Objective:
Using a picture as a prompt, students will work in groups writing sentences and understanding that there are three kinds of sentences in English, the yes sentence, the no sentence and the question. They will also understand that there are two kinds of questions, the Yes/No and the Explanation.
Method:
Teacher talk and direction
Individuals, groups of three
Materials:
Handout: Drawing: The Rabbit and the Turtle
Index cards
Newsprint and markers.
Bilingual dictionaries.
1. Helping Verbs in a Question
Every sentence in English has a helping verb in it, and most sentences in English have two verbs in them, the helping and the main verb. The main verb has three principal parts, the base form, the ING, and the participle:
eat eating eaten
jump jumping jumped
These principal parts have all the characteristics of the verb, but they can’t do anything because they don’t have a subject or a tense. What the helping verb does in English is give the main verb its subject and tense.
To the teacher: There are twenty helping verbs in English. There is a review of helping verbs at the end of this lesson. You can review them there.
For now, let’s focus on the helping verbs do and does. They are the helping verbs that help the base form (jump, eat) of the main verb in the simple present.
The rabbit jumps.
The turtle crawls.
Do and does are usually hidden in an affirmative sentence. In the sentence, The rabbit jumps, does is hiding behind jumps, but we do see the s. The same is true with the turtle crawls.
The helping verbs do and does always appear in the negative. We see the base form clearly when we say no:
The rabbit doesn’t jump.
Turtles don’t crawl.
We do see do and does in positive sentences when we are being emphatic:
Yes, the rabbit does jump.
Yes, turtles do crawl.
2. Writing yes sentences and no sentences.
Before getting your students to ask questions, have them, in groups of three, write sentences using a picture prompt. Here, the picture prompt is a rabbit and a turtle.
In class, using the picture prompt of the rabbit and the turtle, students in groups of three, write seven yes sentences on newsprint and hang them up for the whole class to see, and along with the teacher, correct if need be. Here is an example of one group’s sentences.
1. The turtle lays eggs.
2. The rabbit can jump.
3. The rabbit has a tongue.
4. Rabbits and turtles are domestic animals.
5. Rabbits eat carrots.
6. The rabbit and the turtle have nails.
7. The rabbit has good vision.
Now have the students change their yes sentences into no sentences. The purpose here is for the students to see the appearance of do and does in the negative sentences. Again, have the whole class review all of the sentences written and, with the teacher, do corrections.
1. The turtle doesn’t lay eggs.
2. The rabbit can’t jump.
3. The rabbit doesn’t have a tongue.
4. Rabbits and turtles aren’t domestic animals.
5. Rabbits don’t eat carrots.
6. The rabbit and the turtle don’t have nails.
7. The rabbit doesn’t have good vision.
With the appearance of the do and does in the no sentences, students are ready to create questions in English. Using the sentences they’ve already created, students will now explore writing Yes/No Questions and Explanation Questions.
3. Writing Yes/No Questions.
Groups sit, leaving the newsprint hanging. Hand out new newsprint. Be sure they fold them in half. Tell them that they are going to create seven Yes/No questions. They can get ideas from the sentences they’ve already written or they can write questions on their own, but the questions should be about rabbits and turtles.
Write:
The turtle lays eggs.
The rabbit has fur.
Ask a student to make the sentences into a Yes/No question.
Does the rabbit have fur?
In Yes/No Questions, the helping verb comes first.
Does the turtle lay eggs?
Does (helping verb) the turtle (subject) lay (main verb) eggs (object)?
Groups write their seven questions, and hang them up to be read and corrected by the whole class. Then the teacher goes over their corrections with them.
1. Does the turtle lay eggs?
2. Can the rabbit jump?
3. Does the rabbit have a tongue?
4. Are rabbits and turtles domestic animals?
5. Do rabbits eat carrots.
6. Do the rabbit and the turtle have nails?
7. Does the rabbit have good vision?
4. Writing Explanation Questions.
Groups take a newsprint that isn’t theirs and sit. Tell them they are going to change the Yes/No questions into explanation ones.
Point out that question words often don’t change the rest of the question.
Why does the rabbit eat carrots?
When does the rabbit eat carrots?
Where does the rabbit eat carrots?
How does the rabbit eat carrots?
To use What, the sentence must change. What do rabbits eat? What asks for a noun. and nonns can be subjects at the beginning a sentence or objects at the end of the sentence>
What do rabbits eat? Rabbits eat vegetables. What is eaten by rabbits? Vegetable are eaten by rabbits.
In an explanation question, the order of the question never changes: question word, helping verb, subject, main verb, and everything else:
Question words begin with the letters Wh: why, who, when, where, what, which, whose. Even the question word how has an h and a w in it.
Write question words on the board and have the class define each one by stating some facts about them.
Why do rabbits jump? Why asks for a reason. We often answer it with because. Rabbits jump because they want to get away.
Who jumps? The answer must be about the subject.
The answer will be at the beginning of the sentence. The rabbit jumps.
When does a rabbit jump? The answer must be about time.
Time usually goes at the end of the sentence. Rabbits jump when they want to get away.
Where do rabbits jump? The answer must be about a place. Place also goes at the end of a sentence before the time. Rabbits hide in a safe place when they are scared.
What do rabbits like? The answer’s about a person or a thing, an object. Rabbits like vegetables, green grass and safe places.
Which do you prefer, a rabbit or a turtle? Which asks for a choice between persons or things, an object. Objects go after the subject and verb: I prefer turtles.
Whose life is better, yours or the rabbit’s? Whose asks about something that the subject has.
A choice is often involved. I think my life is better than a rabbit’s.
How do rabbits jump? How asks about the way something is done. You’re going to have to do some explaining. Rabbits jump with their strong legs.
Why do people like rabbits and turtles so much?
Groups change every Yes/No Question to an appropriate Explanation Question.
When these newsprint are hung up, follow the same correction procedure with the groups. But when they’ve finished correcting, let the class examine the questions.
Which questions do they think are the best? Which question would they like to ask?
1. Where does the turtle lay eggs?
2. How can the rabbit jump?
3. Why does the rabbit have a tongue?
4. Why are rabbits and turtles domestic animals?
5. When do rabbits eat carrots?
6. Why do the rabbit and the turtle have nails?
7. What does the rabbit have?
…
5. Index Card Question and Answer
Using the explanation questions already written, students pick the explanation question they like the best. They can write a new one if they want. This is going to be a question that they are going to ask.
Call on the students one at a time. If a question that a student likes has already been picked, he or she must pick another question.
Continue until each student has a question that no one else has.
Give each of them an index card. Students write their questions on one side and answers on the other. Each student checks with their group to make sure the question and the answer are a good match. Everyone in the group must agree. The teacher also checks.
The first activity:
In the first activity, each student gets up in front of the class, and asks the question on their card. Students who know the answer should raise their hands. The student with the card can select one of the students to answer.
In the Vimeo below, students ask and answer explanation questions. Enjoy.
The second activity
The second activity can be done in the next class for review.
Collect the cards and shuffle them. Hand out the cards to the students.
Students look at their new cards, the question and the answer. Select two students. Have them stand and face each other. Have them ask each other their questions in turn.
It’s good to have them stand and get used to speaking in public.
Keep the cards. Bring them out on another day for review.
Helping Verbs and Main Verbs in English:
Learning English: Main Verbs