The Time Travelers' Simple Past Mission

Welcome, time travelers! You've just arrived in the past, but something strange has happened. All the verbs around you are behaving erratically! They're not telling us when things happened, and that's causing a lot of confusion. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to master the Simple Past Tense so you can bring order back to the timeline.

By the end of this WebQuest, you will be able to:

• Identify regular and irregular verbs in the simple past.

• Form affirmative, negative, and interrogative sentences in the simple past.

• Use the simple past tense to describe past events.

To begin, I have a mission for you, it is divided into several phases. You will work individually or in small groups to explore the resources provided and complete the activities.

1. Phase 1: Understanding the Basics

   • What is the Simple Past Tense used for?

   • How do we form the simple past for regular verbs? (Spelling rules!)

   • What are irregular verbs and why are they "irregular"?

2. Phase 2: Affirmative, Negative, and Questions

   • How do we make positive statements in the simple past?

   • How do we make negative statements in the simple past? (Hint: Think "didn't"!)

   • How do we ask questions in the simple past? (Hint: Think "did...?")

3. Phase 3: Practice Makes Perfect

   • Complete interactive exercises to test your knowledge.

   • Create your own sentences and short stories using the simple past.

Follow these steps to complete your mission. Click on each link to access the resources.

Phase 1: Understanding the Basics

• Resource 1 (Video - Overview and Regular Verbs)

  • Option A (EngVid - Comprehensive): This video is very thorough, covering usage, structure, pronunciation, spelling, regular and irregular verbs.

    • Link:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmJrYbDjxQY&t=20s

      Learn English Tenses: PAST SIMPLE

• Resource 2 (Website - Regular and Irregular Verbs): https://langeek.co/en/grammar/course/13/past-simple

Phase 2: Affirmative, Negative, and Questions

• Resource 1 (Website): https://www.ef.com/wwen/english-resources/english-grammar/simple-past-tense/
• Resource 2 (Website): https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/grammar-vocabulary/grammar-practice/past-simple-questions

Phase 3: Practice Makes Perfect

• Resource (Online Exercises):

  • Option A (Test-English - Past Simple: Form and Use): Offers multiple-choice exercises for form and use, great for checking understanding.

    • Link: https://test-english.com/grammar-points/a2/past-simple-form-use/

  • Option B (My English Path - Past Simple Tense Quiz): A good interactive quiz to test overall knowledge of the simple past. 

  • Link: https://myenglishpath.com/grammar/quizzes/past-simple-tense-quiz/

Your mission will be evaluated based on the following:

• Completion of Activities: Did you complete all the tasks and activities?

• Accuracy: How accurately did you form sentences using the simple past tense (regular and irregular verbs, affirmative, negative, questions)?

• Understanding: Does your creative writing activity demonstrate a clear understanding of when and how to use the simple past?

Congratulations, time travelers! You have successfully mastered the Simple Past Tense! You've learned how to talk about events that happened in the past, restoring order to the timeline. Now you can confidently describe your past experiences and understand those of others.

This WebQuest was designed by Fernando Pérez using the model.

 

For Grammar Explanations and Videos:

• EngVid by Emma (YouTube)
• LanGeek
• British Council LearnEnglish
• EF

For Interactive Exercises and Quizzes:

• Test-English
• My English Path

Overview

     This WebQuest is designed to introduce, reinforce, and provide practice with the Simple Past Tense in English. It utilizes a thematic approach "Time Travelers" to engage students and make the learning process interactive and enjoyable. Students will explore online resources to understand the formation and usage of regular and irregular verbs in affirmative, negative, and interrogative forms. The activities are structured to encourage independent learning, critical thinking, and creative application of the grammatical concept.

• Subject: English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL)

• Topic: Simple Past Tense (Regular and Irregular Verbs)

• Target Audience: English Level: A1-A2 Common European Framework