Out of time (lower Level)

Introduction

This lesson focuses on a holiday image. Students do a number of activities to help them understand a recording of the photographer talking about the image. They then look at language used to talk about a photo, before preparing a short presentation about another image of the students’ choice.

Both face-to-face and online versions of this lesson are available. For the face-to-face version, teachers can choose to use a student worksheet or a presentation for a no-printing option.

Learning outcomes

• Identify specific and detailed information in a recorded interview
• Use language to describe a photo and the story behind it
• Prepare and give a short presentation about a photo

Age and level

13-17, Adults (B1)

Time

Approximately 65-85 minutes

Materials

The following materials can be downloaded below. 

• Lesson plan (face-to-face / online teaching)
• Presentation
• Student worksheet
• Audio file: Out of time
• Image: Out of time

In addition, some photos of famous landmarks in Rome may be useful. Teachers may also need to access: https://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/sets/72157626816628127

Lesson plan for face-to-face teaching

Lead-in (10 mins)

• Show slide 2 of the presentation or refer students to the Lead-in task in the student worksheet. 
• Students discuss questions 1-5 in small groups or as a whole class. If they discuss in groups, ask a person from different groups to share their answer to a question with the class.   

Task 1: Preparing to listen (5-10 mins)

• Show slide 3 of the presentation or refer students to Task 1 in the student worksheet. 
• Tell students that they are going to listen to someone describing a photo. The photo is one that the person took on a holiday in Rome. 
• Ask them to name some famous landmarks in Rome (feed in the Colosseum if they don’t mention it). 
• Ask them to imagine what might be in a holiday photo taken in Rome. They can do this as a whole class, or in small groups. 
  Note: If students are not familiar with Rome at all, you could show some pictures of Rome and its landmarks to prepare them for the recording. 

Task 2: Listening (10 mins)

• Show slide 4 of the presentation or refer students to Task 2 in the student worksheet. 
• As students listen, they should note SIX things that are mentioned in the recording. They should also listen to see if their ideas from Task 1 were correct. 
• Play the recording (Audio: Out of time). 
• Get feedback on students’ notes and find out what the class has understood about the photo. Help with any new vocabulary they heard e.g. gladiator, legionnaire, human statue. 
• Optional: If it seems that your students have understood quite a lot, play the recording again, and ask students to draw the picture they imagine.

Task 3:  Talking about a photo (10 mins)

• Now show slide 5 of the presentation. Alternatively, display ‘Image: Out of time’, and refer students to Task 3 in the student worksheet.  
• In groups, students discuss the questions. If necessary, play the recording again for them to check their answers. Check answers with the class.
• Ask students to say if they like the photo and why. 
  Answers: 2. The Colosseum, Rome (in front of an ice cream van), 3. He is dressed as a Roman soldier (gladiator / legionnaire) because he is a human statue / street actor – tourists pay money to have photos taken with him. 

Task 4: Completing sentences (10-15 mins)

• Show slide 6 of the presentation or refer students to Task 4 in the student worksheet. 
• Individually or in pairs, students see if they can complete any of the gaps (one gap = one word). They can compare their ideas. 
• If students have managed to complete the sentences, check answers (these are available on slide 7 of the presentation). 
• Alternatively, they could listen to the recording again (pause where necessary) to complete gaps / check answers, or they could look at the transcript available on slides 8/9 or in the Appendix at the end of the lesson plan. 
• Ask students to identify:       
  o    An example of the passive. (it was taken)
  o    An example of the past simple (I took it, I decided)
  o    An example of the past continuous (When he wasn’t looking, he was having a break, he was buying an ice-cream)
• If you want, you can show the students the transcript (slides 8 and 9). There are some useful phrases highlighted on the slides. You could point students to these and explain what they mean – this will be useful for the next stage. You could ask students to read the transcript and make a note of any language that is new, or that they like.
  Answers: 1. was taken, 2. about / ago / outside, 3. attacks, 4. myself, 5. wasn’t looking, 6. was having / buying, 7. contrast, 8. left-hand

Task 5: Collaborative writing and presentations (20-30 mins)

• Show slide 10 of the presentation or refer students Task 5 in the student worksheet. Alternatively, dictate the phrases first, then have students check them by looking at slide 10 or Task 5.
• Put students into pairs or small groups. Explain that they should choose an image, imagine that they are the photographer, and write a short presentation describing the photo, using the phrases on slide 10 / in Task 5 to help them. 
• If possible, students should choose an image from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/sets/72157626816628127.
• If this is not possible, find some suitable ‘holiday photos’ from the internet for students to choose from, or ask students to bring / find a photo of their own to present.
• Give students 10 minutes to write the presentation. Walk around and help where necessary, and encourage them to add as much information as possible. 
• Put pairs together to give presentations. Alternatively, invite them to give their presentations to the whole class. 

Homework (optional)

• Show slide 11 or give homework. Students choose their own photo and write about it, using sentences from the lesson. They could share their photos next lesson. 

Lesson plan for online teaching

At the start of the lesson

Questions for the teacher before beginning the lesson:

• Are all your students in the online classroom? If not, consider a short, warm-up activity until they have all arrived. Don’t wait too long though!
• Have you checked that all your students can see and hear you? How do you know? Ask them to type in the chat box, or raise their hand or say “yes” if they can hear you and see you. If they can’t hear you, ask them to check their audio and video settings.
• Can all the students speak if they need to? Have you muted all their microphones? It is a good idea at the start of the lesson to mute student microphones to avoid unnecessary noise.
• Do the students have their webcams switched on, if they have them?

