Intermediate Conversation Lesson – Passive Voice – 1 hour
Use the following intermediate lesson to teach passive voice and practice using it to describe images and objects.
You will need access to a projector or smart board. You will need a bag/box of random objects. The objects can be anything, just make sure that there are enough for everyone in your classroom to have something.
1. Put the following image on the board.
Ask students what’s wrong with the second sentence. Ask them what’s the difference between the first and third sentence. (Answer: The object is more important in the third sentence.) (3 minutes)
2. Ask students to write the formula for passive based on the third sentence. (2 minutes)
Noun + be verb + past participle + by ______.
3. Play the Passive Writing Game.
Split the class into small groups. Give each small group a scrap piece of paper (or tell students to use their notebooks). Play the Passive Writing Game.
How to play: Put the game on the board. Show the students an image from the Google Slides. They must write as many passive sentences as they can in 30 seconds about the image. When the timer goes off, ask students to say their sentences out loud. Groups get a point for every correct sentence. Play until the last image. (15 minutes)
6. Now hold up a random object, such as a pencil.
Together, brainstorm as many sentences as you can, using the passive voice. Put these sentences on the board. “It is made of wood. The tree for the wood was grown in a forest. I think the pencil was made in the U.S. It is made with graphite. The graphite was taken from the ground. The pencil was made in a factory.” See how many sentences you can come up with. (5 minutes)
7. Now take out your box of objects.
Put students in pairs. Give each pair an object. Put a 1 minute timer on the board or on your phone. Tell students to say as many sentences as they can in one minute about the object. (They can use the sentences that you’ve already put on the board to help them.)
As students are talking, walk around the classroom, check pronunciation and grammar. (2 minutes)
8. Correct mistakes and change objects.
When one minute is up, if there were some major mistakes that you’d like the whole class to correct, then go over these corrections now.
Then have the students exchange objects. The pairs should pass their objects to the teams next to them. Now students should describe their new objects using passive. Put another one minute timer on the board. (3 minutes)
9. Repeat.
Repeat this several times, so that everyone in the class has the opportunity to talk about several objects. (10-15 minutes)
10. Now take all of the objects up to the front of the class and play a small game.
Split the class into two teams. Put all of the objects into a box or bag. Pull one object out. The first person to raise their hand and say a correct passive sentence gets a point for their team. Repeat for all of the objects in the box/bag. (10 minutes)
