72 Part II: Putting Your Lesson Together
You can use a similar method to show an action in the present perfect that
started in the past but continues into the present.
From the timeline in Figure 5-4, you can elicit ‘I have lived/ have been living in
London for a while’.
Figure 5-4:
The present
perfect on a
timeline.
PAST PRESENT FUTURE
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXin London
Adapting the timeline
When you use a timeline you can use specific times, days, months or years
instead of past, present and future. In addition to that, you don’t need to
include both ends of the line if one isn’t relevant.
In Figure 5-5, the timeline shows two actions in the past so the students can
see what happened first and what happened later. For example, ‘I was hungry
this morning because I hadn’t eaten’, which illustrates the past simple and
past perfect tenses respectively.
Figure 5-5:
Showing the
past simple
and perfect.
THIS MORNING PRESENT
Not eat hungry
Using the board effectively
Whenever you use the board, the first thing you should check is whether you
have markers that work – pens or chalk – and then make sure that all the stu-
dents can see the board. You may need to alter the seating.
Keep your board clutter-free at all costs. Nothing frustrates a student more
than looking down at his notebook for a second, then looking up again to see a
board so disorganised and busy that he can’t find the thing he wanted to copy
down. Rub off information you no longer need. Clean the board before and
after each lesson.
