Planning . . . What for? . . . How?

1. Educational planning. 1.1 Activity. Do you know who designs English programs in Mexico for English courses? If you know the answer, Congratulations! But if you dont know you have to find out who the people responsible are.... keep on reading. 1.2 Levels of planning When you start teaching you will probably receive a guide or a plan for your course which, according to Schrum and Glissan outlines the content students are expected to learn by the end of the year and that is consistent with the general purposes described for the entire school system and for the statewide curriculum (1994,43) After you receive the general plan you will have to start considering your own planning for the semester, the month and each day. The levels of planning can be as follows: LONG-TERM PLANS Country plans State plans Institution plans SEGMENT PLANS Semester plans Unit plans DAILY PLANS Daily class plans

1.3 Theoretical description

At the most general level, the planner faces a difficult problems: How to take all the knowledge available on a subject and arrange it neatly and properly to make it easy to learn and to assimilate in a limited period of time and in a progressive process from the simple to the complex. It is really hard to teach everything known on a subject so Gago proposes two basic norms for determining objectives: a) To take from among all that is known on the subject whatever is true, valuable and useful(44). b) From among what is valid, valuable, and useful, he will prefer whatever satisfies and is related to the interests of the society we live in and those of each individual student (44, both quotations translated by Hassell). Once the planner has chosen the material to be taught, he must break it up and distribute it in time. He proposes to himself and others what the students should learn during each segment of that time and by the end of the course. These proposals are called objectives . 2. Objectives. Teachers recognize that they help to decide clearly what you want your students to learn. If you set a goal, then you can do things that move your students toward it. If something doesnt move your students toward the goal you want, then you should not waste time and energy on it. What do your students want and need to learn?
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What your students need to know or be able to do by the end of the course you teach, should become your objective. 2.1 Kinds of objectives The Mexican educational system, like many others, recognizes two kinds of objectives: a) Formative: These ones refer to those that help students grow as persons, i.e. being honest, responsible, able to communicate and work well with others, and willing to take the initiative in facing and solving problems. b) Informative: These ones refer to the content to be learned. This includes learning theories, being able to explain them yourself, and applying the knowledge to solving problems or using the knowledge as in speaking a foreign language. 2.2 Foreign language objective. A language is a huge and complex network, it includes sounds, written representation, rules, words, word order, inflections, meanings, social behavior, and more. It is used to get and give information, to express feelings, and to make contact with other people. But we have to be very conscious that it is impossible to learn every single thing about any language. Richards and Rodgers point out three different ways in what people perceive language: a) As structure: it concentrates on the language itself, without reference to the people who speaks it. It (speak the language) focuses on language as a system composed of sounds, grammar, and meaning. The teacher assumes that his / her students will learn each part and then they be able to put the parts together.
b) Uses of language: According to this view, students must learn both the system of the

language and ways to do things by using it. This point focuses on getting things done by using the language and it assumes that students need to learn how to do it under teacher guidance in class. c) Social attention: Here, in addition to knowing the language system and the ways to get things done in the language, students need to know how to use the language appropriately in order to be accepted by other speakers. 2.3 Steps in selecting and organizing contents. 1. Identify the main content in the lesson or unit to work with. 2. Select the a) b) c) content according to: Validity: scientific, cultural, etc. Relevance: social and professional. Continuity and Reality: related with other courses.

3. Set a death line ( set the time)

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4. Organize the content by units or any other kind of sequence. (From the general idea to the detail; from simple to complex) 5. Chose the basic idea as the nucleus of each unit in order to ease the content organization. 6. Take into account the load and complexity of the information to set the time for each unit or lesson. 2.4 Recommendations in stating an objective. Objectives need to say where you want to go in your teaching, and the most important part in this is to establish what the student will learn. An objective, 1. ... has to agree with what the student is going to do. 2. ... must establish the action to be performed. 3. ... has to use vocabulary with a similar or an already known meaning. 4. ... must not be too general, neither too detailed. 5. ... focuses one skill per objective. 6. ... sets the performance conditions. 7. ... establishes efficiency levels. 3. Daily plan lesson. Improvisation has to finish, and teachers, before being in front of a group, have to plan what and how they are going to teach as well As how they are going to evaluate. Jeremy Harmer considers lesson planning as the art of mixing techniques, activities and materials in such a way that an ideal balance is created in class (1191p.259). Nunan mentions content, teaching strategies, sequence and evaluation when talking about planning (1988p.13) So teachers have to identify the purpose of the class as well as the way this purpose will be taught, that is, what techniques, strategies, activities and materials should be used. 3.1 Steps for selecting and organizing activities. 1. Take into account 4 dimensions: a) Expected performance
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c) Way of working

b) b) Content d) Resources 2. Make a list of possible activities to be done during the course. 3. Identify and establish: a) Main activities b)Secondary activities 4. Set the sequence of the activities according to the learning processes previously set. 5. Make up an inventory on teaching material. 6. Register the teaching techniques used in each activity. 4. Evaluation. It is the process used to get information, using it to make a judgement on the efficiency and proficiency. We have three main categories: a) Measurement: Tests or homework. b) Comparison: Grades / Objectives c) Valorization: Judgement, self-criteria. 4.1 Objectives of Evaluation 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Feedback for the student Reinforce stimuli / motivation Basis for a grade Knowledge level Evaluate the teaching methods Effectiveness of the educative content Indicator for selecting contents

4.2 KINDS OF EVALUATION. 1. Diagnostic: Its used to know the students school background 2. Formative: Its made during the whole process, especially for controlling the accomplishment of the program. 3. Summary: Its the last evaluation. It gives us information about the achieved goals and it also establishes a criterion on the teachers labor and the contents. 4.3 WHAT TO TEST? 1. Knowledge 2. Abilities and skills ( both, practical and intellectual ) 3. General skills 4. Attitudes 5 The Traditional Model and The Hunter Model.
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5. Interests 6. Judgments 7. Modifications in the program

In a daily lesson plan a teacher that needs a detailed guide for a class may use either the plan format proposed by Hunter and Russell in 1977 (as reported in Shrum and Glissan, 49) or the traditional one used by a group of students from Fac. Filosofa y Letras in 1993. Both of them are very simple and easy to follow.

THE HUNTER MODEL ANTICIPATORY SET: _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ OBJECTIVES: INPUT: MODELING: CHECKING FOR UNDERSTANDING ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________

GUIDED PRACTICE: _________________________________________________________ INDEPENDENT PRACTICE: ASSIGNMENT: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Standard language teaching model.
Warm-up: _____________________________________________________________________ Presentation: _________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Practice: _______________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ Production: ___________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________
LESSON PLAN

I. Description of the class

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a) b) c) d)

Level: _________ Time: _________ Number of Students: _______ Average age: ________

II. Description of the lesson a) Topic. ____________________________________________________________ b) Overall Objective: _________________________________________________ c) Structure to be target: ____________________________________________ d) Skills to be practiced: _____________________________________________ III. a) Stages Pre-teaching:____________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ b) 1st. While: ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ c) 2nd. While: _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ e) Post-Teaching: ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ IV. Material: _________________________________________________________ V. Problems: ________________________________________________________ VII. Possible solution: _________________________________________________ By Mara del Refugio Garza and Blanca Esquivel.

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