· Lesson 4 - How To Plan Lessons 1 Monday, November 21, 11 Introduction In the past modules, you have seen a broad overview of what is involved in teaching EFL/ESL. In this module, we will now look at how you will prepare for carrying out that work in a class. This involves a lesson plan, in either an outline form or in a more detailed form, that helps you decide what to teach, how to teach it, and what you will need in terms of materials and management techniques in order to carry out the plan effectively. 2 Monday, November 21, 11 How to Plan Lessons It is possible, though hardly advisable, to conduct a class by arriving at school each day and, without much additional preparation, merely instruct your students to open their books to where they left off during the previous lesson. In this scenario, the text in essence is also the lesson plan for the teacher as the students trudge through the work contained therein day after day. But imagine how dreary this routine would soon become, both for the teacher and for the students, without the stimulus of any new ideas or approaches to the work of learning English! Nonetheless, this advice is not to detract from the very beneficial use of the text or course book in guiding the new teacher in his or her lesson plans. In fact, the new teacher can learn quite a bit by paying attention to the way the book organizes teaching and learning activities. Therefore, in the long run, the teacher should not replace good lesson planning with over-dependence on a text or course book. 3 Monday, November 21, 11 The language classroom, as you know, should be an exciting experience for your students, where they are exposed to the maximum amount of language possible while encountering a variety of techniques and activities to maintain interest and enthusiasm in the very challenging task of learning a second language. A lesson plan allows you to take the work you want to focus on, either from the main text or another source, and create the kind of class that will most benefit your students with their unique needs and preferences. It helps you clarify in your own mind how things ought to proceed and, at the same time, provide some timing and guidance, upon reflection, of the types of problems that may occur in the course of the lesson. Nevertheless, with experience, you will soon come to realize that no class can be completely planned. Unexpected matters related to circumstances that may alter your plans in one direction or another, and this is fine. One of the most important concepts of lesson planning for new teachers is learning to teach to the needs of your students, not the needs of the lesson plan. 4 Monday, November 21, 11 How It All Works The Plan Every teacher will devise a planning format that best fits his/her teaching style. In other words, there is no universally recognized form that you need to adopt in order to put together a proper lesson plan. However, there are elements that go into the thinking leading up to a lesson plan that are commonly recognized as important to a teacher's defining how he/she will teach a class. Objective: Why are you teaching this lesson? What is the teaching point? Is there just one objective, or will there be several? Are these goals just for today, or are they part of a bigger framework in which they will be emphasized over a period of time? Strategy: How do you plan to reach this objective? How will you introduce/create interest in the topic? Will you do some drill work, a role play, or a reading, etc.? Is there a variety of activities to maintain interest? What is your approach? How much Student Talking Time versus Teacher Talking Time will this involve? 5 Monday, November 21, 11 Appropriateness: Have you selected work that is appropriate for this level or group? Will it work with the physical constraints of the classroom in terms of the arrangement of desks and chairs? Will you have the materials needed? Do you have the right amount of time allotted? Student Reaction: How will your students respond to the work? Will they find it interesting and, thus, be motivated to do the work? Although not a part of the written lesson plan itself, student reaction should be foremost in a teacher's mind during the creation of the plan, as he/she knows best the students and how they will react to the work. Anticipated problems: Have you thought carefully about the problems that your students will likely encounter while doing the work in their class activities? Have you planned for enough time to deal with these? Examples could be troublesome pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary points, etc. that usually present difficulties for your students. This area is critical to ensuring that the lesson goes as smoothly as possible and shows the teacher to be a professional for having taken the time to prepare. 