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The Inquisitive Guest

A Warmer

For each picture, say the job. Use the words at the end of the page.

She’s a manager

He’s an _____________

She’s a ___________

He’s a _____________

teacher scientist astronaut

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B Introduction

This is Harry.

He is 44 years old.

He is from Canada.

His hobbies are fishing, writing and eating hot dogs.

His best friend is Tom. Tom is 45 years old today!

C Reading

Tonight, Harry is at Tom’s house. It’s Tom’s birthday today

and there is a big party. Tom is 45 years old.

Read Harry's conversations at the party.

Harry: Hello, I'm Harry. Am I late?

Sasha: Hello Harry. No you aren't late. It's 8 o'clock.
Harry: Are you a teacher?
Sasha: No, I'm not.
Harry: Are you a publisher?
Sasha: No! I'm an actress.

Harry: Hello, I'm Harry.

Carol: Hello Harry, I'm Carol. Are you happy?
Harry: Yes, it's a great party. Are you a publisher?
Carol: No! I'm an actress.
Harry: Oh, Sasha's an actress too!
Carol: Yes, she's my sister.

Harry: Hello, I'm Harry, are you an actress?

Hilary: Hello Harry, I'm not an actress. I'm a hair
stylist.
Harry: Oh really? My hair stylist's name is also Hilary.
Hilary: That's incredible!
Harry: Bye!

Harry: Hello, I'm Harry, are you an actress?

Stephen: An actress? I'm a man! No! I'm a publisher.
Harry: Are you? Are you really?
Stephen: Yes, I am!
Harry: I'm very happy to meet you. I have a novel!

Is Harry happy to meet Stephen? Why?

Do you remember all the jobs?
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D Grammar

Look at Harry's questions at the party:

Am I late?

Are you a teacher?

Are you happy?

How do we make questions using the verb "to be"?

Put these boxes in the correct order below:

Subject Adjective / Noun

Verb "to be" Article (a/an/the)

To make questions using 'to be':

+ +

Complete:

Am I happy?

Are ___ hot or cold?

___ he your brother?

Is ___ your sister?

___ we all here?

Are ____ all here?

___ they The Beatles?

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E Exercise

Look at these questions using 'to be'. Complete each gap with a word from the
box.

she father I they are early

1. "____ you a teacher?" "No, I'm an actress."

2. "Is your _____ at the party?" "No, he's at home."
3. Are you always _____ for your English class?
4. Is ____ tall or short?
5. Am ___ next for the doctor?
6. Are ___ your brothers, John?

F Game

You are going to play a game!

Your teacher will tell you how to play.

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Teacher Notes
“To Be” interrogative form, job
Target Language:
vocabulary.
Duration: 60 minutes

1 Structure and Timing (all times approximate)

A. Warmer (10 minutes)

B. Introduction (10 minutes)
C. Reading (15 minutes)
D. Grammar (10 minutes)
E. Exercise (5 minutes)
F. Game (10 minutes)

Total: 60 minutes.

2 Procedure

A. Warmer

The first section serves as a revision of third person 'to be' and also teaches some job
vocabulary too. You should also draw attention to the use of "an" before the vowel,
something that is again revision.

The warmer section of a lesson should serve both, as the name suggests, as a warm-
up for the coming lesson but also as a chance to go back over what you may have
covered in the previous lesson, to give students another look at grammar/vocabulary
that is still relatively new to them.

B. Introduction

This is a very short reading passage that introduces the character of Harry. You might
like to get students to cover the left hand side of the page and just look at the picture
of Harry. Then ask a few questions such as his age, nationality, hobbies, etc, so that
students have more interest in the actual information when they read what is on the
left hand side.

C. Reading

The reading section is a series of short conversation snippets involving Harry speaking
to different people at the party – and trying to get someone to look at his novel! Each
snippet contains examples of the interrogative form of the verb 'to be', the
grammatical focus of today's lesson.

Being dialogues, this part of the lesson offers a great opportunity to give practice to
your students. Go through the dialogues at least once as a class, perhaps with you
reading one of the parts and stronger students taking the other. Then put the class
into pairs to continue practicing the dialogues, changing roles if there's time.

You can also use this chance to do some focused pronunciation work too.

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D. Grammar

The grammar section focuses on the question form of the verb 'to be', referring back
to examples of it in the dialogues and then getting students to look carefully at the
word order. At the end of the section, there is a full conjugation of 'to be' in question
form.

E. Exercise

Students can complete this alone and then check with a partner.

Answer Key

1. Are
2. Father
3. Early
4. She
5. I
6. They

F. Game

For the final part of the lesson, please see the accompanying PDF (dice-game.pdf).
This is a dice template that can be cut out and folded to form a dice (OK, technically,
"a die"!) that you may like to make multiple copies of to distribute to small groups of
your students.

Each side of the dice has the beginnings of an interrogative sentence using "to be" so
plenty of practice can be had. Monitor to check students are asking correct questions,
doing some targeted feedback afterwards.

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