Exploring Past Continuous

Overview

Curriculum Area: Australian Curriculum – English (Year 10-12)
Strand: Language
Sub-strand: Language for interaction, Text structure and organisation
Elaboration (Year 10): Develop a greater understanding of verb tenses in different contexts, including recounts, narratives, and descriptive texts.
Learning Intentions: Students will deepen their understanding of the past continuous tense and its role in Australian English writing and speaking, focusing on storytelling and contextualising events.
Success Criteria:

• Accurately identify and use the past continuous tense in verbal and written communication.
• Collaborate effectively in group activities involving past continuous tense.
• Incorporate the past continuous tense into a creative narrative.

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Lesson Sequence (60 Minutes)

1. Engage: Hook and Warm-Up (10 minutes)

Activity: “What Were They Doing?”

• Begin with a fun slideshow of photos depicting different scenarios (e.g., a cricket game, a birthday party, a café scene, and a student walking in the rain).
• Prompt students with the question, "What were they doing when this happened?". Write answers on the board. Example:
  • “He was running to the wicket.”
  • “It was raining while she walked home.”
• Discuss how adding extra details in past continuous makes the description more vivid and immersive.
• Explain the specific function of past continuous tense: to describe actions in progress at a specific time in the past or as background actions interrupted by another event.

Purpose: Capture interest, establish real-world context, and remind students of prior knowledge of verb tenses.

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2. Explain: Explicit Instruction (10 minutes)

Mini-Lesson – Past Continuous Structure

• Write the sentence structure on the board and break it down:
  Subject + was/were + present participle (-ing verb)
  • Example: "He was playing cricket while they were cheering."
• Discuss time markers commonly used with past continuous tense (e.g., “while,” “as,” “when”).

Real-Life Context Discussion (Australian Perspective):

• Highlight the importance of past continuous tense in recounting real events like weather updates during bushfire season or sports commentary.
  Example: “It was raining heavily while firefighters were working.”
• Connect to creative storytelling: How does using past continuous add richness to Australian Indigenous Dreamtime stories by describing setting and movement simultaneously?

Quick Practice: Provide 5 incorrect sentences on the board and have students identify mistakes. Example:
- "They were run to the park when it started raining.” (Incorrect)
- “They were running to the park when it started raining.” (Correct)

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3. Explore: Group Collaboration (15 minutes)

Activity: Reconstructing A Narrative

• Divide students into pairs or small groups. Hand out a short paragraph of a disrupted narrative written in the wrong tense. Example:

  Sentence: "The surfer paddle in the ocean. Suddenly, a big wave appear, and everyone shout."

• Task 1: Rewrite the paragraph using past continuous tense for background actions.
  Example: “The surfer was paddling in the ocean. Suddenly, a big wave appeared, and everyone was shouting.”

• Task 2: Expand the paragraph by describing more background actions.

Extension Challenge for Advanced Students: Include dialogue in the past continuous tense. Example: “She exclaimed, ‘I was waiting forever for this wave!’”

Class Discussion: Ask a representative from each group to read their revised narrative aloud to share ideas and explore creative sentence construction.

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4. Elaborate: Individual Creative Writing (15 minutes)

Activity: Craft A Past Continuous Scenario

• Scenario Prompt: “It was a Friday evening in a busy Australian city…”
• Task: Students individually write a half-page narrative featuring at least five past continuous sentences to describe events unfolding simultaneously. Encourage them to be creative, utilising scenarios like a street market, a sport match, or a summer barbecue.
  Example: “Kids were playing cricket on the oval while parents were chatting by the barbecue. Suddenly, a loud crack of thunder echoed across the field...”

Focus: Encourage rich detail and descriptive language while blending past continuous with other tenses for variety.

Teacher Check-In Opportunity: Circulate around the room to provide on-the-spot feedback and support.

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5. Evaluate: Reflection and Recap (10 minutes)

Peer Review:

• Pair students to exchange their written narratives and underline each other's past continuous sentences.
• Discuss: Did the sentences effectively set the scene or establish background action?

Group Feedback (Whole Class):

• Revisit examples from earlier in the lesson.
• Discuss: What role did past continuous play in enriching the narratives?

Exit Ticket (Final Task):

• On an exit slip, ask students to write one sentence about an action they were doing during class using past continuous tense.

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Differentiation

• For EAL/D Students: Provide simplified texts for group reconstruction and visuals to support understanding of vocabulary. Allow oral explanations.
• For Advanced Students: Challenge them to extend their creative narratives using mixed tenses and time markers.
• For Reluctant Writers: Encourage short but detailed descriptions instead of full paragraphs.

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Materials

• Prepared slideshow for warm-up activity.
• Short narratives for the group reconstruction task.
• Writing materials for creative writing (or access to computers/tablets).
• Whiteboard and markers for explicit instruction.

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Assessment Opportunities

• Informal: Observation during group discussions and creative writing.
• Formal: Peer-reviewed narratives and exit ticket.

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Homework/Extension

• Write a short diary entry about “An Australian Summer Day” using past continuous tense to describe activities.

Example: “We were lying on the beach when a seagull stole our chips!”

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Teacher’s Notes

• Keep the lesson dynamic and engaging by switching interaction styles (individual, pairs, whole class).
• Embed Australian contexts and examples for greater cultural relevance.