6 Monday, November 21, 11 By taking all of these into consideration, a teacher should be able to lay the foundation for an effective and successful lesson. However, in looking over these elements of a lesson plan, the new teacher may be unsure about the amount of detail that will need to go into producing a good plan. The truth is that for a teacher with less experience, a good lesson plan may involve quite a bit of work and, hence, a considerable amount of time. A lot of thought and preparation (writing the lesson plan, getting the visual aids ready, searching for realia, making transparencies, etc.) are usually required to get things right for class, and this process can be a bit exhausting at first. However, the experience will yield real skills in lesson-planning so that as the weeks and months go by, less time is required to do a proper lesson plan. In fact, an outline may be all that is required to do a proper job in class. Moreover, by holding on to old lesson plans (and visual aids, etc.), a teacher can begin to develop resources for future lesson planning that will help to greatly speed up the process. 7 Monday, November 21, 11 Suggested Lesson Plans The following are some suggested lesson plans that contain four areas typically emphasized and included on the plan: objective, or aim; procedures, or strategy; interaction; and timing. As you know, the objective is the teaching point. The strategy is the way you hope to assist your students in mastering the objective, whether it takes one lesson or a series of them. Interaction refers to who is speaking to whom. Thus T>S refers to a teacher speaking to students, as when giving directions, for example, and S>S refers to students speaking to other students, as during a role-play, for example. Finally, the teacher notes the anticipated time the activity should take. Timing and strategy are especially important for new teachers and will go a long way to make you more aware of how you will need to improve in these areas. Remember, a lesson plan is as much for the teacher's benefit as for the students'. If you are not scheduling enough time for the students to be doing most of the speaking, or if your planning for the length of activities is too long or too short, then you can make notes of this on the lesson plan for next time. Equally, you can note things that worked well in this strategy section as well as things that didn't. 8 Monday, November 21, 11 One piece of advice! It is extremely important that you finish your lessons on time. This will take some practice, but do not finish too early or keep a good lesson going on longer than planned just because everyone is enjoying themselves. Bear in mind that: · Your students may have another class to attend. · There may be another class waiting to use your room. · Students may have paid for the lesson, in which case they won’t be too happy if they don’t get the full lesson! · They may have someone waiting to pick them up. · Your students will appreciate and respect a well organized, structured lesson which starts and finishes on time. · If you always finish the lesson on a high, the students will be keen to come back each week, and they will talk about it to their parents and, most likely, your boss! 9 Monday, November 21, 11 Sample Lesson Plan 1 This is a simple lesson plan aimed to introduce the English terms for countries of the world, flags and languages. The level is intermediate, and the lesson is 60 minutes long. Notice that we have categorized strategies/procedures into three areas: presentation, practice, and production. In this module, we concentrate on objective, interaction, timing, and appropriate strategy in lesson planning. 10 Monday, November 21, 11 Lesson Plan Example Date: 7th May - Class: Intermediate Duration: 1 Hour Subject: Countries of the World Materials: World Map, Country Flag Cards, Country Name Cards, Globe Lesson Objective: Students identify countries, flags, and location from realia, globe, flash cards, maps, and drawings. Identification is verbal and non-verbal (pointing, drawing, and matching). Assumptions: Students know few country locations on the map. They might use their own language to name countries and maybe not English names. England is Angrit in Thai, etc. Strategy 1 Interaction Patterns T>S & S>T Timing 15 min. Purpose of Procedure: To interest students; to connect flags & shapes with country names for clearer meaning; to practice new vocabulary 11 Monday, November 21, 11 Presentation: 1) Show map with country names blocked out. Elicit the country names. Model some basic sentences. “This country is called....... It is known for........” SS repeat and debate. 2) Questions about the language and people can be asked for extra practice and activity, depending on SS ability. Elicit: “What do you call the people of Ireland?” “What language do they speak in Ireland?” SS Repeat and drill. Strategy 2 Interaction Patterns T>S & S>T & S>S Timing 20 min. Purpose of Procedure: To confirm new vocabulary and awareness of country and location. To identify written vocabulary. 