TEACHER: Liliana Gheorghe

GRADE: 7th
LEVEL: 6th year of study
NO. OF HOURS PER WEEK: 2
NO. OF STUDENTS: 29
TEXTBOOK: SNAPSHOT - intermediate
DATE: May, 17th
WEEK: 32
LESSON: “I don’t believe it” (4 hours - 1st hour)
TYPE OF LESSON: aquisition of new knowledge
TOPIC: Verbs (modals) for drawing conclusions – “must/might/can’t” + perfect infinitive
VOCABULARY:
 Verbs of speaking
STRUCTURES:
 “must/might/can’t” + perfect infinitive
 how much/many
 None and any specifically
FUNCTIONS/COMMUNICATION:
 Speculating about past
 Agreeing and disagreeing with speculations
 Giving reasons and expressing opinion
SKILLS: integrated
AIMS:
 students read the text and gist it for specific information;
 students listen to the tape and answer questions about the listened text;
 students practice the new language structures;
 students write the new grammar structure in their notebooks;
 students learn how to agree and disagree with speculations
OBJECTIVES
COGNITIVE: by the end of the lesson students will be able to:
O1 - understand and react adequately to complex questions and statements;
O2 - express information explicitly;
O3 - introduce a point of view;

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 O4 - become aware and show understanding of the forms;
O5 - understand, produce and use the stated information;
O6 - skim to obtain a general impression of the text;
O7 - scan to locate specifically required information;
O8 - respond in different situations (agree and disagree);
O9 - express themselves in free writing and speaking.

AFFECTIVE:
 making students confident in their ability to use the language;
 creating interest in the topic of the lesson;
 creating a relaxed atmosphere, proper for studying;
 foster learner independence and cooperative learning;
 stimulating students’ imagination and creativity;
 having fun.
TEACHING AIDS:
 SB/TB/Language boosters
 Worksheets, prompts
 Class CDs
 CD player
 Board
TEACHING METHODS AND TECHNIQUES:
 Communicative approach
 Exercise; questions and answers; gap-filling exercise; drilling; sentence writing;
conversation; dialogues; dramatized situations and role-play
ORGANIZATION AND TIME:
 Whole class
 Individual work
 Pair work
 50’

ASSUMPTIONS:
I assume that most of the vocabulary to be taught is already known to my students.
ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS:
Students might not be very eager to participate as they have been mainly preoccupied by
their written tests lately.

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 STAGES OF THE LESSON

Activity 1: Warmer
Aims:
 to review the previously learnt material
 to motivate and involve students by means of personalisation
Procedure Interaction Timing
T greets Ss and asks about their state of mind and how they feel. T-Ss T-Ss 3’
T checks attendance. Ss answer. T-Ss
T asks Ss to check their homework T-Ss
Ss read their homework.

Activity 2: Lead-in
Aim:
 to prepare the context of the lesson by means of picture exploitation
Procedure Interaction Timing
T asks Ss to make guesses about the pictures in the textbook. T-Ss
(ex.1/page 104). Ss make assumptions about the pictures. T-Ss TT 4’
- Where is Miss Carr? T-Ss
- Who is she talking to? T-Ss
- What is she giving to Ian? Ss-T
- What do you think she is talking about?
T reads the title of the text and makes a brief survey with the
class about what they think it happened.
T-Ss
T elicits ideas from the whole class and Ss advance ideas.

Activity 3: Listening for specific information

Aim:
 to listen and grasp relevant information from the text
Procedure Interaction Timing
T plays the tape (ex. 1/page 104). T- 3’
Ss listen and read the text in the SB. TT
T asks Ss questions about the read text and Ss answer giving
their opinion.
- What do you think it happened to Matt, Kelly and Zoë?
- Where do you think they are now?
- Do you think they’ll be in time for the rehearsal?

Activity 4: Reading comprehension

Aim :
 to check understanding of the text

Procedure Interaction Timing

T asks Ss to read the text again if necessary and answer the T-Ss T-Ss 8’
questions in ex.2/page 105. T checks the answers with the T-Ss IW
whole class. Ss-T

T writes some prompts on the blackboard for the useful

phrases T-Ss
Ss read in the text and asks Ss to fill in the gaps.
T plays the tape again after Ss fill in the gaps. Ss-Ss

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Ss fill in the gaps and check their answers with the tape and
then they practice the mini dialogue across the class in open
pairs.

Activity 5: Presentation, isolation and exemplification

Aim:
 to introduce the new language structures

Procedure Interaction Timing

T asks Ss to look at the examples in the book (Grammar flash) T-Ss TT 12’
and checks understanding by asking questions. T encourages
Ss to give reasons for their answers. T-Ss

T writes examples on the blackboard and Ss copy them in their T-Ss

notebooks.

