The myth of Romulus and Remus - a student-centred lesson on the past passive for pre-intermediate EFL learners

Sharing a worksheet I have made on the past passive that combines reading practice with grammar work.

Before starting, I recommend slicing off the 'grammar bit' so that you can hand it out separately after the students have read and understood the text.

The story of the boys who were raised by wolves lends itself very nicely to teaching the past passive, especially with a little tweaking. Here is the story, graded to pre-intermediate level. There shouldn't be too much new vocabulary. Potential stumbling blocks are abandon, survive, and shepherd. The procedure follows below.

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Romulus and Remus were twin brothers. They were born in Italy before Rome existed. Their mother, Rhea Silvia, was the daughter of King Numitor. But the King’s brother, Amulius, wanted to take power. He fought Numitor and forced Rhea Silvia to abandon her sons.

Romulus and Remus were put into a basket, and the basket was placed into the River Tiber. The basket travelled down the river for some time. Then, further down the river, the twins were discovered by a female wolf. She cared for the babies and fed them milk so that they would survive. Then they were discovered by a shepherd, and the shepherd cared for the boys until they were adults.

When Romulus and Remus became adults, they decided to build a new city. The brothers argued over where the site should be and Remus was killed by his brother. So Romulus was left to build the new city, and he named it Rome.

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Procedure

1. Pre-teach the word 'myth' - a traditional story about the past. It's not usually true. Ask the students about traditional stories in their country.

2. Ask students what they know about Rome. Where is it?

3. Explain that we're going to read the myth of how Rome got its name. Hand out the story and have students read it. Then ask some simple comprehension questions. What happened in the story? Do you believe it?

4. Tell students that we're going to look at a grammar point - the past passive. Write an example sentence and the structure on the board.

5. Hand out the grammar section. Students can work through in pairs or small groups.

6. As a productive follow-up, elicit some sentences from students about things that have happened to them before that can be expressed by the passive (I was bitten by a dog, I was stung by a bee, I was told off by the teacher...). Students form sentences, compare in small groups and then share some with the class.

7. As a filler at the end of the class, I like to walk around the classroom doing various actions and the students call out what I did in the passive (the pen was dropped, the water was drunk, the light was turned off, the book was opened...)

Click HERE to get the worksheet FREE.
Link opens in Google docs and you can then download, save and print as required.