Lexis Lesson · Say it, and take the questions

01

Warm-up · 5 min

Last check, at speed

Five minutes, no looking back

One to three words per gap. Do not check your notes. Whatever stalls is what you watch for in ten minutes’ time.

I have been considering for months, and I cannot afford much longer. My sister keeps me whether I have decided. She reminded the landlord before Friday, which I had forgotten . I do not mind a few more weeks, but I refuse the whole year again.

02

Input · 6 min

What is being assessed

Three parts today. Four minutes of spoken analysis, three minutes of questions from somebody who has read your piece, and the written 250 words with a short reflection.

The criteria are below, and they are the criteria — nothing is being judged that is not on this list.

Criterion to evidence

Six criteria. Match each to what it actually looks like when somebody is doing it.

Pairs arrive whole — no hesitation in the middle, no repair afterwards

remember, stop, try used with the meaning you intended, and the listener agrees

The objection is conceded before it is answered, and your own cost is named

Three or more phrases doing real work, not decorating a list

The hard question is answered, not converted into an easier one

to reduced to /tə/; -ing adding a syllable without adding a beat

03

Focus on Form · 6 min

The three things to hold

Everything from this unit, on one card

Hold this	Because
The pair, not the verb	consider changing, decide to go. Retrieved whole, so nothing has to be worked out mid-sentence.
Back or forward	For remember, forget, stop, try, regret, go on, mean, need: -ing looks back at something real, to looks forward at something not yet done.
Person then to	asked me to wait, reminded her to send. Never ~~asked that I waited~~.

04

Communicative Task · 30 min

The unit task

How the thirty minutes run. Two minutes to set up, then rounds of seven: four minutes speaking, three minutes of questions. Two students per round, so pairs work in parallel and the teacher moves. Final four minutes for the written reflection.

Part 1 · Spoken analysis · 4 minutes · No notes

Give the analysis of your decision to somebody who has read your written piece.

Four minutes, spoken, without the page. The piece was the rehearsal; this is the performance.

State the decision and what you have not yet said to anybody.
Concede the strongest objection at full strength, then answer it.
Name your own cost. If it sounds unflattering, you have it right.
Finish on what tips it, and on an actual position — including "not yet, and here is what would change that".

Part 2 · Questions · 3 minutes · You do not choose these

Your listener has read the piece and heard the analysis. They now ask three questions.

Three minutes. Answer what was asked, including the one you would rather not have been asked.

Question 1 — what would have to change for your answer to change?
Question 2 — who has not been consulted, and why not?
Question 3 — the listener’s own: the thing that was missing, or the thing you moved past quickly.
If a question cannot be answered, say that, and say what you would need to know. Do not convert it into an easier question.

Part 3 · Written · 4 minutes at the end

Hand in the 250-word piece with a short reflection underneath it.

Sixty words. Three sentences will do.

Which pair from your list of six arrived whole today, and which one still stalled?
Which question in Part 2 was the one you did not want, and what did you say?
Has the decision moved since Lesson 1 — and if it has not, has anything else?

Teacher note Part 2 carries the assessment. Four rehearsed minutes tell you what a student can prepare; three unrehearsed ones tell you what they have. Listen there for the pairs — under a question they did not expect, the default returns first, and that is the honest measure of what has been stored. Do not interrupt to correct; note and return it in writing with the piece.

05

Feedback · 8 min

Where the unit landed

Self-assessment · tick honestly, this is not collected

	Not yet	Getting there	Yes
I can say ten of the thirty pairs without assembling them
I choose remember / stop / try by meaning, and the listener agrees
I put the person before to with ask, tell, remind, advise
I concede the strongest objection before answering it
I can name my own cost without softening it
I answered the question I did not want

Reflection

Three questions. Answer for yourself.

1. Under the unrehearsed questions, what happened to your verb pairs?

They held Some fell back to the default — which is normal, and names what to work on I did not notice

2. What is the fortnight’s work from here?

Re-learn all thirty pairs Six true sentences, said tomorrow, in three days, and next week Nothing — the unit is finished

3. What did this unit not give you a rule for?

The eight both-form verbs The thirty pairs — those have no reason, which is why they are stored rather than derived The weighing phrases

Teacher note Return the written pieces with the pairs marked but uncorrected, and one line naming the single move that was thin. Students who repair their own pairs at this point retain them; students who receive thirty corrections retain the impression that they are bad at this, which is the belief the whole unit was designed to dislodge.

06

Wrap-up · 5 min

What you can do now

Since Lesson 1 you have added: thirty verb pairs in three groups; the one rule that covers the eight verbs taking both forms; the group-3 shape that Portuguese has no equivalent for; eight weighing phrases and the four moves of a reasoned turn; and a way of working that puts six pairs into speech instead of thirty into a notebook.

And one thing that is not grammar: the habit of naming your own cost before somebody else does.

Exit Check

Two questions. Twenty seconds.

1. Where does the pattern live?

In the second verb In the first verb In the tense

2. What is the target for the next fortnight?

Six pairs, three spaced returns Thirty pairs, one evening The eight both-form verbs only

Next unit — My Identity, Multiplied. You have spent eight lessons saying what you have decided. Next you say what you think is true and how sure you are: she must have known, he can’t have meant it, they might still be waiting. Speculation, with the certainty marked in the grammar rather than in the voice.