Simple and Easy Steps Teaching Past Tense

Every teacher need to have a simple and easy technique to teach grammar. You may use the following tutorial to teach simple past tense to your students.

Preparation:

1. Prepare the model text. The model text should be in past form. You may choose text in narrative or recount genre.

Example: 

Recount Text - Went Home

I got back from Canberra yesterday. I took 4 hours from Canberra to Jakarta. It was 6 p.m when the plane landed in Sukarno - Hatta Airport. I ate some food in a restaurant near airport. Then, I went home.

2. Decide which sentence will be taught. Underline the sentence to make it easy noticed.

3. Draw a table as the following:

You may print this form out or draw on the whiteboard while teaching in the classroom.

4. Prepare some words to fill the table. The words should represent all part of speech in the sentence.

Example:

• He, She, drank, some water, You, They, some fruits, We, at home, brought, in a hotel, John.

Classroom Activities:

1. Ask students to observe the text. You may give them some questions or gap filling to check their comprehension.

2. Ask them to underline past tense. You can tell them if they have never learnt it before.

3. Draw a table on the board or give them hand out. Write down the sentence you have prepared.

I	ate	some food	in a restaurant
he

4. Ask students to put the words into the suitable table (based on part of speech).

• He, She, drank, some water, You, They, some fruits, We, at home, brought, in a hotel, John.

5. Tell students part of the sentence: Subject - Predicate - Object - Complement.

6. Ask students to make sentences. The sentence must be taken from the words in the table.

Example:

• He drank some water at home

7. Tell students about the simple past tense. You may conclude the formula how to make simple past tense.

8. Tell students about the function of past tense.

9. Ask students to write their past activities. This activity is useful to make your students able to practice the new language.