Lead-in (10 mins)

• Prepare to divide students into breakout rooms. Put them in groups of 2, 3 or 4 depending on your class size. Tell students you are going to give them some questions to discuss in the breakout room.
• Show the questions on slide 2 and read through them with students to check understanding. Then divide the students into the breakout rooms and set a time limit (around 5 minutes) for students to discuss the questions. Remind everyone they will be sharing their ideas after this time. 
• After the time is up, move students back into the main room. Ask one person from each group to answer one of the questions. It’s a good idea to nominate here to make sure that different students get speaking practice. 
  Tip: Remember you can ‘drop in’ to the breakout rooms to check that students are on task, help with vocabulary, and make notes of any good language / errors.

Task 1: Preparing to listen (5-10 mins)

• Show slide 3. Tell students that they are going to listen to someone describing a photo. The photo is one that the person took on a holiday in Rome.
• Ask students to name some famous landmarks in Rome (feed in the Colosseum if they don’t mention it). 
• Ask them to imagine what might be in a holiday photo from Rome. Again, they can do this in breakout groups, or they could write ideas in the chat box.
  Tip: If students are not familiar with Rome at all, you could show some pictures of Rome and its landmarks to prepare them for the recording. 

Task 2: Listening (10 mins)

• Show slide 4. As students listen, they should note SIX things that are mentioned in the recording. They should also listen to see if their ideas from the previous task were correct. 
• Play the recording (Audio: Out of time). Make sure you share your audio as well as your screen so that the students can hear the audio well.
• Get feedback on students’ notes and find out what the class has understood about the photo. Help with any new vocabulary they heard e.g. gladiator, legionnaire, human statue. 
• Optional: If it seems that your students have understood quite a lot, play the recording again, and ask students to draw the picture they imagine. Ask some students to show their pictures to the camera. 

Task 3: Talking about a photo (10 mins)

• Show slide 5. 
• Ask students to answer the questions on the slide. You could nominate students, or just ask them to write their answers in the chat. If necessary, play the recording again for them to check answers. 
  Answers: 1. Refer to students answers from previous task, 2. The Colosseum, Rome (in front of an ice cream van), 3. He is dressed as a Roman soldier (gladiator / legionnaire) because he is a human statue / street actor – tourist pay money to have photos taken with him. 

Task 4: Completing sentences (10-15 mins)

• Ask students to raise their hands (most platforms have a raise hand function for participants) if they like the photo. Nominate a student and ask them why they like it.
• Show slide 6. Give students some time to see if they can make a note of the missing words (one gap = one word). Ask for some suggestions. 
• If students have managed to complete the sentences, check answers (available on slide 7). 
• Alternatively, play the recording again, pausing where necessary. Students can check their answers with slide 7. 
• Ask students to identify:       
  o    An example of the passive. (it was taken)
  o    An example of the past simple (I took it, I decided)
  o     An example of the past continuous (When he wasn’t looking, he was having a break, he was buying an ice-cream)
• If you want, you can show the transcript (slides 8 and 9). There are some useful phrases highlighted on the slides. You could point students to these and explain what they mean – this will be useful for the next stage. You could ask students to read the transcript and make a note of any language that is new, or that they like.

Task 5: Collaborative writing and presentations (20-30 mins)

• Dictate the following sentence heads. Students can either write them in their notebooks or open a document on their computer. Nominate different students to read back the sentences.
  This photo was taken…
   I took it … ago, at …
   I decided to take it because…
   He / she / it was…
   There are / there is…
   When I take photographs I…
   It makes me think about …
• Show slide 10 for students to check their phrases. If time is short, skip the dictation and show slide 10 directly.
• Remind students that the sentences they use will change depend on the image they are describing. Go over ‘top left- hand corner’ etc. so that students know how to describe different parts of the picture.
• Put this URL into the chat and ask students to open the website: https://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/sets/72157626816628127
• Tell them that they will work in pairs in the breakout rooms. They should choose an image from the page, imagine that they are the photographer, and write a short presentation describing the photo, using the sentence heads to help them. Encourage them to add as much information as possible.
• Send the students to the breakout rooms. Monitor the rooms and encourage the students to write you a message in the chat if they need any help.
• After 10 minutes, bring the students back into the main room. Each group should present their photo. You can either a) ask the other students to listen and then check the page to guess which photo is being described (you can share your screen and show the photo that the other students are guessing) or b) hand over screen sharing to each group (if you have that option) so that they can show the picture they are describing as they present.

Task 6: Poll (optional)

• If the platform you are using has a poll function, after the presentations you could create a quick poll to see which photo the students like the best.

Homework (optional)

• Show slide 11. Ask students to write a short description of one of their own photos, using the language from the lesson. They should send you the photo before the next class (if that is possible) or be prepared to show the photo on camera in the next class. Other students can ask them questions. 

Wrap up

• Ask students to write any new words they have learnt in the chat box. Check that all students understand these new words and know how to pronounce them.
• You can use these for a quick revision activity in the next class (one idea: you can read out definitions for these words and students write them in the chat, or you could do a gap-fill and students work together to complete the sentences with the words)

See all the lesson plans in this series

• Tiny Cinderella Somewhere (lower level)
• Tiny Cinderella Somewhere (higher level)
• After Lunch (lower level)
• After Lunch (higher level)
• A remote House in the West of Scotland (lower level)
• A remote House in the West of Scotland (higher level)
• Tattoo - Possibilities (lower Level)
• Tattoo - Possibilities (higher level)
• Out of Time (lower Level)
• Out of Time (higher Level)
• Escape 3 (lower level)
• Escape 3 (higher level)
• One nation under CCTV (lower level)
• One nation under CCTV (higher level)
• Stairway to nowhere (lower level)
• Stairway to nowhere (higher level)
• Young market traders (lower level)
• Young market traders (higher level)
• Summer love (lower level)
• Summer love (higher level)