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Was the coffee break born in Wisconsin? Perfect participle clauses: having done, having been done

This B2 ESL lesson plan teaches perfect participle clauses through the coffee break and Stoughton, the Wisconsin town that calls itself its birthplace.

Grammar
Having + past participle for an action finished before the main one (Having sorted the leaves, they went home.), having been + past participle for the passive and not having for the negative.
Topic
Stoughton's story of Norwegian immigrant women in tobacco warehouses and the evidence for it, with words such as brew, colleague, claim to fame and morale.
Activities
An explainer to read, a festival interview and a reader's voice memo to hear, self-checking drills, then a chat, a model and a template that build a proposal.

What's inside

  1. Chapter 1Warm-up: time for a break

    • PictureUnlock
    • Spin the wheel and answerSpin the wheelUnlock
    • Study the words: breaks at workVocabularyTry it
    • Look at the pictures and choose the wordChoose by pictureUnlock

  2. Chapter 2Let's read: a birthplace without a birthday

    • Look at the picture: a warehouse from the town's storyPictureUnlock
    • Read Harper's explainer on The Why DeskArticleUnlock
    • Read and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock
    • Read again and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock

  3. Chapter 3Let's listen: proof, please!

    • Listen to Harper and WillListeningTry it
    • Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
    • Listen and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
    • Listen to the Reader's Rebuttal: Glenda's voice memoListeningUnlock
    • Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
    • Listen and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock

  4. Chapter 4Grammar: Having tasted the coffee…

    • Study the scheme: Having sorted the leaves, they went homeGrammar schemeTry it
    • Choose the correct optionChoose the optionUnlock
    • Fill in the gaps with having or having been + the past participleFill in the gapsUnlock
    • Fill in the table: join the sentences with having or having been + the past participleFill in the tableTry it
    • Choose the correct answer: which sentence is correct?QuizUnlock
    • Drag the words into the gaps: Will's message to the volunteersDrag and dropUnlock

  5. Chapter 5Let's talk: a proposal for better breaks

    • Choose the right replies: help Roxie with her ideaChatTry it
    • Put the parts of Harper's model proposal in the correct orderDrag and dropUnlock
    • Sort the phrases into the correct columns: the parts of a proposalSort into columnsUnlock
    • Choose the correct option: a template for your own proposalChoose the optionUnlock
    • Open a box and answer: present your proposalOpen the boxUnlock

  6. Chapter 6Homework

    • Match the words and the meaningsMatchUnlock
    • Unscramble the wordsAnagramUnlock
    • Fill in the gaps with the lesson's wordsFill in the gapsUnlock
    • Find the matching pairs: words and meaningsMemory gameUnlock
    • Choose the correct option: new sentencesChoose the optionUnlock
    • Fill in the gaps with having or having been + the past participleFill in the gapsUnlock
    • Put the words in the correct orderUnjumbleUnlock
    • Choose the correct answer: what does the sentence mean?QuizUnlock
    • Choose the correct option: Harper answers GlendaChoose the optionUnlock
    • Drag the words into the gaps: a new proposalDrag and dropUnlock

35 exercises in 6 chapters. Start a 7-day free trial to open all of them, copy any part into your own lessons, and teach the lesson live.

Workplace vocabulary

12 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.

+9 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words

  • colleague
  • break room
  • coffee break
  • birthplace
  • custom
  • claim to fame
  • work-life balance
  • workload
  • morale

Grammar: perfect participle clauses: having done and having been done

A perfect participle clause shows that one action was finished before the main action: Having sorted tobacco all morning, the women went home. It has no subject of its own, so it shares the main clause's subject. In Stoughton's story of women who took breaks after hours of work, learners choose between the active having done and the passive having been done.

Having sorted the leaves, they went home.

A perfect participle clause (Having done / Having been done) shows that one action finished before the main action. It shares the subject of the main clause.

Having + past participle: the subject did it first

Having + past participle says the subject finished one action, then did the next: Having brewed the coffee, Will poured a cup. The form is the same for every person: Having tasted the coffee, I (or she, or they) asked for proof.

Three forms

MeaningFormExample
active: the subject did the first actionHaving + past participleHaving sorted tobacco all morning, the women took a break.
passive: someone did the first action to the subjectHaving been + past participleHaving been given a break, the staff came back faster.
negative: the first action didn't happenNot having (or Having not) + past participleNot having found any old records, Harper asked the locals.

