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Indefinite pronouns

Free
Low-resource ESL lesson plan
Elementary+/A2
Low-resource ESL lesson plan
Grammar
Low-resource ESL lesson plan
45-60 min
Low-resource ESL lesson plan
Low-Resource
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Overview

In this elementary-level lesson, students will focus on understanding and using common indefinite pronouns in English. They will explore how words like someone, anything, nobody, and everything are used to refer to non-specific people, things, and places. Mastery of these pronouns makes it easier to express ideas and thoughts where specifics are unknown or unnecessary.

The lesson plan begins with suggested boardwork, offering one clear and effective way to introduce indefinite pronouns. Building from this, students will then engage in several low-resource activities. These include collaborative grammar exercises, writing, and speaking tasks. To wrap up the lesson, we've included a fun classroom game idea where students play a modified version of Hot Seat that reinforces indefinite pronouns.

Lesson Outline
Activities
Low-resource ESL lesson plan
Boardwork
1Understood?
2An interesting sentence
3Sentence discussion
Games
1Hot seat
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Classroom activities

Low-resource ESL lesson plan

Use of the board

The students review the common indefinite pronouns in English.

You may find that students at this level are already familiar with some or most of these. However, they will still confuse these and continue to make small errors even into intermediate. Start off by eliciting and explaining the meaning of each indefinite pronoun. Add the L1 translations if you wish. After that, step through each functional use on the board and try to elicit an example sentence.

EFL - ESL Lead-in activity | Elementary | Indefinite pronouns

Low-resource ESL activity

Is everything understood?

For this grammar activity, the students have to complete sentences using the correct indefinite pronoun.

Add the following to the board and have the students work individually to complete the sentences.

  1. John is living ____ in China.
  2. I've done ____ on the list.
  3. He heard ____ moving around in the trees.
  4. Adam is very brave, ____ scares him.
  5. ____ is going to David's party.
  6. Is there ____ on TV tonight?
  7. Mary didn't say ____ to us.
  8. You can collect the children ____, I'll be here all day.
  9. They sold ____ in the shop.
  10. There's ____ at the door, you better answer it.

When finished, they should compare their answers with a partner.

Key

  1. somewhere
  2. everything
  3. something
  4. nothing
  5. everyone
  6. anything
  7. anything
  8. anytime
  9. everything
  10. someone
Low-resource ESL activity idea

An interesting sentence

A pair-work writing activity where the students have to make sentences using indefinite pronouns and another arbitrary word.

Start by adding the following prompts to the board:

  1. Something - lake
  2. Anything - newspaper
  3. Nothing - TV
  4. Nobody - job
  5. Everything - important
  6. Anytime - campsite
  7. Someone - sky
  8. Everyone - boat
  9. No one - homework

Next, split the group into pairs and tell them that they have to make sentences from these pairings. Encourage them to be as creative and funny as possible.

You could even turn this into a fun team game, where you give a point for the funniest sentence. If you decide to do that, award points as part of the next activity.

Low-resource ESL activity idea

Sentence discussion

The students will discuss the sentences that they created during the previous task.

Following on from the previous activity, students discuss their sentences and provide corrections/improvements to the other groups. If you have decided to play this as a game, award points for the funniest sentence.

Classroom games

Low-resource ESL classroom game

Hot seat: Indefinite pronouns

Students will have to describe sentences that contain the target language to the player in the hot seat. 

Start by dividing the class into two teams. On each turn, one student will sit with their back to the board, facing their teammates. Write an indefinite pronoun, random word and tense on board behind the student in the hot seat. Their teammates must then describe the two words without explicitly saying them. Once the student in the hot seat has guessed the words correctly, they have to make a sentence that uses the pronoun and random word in the specified tense. Set a time limit if you wish. Below are some examples to get you going: 

  1. nobody / works - Present continuous 
  2. everything / eat - Past continuous 
  3. someone / Spain - Present simple 
  4. anytime / tiger - Future 
  5. everybody / castle - Past simple