PROFESORADO DE INGLÉS- Didáctica de Inglés I

CHAPTER 8: Planning and Managing Classes 1

Long term planning: courses based on syllables prepare by your school, educational activities
or section of the course book.
The syllable tells you what to teach in what order in what period.
The course syllable: it is starting point for planning your lessons.

Why do we plan lessons?

When planning the class, you should consider:
• what the learners are expected to know and what they should be able to do at the
beginning/ending of the course.
• The type of syllable
Bear in mind this idea of SPIRAL SYLLABLE because sometimes the learners forget the
language that they don't use and it is important to prepare some reactivation and integration
sessions, for example to choose a day of the week to revise certain topic that is going to be
important for the next unit.
Planning is thought to be good because it helps us to decide, especially in school settings and with
large classes what we're going to do it is also good because students appreciate knowing that their
teacher has thought carefully about what would be best for them.
Remember that is really important to bear in mind that we have to be flexible, and we don't have
to be overzealous (the enthusiastic or fervent) with our lesson plan. That is to say, that sometimes

we stuck rigidly to our plan and then a magic moment arose- for example, a conversation
which developed out of the blue in a wonderful way a topic that produced a level of interest in
our students which we had not predicted or the moment when the student had a pressing desire to
say something which was outside the scope of what we had planned.
Magic moments happened frequently in lessons; it would be absorbed to ignore them when they
arise, but it might make a mess of our plan if we divert it from it to deal with them.
The same kind of situation when we suddenly become aware of a problem we had not anticipated.
Perhaps we had assumed at his children knew some particular language structure but it becomes
clear as the lesson progress is that they do not.
“A good teacher will be capable of sticking to the timings on their lessons plan, a GREAT one
will be adept at modifying it to meet the needs of the learner on the day”.
Lisette Allen
 PROFESORADO DE INGLÉS- Didáctica de Inglés I

Short-term planning:
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• Work plans: consist of the outlines of a sequence of lessons. They should provide your
teaching with continuity and coherence. This is hard to achieve when looking at each
lesson in isolation. For example if out of three lessons per week 1 consist on present on
presenting and practising new vocabulary items at least another lesson should consist on
communicative activities.
• Lesson Planning: it is essential to decide:
- what you have to teach,
- how to teach,
-which are your objectives,
- the type of activities you are going to practise.
if it is a controlled/guided or if the students must practice communicative skills in some activities.
The idea of time is important to set a time to do the exercise is coma to offer a variety of activities
yes to revise some language or vocabulary items.
It is important to bear in mind the type of activities if it is in lockstep (the whole class work
together with the T), pair work, group work or individual work remember to say that before
starting doing the activity.
Teachers do not plan lessons in a vacuum (in an empty space in isolation). They teach in a context,
they have to know who their students are, where they're teaching what materials and technology
they have available.
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Class management: it is impossible to plan everything that will happen in your lessons you
need strategies to deal with certain problems and it is important to consider when you write your
lesson plans the possible problems and solutions to them.
Getting attention and participation:
The first day of class you should establish some classroom rules, for example: speak English all
the time respect each other put up your hands when you want to participate or for example if you
ask for silence yes you can stand with your hand raised until you have total silence and
everybody's attention. You have to train your class with this rule. It takes time to train the learners
to respond to a range of nonverbal signals.
For instance: use the body language like hand raised, point to the to your watch when you want
to set a time for an activity or point to your ear when you want your students to listen to you.
Those actions are really important to maintain the classroom atmosphere.
Giving and checking instructions:
 PROFESORADO DE INGLÉS- Didáctica de Inglés I

remember to use simple language, make one student to repeat what the rest must do, always give
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an example or write an example demonstrate how to do the activity on the board. Never assume
that everybody understands.

Manage in pair and groupwork:

Everybody loves working with your friends but try to avoid that. Make everybody to work with
everybody. For example: you can organise your students according to their football team, their
favourite colour, you can give them numbers or a piece of paper with the names of some characters
related to a film.
Pair work: you can use famous pairs or well-known couples. For example: salt and pepper, Woody
and Buss Lightyear, Bart Simpson and Milhouse, Fiona and Shrek, etc.
Remember to use simple and clear instructions move around the classroom and be clear with the
time related to each activity.
Monitor each group and the activity they're doing. After a doing a pair or group work activity deal
with the mistakes or doubts. Offer them spoken examples write them on the board or give them a
feedback of how they perform the pair work or the groupwork etc.

Teachers and learners role:

Be careful with the use of the language, make sure that as many learners as possible participate
in the class, organise, and facilitate different activities, correct the mistakes at the end of each
activity or for example when a student is speaking don't interrupt to correct the phonetics wait till
the student finish giving their opinion.
Make your students to imitate provide an accurate model and try to do the activity as exactly as
you indicate.
For example, if you play a game try to explain the rules before the game and respect the rules.

Discipline:
Try to keep your students busy vary the different activities and interactions. Try to work with
topics and activities that will be interesting for the learners or at least try to make them interest
interesting for them.
Motivate the good actions congratulate the good actions for example congratulate those who bring
the materials, those who finish the activity, you can send a note to the parents congratulating. Be
fair with everybody and this is really important try to have your students on your side.
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 PROFESORADO DE INGLÉS- Didáctica de Inglés I

Different teaching situations:

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regarding children’s courses, it is important to bear in mind this idea of the language in abstract
situations, it is difficult to work with one task for a long time, the attention span is short, it is
significant to offer a variety of activities.
The younger children the more your Lesson plan should consist of games, vocabulary links to
realia a coma manual activities, drawing, songs and colouring among others.

The problems that teachers have to face nowadays is this idea of having large groups in the
classroom more than 30 students. Possible problems are:
• they are not able to see or to hear,
• it's difficult to learn the students’ name (it takes time)
• it's difficult to make them work in groups.
Try to find the way to monitor them to give them feedback and you have to be ready for those
who hate English yes you will have to make them to cooperate yes.
 PROFESORADO DE INGLÉS- Didáctica de Inglés I

PLAN FORMAT: different stages in a plan

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when we design a lesson plan, We have to bear in mind this idea that lessons are a symphony, a
a TV programme story or a film.
There is an introduction, a development, a consolation and a conclusion.