Every person: the form never changes

SubjectHaving + past participleHaving been + past participle
IHaving tasted the coffee, I asked for proof.Having been told the story, I wanted proof.
youHaving tasted the coffee, you asked for proof.Having been told the story, you wanted proof.
heHaving tasted the coffee, he asked for proof.Having been told the story, he wanted proof.
sheHaving tasted the coffee, she asked for proof.Having been told the story, she wanted proof.
itHaving cooled down, it tasted better. (the coffee)Having been left on the stove, it tasted bitter.
weHaving tasted the coffee, we asked for proof.Having been told the story, we wanted proof.
theyHaving tasted the coffee, they asked for proof.Having been told the story, they wanted proof.

Having been + past participle: it was done to the subject

When someone else did the first action to the subject, use having been: Having been given a break, the staff felt better (the boss gave it). Ask who did the first action: Having asked for proof, Harper waited, but Having been asked for proof, Will smiled.

Having + past participle: the subject did it

  • Having brewed the coffee, Will poured a cup. (Will brewed it.)
  • Having asked for proof, Harper waited. (Harper asked.)
  • Having given a talk, the volunteer sat down. (He gave the talk.)

Having been + past participle: someone did it to the subject

  • Having been brewed too long, the coffee tasted bitter. (Someone brewed it.)
  • Having been asked for proof, Will smiled. (Harper asked him.)
  • Having been given a break, the staff felt better. (The boss gave it to them.)

Not having, and doing or having done?

The negative puts not first: Not having found any old records, Harper asked the locals. Having not found is correct too. Sipping her coffee, Harper listened often means both at once; having done shows the first action was over.

Doing or having done?

Doing often shows two actions at the same time: Sipping her coffee, Harper listened. Having done makes it clear that the first action was finished first: Having sorted tobacco all morning, the women went home. The clause usually comes first, with a comma. You may also see After having done: it's correct too.

In the story of the coffee break

  • Having settled in Stoughton, many Norwegian immigrants found work at the wagon factory and in the tobacco warehouses.
  • Having been offered a break every morning and afternoon, the wives, in one version, agreed to work.
  • Having been written into union contracts, the coffee break was a settled custom by 1951.
  • Having tried both break schedules, most workers preferred four 9-minute breaks.
  • Having grown up in Stoughton, Will knows the story by heart.
  • Not having read the signs, Harper drank from the judges' cups.

Same subject for both clauses

The clause borrows the main clause's subject, so that subject must be the one who did, or got, the first action. Having tasted the coffee, Harper asked for proof is right. Having tasted the coffee, the festival seemed better dangles: festivals don't taste.

Same subject!

The clause has no subject of its own, so it uses the subject of the main clause. That subject must be the one who did (or got) the first action. Having tasted the coffee, Harper asked for proof. (Harper tasted it.) Not: Having tasted the coffee, the festival seemed better. (The festival didn't taste anything!) This mistake is called a dangling participle.

Common mistakes

Three slips break the form or the voice: Having sort the papers (use the participle, sorted), Having been sorted the leaves, the women… (they did it, so no been) and Having given a break, the staff… (someone gave it to them, so add been).

  • Having sort the papers, I went home.

    Having sorted the papers, I went home.

    having + the past participle, not the base form

  • Having been sorted the leaves, the women took a break.

    Having sorted the leaves, the women took a break.

    they did the sorting: active, no been

  • Having given a break, the staff came back faster.

    Having been given a break, the staff came back faster.

    someone gave them the break: passive, having been + past participle

  • Having tasted the coffee, the festival seemed even better.

    Having tasted the coffee, Harper liked the festival even more.

    the subject must be the one who tasted

Try the perfect participle exercises

Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.

More exercises

What's in the lesson

  • 21 auto-checked exercises
  • 5 games
  • 1 article
  • 1 grammar scheme
  • 1 set of word cards
  • 2 audio clips
  • 2 pictures
  • 2 transcripts

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

  • show that one action was over before the next: Having sorted tobacco all morning, the women took a break.
  • use the passive when someone did the first action to the subject: Having been given a break, the staff came back faster.
  • make the negative with not having: Not having read the signs, Harper drank from the judges' cups.
  • keep one subject for both clauses: Having tasted the coffee, Harper asked for proof, not Having tasted the coffee, the festival seemed better.
  • build and present a proposal for better breaks: I'd like to suggest a second ten-minute break at two o'clock.

Lesson 7 is the third lesson of Work-life balance, unit 2 of English B2.2 · Culture and Society. It adds having + past participle to the -ing clauses of lesson 6, and its passive, having been given, rests on the passives of B1.2 lessons 5 to 8. Lesson 8 puts the clauses after conjunctions: after marching, when asked. Stoughton's story, where women went home for coffee after sorting tobacco all morning, has the form's natural order: first the work, then the break.