Activity 6: Practicing structures – semi controlled practice

Aim:
 to provide opportunity to use recently learnt material
 to produce and use explicitly the recently learnt material

Procedure Interaction Timing

T T asks Ss to solve ex.4, page 105 after she first reads the T-Ss T-Ss 8’
example. T-Ss
Ss complete the sentences individually. Ss-T
T goes through the answers with the whole class.

Activity 7: Practicing structures

Aim:
 to produce and use explicitly the recently learnt material
 to show understanding of the new forms

Procedure Interaction Timing

T asks Ss to listen and read silently the structures used to T-Ss 10’
agree and disagree with speculations. Across the class, in open
pairs, Ss practice the new structures.
Ss-Ss
Using the clues given in the book Ss make short conversations
in groups of three and one group acts out their conversation
for the whole class.

Activity 8: Assigning homework

Procedure Interaction Timing
T explains homework. Ss write the assignment in their T-Ss 2’
notebooks. (Exercise 2, page 76 in LB).
T praise Ss for their work and gives grades.

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 APPENDIX
BB map
1) Verbs “must/might/can’t” followed by Perfect Infinitive to draw
conclusions about past
Must/might/can’t + have + verb3rd
 draw conclusions about the past
They must have forgotten about the rehearsal.
Must/might/can’t + verb (be or another main verb in the base form)
 draw conclusions about present
She must be Kate Winslet.
2) Useful expressions and structures to speculate about the past, to agree
and disagree with speculations
 Speculating about past
 Must/might/can\t + perfect infinitive
 Perhaps/Maybe/Probably
 Agreeing with speculations
 Maybe you’re right.
 You could be right.
 I suppose so.
 I think you’re right.
 Subject + must have.
 Disagreeing with speculations
 That can’t be the reason.
 Surely not!
 I don’t believe it.
 Subject + can’t have.

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 Modals: Speculation and
deduction
Modals of speculation and deductions are modal auxiliary verbs which express degrees of certainty.
In other words, they describe a fact or situation that is definite, probable, possible, or impossible
from the speaker's point of view. (As the speaker is speculating, he/she may be wrong.) Here we'll
focus on speculating about present or future events.

The sentence structure is as follows. The main verb is always in the plain form, even when the
sentence expresses the future.

subject | modal verb | (negation) | main verb | object/complement

He | must | (not) | be | very happy.

Commonly used modals for present and future events include the following:

Must express a definite situation, and must not /could not an impossible one. On the other hand,
may /may not /might /might not /could aren't as clear. The conversation and intonation may
subtly change the meaning. However, may /may not are more certain than might /might not
/could, and these last three modals express a weak probability.

1.- To indicate certainty: To show certainty in the present, we use must.

Ex: Mary must have a problem, because she keeps crying.

To show certainty in the past we use must + have + past participle.

Ex: “A woman phoned while you were out”. “It must have been Kate”.

We use can’t (cannot) / couldn’t (could not) to indicate certainty, in relation to impossible ideas
and situations. To say that something is certainly not the case:

Ex: It can’t be the postman at the door. It’s only seven o’clock.
They couldn’t be here before lunch time.

We use couldn’t have / can’t have + past participle to indicate certainty that something in the past
was impossible or didn’t happen:

Ex: That was a bad place to go skiing. You could have broken your leg.

2.- To speculate: We use could / might / may to speculate (say that there is a chance that
something is true or that there is a possibility of it happening) about something the speaker in
unsure about:

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 Ex: We may go climbing in the Alps next summer.
It could be an eagle, though it is too big.
War could break out any day.

We only use may / might for the present and future tenses. There is a little bit of a difference
between them. Might is mostly used as a less definite, showing a smaller chance than may.

Ex: I may go to London tomorrow. → perhaps a 50% chance

Joe might come with me. → perhaps a 30% chance

To express uncertainty about something in the past we use could have / might have / may have +
past participle. To say that it is possible that something happened or was true in the past:

Ex: “Polly’s very late.” “ She may have missed the train.”
“What was that noise?” “ “It might have been a cat.”

Couldn’t (could not) is used in questions to speculate about something:

Ex: Couldn’t it be a computer error?

Exercise

Use a modal, and then provide an appropiate reason:

Ex: Sylvia may find a new job, because she has problems with her boss.

1.- She _______________ want to go to the party because

__________________________________.

2.- Andy _______________ vote in the next election if

_____________________________________.

3.- Governments _______________ pollute less if

_________________________________________.

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