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While teaching about past tenses, I believe it is very important to build on the students' already established knowledge of the present tenses, and to show simple similarities of how the past tenses reflect the basic structures of the present ones, already much more ingrained at this point of the course. That should smooth and simplify the process of learning, as opposed to introducing them as something entirely new. Past simple and past perfect would benefit also from the students having memorised already the irregular forms of basic verbs while learning present perfect. As much as further expanding their vocabulary is a part of a process of learning a language, having a good command of the basic group of irregular verbs would remove one large obstacle in using and practicing those tenses. A special focus would be likely put on anticipating common errors, in particular in forming questions, and I believe spending a little extra time to practice this area with students would be hugely beneficial to their ease of switching between tenses and weaving them into a conversation. Engaging exercise in the activate phase would be crucial in solidifying this knowledge and allowing students to become familiar with using past tenses to describe events and chronology.
