· Lesson 3 - How To Plan Lessons

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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.

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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
tell 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.

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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.

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How It All Works
The Plan: Every teacher will devise a planning format that best fits
their teaching style. In other words, there is no universally
recognized form that you need to adopt to put together a proper
lesson plan. However, some elements go into the thinking leading
up to a lesson plan that is commonly recognized as necessary to a
teacher's defining how a teacher 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 more significant framework
in which they will be emphasized over some 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 reading, etc.? Is there a variety of activities to maintain
interest? What is your approach? How much students Talking Time
versus Teacher Talking Time will this involve?

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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 exciting 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 a teacher knows best the students and how they will react
to the work.
Anticipated problems: Have you thought carefully about the issues
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. those 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.

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By taking all of these into consideration, a teacher should be able to
lay the foundation for a productive and successful lesson. However,
in looking over these elements of a lesson plan, the new teacher
may be unsure about the number of details 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. An outline may be all that is needed to do an
appropriate 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 speed up the process greatly.

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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. The objective is
the teaching point. The strategy is the way you hope to assist your
students in mastering the goal, 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 talking 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 crucial 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.

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One piece of advice! You must finish your lessons on time. It will
take some practice, but do not end your material too early or keep a
good lesson going on longer than planned just because everyone is
enjoying themselves. Bear in mind:
• 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!

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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.

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Lesson Plan Example

Date: 7th May - Class: Intermediate Duration: 1 Hour

Subject: Countries of the World

Materials: World Map, Worksheets, 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.

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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 Timing

T>S & S>T & S>S 20 min.

Purpose of Procedure: To confirm new vocabulary and awareness of country and

location. To identify written vocabulary.

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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 2 Interaction Patterns Timing

T>S & S>T & S>S 20 min.

Purpose of Procedure: To confirm new vocabulary and awareness of country and

location. To identify written vocabulary.

Strategy 3 Interaction Patterns Timing

S>S 20 min.

Purpose of Procedure: To produce vocabulary independently and reinforce previous

learning. To show knowledge of countries, locations, people and country flags

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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.

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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.

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Date: 7th May - Class: Elementary; Duration: 1 Hour
Subject: Present/Past Continuous - Grammar
Materials: Illustration of action. Worksheet to fill in the right verb.
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 Timing

T>S & S>T 20 min.

Purpose of Procedure: Get students thinking about performing actions now and forming
questions for past continuous actions.

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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 Timing

S>S 20 min.

Purpose of Procedure: SS practice asking questions and identifying actions with

present and past tense

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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 Timing

S>S T>S S>T 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

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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.

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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 a good
help to the new teacher in structuring lessons, over-dependence on a text
should never replace proper lesson planning.

By bringing in a variety of activities, some derived from the text and some
from outside, the teacher can make sure of making a 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.

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Instructions:
Well done. You have just completed Lesson 3 of your TEFL course.
Please now return to your TEFL home page to register for the Lesson 3 Quiz and assignment.

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