Past Modals - Speculating about a Crime

• High Intermediate 
• Teens; Adults
• Speaking/listening
• Past modals for speculating about a crime
• Detective stories
• Past modals for deduction
• Download movie scenes and worksheet

1. Make a word web with all the words you learned that relate to crime in the unit.

2. You are members of the behavioral Analysis Unit and you have been asked to collaborate with the FBI in a crime investigation. Watch the first scene to get familiar with the situation. 

3.  Watch scene 2 and meet your team.

4. You and your partner interviewed different people and  found some evidence that you need to share in order to figure out this horrible crime. Use your notes and speclate about what couldn't/must/ must not/ can/ might have happened in order to solve this horrendous crime.

          The girl was seeing at the mall with someone in a video footage from security cameras.

           There was a crime last week in which a little girl died after being kidnapped at a mall in the city.

           There is no connection between the girls. The killer knew well the surroundings and must have felt safe.

            The cousin, Jeremy, remembered that he was with the girl at a game store and that she had been crying asking him to leave with her, but he was playing a game with another girl.

            The police found the girl`s necklace hidden in a plastic bag in the mall.

            The aunt never mentioned to the police that she had worked in the mall where the crime happened.

            Her uncle knew more about his niece than about his own son.

          The girl knew not to walk off with a stranger.

           The girl must have trusted the offender because nobody heard screams or fights.

           The cousin, Jeremy, either saw or heard something that could be useful, but the guilty manifested into an acute stress disorder and he can`t remember anything.

          Police found the necklace the girl was wearing when she went missing.

         The clap was damaged like it were ripped off her neck and tossed in the trash. It was a passion crime.

         The abductor just wanted to fulfill his urge and move on.

         The girls dolls were all acted on and this shows that she might have suffered abuse by a close family member.

5. Watch the scene in which the detectives solve the crime. Did you guess correctly?

Using YouTube Videos to Teach Past Modals

“Have you seen this video?”

My digital natives students easily recognize this phrase. They look at me with satisfaction, and I imagine their thinking that I have finally spoken their language. They are frequently eager to express their interest in new videos on youtube. I was teaching them how to guess what happened by using past modals, but they were distracted, and I understood that they didn't even know what a deduction was. I decided to bring the videos, and prepare a feedback section on learning to help them measure how engaged or not they were, and the awareness of the language structure we were supposed to learn. Here is my trying out with youtube in class. It worked well as students gave me positive feedback and performed the tasks successfully. Besides all that, it's easy to have them share their favorite videos and interact out of the classroom in our virtual space because they always want to ask whether or not their friends have seen the latest interesting video.

• Intermediate
• Teens
• Speaking
• Deductions in the past; Past modals
• Mysterious situations
• You tube videos, worksheet. ( dowload here)
• Retelling
• Youtube - facebook

Guess what

As your teacher I feel great when I teach something you can put

into use straight away.

Two questions I keep in mind:

Would you use it out of the classroom?

Howengaged will you be if I use the material?

With these ideas in mind I prepared this activity for us.

I hope you enjoy it.

I’ll will ask for feedback when we finish. Be prepared to tell me:

Were you engaged?

Did you use the language requested to perform the task?

What did you learn?

How could I improve this activity?

1. “Have you seen this video?”

2. List five possible explanations for the situation in the video. Which ones should tou use if you are more certain? Which ones should you use if you are less certain?

must (not) have could (not) have might (not) have

3. List five possible explanations for the situation in the video. Which ones should tou use if you are more certain? Which ones should you use if you are less certain?

must (not) have could (not) have might (not) have

4. List five possible explanations for the situation in the video. Which ones should tou use if you are more certain? Which ones should you use if you are less certain?

must (not) have could (not) have might (not) have Follow up Upload a video on youtube or look for one. Post on our facebook group so that your classmates can react to it by logical conclusions. Feedback on teaching and learning Were you engaged? Did you use the language requested to perform the task? What did you learn? When yould you use this language out of the classroom? How could I improve this activity?