3.4.1 Gerunds and Circulatory System Lesson Plan

Lesson Procedure:

1. What I Enjoy Doing. Write a prompt on the board, such as: What do you enjoy doing? Beneath the question, write the following categories, in three columns: after school, on the weekends, on vacation. Encourage students to brainstorm activities for each category. Students must describe the activity using gerunds (e.g., for the “on the weekends” category, they might say I enjoy sleeping late or for the “after school” category, I enjoy playing soccer). Students then work with a partner to ask and answer questions about what they enjoy doing.
2. Gerund Roundtable. Do a Roundtable activity in small groups to practice using gerunds as subjects. Distribute a set of prompts to each group (see Preparation), with one prompt written on the top of a page. Each student completes a prompt with a gerund as the subject of the sentence and passes it on to another student in the group, and so on, until they can’t think of any more options.
3. Breathless! Before watching the movie Circulatory System (L3U4L1), enter the classroom out of breath. Explain that you were late, so you had to run. Put your hand on your heart, feel your pulse. Think out loud, “I wonder why my heart is beating like this?” Discuss with the class. Use gerunds in your explanation and encourage students to use gerunds when they share their ideas.
4. Capture the Moment in a Caption. In a repeat viewing of Circulatory System (L3U4L1), pause the movie at various points, with closed captions turned off, for students to describe the scene using gerunds as subject. After the movie, project the Gerunds as Subjects Worksheet and distribute to pairs of students. Ask partners to write a caption for each image, using a gerund as subject. For example: Biking uphill is difficult. Have pairs share their captions with the class.
5. I Spy a Gerund. Before a repeat viewing of Circulatory System (L3U4L1), have the students brainstorm from memory verbs from the movie that take the gerund form. These verbs will become column headings. Students fill in the gerunds they hear in the appropriate column as they watch the movie. Caution students not to confuse the present progressive with gerunds. To differentiate, some students may write down all of the verbs, without using the prepared column headings. Students may work alone or in pairs.
   
   Verbs from the movie that take the gerund (column headings for the chart) include: keep, try, stop, don't like, recommend, enjoy, continue, can't help, finish.
   
   You can also pause the movie at various points, with closed captions off, for students to describe the scene using gerunds as subject.