12 Monday, November 21, 11 Practice: SS in groups of 3. Complete worksheet by matching flag and name to map area. SS can ask each other for details in English only. Strategy 3 Interaction Patterns S>S Timing 20 min. Purpose of Procedure: To produce vocabulary independently and reinforce previous learning. To show knowledge of countries, locations, people and country flags 13 Monday, November 21, 11 Production/Game SS in teams. They have to plan a world tour, choosing as many countries as they want. They will, then, mention what they will do in each country. Groups come out and put names on a wall map and talk about their planned trip. Game 2: SS in teams. Teacher will draw flags from a hat, and SS run out and write name on the board. First to write the correct answer gets points. Each SS must line up and take turns. Others allowed to shout out the answer. 14 Monday, November 21, 11 Sample Lesson Plan 2 The following lesson is for teaching two grammar points: present and past continuous. Please note that you do not have to have a strong knowledge of grammar in order to teach it. You will learn the basics later in this course. New teachers usually brush up on each grammar point when preparing a lesson. Again, note the same Presentation, Practice, Production (PPP) structure, which is the standard basic format for all lessons. 15 Monday, November 21, 11 Date: 7th May - Class: Elementary; Duration: 1 Hour Subject: Present/Past Continuous - Grammar Materials: Pictorial, Drawings, action. Lesson Objective: Students identify actions with the grammar term. To learn and practice using proper use of verbs. Assumptions: SS have completed past tense lesson and should be able to identify proper use of past tense and when to use present continuous. Make sure they know I/am I/was Anticipated problems: Some SS may confuse simple/past tense. SS may arrive late due to heavy rain. Some students may be too shy for charades game. Strategy 1 Interaction Patterns T>S & S>T Timing 20 min. Purpose of Procedure: Get students thinking about performing actions now and forming questions for past continuous actions. 16 Monday, November 21, 11 Presentation: 1) Ask SS what were they doing on Saturday/Sunday afternoon/Evening. Elicit actions from drawings and flash cards. Use of... I am/I was Strategy 2 Interaction Patterns S>S Timing 20 min. Purpose of Procedure: SS practice asking questions and identifying actions with present and past tense 17 Monday, November 21, 11 Practice: 1) SS in pairs - ask each other what they were doing. 2) SS in pairs - complete worksheet and gap-fill exercise. 3) SS in groups pairs - in turns, they hold a Flash card and ask "What am I doing?" 4) Repeat and drill. Strategy 3 Interaction Patterns S>S T>S S>T Timing 20 min. Purpose of Procedure: To practice using the tenses and show good understanding of the use. Create Fun game to reinforce the points and correct use of language. Encourage creativity 18 Monday, November 21, 11 Production/Game 1) SS In pairs. Students write a daily journal for the weekend. SS ask each other what each member was doing at a specific time. 2) SS in teams. Charades. Each team member must perform an action for their team to guess and write on the board. If their team doesn't guess correctly, other team can answer. Make sure students use full sentences, i.e. "What is he doing?" "He is walking, running" etc. 19 Monday, November 21, 11 Conclusion In this module, you've seen that there are many good reasons for planning lessons. While the use of the text is important in class and can be good help to the new teacher in structuring lessons, over-dependence on a text should never replace good lesson planning. By bringing in a variety of activities, some derived from the text and some from outside, the teacher can make sure he/she is making class as interesting as possible and appealing to all types of learners. Other advantages of the lesson plan include having an objective for the lesson, knowing that you have a strategy for reaching the objective, making sure that the work is appropriate for your students, and being prepared for the difficulties that your students are likely to have in class with the work you're giving them. Nonetheless, even with a good lesson plan, a teacher must keep in mind that it is critical to always teach to the needs of the students, not the lesson plan, when circumstances change in class. 20 Monday, November 21, 11 Instructions: Well done. You have just completed Lesson 4 of your iTEFL course. Please now return to your iTEFL home page to register for the Lesson 4 Quiz and assignment. 21 Monday, November 21, 11
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