Recycling Perfect & Perfect Progressive Tenses: Life Stories Challenge
This activity will help students review and recycle the following verb tenses:
- Present Perfect
- Past Perfect
- Future Perfect
- Present Perfect Continuous
- Past Perfect Continuous
- Future Perfect Continuous
Creative Idea: Life Stories Across Timelines
Activity Overview: Students will write a Life Story that moves back and forth across different timelines, using all the perfect and perfect progressive tenses. The story should weave together key events in the student’s past, present, and future. They can also pair this with hypothetical scenarios to add more creativity.
Instructions for Students:
- Past Timeline:
- Use Past Perfect & Past Perfect Continuous to describe what had been happening before a key event in your life.
- Example: “By the time I turned 18, I had already learned three languages.” / “I had been studying piano for five years before I moved to a new city.”
- Present Timeline:
- Use Present Perfect & Present Perfect Continuous to describe what you have achieved up to now and what you’ve been doing recently.
- Example: “I have lived in Guatemala for 10 years.” / “Lately, I have been working on improving my English skills.”
- Future Timeline:
- Use Future Perfect & Future Perfect Continuous to predict what will be completed or ongoing at a certain point in the future.
- Example: “By 2035, I will have traveled to 30 countries.” / “In ten years, I will have been working in my field for over 15 years.”
- Hypothetical Scenarios:
- Add creativity by using mixed conditionals to describe hypothetical or alternate pasts/futures.
- Example: “If I hadn’t taken that job, I wouldn’t have met my current partner.”
Extension:
- Students can exchange their Life Stories with a partner and analyze how their partner used the perfect and perfect progressive tenses. They can provide feedback and discuss different ways to express certain ideas.
Goal:
This activity pushes students to switch between different perfect tenses seamlessly while giving a cohesive and engaging narrative, reinforcing their understanding of these tenses in a real-life context.
