Teacher Development

Online Teaching
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What makes an effective lesson?
By looking at these lesson objectives, which is
the main goal?
- To learn vocabulary related to chocolate and baking
- To practice speaking skills
- To introduce the present perfect
- To develop listening skills
- To design a new chocolate bar
How do we make them more effective and
communicative?

- To learn vocabulary related to chocolate and baking

- To practice speaking skills
- To introduce the present perfect
- To develop listening skills
- To design a new chocolate bar
Lesson goal:

Students will be able to design and present a new

chocolate bar
 Three-stage approach to lesson planning:
Adapted from: Makarios, A. (2016) Transforming your lesson plan into a development tool. MET Volume 25 issue 3
 Stage 1
Don’t worry about the coursebook yet. If you are not in a position to evaluate each
activity’s aim at a glance, and ergo its importance to achieving your lesson aim, it
will not help at all. Instead, start the other way round:

a. Ensure you know the type of lesson you are teaching, e.g. skills (listening, etc.),
language (grammar, etc.) and come up with the lesson aim if it’s not explicitly
mentioned in the syllabus. Make sure the lesson aim reflects something students
would do in real life.
b. Write down the stages of the particular type of lesson, i.e. listening skills
 Stage 2
Now, it’s time to look at the actual coursebook materials. Do the activities in the
book match your lesson type of lesson you are teaching? Do the activities match
the stages of that particular lesson type? Once you have done that, you can
evaluate the materials much more efficiently so that you add, skip or modify as
you see fit depending on the lesson aim(s) and the learners’ needs and interests.
At this point, you can show your creativity and your ability to adapt the
materials in a meaningful, imaginative manner.
 Stage 3
It’s time to review and evaluate your lesson plan and make sure that it actually reflects the lesson
aim(s). You can ask yourself the following questions:

Do the stages indicate a listening lesson, a grammar lesson, etc.?

Does this lesson match my student’s interest and needs?

Have I allocated time realistically? Have I allowed enough time for feedback / learner questions if
need be?

Have I varied interaction by including appropriate interaction patterns, e.g. pairwork /groupwork, etc.
so that the lesson in not too T-led?

What can I do if activity X does not go the way it has been planned?
 Take a look at the lesson
plan and reflect:

What is the objective of the lesson?

How many steps are there?
Is there an activity that assesses the objective?
Is there scaffolding?
What would happen if you didn’t have
the time to get to step #7?
How do we write effective lesson goals?
Should we show them to our students?
Connect your lesson to our new assessment
program