• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Irregular past tense and past participles (swam/swum, began/begun); Perfect tenses (past, present, future); Verb tense and form in context). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. Choose the correct form of the verb in brackets. The phone ___ while we were eating. (ring) (ringed / rang / rung / rings) → rangPrompt: Is there a helping verb (has, have, had) before the gap?
2. Choose the correct perfect tense. When I got to the station, the train ___ (leave). (has left / will have left / leaves / had left) → had leftPrompt: Is the action finished before a past time, before now, or before a future time?
3. Choose the verb form that fits the context. Lena was relieved because she ___ the exam. (passes / has passed / will pass / had passed) → had passedPrompt: Look for time clues (in 1969, since, by the time, next month).

• Show a sentence with the grammar point used wrongly and ask what sounds odd.
• Share the objective: Past perfect for the earlier of two past events. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Choose the verb form that shows the order of events correctly. By 2010, the company ___ over a million phones.
• Step 1: Use the past perfect (had + past participle) for an action completed before another past action or time.
• Step 2: 'By 2010' marks a past deadline: past perfect.
• Step 3: Put it back into the sentence and read it aloud: "By 2010, the company had sold over a million phones."
• Step 4: So the answer is: had sold
• Answer: had sold
• Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

• Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
• Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.

1. Is this sentence correct in formal written English? Nobody told me that the meeting had been cancelled. (correct / incorrect) → correctPrompt: Put the two past events in order on a timeline. Which happened first?
2. Choose the verb form that shows the order of events correctly. Nobody told me that the meeting ___ cancelled. (has been / will be / is / had been) → had beenPrompt: Put the two past events in order on a timeline. Which happened first?

• Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
• Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 8 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

• Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.

1. Is this sentence correct in formal written English? She reads the book twice before she saw the film. (correct / incorrect) → incorrectPrompt: Put the two past events in order on a timeline. Which happened first?
2. Choose the verb form that shows the order of events correctly. She ___ the book twice before she saw the film. (will read / has read / had read / reads) → had readPrompt: Put the two past events in order on a timeline. Which happened first?

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/english/grade-10.