Reporting verbs and reported speech
Overview
In this second advanced lesson on news media, we'll examine the grammar of reporting verbs and reported speech. Students will learn about typical reporting verb pattern constructions and how to report on what a person has said in the past. This lesson is crucial for understanding how to accurately relay information, opinions, and statements – a skill particularly relevant in this context.
The lesson plan begins with a boardwork activity, highlighting one way to introduce the target language. Following this, students will engage in a couple of low-resource collaborative grammar tasks. These will provide hands-on practice with the target language, allowing students to apply these grammatical concepts in practical scenarios. To wrap up the lesson, we've planned a fun group game where the students have to describe funny news headlines.
Lesson Outline
Classroom activities
Use of the board
The students look at a few common verb pattern constructions and also review how to report on what a person has said.
Start by informing the students that the verbs say and tell are often overused, and at the advanced level, they will see more complex verb patterns used in their place.
Next, step through three of the most common reporting verb patterns. Give examples of verbs that are used with each and try to elicit an example sentence from the board. Tell the class that there are several more patterns and that they should also research these.
After that, we'll work through reported speech. The sample board work shows one way that advanced students can look at reporting verbs. It highlights two functional uses and their differences. Step through each and have the students help you with examples by converting direct speech to reported speech.
Reporting verbs
The students will practice using some of the reporting structures covered in the board work.
Reported speech
For this writing activity, the students have to create direct statements from reported speech.
Suggested homework
For this activity, we're going to prepare students for their homework assignment.
Classroom games
Hot seat: Funny headlines
Students will have to describe amusing headlines to their teammate in the hot seat.
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750+ Low-prep classroom activity ideas
1100+ Printable ESL flashcards
180+ ESL lesson plans
8 Distinct language levels
Offline access through the TEFLHandbook app
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