Discover how a tiny school shows that learning is about more than just the classroom.
Main objectives of this material
- Develop everyday vocabulary for unexpected events and bad timing, including all of a sudden, out of nowhere, in the middle of, go off, break down, get stuck, run out of, turn up, go wrong and meanwhile, met in the reading text, recycled in the gap-fill and sentence-building tasks and collected in a sixteen-item glossary.
- Strengthen reading and speaking skills by analysing a 250-word story about a first date where the lights go out, a phone rings, a shoe comes off and the last train leaves at 9:41, checking six true-or-false statements, reordering an eight-sentence airport story and retelling it from memory with when, while and meanwhile.
- Learn and practise the Past Continuous for the longer action in progress and the Past Simple for the short action that interrupted it, using I was waiting for my train when I realised I had the wrong ticket, While we were having dinner, the lights went out and Meanwhile, ..., with a timeline diagram, a four-item rule discovery task and 24 controlled practice items.
What students are going to cover
In this lesson, students will explore why everything was going so well until something happened, through the story of Ben and Sofia’s almost-perfect first date. They will build vocabulary related to unexpected events and bad timing, such as all of a sudden, break down and turn up out of nowhere. They will strengthen reading and grammar awareness by completing a five-row background-versus-interruption table, choosing the correct tense in eight sentences, joining six pairs of events with when or while, completing a ten-gap story about a Monday meeting and reordering an eight-sentence airport story. They will practise the Past Simple vs Past Continuous in a final challenge called The Worst Timing Ever, linking five unexpected events into one spoken story with printed sentence frames. The homework combines an eight-item retrieval task with a 100-130 word written or recorded story, and the package includes a 20-slide deck, an interactive worksheet, a timeline diagram and original illustrations. By the end of the lesson, learners will be able to choose the Past Continuous for a background action and the Past Simple for what interrupted it, link two past events with when, while and meanwhile, and tell a short story about an unexpected moment in their own life.
🔒 Part of Complete · B1
Unlock this lesson with Complete
You are one step away from the full worksheet. Complete opens every lesson in the library, with new ones added every Sunday.
- Student Version PDF, print-ready, and an interactive fillable version
- Teacher Version with full answer key and teacher notes
- Presentation slides, glossary and a homework task
- Full access to every level, A1 to C2
Get Complete Start free with 10 lessons
Cancel anytime. Already a member? Log in to open this lesson.