”) and scheduled
events (“The bus leaves at 7:30”).
• 6 min planning and writing; 5 min presenting to another group or the whole class; 2 min for one
group to ask the presenting group a Do/Does question about the schedule.
Aim: Free, meaningful production drawing on everything covered — the TBL task cycle repeats, now
with sharpened accuracy.

Stage 7 — Feedback & Wrap-up (5 min)

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 Interaction: Teacher–whole class
• Delayed error correction: write 3–4 anonymized errors collected during Stages 2 and 6 on the
board; elicit corrections from the class.
• Quick oral check: “When do we add -es instead of -s?”, “Where does ‘always’ go with ‘to be’?”
• Homework: Write a short paragraph (60–80 words) describing a family member's weekly routine,
using at least 3 different frequency adverbs and both ordinary verbs and to be correctly.
Aim: Reinforce accuracy, consolidate learning, and bridge to independent practice.

Appendix: Ready-to-Use Materials

A. Warm-up Questions (Teacher asks class)

1 How often do you check your phone?
2 What time do you usually wake up on weekdays?
3 Do you like drinking coffee in the morning?

B. Daily Habits Survey (Task 1 worksheet — pair interview)

1 What time do you usually get up?
2 How often do you exercise?
3 Does your best friend like coffee or tea?
4 What do you usually do on Sunday mornings?
5 How often do you watch a movie?
6 Do you ever skip breakfast?

C. Rule-Discovery Grid (students fill in the blanks before checking)

Ordinary verb To be

Affirmative S + V ___ S + am/is/are + N/adj/prep

Negative S + ___ not + V-inf S + am/is/are + ___ + N/adj/prep

Question ___ / ___ + S + V-inf? ___ / ___ / ___ + S + N/adj/prep?

D. Verb List for Spelling & Pronunciation Sorting

Base forms to add -s/-es to, then sort by predicted final sound:
• /s/ group: walk, stop, help
• /z/ group: play, love, open
• /ɪz/ group: watch, wash, fix

E. Controlled Practice Worksheet

Part 1 — Gap-fill (correct form):
1 My sister ______ (not/like) spicy food.
2 ______ your parents ______ (work) at the weekend?
3 Water ______ (boil) at 100°C.
4 He ______ (study) English every evening.
5 I ______ (be) tired now.
6 She ______ (not/be) a doctor; she's a nurse.

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 7 The train ______ (leave) at 9 a.m. tomorrow.
8 ______ you ______ (have) any brothers or sisters?
9 They ______ (go) to the cinema twice a month.
10 It ______ (rain) a lot in this city in winter.

Part 2 — Reorder the words (adverb/time expression placement):

1 always / late / She / is
2 often / breakfast / eat / I / for / eggs
3 never / He / meat / eats
4 usually / to / She / work / by / goes / bus
5 sometimes / tired / are / We / after / school

F. Production Task Instructions

“Design a Weekly Routine for a New Exchange Student” — In groups, create a realistic weekly
schedule including classes, meals, free time, and transport. Use at least 5 different frequency
adverbs/time expressions, and include at least one “scheduled event” sentence (e.g., timetables,
departure times). Present your schedule to another group.

G. Homework
Write a short paragraph (60–80 words) about a family member's weekly routine. Use at least 3
different frequency adverbs and include both ordinary verbs and to be.

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