UNIT 2.

LESSON PLANS
GRADO EN EDUCACIÓN Lengua inglesa y su didáctica III
PRIMARIA- MENCIÓN INGLÉS-
CURSO 2023-24 Profª Marta Carrera Gómez
Correo electrónico: marta.carrera@ucavila.es
INDEX
1. INTRODUCTION
2. WHAT IS A LESSON PLAN?
3. PLANNING A LESSON: TYPES OF AIMS
4. PLANNING AN INDIVIDUAL LESSON
5. CHARACTERISTICS OF YOUNG LEARNERS

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6. REINFORCEMENT AND EXTRA MATERIALS

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INTRODUCTION
• Session planning is one of the most important and complicated tasks facing the
teacher.
• Good lesson planning will avoid problems and save time, allowing both teacher and
students to know what to do and how to do it so that everything runs smoothly in the
classroom.

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• Session planning is only a small part of the overall course planning.
• The purpose of this topic is to teach the future teacher how to plan sessions as a
primary and essential element of long-term planning.

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 WHAT IS A LESSON PLAN?
Cambridge Dictionary defines plan as “vb. to decide what you are going to do or how you are
going to do something”, and a lesson is defined as “n. a period of time when a teacher teaches
people”. (Cambridge Dictionary, 2021).

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WHO WHAT

WHEN
LESSON PLAN
HOW

HOW LONG 4
WHAT IS A LESSON PLAN?
• Unless it is the first time we will teach a particular class or student, we will already know some of these
details;
• Their age,
• Social and cultural background Pre-planning (Harmer, 2001).
• level of the students.

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We will also need to know the syllabus or the requirements of the institution, or if they are going to have
a test by the end of the course and what the motivation for each of them is.

• Security for teachers and students.

PLANNING • Timing Optimization
LESSONS • Anticipation of problems
• Professional image of the teacher
• Promoting responsibility 5
WHAT IS A LESSON PLAN?
A good lesson plan can help you before, during and after the lesson.

• Before: we can make sure that we are following the syllabus or curriculum and the aims stated for the
lesson.
• During: it will help us check that the timing is correct and that we are following the structure we created

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at the beginning, so you will be able to make any necessary changes.
• After: as a way of keeping a record of what happened during the class and to make any comments for
any future improvement (Sprat, 2005).

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 PLANNING A LESSON: TYPES OF AIMS
• An Aim is the lesson’s objective, the outcome we want the students to achieve and what we want the students to learn by the
end of the class.
• Procedures are the techniques or activities that we plan in order to achieve our aim and the methods used to carry out these
activities (Sprat, 2005).

• Types of Aims:
• Main Aim: it contains the most important thing that we want our students to learn, or reinforce, always taking into account

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what the students already know. E.g., To write an email using past simple tense. In any case the main aim should not be too
general.
• Subsidiary Aim: it shows the language or skills needed to achieve the main aim. E.g., To revise the structure of an email, use
of appropriate vocabulary, etc.
• Personal Aim: It is the teacher’s own aim, what we would like to improve in our own teaching. E.g., try new correction
techniques, make different groups for different activities, etc. (Sprat, 2005).

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PLANNING AN INDIVIDUAL LESSON
• Once we have done our pre-planning, and have stablished the aims and procedures, it is the time to
continue planning our lesson.
• Search for or create the activities that we will develop during our class, think of activities for those
students with special needs, etc.
• Flexible and prepared for changes.
• After the class, make some notes on those changes so that you can reuse the lesson plan in the future and
anticipate some of these problems.

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• Think of ways to start and to end your lesson.
• You should also be prepared to move from one activity to the next, skip activities, repeat those who work
well or the students love doing. Ask yourself: Will this topic be interesting for my students? Have I
planned enough activities for my class? Can I skip any of the activities? Which ones? (Sprat, 2005)

• Readjusting time-related issues.

ADAPTING • Adaptation for special needs students
SESSIONS 8
PLANNING AN INDIVIDUAL LESSON

• Thematic or linguistic relationship

RELATE EACH SESSION • Provides unity and coherence
TO THE PREVIOUS AND • Favors the recycling of structures and
SUBSEQUENT vocabulary

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• Avoid repetition and monotony.
• Mix and match skills. MAINTAIN THE BALANCE
• Take into account the short period BETWEEN ACTIVITIE
care of the little ones.
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PLANNING AN INDIVIDUAL LESSON

• Take into account the time of day when

IDEAL AND EXTRA the class will be held.