Students spin a wheel of questions about breaks, coffee and towns that claim a first, then learn twelve words, from brew and sip to claim to fame and morale, with pictures and audio. They read Harper's explainer on Stoughton's claim, then hear her ask Will, a festival volunteer, for proof, and Glenda from Wisconsin defend the town's story; both are AI-voiced. The grammar chapter has the scheme and five self-checking exercises, among them a table that joins two sentences into one. The speaking chapter builds a proposal for better breaks: a chat with Roxie, Harper's model proposal to order, phrases to sort, a template with gaps and boxes for presenting it.

All ten homework tasks check themselves: a match, an anagram, gaps with the lesson's words and a memory game; then form choices and gaps in new sentences, word order and a quiz on what each sentence means; then Harper's answer to Glenda with forms to choose and a new proposal with words to drag in.

Grammar:
perfect participle clauses · having + past participle · having been + past participle · not having + past participle · dangling participles
Topic:
the coffee break · Stoughton, Wisconsin · Norwegian immigrants in Wisconsin · breaks at work · work-life balance · writing a proposal · The Why Desk

Teaching tips

  • Put two actions in order on the board: sort tobacco, then go home. Students join them with Having sorted tobacco all morning, …, then try a pair where someone else did the first action: Having been given a break, …
  • Ask what counts as proof before the reading: a letter, a payroll, a grandmother's story? Students then read to find what Harper found in Stoughton and what nobody has found.
  • Play the festival interview twice: first for who says the claim matters and who says the message does, then for every having clause. Students say who did each first action.
  • Make the proposal real: after Harper's model and the template, students pick their own school or workplace, name one problem and two suggestions, and use two having clauses before they present it.

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The whole course: English B2.2 · Culture and Society

32 more lessons for adults at B2 in American English, with the same Why Desk team in Pittsburgh. Each lesson answers one question about how Americans learn, work, travel and remember, from the law behind the 40-hour week to the oral histories of StoryCorps. Learners link ideas in formal writing, report what is said and believed, and pack more into a sentence with participle and relative clauses. The practice exercises check themselves.See the course

  1. Unit 1 Learning reimagined

    adjective suffixes and negative prefixes, mixed conditionals, provided that and on condition that

    1. Lesson 1College for farmers' kids?Adjective suffixes and negative prefixes
    2. Lesson 2One cousin, one video, millions of learnersMixed conditionals: a past cause, a result now
    3. Lesson 3A college that says yesConditional linkers: provided that, on condition that, assuming, otherwise
    4. Lesson 4School in the woodsMixed conditionals: a present state, a past result

  2. Unit 2 Work-life balance

    be required to and be entitled to, present and perfect participle clauses, participle clauses after conjunctions

    1. Lesson 5Who decided a week is 40 hours?Formal rules: be required to, be entitled to, be exempt from
    2. Lesson 6A paid year off: rest or research?Present participle clauses for time and reason
    3. Lesson 7 · you're hereWas the coffee break born in Wisconsin?Perfect participle clauses: having done and having been done
    4. Lesson 8Why is the first Monday of September a day off?Participle phrases after conjunctions

  3. Unit 3 Turning points

    reduced relative clauses, preposition + which and whom, which for a whole clause, noun + preposition

    1. Lesson 9The keyboard that opened the officeReduced relative clauses: -ing and the past participle
    2. Lesson 10Earthrise: the photo that changed how we see EarthPreposition + which and whom
    3. Lesson 11A city of white palaces for six monthsSentence relative clauses: which for a whole clause
    4. Lesson 12The count that took eight years?Noun + preposition: a need for, a solution to, access to

  4. Unit 4 News and truth

    although, whereas and while, the impersonal passive, despite and however, is said to have

    1. Lesson 13A newspaper of their ownLinkers of contrast: although, even though, whereas and while
    2. Lesson 14Bat-people on the Moon?The impersonal passive: It is said that…
    3. Lesson 15Read like a fact-checkerLinkers of contrast: despite, in spite of, however and even so
    4. Lesson 16Did George Washington really chop down a cherry tree?Passive reporting verbs: is said to have done

  5. Unit 5 Travel that gives back

    so as to, in order to and so that, modifying comparatives, linkers of reason and result, verb + object + preposition + -ing

    1. Lesson 17Seven rules for the wild?Linkers of purpose: to, in order to, so as to, so that
    2. Lesson 18A lottery to see firefliesModifying comparatives and superlatives
    3. Lesson 19Sunrise with the turtlesLinkers of reason and result
    4. Lesson 20Volunteer on vacation?Verb + object + preposition + -ing

  6. Unit 6 Sport and society

    verb + noun collocations, what phrasal verb particles mean, a for-and-against essay, nouns from phrasal verbs

