Unit 2- Task 5

Lesson Planning in Language Teaching

PRESENT BY:

Paula Daniela Barros Hernández

Code. 1099375144

Group: 551026_1

Tutor: Edwin Andres Londoño

OPEN AND DISTANCED NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Bachelor's degree in English as a Foreign Language
Didactics of English
UNAD
Bucaramanga
July of 2020
Answer to the Questions:

WHAT IS A LESSON PLAN?

It is a map carried out by the teacher whose main goal is to set up what is to be worked
during a period of time. Upon developing some specific objectives, the teacher can take
students to fulfill some goals.
The lesson plans are ordered records on the topics to be seen in class. A daily lesson plan is
a written description of how students will move towards the achievement of specific
objectives, and the student's learning at the end of the course. Which concerns the
procedures, objectives, methodologies that will be carried out in the classes taught by the
teacher, in this work it is very important to take into account the topics to be addressed.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO PLAN A LESSON?

Mapping out a plan enables a teacher to blend theory with practice. It would be essential
that educators reflect upon those learning strategies which has had both a positive and
negative effect. In doing so, teachers could create an interesting lesson plan that meets
student’s needs.
If one does not ponder on what the activities will be done, students could find the class
aimless and disorganized, since they will not know what the main purposes are for them to
study.
As I said above, learners must know what are the steps they have to follow and how are
they are going to be evaluated. Having said that, teachers ought to plan as a prior model but
not as an obligation required by a coordinator. It is true that although a teacher has a clear
plan, it has sometimes to be changed due to student’s level. However, it does not
necessarily mean that the plan is not convenient. The ideal thing is to modify it by
analyzing the social context teachers’ work. Richards (1998) points out that lesson plans
help the teacher think of the lesson in advance to solve problems and difficulties to provide
a structure for a lesson, to create a follow –up regarding what will be taught " (p 103)
This leads to bolster teacher’s confidence, rather, if they are novice and do not have enough
experience to cope with difficult situations.
Another pivotal aspect is concerning the goals that teachers set out to do. If teachers give a
chronology of the activities, they will mentally prepare themselves to do so, and students
will see that there is no improvisation. To sum up, it is worth considering that the need of
planning lies in what kinds of aims educators want students to attain.
Because of many experiences related to this issue, we can state that teachers who don’t
have a plan lesson before starting a course or class have more possibilities of making
mistakes during the execution of classes because, maybe teachers manage grammatical
topics, the contents, the procedures, but with no plans about the way to perform the
contents and activities, the results of this usually are not as expected.
Planning gives teacher a sense of organization, time distribution, logical activities, correct
sequence of stages of the class, and a part of it, the opportunity of contrasting the final class
process and results with the originally planned activities.

WHAT ARE THE STAGES OR STEPS IN A LESSON PLAN DEVELOPMENT?

First and foremost, writing clear and concise objectives is an essential fact as learners need
to know what they are expected to do in order to achieve a specific goal. Therefore, the
teacher must use active verbs when writing the objectives which will give students an
insight as to what they will have to do. Some of which are: to present, to identity, to
describe, to explain, or to demonstrate.
Secondly, the teacher has to design the shape of a lesson. Shrum and Gisan s (1994)
adaptation of the Hunter and Russell (1977) have elaborated a plan that has been widely
accepted, and it comprises of five phases: Perspective, opening, instruction or participation,
closure, follow-up.
Moreover, the teacher could shift the focus of the plan, since there could be some topics
which must go into detail. It is essential that the educator ask himself as to what he wants
students to learn or if it will be worth doing the class in a specific way or not.
The teacher has to take into account that although there is a written plan with clear
objective, sometimes it results in changes. For that reason, he must be aware of making
adjustments as soon as those arise.
As for lesson variety and lesson pacing, if the same topic is used in many classes or has the
same level or difficulty, it can lead to monotony; consequently, students will lose interest
and consider the class dull. That being said, the way students perform the activities is
crucial, and the teacher must often change the way they work. Sometimes, they should
work individually, or in pairs, or simply in big groups.
On the other hand, pacing is crucial since if students always spend a great deal of time in an
activity, it can wear them out. Brown (1994) suggests activities should not be too long or
too short.
Finally, the teacher must evaluate whether the lesson was significant for the students or not.
Ur (1996) says it is important to think after teaching a lesson and ask “whether it was a
good one or not, and why (p, 219). If a professor does not reflect on this issue, he will not
know what kind of adjustments must be changed for the next class.

