He said, she said

In this ESL grammar lesson, students will learn and review reported speech and also work on the use of say or tell, make or do.  

Warm-up

The lesson starts with a paragraph containing examples of reported speech. The student identifies examples in the text and explains the use of reported speech in their own words.

Grammar: Reported (or indirect) speech

The use and structure of reported speech are explained for past and present tenses, as well as future and conditional forms. The student revises reported speech for each of the tenses and forms in separate activities. 

They also learn how time expressions change from direct to indirect speech.

Reading: A famous thief

The student reads a paragraph written mostly in reported speech, about a famous thief and completes reading comprehension. New words are extracted from the text for the student to match them with their meanings. 

The student is then given a list of news headlines to sort them in the correct categories (Politics, Crime, Arts and Culture, Economy).

Reading: St Francis Dam Disaster

The student reads about the greatest dam disaster of the 20th century. Next, they complete the reading comprehension practice.
They also read a passage about why bad news travels fast.

The student matches opposite adjectives used to describe news.

Video: Seth Meyers stand-up

The student watches an excerpt from Seth Meyers’ stand-up Lobby Baby and practices transforming direct speech to indirect speech.