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ACTIVITIES • Prepare extra activities in case students
finish ahead of schedule

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PLANNING AN INDIVIDUAL LESSON

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DIDACTIC AND • Communicative approach.
METHODOLOGICAL • Student-centered teaching.
PRINCIPLES • Skills integration

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PLANNING AN INDIVIDUAL LESSON

• Use of language.
• InstrucDons.
• Form of work and grouping.

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CLASSROOM • Layout of the classroom.
MANAGEMENT • Teacher and student papers.
• Group heterogeneity.
• Feedback. rouDnes

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PLANNING AN INDIVIDUAL LESSON
The activities are another of the basic points in all session planning. These should be described in as much
detail as possible, including the materials that both teachers and students will need.
• Reference book (Dictionaries, grammar books...).
• Webpages about English Language Teaching or about any topic that is going to
• be the center of our lesson.

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• Colleagues, we can always ask them for help or ideas.
• Videos.
• We can create our own materials such as flashcards, charts etc.
• Teacher ourselves can be a great source of language for our students.
There are several arguments in favour of using textbooks. They have materials that are interesting and are
carefully prepared. You will always have enough material or activities to provide to your class (Harmer, 2015).
But we should make sure that it is at the appropriate level for our students or adapt it to their level.
If we are told to follow the textbook, we can always decide what parts to use, and select the most attractive,
engaging or interesting parts or activities. And always offer a variety of materials to the students or adapt them 13
to different or special needs in your class.
PLANNING AN INDIVIDUAL LESSON
To know if an activity is appropriate, we can ask ourselves the following questions:
• Is it consistent with the established objectives?
• Is it suitable for the level of the students?
• Integrates all (or several) skills?
• Is it interesting and does it motivate students?

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• Do you require affordable materials?
• Does the completion time of the activity adapt to the class schedule and the period of concentration of
our students?
• Do the layout and space of the classroom allow it to be carried out?
• Does it promote communicative competence?
All these questions aim to maintain the three basic methodological principles mentioned above:
ü The approach communicates
ü Student-centered teaching
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ü Integration of skills
CHARACTERISTICS OF YOUNG LEARNERS
When we talk about “young learners”, we talk about children from three to twelve years old. We cannot assume they all
will have the same characteristics, so we should not generalize (Scott, 2017).

Some of the characteristics of children between 6-9 years old are:

• Enthusiastic about learning and curious about the world.

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• Learn through games and such activities.
• Have a limited attention span
• They like to be praised and seek teacher’s approval.
• They like to talk about their lives and experiences.
• Their understanding comes not just from explanations. They need to touch, ex- perience, and interact (Scott, 2017).

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REINFORCEMENT AND EXTRA MATERIALS
• It is a great idea to have always some extra
materials prepared, activities or games that you
know that can work well in your class or in any
situation.
• These activities should be easy or challenging, as
long as they are engaging for your students. They
can function as time fillers.

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• It is also a good idea to stablish daily routines
that can be used:

• At the beginning of the class

• A warm-up activity
• At the end
• e.g. writing in the calendar, etc. It is a
good way of introducing our students to vocabulary
that can be easily learnt by repetition. 16
REINFORCEMENT AND EXTRA MATERIALS

It is important to follow a pattern when we introduce our students to new language.

We should divide our time in :
• Presenting the new structure or set of vocabulary,
• Letting them process the information,

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• As a closure, spend some minutes to provide feedback at the end of the lesson.

This pattern (presentation, processing information and closure) should be carried out in most of our
activities, so that the students can recognize it, and get to know what comes next.

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 EXAMPLES OF LESSON PLANS

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 EXAMPLES OF LESSON PLANS

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 EXAMPLES OF LESSON PLANS

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WHAT TO DO IF THE THEORY DOESN'T WORK IN PRACTICE
• After each session (and each didactic unit) it is advisable to carry out an evaluation of it.
• This evaluation includes both
The times
The activities
The contents

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The topics, etc
The performance of the teacher himself.
• Self-assessment is necessary to grow and improve as a professional.

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 UNIT SESSION DATE
Questions
Did the sesión go well?
Did the students understand the purpose of
the lesson

Did they learn what they were supposed to

learn?
Was the linguistic content adequate?

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Was communication encouraged?

Did the organization work?

Were the times adequate?

Did students show interest in the topic?

Were the activities apropiate?

Did all the studentes participate? 22

Were the materials suitable?