3.1.3 Passive Future and Modals Lesson Plan

Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8, K-3

In the BrainPOP ELL movie, It Will Be Done (L3U1L3), Ben and Moby create a comic book about what life might be like in the future. They discuss ideas, from how vacations might be spent to the ways music will be played. In this lesson plan, adaptable for grades K-8, students use the passive voice with the future and modals in listening, speaking, and writing activities, as they discuss life in the future.

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

Students will:

  1. Use visual prompts to describe situations using the future and modal passive voice.
  2. Predict and write responses to questions about the movie.
  3. Paraphrase and summarize ideas presented in the movie.
  4. Illustrate, sequence, and write captions for a comic strip using the future and modal passive voice.

Materials:

Vocabulary:

Academic Vocabulary:
Passive voice, active voice, past participle
Future and modal passives: will be, can be, could be, may be, might be, should be, ought to be, is supposed to be, must be, has to be,
Degrees, temperature, Celsius, Fahrenheit

Preparation:

For Activity #1, gather pictures or real objects, such as a pencil, paper, book, an apple, sunglasses, a bicycle, a computer, a telephone, etc. Use them as prompts for the activity.

Lesson Procedure:

  1. What Can Be Done With This? Distribute pictures of different objects (or realia) to pairs of students, or display them in front of the room. Ask each pair to write four sentences about what can and can't be done with each object, using different modals in the passive voice. Instruct students to pretend they're explaining the object to someone from another planet who doesn't know about life here on Earth.
    For example: a television
    It can be watched.
    It can't be eaten.
    It should be turned off when you're not watching it.
    It can be bought in different sizes.
  2. Complete Ben's Idea. In the movie It Will Be Done (L3U1L3), Ben asks Moby three questions:
    a. "I read that the moon might be lived on by people one day. What do you think?"
    b. "What else do you think life will be like in the future?"
    c. "Moby, how do you think music will be played in the future?"
     Pause the movie after Ben asks each of these questions. Have students do a Quick Write and answer the questions with their own ideas, using the future or modal passive voice. Ask volunteers to share their responses. Then continue the movie to compare their answers with Moby's. Follow the same procedure for each question.
  3. Life in the Future Comic Strip. Have students use the blank Comic Strip to either retell the ideas from the movie, or make up their own ideas about life in the future. They should illustrate their ideas with pictures and captions using the future or modal passive voice. If they prefer, students may create a comic book instead.

RELATED BrainPOP ELL Movies Music Genres (L3U1L5)

Filed as:  3-5, 3.1.3 - Passive: Future and Modals, 6-8, BrainPOP ELL, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.1c, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.8.1b, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.6.7, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.7, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.1.5