ESL Lesson Plan: Present Progressive

Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Objective: Students will recognize and be able to use present progressive tense.

Materials: pictures of people doing various activities, chalkboard/whiteboard, chalk/dry erase markers, short text using plenty of "ing" verbs, role play cards where pairs of students ask each other what they are doing in the future.

Introduction: 5 minutes

Show students several pictures of people doing various activities. You can find these pictures in magazines, newspapers, or online. The activities can be described using the present progressive form of verbs, be + Verb-ING. For example, use a picture of a woman playing a musical instrument or of a family eating dinner.

Ask students what the people in the pictures are doing. Write the question "What are they doing?" on the board. Write answers students give on the board as you show the picture. Underline the "ing" on the students answers and the "ing" in "doing" in the question "What are they doing?" Also underline "are" in the question.

Presentation: 10 minutes

Write the construction of the present progressive tense on the board, "be verb + verb-ING." Explain that this tense is used to describe actions that are going on right now. They continue to happen as time passes by in the present.

Ask students to provide examples of other sentences using the present progressive.

Practice: 40 minutes

The present progressive can also be used to answer the question about the future "What are you doing tomorrow/next week/Friday, etc.?" Create role play cards where pairs of students ask each other what they are doing in the future as an example of how to give and accept/decline invitations. For example, a conversation might look like this:

A: Hi! What are you doing tomorrow? Some friends of mine and I are having a party.

B: Nothing, really. I'm studying, but that is about it. I would rather go a party.

A: Great! It starts at seven. What time are you planning to get there?

B: I don't know. Probably around 6.

Tell students to pay close attention to the use of the present progressive in the conversation. Have students work with multiple partners and switch reading the part of person A or B in the role play.

Ask students to write their own short conversation similar to the role play in their notebooks.

Conclusion:5 minutes

Ask students who want to to read their conversations to the class.