DEVELOPING THE PLAN:

This stage begins with appropriate and clearly written objectives, these objectives describe
what students want to achieve, help guide the selection of appropriate activities, provide
guidance and evaluate what students have learned at the end of the lesson.
• Perspective or opening: The teacher asks the students what was the previous activity
(what was previously learned)? What concepts have they learned? The teacher then gives a
preview of the new lesson.
• Stimulation: the teacher asks a question related to the activity that follows this helps
students to relate the activity to their life.
• Instruction / participation: the teacher presents the activity and verifies the comprehension
and participation of the students.
• Closure: in this phase the teacher verifies what he has learned in classes through key
questions.
• Follow-up: in this phase the teacher uses other activities and reinforces some concepts by
providing the opportunity for students to improve.

IMPLEMENTING THE PLAN:

This is the most important (and difficult) phase of the daily lesson planning cycle. Since it
is where it is implemented and in case the plan is deviating and the desired result is not
being obtained, changes must be made but taking into account that this plan was designed
with specific intentions in mind and the plan was based on the diagnosis from the teacher of
the student learning competition.
When implementing these plans, teachers must take into account two important topics such
as the variety of the lesson that is responsible for keeping the class lively and interesting
and the pace of the lesson where the development of activities can be fast to slow.

EVALUATING THE PLAN:

At this stage the teacher evaluates the success or failure of the lesson, either formally or
informally by performing it after the students have enough opportunities to learn. There are
some evaluation criteria to see the effectiveness of the lessons like.
• The class seemed to be learning the material well.
• Students committed to the foreign language at all times.
• The students were attentive all the time.
• Students enjoyed the lesson and felt motivated.
• The students were active all the time.
• The lesson was according to the plan.
• Language was used communicatively at all times.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT ELEMENTS THAT MUST BE INCLUDED IN

LESSON PLAN?
Write clear objectives:
The objectives help to have clarity about what students want to learn, they also help to plan
the activities that best suit the subject to be taught and to evaluate the contents that have
been taught. When writing the objectives, you should use action verbs such as: identify,
present, dialogue, expose, since it is easier for students and teachers to know what is going
to be evaluated.
Planning of activities and procedures.
The planning of activities is very important, since on these depends the success of a lesson
plan, and the fulfillment of the objectives. To plan the activities, the following steps must
be followed:
 Perspective or opening. In this phase, students' prior knowledge is explored, interrogating
the topics seen in previous classes.
Stimulus: The teacher uses a fun or fun activity to introduce the new topic, and make
learning easier
Instruction / Participation: In this phase the activity is presented and the process to be
performed is explained, verifying that everyone understands what they should do.
Closing: The activity is evaluated with the students and they are asked questions about the
activity about aspects to improve.
Tracing: The last phase of the lesson makes the teacher use other activities to reinforce
some concepts.

When planning a lesson, one must take into consideration some steps as follows:
1. Perspective or opening: Students are asked what they have learned in previous lessons.
Then they are given a preview of the upcoming lessons.
instance, by using the new topic, students are asked about experiences related to their lives.
It functions as a grabber, so they are wholly immersed in the content.
3. Instruction/participation. The educator puts forth the activity and tries the students to
get involved by working in groups. Likewise, the teacher oversees their process and
encourage them if necessary.
4. Closure. The teacher asked students what kind of things they learn, thus will give him an
insight of what has to be worked intensively. Moreover, the teacher will inform students
topics of the upcoming lessons.
5. Follow-up. Teachers provide students other activities to reinforce what they learn. A
way to do so is by putting them some homework. Furthermore, after reflecting on the
lesson, the teacher must decide it is necessary to modify something in the plan so that
students can attain the goals.
Step Time Task Teacher Task Students Interaction Purpose
1 4 min The teacher employess the game To participate T-Ss -To grab students
“HANGOVER” as a grabber. Only Students attention.
The sentence is “HOW TO
DESCRIBE A PLACE”
-To create expectations.
2 10 The teacher introduces some new -To listen and to T- Ss - To further
min vocabulary focused on the draw on their prior communication
features of a place and the knowledge in between the
weather. Some of the words are: order that they can teacher and
Mild, cold, hot, seedy, dodgy, guess the meaning learners.
shabby, bustling, lively,secluded, of the words. -Exchange ideas
peaceful, cosmopolitan, - To engage
quaint, touristy, touristic. students in the
topic by drawing
-The teacher elicits information on the
from the students regarding what enviroment they
could be the meaning of these live.
words. - It is believed
- The teacher explain in depth that by using
those definitions by showing technology.
images in a screen. Knowledge can
- The teacher asks them to locate linger on students
some of these places in the city mind
where they live.

