Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei

PC: Ensino de Gramática de Língua Inglesa

Carolina Vianini

Flávia Danielle Rodrigues Silva

Guilherme Philipe de Matos Cerqueira Gomes

José Eustáquio

Lesson Plan – Can and Can’t (ability)

Aim: Teach grammar points about the modal verb “can”.

Group description: About thirty students

Anticipated Errors: They may want to use 'can' as in the 3rd singular person (She cans...).

They may want to use 'to' after can. They may have some difficult to differentiate the

pronunciation of 'can' and 'can’t'.You may want to use the auxiliary (like do/does) for

questions with 'can'.

Materials: Board, notebook.

Time: Fifty minutes

Presentation (10 minutes):

1. Presenting some

superhero like

Superman, Aquaman,

Spiderman and Storm

(from X-Men).

Procedures:

1. Teacher shows pictures of Superman, Aquaman,

Spiderman and Storm and elicit from the students,

orally, what are the super power they have. If someone

says something like “X-ray vision!”, then the teacher

replies something like “so, it means he CAN see

through walls, right?” so they can get the structure by

assimilation.

2. Help them with any doubt in vocabulary

3. Elicit from students if they can understand the theme of

the class: the abilities and using “can” to do that.

4. Drill I:

In the step 1 we talked about the abilities of

superheroes. Now, ask the students to try to remember

what they pointed on the previous exercise and write in

the board.

Exemple:

a. Superman can fly.

b. Aquaman can't fly

Write down the sentences that students said and make a

drill with them. You have to realise that it’s important

to drill both afirmative and negative sentences.

5. Drill II:

Write in the board one question with can about the

previous exercise (ex: Can Superman fly?) and the

answer to the question. Do the same for a negative

answer. Ask the students to say out loud the questions

in the board after the professor. After this first drill, ask

students to make a question to their friends and after

the friend answer the question, make a drill with the

whole class. Example:

Prof: So... can Aquaman fly? No, he can't. And the

Superman? Can he fly? Yes, he can. Student X, ask

Student F about a superhero Z.

Aluno X: Fulano, Can superhero Z swim?

Fulano: Yes, he/she can.

Prof: Everybody repeat: Can superhero Z swim? Yes,

he/she can.

Practice (15 minutes):

Atividade I: “Street

Musicians” Professor coloca

o quadro e explica a situação:

“Vocês são artistas de rua.

Vocês dançam, cantam e

tocam instrumentos. Mas o

seu parceiro te abandonou

para ir trabalhar no circo.

Então vocês têm de procurar

um novo parceiro, alguém

que pode fazer as mesmas

coisas que você.”.

Atividade II: Practice with

the students with the

exercice.

Procedures I:

I - Elicit from students

three types of instruments,

three types of music and

three types of dance and put

the answers in the table, like above, drawn in the

blackboard.

Ask students to choose an instrument they can play, a

type of music they can sing and a dance they can dance.

Then, the students should get up and look for someone

that can play, sing and dance the same things they can only

by asking using the modal verb “can”. E.g: Can you play

the guitar? Can You sing the blues? Can you dance Tango?

Teacher may write on the blackboard a model for

reference of the students.

Procedures II:

II - Look at the chart and write questions and answers

about them:

ANNA DAVID

PLAY THE GUITAR ×

RUN VERY FAST ×

SWIN VERY FAST ×

SPEAK SPANISH ×

Ex: Can Anna play the guitar? Yes, she can.

PLAY SING DANCE

Production(25 minutes):

1. Have the students to

Practice different

things they can or

Procedures:

In pairs, ask the students to talk about things

they can do.

After that, ask students to write down things

can’t do, like:

a. Move their

ears.

b. Touch the tip

of their nose

with the

tongue.

c. Touch their

toes without

bending their

legs.

that his classmate can do and compere the

answer of his friend with your abilities. Can you

do the same things that your friend?

Elicit from students some of those sentences

and write them on the board.