Sample Grammar Lesson Plan

LING 631
Larissa Grahl

Lesson Plan on Making, Accepting and Declining an Invitation Using Modal Verbs

I. Basic Information on Student Group

The class has a total of 20 students enrolled in an Intensive English Language Program (IELP) at the
English Language Center (ELC) from Brigham Young University (BYU). The students’ ages range from 20-40
years, with some exceptions. According to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language
(ACTFL), the proficiency level of the students is intermediate low, in which students are able to participate in
conversations on a number of familiar topics using simple sentences, as well as handle short social interactions
in everyday situations by asking and answering simple questions. In presentational speaking and writing,
students are able to present information and write briefly on most familiar topics using a series of simple
sentences. In interpretive listening and reading, students are able to understand the main idea in short, simple
messages on familiar topics.
The majority of the class has already done at least one semester previous to the current they are enrolled in,
but some students bring their previous knowledge from other experiences they’ve had in their lives with the
English language. A very few of them never took English classes before in their lives, but are still able to
communicate and create simple sentences. The majority of the students come from Central and South American
countries like Mexico, Peru and Brazil while just a few come from other countries like France, Russia, China
and Japan.
The ESL course mainly focuses on preparing students to achieve their goals by providing them with the
highest quality of foundational and academic English. Students are also expected and prepared to properly
function in social interactions in the ESL context, while also speaking as much English as they can inside the
ELC.

II. Limitations of the Class Situation

This particular lesson lasts 45 minutes, 20 minutes less than the usual length of a class period at the ELC.
The students meet 4 times a week for 65 minutes. At the ELC, the classes are divided by levels and skills (e.g..,
Foundations C Listening and Speaking, Academic A Reading), but are not limited to explore just one specific
skill during the lessons (i.e., a writing class can have speaking activities as well). Thus, this lesson will explore
different skills in one particular level (intermediate low). During this 45-minute lesson, students will be
introduced to the form, meaning and use of modals in questions and answers (i.e., can, could and would) with
the purpose of making, accepting and declining an invitation in the United States.
One literacy requirement for this lesson is knowing the basics about modals, their form, meaning, and use in
English. Students would already know that modals express potentiality and possibility, as well as politeness in
social interactions when making requests or granting permission, for instance. Students would also know that in
a sentence, modals directly precede a verb without the need of the infinitive to (e.g., I would be delighted to
come to your house tonight), and that modals don’t inflect like other verbs in English. Before this lesson, the
students received instruction and practice about modals in affirmative and negative sentences in various
contexts (e.g., giving advice: You should see a doctor).

III. Topic/Content of the Lesson

The topic of the lesson is about appropriately making, accepting and declining invitations in the United
States and their social expectations. The way people make, accept and decline invitations varies significantly
depending on the country they are inserted in. For instance, if someone offers to pay for your dinner in Mexico,
you need to accept it in order not to be impolite; it’s part of their culture.
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 This topic is closely related to modal verbs, since the person making, accepting or declining an invitation is
expected to be polite and not rude (e.g., Q: Would you like to come to my house for Thanksgiving dinner? A: I’d
love to. Thanks!).
In this lesson, students will not only learn the traditional and prescriptive rules related to modal verbs, but
also some points related to descriptive (spoken) grammar. Some descriptors that will be addressed by this lesson
are the following: being able to correctly form questions and give answers with modal verbs in oral and written
instances (spoken and written dialogues); being able to appropriately function in the American culture when
making, accepting or declining invitations (speaking, listening and writing).

IV. Performance Objectives for the Lesson

After this lesson, students will be able to:
1. Make an oral invitation and accepting an invitation orally using modal verbs and know what to do
when getting to the event (speaking).
2. Respond to a text message and/or card invitation, either accepting or declining it and giving a reason
why they can’t come to the event using modal verbs (writing).