    1. Lesson 21The college team that changed disability sportVerb + noun collocations
    2. Lesson 22When women played pro baseballPhrasal verbs: what the particles mean
    3. Lesson 23Who needs a referee?The for and against essay: plan and linkers
    4. Lesson 24The comeback of Jim ThorpeNouns from phrasal verbs

  7. Unit 7 Buildings and heritage

    past participle clauses, quantifier + of which and of whom, report language, turn out and prove

    1. Lesson 25Homes built into the cliffsPast participle clauses with a passive meaning
    2. Lesson 26A house over a waterfallQuantifier + of which and of whom
    3. Lesson 27From factory to art museumReport language: headings, impersonal style, recommendations
    4. Lesson 28The towers the city tried to pull downTurn out and prove + to-infinitive or that clause

  8. Unit 8 Generations

    adverb + adjective collocations, three-part phrasal verbs, negative and echo questions, prepositional phrases

    1. Lesson 29Who decides where a generation ends?Adverb + adjective collocations
    2. Lesson 30Music students living in a retirement home?Three-part phrasal verbs
    3. Lesson 31Conversations kept for historyNegative questions and echo questions
    4. Lesson 32A day for grandparentsFixed prepositional phrases

Questions about this lesson

What is a perfect participle?
A perfect participle is having + past participle: having sorted, having tasted, having been given. It opens a clause that shows one action finished before the main one: Having sorted tobacco all morning, the women went home. The clause takes the subject of the main clause. The B2 lesson Was the coffee break born in Wisconsin? on edio.ai teaches it with the town that calls itself the coffee break's birthplace.
How do you form perfect participle clauses?
Use having + past participle for the active and having been + past participle when someone did the action to the subject: Having brewed the coffee, Will poured a cup. Having been given a break, the staff came back faster. For the negative, put not first: Not having read the signs, … The scheme in Was the coffee break born in Wisconsin? on edio.ai sets out all three forms.
What's the difference between “doing” and “having done”?
An -ing clause like Sipping her coffee, Harper listened often shows two actions at the same time. Having done makes the order clear: the first action was over before the second began. Having sorted tobacco all morning, the women went home. Was the coffee break born in Wisconsin?, a B2 lesson on edio.ai, comes right after a lesson on -ing clauses for time and reason and adds this form.
Is it “having given” or “having been given”?
It depends on who did the giving. If the subject received it, use having been given: Having been given a break, the staff came back faster. If the subject did the giving, use having given: Having given a talk, the volunteer sat down. Mixing the two up is one of the common mistakes in Was the coffee break born in Wisconsin?, a B2 lesson on edio.ai.
Where was the coffee break invented?
No one can say for sure. Stoughton, Wisconsin, calls itself the coffee break's birthplace: in the town's story, Norwegian immigrant women working in its tobacco warehouses in the late 1800s took breaks in the morning and afternoon to go home, see to chores and drink coffee. No document from that time has been found, and the phrase itself was in print by 1949. Was the coffee break born in Wisconsin? on edio.ai weighs the claim.
How do I teach perfect participle clauses to B2 students?
Start with two actions in a clear order and join them: Will brewed a fresh pot. He poured Harper a cup. becomes Having brewed a fresh pot, Will poured Harper a cup. Add the passive and the negative next, then the same-subject rule. Was the coffee break born in Wisconsin? on edio.ai moves from Harper's explainer and her festival interview to the scheme, a table that joins sentences and four more drills.
What's a good game for practicing perfect participle clauses?
Try “What happened first?”: each student writes two actions from their day on separate cards, a partner joins them with Having…, and the class checks the order and the subject. For speaking, Was the coffee break born in Wisconsin? on edio.ai ends its speaking chapter with boxes for presenting a proposal, such as Give your first suggestion and say why it would help.
What's good homework for perfect participle clauses?
Good homework asks for the voice as well as the form: choices like Having been told or Having told, gaps with base forms in brackets, word order and a quiz on who did what. All ten homework tasks in Was the coffee break born in Wisconsin? on edio.ai check themselves, ending with Harper's reply to a reader and a new proposal for a quiet break room.
How do you practice perfect participle clauses one-to-one?
Plan a proposal together: the student names a problem at their school or job, and the teacher asks What did you try first? What happened then? The answers become Having tried… sentences. The chat in Was the coffee break born in Wisconsin? on edio.ai needs no partner: the student helps Roxie, a coworker at a bookstore, plan a proposal for better breaks.
Are there interactive exercises for perfect participle clauses?
Yes. With no account, this page plays three parts of Was the coffee break born in Wisconsin?, a B2 lesson on edio.ai: Harper's interview with Will at the festival; a table that joins two sentences with having; and a chat with Roxie about her proposal. Everything else needs an account.
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