Join Erica as she makes a movie about her family in this week’s Spotlight lesson, Erica’s Movie. Your students will see the present progressive in context, and they will compare this tense with the simple present in the follow-up tasks. (more…)

What are you doing right now? Are you studying? Are you learning? We’ve completely redone our Present Progressive lesson to give your kids even more practice with this very common verb tense! (more…)

This week’s Spotlight lesson, Cathy and Nate, includes two stories about young love. Cathy’s story uses the simple present, present progressive, simple past, and simple future tenses in context, while Nate’s story focuses on the modal “must.” (more…)

This week’s Spotlight lesson, Motorcycle, introduces students to Anthony and Maria, a couple from Italy. In this lesson, students see the present progressive and the simple present in context, and they also get a chance to discuss their own likes and dislikes using gerunds and infinitives. (more…)

What’s your favorite way of practicing the present progressive (present continuous)? I’ve tried many methods, from describing pictures or movies to guessing games, but my favorite activity involves acting. I like it because it’s easy to prepare and lots of fun for my students. Our Spotlight lesson on Sprout English this week was Riding the Train: Present Progressive Reading, so I thought it was a great time to share this activity with you. I also had our designer whip up some verb cards so you wouldn’t have to make your own. Feel free to print them out when you try this activity! There is also a blank page of cards for you to add other verbs (or get your students to make their own verb cards). Enjoy!

Verb Cards (more…)

In this week’s Spotlight lesson, Riding on the Train, students get a chance to see the present progressive in context when a young Korean girl describes what her family is doing on the train ride home. (more…)

Have you tried this week’s Spotlight lesson with your English learners? In this lesson, Pako, a young actor from Brazil, is starring in a movie. The reading and exercises in this lesson focus on a movie poster. Students complete exercises that review the simple present and present progressive tenses.
You can extend this lesson by having your students create their own movie posters! These posters will be a great addition to your classroom walls.

Movie Poster Activity

1. Make sure that your students are familiar with how to talk about themselves using the simple present and present progressive tenses. Use the lesson Pako from Sprout English’s Library to review these tenses.
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Students learn the simple present and present progressive verb tenses early on in their English language studies. The problem is that most textbooks don’t present these tenses together! It’s easy enough to remember the conjugation of one tense and practice it over and over. It’s quite another when both tenses appear in the same context—that’s when students really have to understand the differences in order to use the correct tense. Our Spotlight lesson this week, Pako – Simple Present / Present Progressive Reading, uses both tenses in the story so that students can see them compared and contrasted.

We’ve got many resources to help your learners figure out the differences between these tenses. Go over our free, printable grammar chart on the simple present vs. present progressive with your students, then print out the worksheet below and see how they do. If they are still confused, try some of our other resources at the end of this post!

Download the grammar worksheet PDF (more…)

The present tenses are fairly simple to master on their own, but students can get confused when they’re paired in the same context. Seeing the simple present and present progressive together in the same text really helps students figure out when to use each one. This week’s Spotlight lesson, Pako, features a reading and exercises that use both tenses. (more…)

Getting ready to go back to school? This week’s Spotlight lesson, The Test, features a dialogue between two friends about typical school subject: exams! It’s a great lesson to use at the beginning of a new school year. Students can practice the simple future using be + Ving and be going to + V, both of which are natural to use when planning out goals for the year.

This lesson includes a short reading, comprehension questions, a be going to grammar chart, sentence puzzles, and a group discussion activity.

All of the readings in our Library section have a digital component, so teachers and parents can choose how to present the reading and comprehension questions—either on paper or online!

Sprout English has many simple future resources: (more…)