Lesson Planning Basics

Overview and Essential Elements

Overview: The Teaching Cycle

Lesson Planning: Principles & Practices

Why a lesson plan?
Satisfy goals; meet objectives

A plan helps us to . . .
Manage time Measure Ss learning Assess progress toward objectives and goals Increase our confidence

Lesson Planning: Principles & Practices

Three Key Elements:

1. Opening or initiatory phase (INTO...)

2. Core Lesson (THROUGH)

3. Closure or wrap-up (BEYOND)

Opening (Into)
Warm-up Schema Activation
Tap into Ss prior or background knowledge Elicit Ss ideas about the presented topic

Core Lesson (Through)

Determine your sequencing approach Have appropriate pacing Pre-teach any necessary terms, vocabulary, or forms to activate prior knowledge and reduce anxiety Techniques:
Present careful directions Model procedures & skills Monitor Ss comprehension (check for understanding) Provide feedback Give Ss cues during transitions

Core Lesson (Through)

Familiar New Simple Complex Structured Unstructured Make decisions about the following:
Deductive or inductive approach? Top-down versus bottom-up design? What is the appropriate sequence of tasks?

Approaches to Teaching
Inductive The learner arrives at rules or principles by studying examples or instances VS.

Bottom-up
Decoding the smallest elements of lg. first, and use them to decode/interpret words, sentences, or texts.

VS. Top-down

Deductive
The learner begins with rules Or principles and then applies them to examples or instances

The use of background knowledge, text structures, or the general world to assist in understanding language.

The Role of Pacing

the extent to which a lesson maintains its momentum and communicates a sense of development (Richards & Lockhart, 1994)

Techniques:
Efficiently deliver directions Vary tasks/activities & interactive modalities Systematic redundancy Appropriate tasks for Ss level of proficiency Diagnosis of Ss cognitive states

Closure or wrap-up (beyond)

How do individual lesson plans connect in Ss minds to the course of study? Enable learners to make connections to other areas Techniques:
Summarize major insights or learning Reveal how the lesson is connected to the major objective of the lesson or course

Discussion Groups
Propose a simple list of lesson planning and activity-design essentials Identify 2 or 3 lesson planning or material preparation techniques that you find useful. Discuss why you think they are useful and effective techniques Brainstorm some guiding principles for second language instruction