ESMERALDA SERRANO

 TITLE: What happened?

LEVEL: B2

AIM: To speculate and make deductions about the present and past.

CONTENTS: Present and Past Modals

PROCEDURE

1. In pairs or groups students are shown the picture and asked to tell each other what they can see.

‘All I can do is pray’: the Ukrainian women going home despite the danger | Ukraine | The Guardian (2nd picture)

Photograph by Valeria Mongelli (The Guardian)

2. As a whole class, students tell the class what they actually see.

3. In their pairs or groups, they are asked to predict who they are, where they are and what they are doing.

a. e.g They might be a group of travellers

b. They can’t be Asian because…

c. It must be winter because…

d. They could be waiting for…

4. In the same groups, students are now encouraged to answer the question “What happened?”, using past modals.

a. e.g. Something terrible must have happened.

b. They might have been waiting for a long time

c. …

5. As a whole class, each group share with the class their predictions and speculations

DIFFERENTIATION

Weaker Students

- Teacher helps with vocabulary by: o Writing it on the board o Going to their groups and help them o … - Teacher can scaffold the activity by providing guided questions. o E.g. Do you think that they are Europeans? Why? o Do you think that they are enjoying it? o … - Weaker students are allowed to use the easier “maybe” structure instead of the modals one. o E.g Perhaps she is… o Maybe they are o … Stronger Students - Are encouraged to use more complex vocabulary and expand on their sentences

- If early finishers, they can be asked to think of what will happen next and write the end of the story.

(Click on the photo below)