Students will participate in a mixture of individual and/or group speaking/listening and writing activities
related to the topic and the grammar point of this lesson described above. The activities will somewhat be more
closed and controlled in the early stages of practice and production (right after presentation), and more
communicative to the end of the lesson. Students will be initially evaluated in their production of the language
in this lesson (and further evaluated in a quiz comprising all aspects related to modal verbs they have learned).

V. Materials Used
- Video: Beauty and the Beast – Dinner Invitation (Appendix A)
- PowerPoint Presentation (Appendix B)
- Practice Exercise Sheet (Appendix C)
- Answer Key (Appendix D)
- Text Message & Invitation handout (Appendix E)
- Whiteboard + markers

VI. Procedure for the Lesson

a) Introduction (5 minutes): “Has anyone watched the new Beauty and the Beast movie? Our
lesson today is about one scene from this movie.” The teacher (T) shows the students (S) the
video and asks what happened (the Beast was inviting Belle for dinner). The teacher then points
out that first, the Beast says “You join me for dinner” as a command instead of an invitation.
Then, he is convinced to be more gentle and polite and asks “Will you join me for dinner?”
(point out the difference in pronunciation, too).

b) Instructional Sequence

Teacher Focus Student Focus Activity/Duration

The T presents the topic of the The S listen and follow along the presentation of Present – 5
lesson and the grammar point the content of the lesson (slides 2-5). minutes
with the PowerPoint presentation (Slide 5 is optional).
(slides 1-5)

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 The T monitors the S and
corrects the exercises on the
board with them. (+oral answers)
The T can participate if one S is
missing. If everyone is present,
the T listens to each partnership,
corrects possible mistakes and
answers questions.
The T presents the last slide
(slide #7), which is a written
response to an invitation, that is,
another instance to respond to an
invitation (writing).
The T monitors the S and assists
those that need help.
The S practice what they’ve just learned in the Practice - 10
Practice Exercise Sheet. They complete the minutes
exercises individually.
Speaking Activity (Line Dance): S make two lines
in the middle of the room, one S facing another. Perform – 10
Only one line moves. They need to invite their minutes
partner to an event, according to the instruction
previously given and use the language on the slide
(slide #6). After making an invitation and
accepting or declining it, all S switch partners by
S in one line moving to their right. The purpose of
this activity is to make S practice the language as
many times as they can with different people.
The S read the example and compare it to the Comparing a
speaking response they just performed in the written to a
previous activity (e.g., the written response spoken response
usually has one more sentence). to an invitation – 5
minutes
One half of the class receives the real invitation
and the other half receives the text message. The Writing a response
S need to write an answer to the invitations and to an invitation –
then compare with their classmates. Those that 10 minutes
had the real invitation compare with those that (Perform)
had the text message and vice-versa.

c) Evaluation of students
Since not all characteristics of modals can be covered in one lesson, there will be no formal assessments
during this lesson (i.e., test or quiz). Thus, the assessment for this lesson is informal and happens when the
teacher elicits students’ responses for the Practice Exercise Sheet (Appendix C), and also when the teacher
listens to partnerships using the language in the Line Dance activity. The last activity (Appendix E) can be
collected by the teacher and corrected after the lesson as a means of assessing students’ knowledge gain. After
the previous taught lessons on modals, this lesson and a review lesson, students will be able to complete a quiz
on Modal Verbs (in general).

d) Reinforcement activities/Follow-up activities

A reinforcement activity for further practice with modal verbs used in invitations is comparing making
invitations in different countries around the world. After knowing how to make invitations in America, students
would discuss in groups of 3-4 (ideally with students from different countries) how a person invites another to
an event, how to answer (accept or decline) and the cultural expectations of it. The pictures on Appendix F
represent people from various countries.

