Using Advice Column for Future Forms

(TESOL Worksheets--Future Forms)
Link to original article: Don’t Panic: An advice column (week 2)
Worksheet: docs, pub 
slideshow: slides, pub
[Notes: I was using teaching a lesson from a textbook (Close-up C1 p.22) which practiced all of the future forms without any presentation.  So I was searching the web for some sort of text that embodied several different future forms.  (I figured it was unrealistic to get all the future forms in one text, so I was just looking for a text that had some variety.)  I started searching for advice columns, and found this.  It is a good example of future simple, future continuous, and future perfect.
In an effort to keep the text authentic, I've edited it as little as possible. My class (advanced teens) could handle it with some support.  (Although part of me thinks maybe a contrived and simplified text might have done the job better.  Something to think about for next time.)
Anyway, I used this text in several step:
Step 1: On slideshow, show the picture of the boy looking at the girl.  Students discuss with their partner what they think the situation is.  Open class feedback in which I elicit or guide them to the correct answer.  Then ask students what the boy should do.  Try to elicit or guide students to the idea of asking for advice.
Step 2: Show the next slide, which is a picture of the advice column.  Elicit from students what an advice column is.  Elicit from the picture that there are two people in this advice column, so there will be two different pieces of advice for each letter.
Step 3: Show the boy's letter on the slide.  Read it with the students, and then they talk to their partner about what they would write if they were one of the advice columnists.  Share some ideas in open class feedback.
Step 4: Hand out the answers on the sheet.  (The sheet is cut in two parts, so that the students only get the advice column part first.  The verb table part will come later.)  Students read the advice, and then with their partner, discuss (a) were either idea similar to the ideas they had discussed with their partner? (b) which advice did they like better.
Step 5: Ask students to underline all the verbs in the text that have a future meaning.  Check with their partner and then feedback on the slideshow.
Step 6: Give students the second half of page 1 of the handout.  (The verb table).  Students have to classify the verbs into future simple, future continuous, future perfect and future perfect continuous.  (No examples of future perfect continuous are in this text, but students have to work that out for themselves.)  Confirm answers in open class feedback.
Step 7: Give out sheet 2. Students have to match verb forms to meaning.  Check with partner.  Confirm answers in open class feedback.

Dear Audrey and Emily,

I like this girl in my Calculus I class, but she’s always taking notes. It’s like, I’m looking at her trying to make eye contact all class and she hardly looks anywhere besides her notebook or the whiteboard. How do I get her attention?

-Failing Calc but Falling in Love

Audrey’s answer:

Emily’s answer:

Dear Failing Calc but Falling in Love,  You need to go back in time to the early 1600s and publicize all of the basic concepts of Calculus before Newton or Leibniz can do it. The timeline alters. The future will change. Your desk will be empty. She will see your portrait in the Calculus textbook, and she will see your theorems on the whiteboard. You will have been long dead, but she will finally know your name. Best of luck!

Dear Failing Calc but Falling in Love, A little bird told me that your class has an extra credit project in which you write a short rap based on a concept of Calculus. Did you know that “finding the derivative” rhymes with “Hey, Marissa, where do you live?” Although, I’d probably just get her attention after class.  Pretend that you didn’t hear a part of the lecture, and ask her a question about what’s in her notes. She’ll be looking right at you when she’s trying to explain her notes on secant functions.

Which answer do you think is the best?

Future Tense Verbs	Future Simple	Future Continuous	Future Perfect	Future Perfect Continuous

Answers:

Future Tense Verbs	Future Simple	Future Continuous	Future Perfect	Future Perfect Continuous
	the future will change your desk will be empty She will see your portrait she will see your theorems	she’ll be looking right at you	you will have been long dead

Find future verbs in the advice matching these descriptions.  Which verbs are they:

1. These verbs are used to show that an action in the future is happening over an extended period of time (it’s not instantaneous).  It is also used to show that the action is occurring simultaneously with another action

verb name:

examples:

2. These verbs are used to show that a certain condition is true starting at some point and continuing until the reference point in the future

verb name:

examples:

3. These verbs are used to make a prediction about the future.  The prediction is based on personal opinions, and not evidence.

verb name:

examples:

Answers:

1. These verbs are used to show that an action in the future is happening over an extended period of time (it’s not instantaneous).  It is also used to show that the action is occurring simultaneously with another action

verb name: future continuous

examples: She’ll be looking 

2. These verbs are used to show that a certain condition is true starting at some point and continuing until the reference point in the future

verb name: future perfect

examples: you will have been long dead

3. These verbs are used to make a prediction about the future.  The prediction is based on personal opinions, and not evidence.

verb name: future simple

examples: the future will change, your desk will be empty, She will see your portrait, she will see your theorems