3 10 The teacher ask students to make a -To try to use T-Ss -To Absorb
min comparison between the place some of this Ss-Ss knowledge by
where they live with cities like vocabulary. making
Bogota. comparison.
-To reflect upon
They can think of both similarities the place where
and differences all of which have. they live. -To use repetition
in order for
Moreover, In order for learners to -To exchange students to
employ this new vocabulary, the ideas embed
teacher can ask them other types of information.
questions. -To relate the
 new information
-To ask why a city is more to the enviroment
peaceful, lively, touristic, or they live.
bustling than others.

-To ask students to recognize

where those shabby, seedy, dodgy
places are located in the place
which they live.

-To describe a place students have

visited and point out the possitive
and negative aspects.

-What makes or why is a city

dodgy, peaceful and so forth?

4 7 min Students are given some Students exchange Ss-Ss Work

worksheets in which according to ideas as to what collaboratively
the images they see, those must be they have
crossed out with the definition of discussed during
the words the class.

-The teacher tells them to work in

groups of three
5 7 min The teacher tells the students to Students share T-Ss Socialization
socialize the work. their ideas Ss-Ss

6 10 Students write a short story Students work Ss – T Independent

min concerning a city they thoroughly individually, try to The teacher is work
 like. So, it is necessary to employ employ the monitoring
the conectors they have studied vocabulary of the students to
previously. topic and deepen help them out
in the explanation. in terms of
vocabulary.
7 10 The teacher asks some students to Students express Ss- Ss To learn from
min socialize what they wrote. At the overtly their ideas Ss-T mistakes
same time, he draws some
conclusions.
8 -Before finishing the class, the Students work
teacher tells them to write another both
short story regarding other places Independently
they like, but as a homework. and
Also, students will make an collaboratively
exposition by working in groups of for next class.
three and will describe some cities
in Colombia by putting forth
possitive and negative aspects.

-Students need to type and send it

through email, since some of
which will be shown on the screen
next class.

The ideal thing is to analyze

mistakes in the sentences.

If teachers arrive at the conclusión

that after doing a feedback
students are facing problems both
to write and to express their ideas,
they could do a review of some
functions of language concerning
how to express opinions and
reasons for the upcoming class.

Students can practice some

templates like:

1 What i like about Tunja is

the weather
because/as/since/ it ….

2 The reason why Bogota is

a seedy place... is
because / .......
3 The main reason why ... is
because / is that ...
4 One reason why ... is
because / is that …….
5 Another reason is because.
……..
6 I think that………. is
peaceful, /shabby, / dull/,
lively/ is because …….
Topic: How to describe a place Class: Eleventh grade Level: Intermediate
General objective: Students are able to describe places.
Specific objetives: Students know how to express an opinion both in writing and speaking
by using complex sentences, since they are using some linking words as follows: because,
although, however.
- They are able to use cleft sentences to expand their opinión.
- They employ descrptive vocabulary.
Materials: Computer, worksheet.
Prior Knowledge: Students know some language functions concerning giving reasons and
opinion which enables them to express clear ideas. Also they employ some connectors in
order to express addition, concession and contrast such as: also, although or however,
Time: One hour Number of students: 30

REFERENCES
 

 Murphy, R. S. (2018). The Concept of Syllabus Design and Curriculum

Development. In Faravani, A., Zeraatpishe, M., Azarnoosh, M., & Reza, H. Issues in
Syllabus Design. Sense publisher. The Netherlands. Available in:
https://www.sensepublishers.com/media/3359-issues-in-syllabus-design.pdf

 
 Farrell, T. (2002). Lesson Planning. In J. Richards & W. Renandya (Eds.),
Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice (Approaches
and Methods in Language Teaching, pp. 30-39). Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. Available in:
https://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2444/10.1017/CBO9780511667190.006

 Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia UNAD. Activity Guide -

Didactics of English. [on-line]. 2015 [Date: October 2015]. Available in:
http://campus07.unad.edu.co/ecedu01/pluginfile.php/15720/mod_resource/cont
ent/2/DE_Integrated%20Guide%20August%202015.pdf

 An Anthology of Current Practice. Chapter 3 - Lesson Planning pp. 30-39

Chapter DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511667190.006

Cambridge University Press