LESSON PLANNING

TFL 439
Outline

1. What’s a Lesson Plan?

2. Why Lesson Plans are important (internal and external reasons)?
3. Deviation from the Lesson Plan and its reasons
4. Developing a Lesson Plan (objectives, structure)
5. Useful questions for Lesson Planning
6. How to ‘spice up’ your lesson?
7. Evaluating a Lesson Plan
People with NO plans
Travellers with NO plan
- no idea where to go
- no idea what transportation to use
- no idea what locals’ mentality is
- waste of time, money, and effort
- disappointment and frustration
Teachers with NO plan
- no idea what to teach
- no idea what activities to use
- no idea what students’ interests
are
- waste of time, money, and effort
- disappointment and frustration
People with NO plans
Travellers with NO plan
- no idea where to go
- no idea what transportation to use
- no idea what locals’ mentality is
- waste of time, money, and effort
- disappointment and frustration
Teachers with NO plan
- no idea what to teach
- no idea what activities to use
- no idea what students’ interests
are
- waste of time, money, and effort
- disappointment and frustration
 LESSON PLANNING
• “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” asked
Alice.
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the
Cheshire Cat.
Lewis Carroll (1963). Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (p. 59). New York:
Macmillan.
What is a Lesson Plan?
• Lesson plans are systematic records of a teacher’s thoughts about what
will be covered during a lesson.
 WHY LESSON PLANS ARE IMPORTANT?

• Richards (1998) suggests that lesson plans help the teacher

think about the lesson in advance to … (p. 103).
a) resolve problems and difficulties
b) to provide a structure for a lesson
c) to provide a ‘map’ for the teacher to follow
d) to provide a record of what has been taught
 INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL REASONS FOR
PLANNING LESSONS
• McCutcheon (1980) states that teachers
… plan for internal reasons in order …
a) to feel more confident
b) to learn the subject matter better
c) to enable lessons to run more smoothly
d) to anticipate problems before they happen.
… plan for external reasons in order …
e) to satisfy the expectations of the principal or supervisor
f) to guide a substitute teacher in case the class needs one.
 OTHER BENEFITS OF LESSON PLANNING

• Lesson plan is also useful for addressing students needs because

it takes into account the different backgrounds, interests,
learning styles, and abilities of the students in one class.

• It helps to deliberately select the teaching material based on the

features mentioned above in advance.
 WHO DEVIATES FROM LESSON PLANS?
WHY?
• Richards & Lockhart (1994) mention in their research that many
teachers, especially more EXPERIENCED, tend to deviate from
the Lesson Plans even if they have been taught to use and
follow this method
 EXPERIENCED TEACHERS’ PRINCIPLES FOR
LESSON PLAN DEVIATION
• According to Bailey’s (1996, p. 38) study of six experienced English language
teachers, listed below are the interesting reasons for lesson plan deviation:
a) “Serve the common good.” (addressing raised issue - previous topic, terms)
b) “Teach to the moment.” (addressing unplanned event - fainting)
c) “Further the lesson.” (changes aimed at promoting the progress of the lesson -
skipping, adding, replacing)
d) “Accommodate students’ learning styles.” (addressing needs that were not
considered - TPR)
e) “Promote students’ involvement.” (bored, tired)
f) “Distribute the wealth.” (quiet students VS active students - pairing up, roles)
 OTHER SUGGESTIONS FOR LESSON PLAN
DEVIATION

• Two broad reasons for teachers to deviate from their original

lesson plan:
1) when the lesson is obviously going badly and the plan is not
helping to produce the desired outcome
2) when something happens during an early part of the lesson
that necessitates improvisation.
 DEVELOPING LESSON PLAN

• Start with LESSON OBJECTIVES

• What is a lesson objective?
An objective is a description of a learning outcome. Objectives
describe the destination (not the journey) we want our students to
reach.
• Learning objective – goal
• Learning outcome – end result
 WHY LEARNING OBJECTIVES ARE NECESSARY?

• Learning objectives help identify …

a) what we want our students to learn
b) help guide the selection of appropriate activities
c) help provide overall lesson focus and direction
d) a way to evaluate what their students have learned at the end of the lesson
e) What is expected to be learned on students’ end
 WHAT VERBS TO USE FOR WRITING
OBJECTIVES?

• Not advised to use VAGUE VERBS, such as understand,

appreciate, enjoy, and learn (difficult to measure)
• Advisable action verbs are as follows: identify, present,
describe, explain, demonstrate, list, contrast, and debate
(clearer, easier to measure)
• Consult the Bloom’s Taxonomy of Thinking Processes
Examples of Learning Objectives (aims) & Activities
 Practice
From Controlled to Freer
1. are designed to allow
students to use language A. CONTROLLED PRACTICE
with a certain degree of
flexibility

2. are those in which students are

asked to use the language in a B. SEMI-CONTROLLED PRACTICE
restricted way

3. Ss use the target

language and their existing C. FREER PRACTICE
language knowledge more
flexibly
 Practice
From Controlled to Freer
1. are designed to allow
students to use language A. CONTROLLED PRACTICE
with a certain degree of
flexibility

2. are those in which students are

asked to use the language in a B. SEMI-CONTROLLED PRACTICE
restricted way

3. Ss use the target

language and their existing C. FREER PRACTICE
language knowledge more
flexibly
 Practice
From Controlled to Freer
1. Role plays;
Group discussions;
Debates; A. CONTROLLED PRACTICE
Speech.