VII. What will come after the lesson?

The next topic to be covered after this lesson is dealing with ethics, values and dilemmas (e.g.,
Someone forgets their wallet on the table at a restaurant). The next grammar points to be covered
after this lesson could still be modal verbs (giving advice), the unreal conditional (e.g., “If I had to
make a hard decision, I would try to do the right thing”, which contains modals) and/or possessive
pronouns + whose (e.g., “Whose coat is that? It’s mine.”).

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 VIII. References

NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements [PDF]. (2015). ACTFL. Retrieved November 23, 2017, from
https://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/Can-Do_Statements_2015.pdf

Guide to American Culture and Etiquette. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2017, from
https://harrisburg.psu.edu/international-student-support-services/guide-american-culture-etiquette

Visiting an American Home. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2017, from

http://internationalstudents.org/Home/ISI-Students/Survival-in-the-US/Visiting-an-American-home

Dinner Invitations to American Home. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2017, from
https://www.immihelp.com/newcomer/dinnerinvitation.html

Beare, K. (2017, March 31). What should you say when you make an invitation? How about accepting?
Retrieved November 23, 2017, from https://www.thoughtco.com/making-invitations-1212043

Making, Accepting & Declining an invitation in English. (2017, August 28). Retrieved November 23, 2017,
from http://www.learnex.in/making-accepting-declining-an-invitation-in-english/

IX. Appendices

APPENDIX A

Video: Beauty and the Beast – Dinner Invitation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soRV6si7lm8

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APPENDIX B (PowerPoint Presentation)

1 2

3 4

5 6

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APPENDIX C (Practice Exercise Sheet)

Making, Accepting and Declining Invitations in English

Using Modal Verbs

1. Unscramble the sentences and rewrite them in the correct order.

a) Would / like / join / for / you / us / lunch / to / ?

_____________________________________________________________________

b) join / you / Will / me / dinner / for / ?

_____________________________________________________________________

c) house / for / you / come / to / like / Would / my / Christmas / to / ?

_____________________________________________________________________

d) Sunday / house / parents’ / Would / care / eating / you / my / night / at / ?

_____________________________________________________________________

e) you / Would / come / like / to / to / birthday party / my / ?

_____________________________________________________________________

2. Write answers (A) for the questions (Q) from Exercise 1. You have to accept and decline each
invitation. Be creative and give different answers!

Example:
Q: Would you like to join us for dinner this evening?
A: Thank you. Yes, that would be very nice.
A: Unfortunately, I can’t. I have other plans.

a) Q: _____________________________________________________
A: _____________________________________________________
A: _____________________________________________________

b) Q: _____________________________________________________
A: _____________________________________________________
A: _____________________________________________________

c) Q: _____________________________________________________
A: _____________________________________________________
A: _____________________________________________________

d) Q: _____________________________________________________
A: _____________________________________________________
A: _____________________________________________________

e) Q: _____________________________________________________
A: _____________________________________________________
A: _____________________________________________________
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APPENDIX D

Practice Exercise Sheet Answer Key

1.
a) Would you like to join us for lunch?
b) Would you mind getting ice cream with me?
c) Would you like to come to my house for Christmas?
d) Would you care eating at my parents’ house Sunday night?
e) Would you like to come to my birthday party?

2. (Answers will vary).

a) Q: Would you like to join us for lunch?
A: I’d love to. Thanks.
A: Sorry, I have other plans.

b) Q: Will you join me for dinner?

A: Yes, thank you.
A: Sorry, I can’t. I’m studying for a test.

c) Q: Would you like to come to my house for Christmas?

A: Yes! That’s so nice of you. Thanks.
A: Unfortunately, I can’t. I will go home for Christmas.

d) Q: Would you care eating at my parents’ house Sunday night?

A: Certainly, thank you!
A: Thanks for asking. I’m busy Sunday night.

e) Q: Would you like to come to my birthday party?

A: Yes, I’d be delighted to!
A: Unfortunately, I can’t. I have a cold.

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APPENDIX E (Invitation & Text Message Handout)

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 APPENDIX F (People from all around the world)

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