T

Learning What Time It Is

T’s Story

Time, like language, is a completely imaginary way of expressing a very urgent experience. The passing of the day, the thoughts inside our heads. Our normal way of relating to time can be pretty stressful. T shows X other ways of conceptualizing and experiencing time.

Keywords

Time, season, clock, now, calendar, runs my life, wear a watch

Lesson Ideas

Verb tense, Adverbs of frequency

This is a great way to discuss how time is measured and experienced in different cultures. You cold talk about different calendars and what year it is in each one. In more advanced classes you could have students explain people’s expectations in their culture: What does it mean when you invite somebody over for dinner at 6? What time should you expect them? How long is it ok to have people wait? When is “late”?

Activity Sheet

Adverbs of frequency

This activity explores adverbs of frequency in our lives. Drawing is fine, but it is lots more engaging to have people line up real objects from their backpacks or pockets and organize them by how often they use them- I show that in the video.

I give my students a beginning, never, and an end, always, with a percentage of time. I leave it to them to think of other time words and argue nicely about where they fit on the line.