Infinitives and Gerunds
- Siyi Zhang
- Dec 9, 2020
- 3 min read
Level: ___Lower-Intermediate 2A___________ Date/Time: __10/9______
Objectives (SWBAT):
Students Will Be Able To…
1. use infinitives and gerunds to describe uses and purposes in speaking. (discuss different technologies with partners)
2. use infinitives and gerunds to complete sentences in writing. (pair the statements with the information)
Materials & Technology:
Textbook: Presentation Plus Level2 page.45-46
Other materials:
Review or Preview Interaction: T-Ss, S-Ss
“In our last class, we talked about different kinds of uses of smartphones. And we shared how often we use smartphones every day on various tasks. Can someone share one thing he/she sometimes does with smartphones?”
Provide Ss with the hint: “I sometimes use my smartphone...”
“Can someone share one thing he/she never does with smartphones?”
Provide Ss with the hint: “I never use my smartphone...”
Give feedback on how they use infinitives and gerunds in the sentences.
Linking & Transitioning to rest of the lesson:
“Pite asked a very good question last time saying ‘Are we allowed to use to do sth instead of for doing sth’. This is actually what we are going to learn in today’s class. As you may notice, we have two ways to express our opinions. One is “to do something” and the other is “for doing sth”. So today, we’ll learn to use infinitives and gerunds to describe uses and purposes.”
Activity 1: Grammar focus (infinitives and gerunds) 1.1 Pre-Stage: Interaction: T-Ss, then S-S
“We focused on smartphone uses last time and in today’s class, I'll introduce more technologies to you. First, let’s do a short quiz on Kahoot to see how familiar you are with these technologies.”
Ask Ss to open the link: kahoot.it and provide them with the PIN.
Briefly discuss those questions on Kahoot quiz and emphasize on infinitives and gerunds (orally with emphasized pronunciation)
1.2. During Stage: Interaction: T-Ss, S-S, S-Ss
Explain that we can describe how something is used with either an infinitive or a gerund. The meaning is the same.
Refer Ss to one question on the Kahoot quiz: Why do people use drones? Give out two expressions: People use drones to spy on others. People use drones for taking pictures. Ask Ss to conclude and explain the difference between the two forms: with an infinitive (to + verb); with a gerund (for + verb + -ing). T provide help if needed.
“Let’s now take a look at more examples using infinitives and gerunds.” Play the audio program to present the statements in the Grammar Focus box. Point out that the prepositions to and for are unstressed. Ask volunteers to read after them.
“Let’s do some practice. I have two columns here. Column A are statements. Column B is the purpose of using the technology. You need to pair them up and complete the sentences in Column A with information from Column B. Also, you should choose to use infinitives or gerunds.”
“Here’s an example: Many people use tablet computers to make video calls.”/ “Many people use tablet computers for making video calls.”
“More than one combination is possible which means the technology under column A could have more than one purposes that you choose from column B.”
Ss need to finish the task with a partner and type their answers on a shared google doc. Explain the document, ask comprehension check questions, and send the doc in the chat box.
Put Ss into breakout rooms and T goes into different rooms to check their progress.
Screenshare the doc and provide feedback on Ss work. Ask them to read the sentences they wrote. Ask someone else to reformulate the sentence using another way (infinitive/ gerund).
1.3 Post-Stage: Interaction: S-S, T-Ss, S-Ss
Put Ss into bigger groups and ask them to think of some unusual uses for the items.
“Here is a list of items. Please discuss with your group and try to think of some unusual and funny use of these items. You’ll then present your ideas using infinitives or gerunds like this: ‘You can use your smartphone for driving your car.’”.
Ask one person from each group to share their ideas when we come back from the breakout rooms.
Post-Lesson Reflections:
I felt that today’s lesson structure is very useful to the students based on their feedback. It was obvious that they could not identify the difference between infinitives and gerunds and use them to say complete sentences of the purposes of using technology. However, they were all able to give complete sentences during the post stage discussion. Combined with the last session, I first gave lots of implicit learning opportunities without mentioning the grammar forms. We only talked about different uses and purposes of using smartphones and frequencies. In today’s class, I first asked them to recall what we’ve done last time and help to conclude the two different grammar forms. Then, I gave more examples with some practices both on speaking and writing. I found that when they write something down, it’s easier for them to memorize and identify the form. I will try to include more integrated activities in future classes.
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