S2E07 - The Lead Role

Objective & content

Rosie is practising her keyboard piece for the Spring Show when her friend Priya arrives straight from drama club, full of news about her lead role. The episode teaches the present continuous for actions happening now, in positive, negative and question forms (I'm practising my piece again; I'm not stopping until I get this ending right). The vocabulary field is theatre and music (script, lines, lead role, audience, keyboard, piece). Learners listen for what each girl is doing, then take the in-app quiz.

Pedagogical guide

French and German learners often say I play the keyboard for an action in progress, and spoken German does not mark the progressive at all, so the -ing form needs drilling aloud with the dialogue's own lines. Priya is a school friend, not a Walker, so introduce her before the first listen.

Suggested procedure

1. (3 min) Ask What are you doing right now? and write two or three pupil sentences on the board, underlining am/is/are + verb-ing.
2. (5 min) Introduce Rosie and Priya, then preview keyboard, script, lead role, character and audience.
3. (4 min) First listen: what is Rosie doing this evening, and what is Priya doing?
4. (8 min) Second listen with pauses after I'm playing it at half-time, Priya's favourite line and I'm getting a little carried away.
5. (7 min) Build the three forms on the board from the script.
6. (6 min) Pairs tell each other what they are doing right now with one positive, one negative and one question form.

Materials & prerequisites

The episode in the PLAY app (audio, slideshow, text and quiz), a student sheet and a teacher sheet with the answer key. Learners need the present simple and the verb be.

Curriculum alignment

Cycle 4 (5e), axis "School and society": school life, including a school show and its rehearsals.