2. Gap-fill;
Multiple choice activities;
Categorizing words into groups. B. SEMI-CONTROLLED PRACTICE

3. Prompts;
Write a text using the
target language; C. FREER PRACTICE
Find someone who;
Remember someone who.
 Practice
From Controlled to Freer
1. Role plays;
Group discussions;
Debates; A. CONTROLLED PRACTICE
Speech.

2. Gap-fill;
Multiple choice activities;
Categorizing words into groups. B. SEMI-CONTROLLED PRACTICE

3. Prompts;
Write a text using the
target language; C. FREER PRACTICE
Find someone who;
Remember someone who.
 Practice
From Controlled to Freer
Controlled Semi-controlled Freer
are those in which students are asked are designed to allow students Ss use the target language
to use the language in a restricted to use language with a certain and their existing language
way degree of flexibility knowledge more flexibly

Gap-fill; Prompts; Role plays;

Multiple choice activities; Write a text using the target language; Group discussions;
Categorizing words into groups. Find someone who; Debates;
Remember someone who. Speech.
 DEVELOPING LESSON PLAN
• Having written the objectives, decide on what activities to do to achieve
objectives you set.
Traditional Lesson Plan Template that most of us follow:
Triple “P” (PPP)
1. Warm-up
2. Presentation
3. Practice
4. Production
5. Homework
 DEVELOPING LESSON PLAN
• Having written the objectives, decide on what activities to do to achieve
objectives you set.
The Lesson Plan Template presented by PSU:

1. Orientation (Warm-up)
2. Presentation
3. Engagement (Practice & Production)
4. Assessment / Evaluation
5. Homework
Another distinguishing feature of the Lesson Plan
template from PSU
 DEVELOPING LESSON PLAN
The Lesson Plan Template offered by CELTA (varies depending on the
Teaching Framework):

TTT Framework Receptive Skills Framework

1. Lead-in
1. Lead-in
2. Pre-teach Vocab
2. Test-1
3. Prediction
3. Teach
4. Reading for gist
4. Test-2
5. Reading for detail
5. Freer Practice
6. Freer Practice
6. Error Correction
7. Error correction
Another distinguishing feature of the Lesson Plan
template from CELTA
Conclusion about Lesson Plan Templates

It does not matter HOW the different lesson stages are called.
What matters is the COMMONALITY of the following elements:
1. Lead-in OR Warm-up (creating interest / reviewing previous topic)
2. Presentation (new topic is introduced and discussed)
3. Practice (students PRACTICE what they have learned, LOTS of
TEACHER control)
4. Production (students PRODUCE output using newly covered language,
FEW/NO teacher control)
5. Evaluation (error correction, getting/giving feedback, wrapping up)
6. Homework
 USEFUL QUESTIONS FOR LESSON PLANNING
• What do you want the students to learn and why?
• Are all the tasks necessary – worth doing and at the right level?
• What materials, aids, and so on, will you use and why?
• What type of interaction will you encourage – individual, pair, or group
work and why?
• What instructions will you have to give and how will you give them
(written, oral, etc.)?
• What questions will you ask?
• How will you monitor student understanding during the different stages of
the lesson?
 HOW TO SPICE UP YOUR LESSON?
• change the tempo of activities from fast-moving to slow
• change the class organization by giving individual tasks, pair work,
group work, or full class interaction.
• vary activity level of difficulty, some easy and others more demanding.
• harder activities and tasks should be placed earlier in the lesson (Ur,
1996)
• the quieter activities go before lively ones (Ur, 1996)
• activities should not be too long or too short (Brown, 1994)
 EVALUATING THE PLAN

• Ur (1996) says it is important to think after teaching a lesson

and ask “whether it was a good one or not, and why” (p. 219).
This form of self-reflection, she says, is for self-development
 EVALUATING THE PLAN
• Ur offers the following criteria for evaluating lesson effectiveness:
(1) the class seemed to be learning the material well
(2) the learners were engaging with the foreign language throughout
(3) the learners were attentive all the time
(4) the learners enjoyed the lesson and were motivated
(5) the learners were active all the time
(6) the lesson went according to plan
(7) the language was used communicatively throughout (p. 220). Readers might wish to
reflect on these criteria and reorder them in their own list of priority.
Do experienced teachers still need to write Lesson Plans?
Experienced teachers may not be asked to write lesson plans by the
administration.
They may not feel the necessity to write an EXTENDED lesson plan.
However, vast majority of experienced teachers still write Lesson Plans in
the format of BULLET points:
- ask this question
- check HW
- read a story
- ask students to find certain grammatical structures in the text
- let them discover how the structure is formed (in pairs)
- etc.
Before you go…
Let’s check your memory
A: Presentation, practice, production
• What does Triple “P” stand for?
A: Experienced teachers. Teach to the moment; Further the
• Who deviates from lesson plans more? Why? lesson; Promote involvement, etc.

• What are the three types of practice? A: Controlled, semi-controlled, freer

A: CELTA
• TTT framework is offered by…
Controlled
• Multiple choice activities belong to THIS type of practice.
• Is “Appreciate” a vague verb or an active verb? A: Vague
Before you go…
Let’s check your memory
• What does Triple “P” stand for? A: Presentation, practice, production
• Who deviates from lesson plans more? Why? A: Experienced teachers. Teach to the
moment; Further the lesson; Accommodate students’ learning styles; Promote
involvement, etc.
• What are the three types of practice? A: Controlled, semi-controlled, freer
• TTT framework is offered by… A: CELTA
• Multiple choice activities belong to Controlled type of practice.
• Is “Appreciate” a vague verb or an active verb? A: Vague
Thank you for your attention!!!