Lesson

Planning

Unit 10
 Contents:

Ø About lesson planning

Ø Components of a formal lesson plan
Ø Writing Main Aim Checklist
Ø Anticipating Problems
Ø Procedure and stage aims
 About lesson planning

English teaching job involves two main components: lessons and preparation for them.
Sometimes we can spend more time on the later: we seek for the interesting resources, design
worksheets and write lesson plans, which can be very long.
Different teachers include different components in their plans. Some prefer to write detailed procedures
and note down all the instructions, the others stick to the key points only.
However, for new teachers it is useful to write full formal lesson plans to acquire lesson frameworks faster.
We also write formal lesson plans for lesson observations.
A template for a formal lesson plan can be found attached to this unit.
Download it and study the components on the next page.
After the lesson teachers complete a self-evaluation form which is below the lesson plan in the
template. It is important to evaluate how successful the lesson and the activities were, what students
learned, whether they enjoy it. This kind of reflection helps teachers to constantly develop.
 Components of a formal lesson plan

Lesson Profile Indicate key information on the lesson: teacher, date, level, number of students.

Main and Think of what you want to achieve with your students. E.g. Main aim: by the end of the lesson students will
have been introduced to the new lexis on the topic of ‘Clothes’ and will have practiced it in the context of
subsidiary lesson describing what they are wearing.
aims Subsidiary aims: reading – reading a comic for gist
Grammar – a short review of present continuous in the context of describing what people are wearing.
Think what areas of teaching you want to improve this lesson. E.g. classroom management – to give clear
Personal aims and shorter instructions.

Materials and Consider what materials and resources you can use to supplement the coursebook pages and make the
resources learning experience more vivid and effective.

Timetable fit Think about what learners have done in the previous lessons and what they’ll do in the future.

Anticipated Think what might go wrong in the lesson and be ready with possible solutions. E.g. Problem: there will be an
problems and odd number of students. Solution: I will put some students in a group of three and will change them during
the lesson, so all students have equal speaking opportunities.
solutions
Put the task in the logical order following traditional structures for each type of a lesson (vocab, grammar,
Procedure and reading, etc). Set a clear goal for each activity. Examples of stage aims can for each lesson type can be
stage aims found in the corresponding units.

Timing Estimate how long each task will take.

Plan whether the students will work: alone (S), in pairs (S-s), in groups (Ss-Ss), or interact with a teacher (T-Ss).
Interaction Patterns
 Writing Main Aim Checklist

The main principal of setting the main aim is that it should be realistic. Consider what students already know and
what they need to know. If your aim is too simple or too challenging, students will get bored or frustrated, which leads
to the loss of motivation and discipline problems.

After you have written your main lesson aim, refer to this checklist:
q Is the main aim written from the students’ point of view?
q Have you written it in terms of students’ outcomes?
q Have you been specific about your main aim? If it’s a language-focused lesson, have you given the examples of
lexis or grammar structures? If it’s a skills-focused lesson, , have you mentioned what sub-skills students will be
practicing?
q Have you included the context?
Examples of well-formulated main aims:
Listening lesson: by the end of the lesson students will have practiced listening to short monologues for specific
information and for detail in the context of comparing the life now and three years ago

Vocabulary lesson: by the end of the lesson students will have been introduced and have practiced the vocabulary
connected to buying clothes in a shop, e.g. changing rooms, size, to fit, to suit.
 Anticipating Problems

To ensure the lesson is as affective as possible, teachers should anticipate what possible problems can occur and
how to solve them.
There are two main types of problems that can arise at the lesson:
• language problems, e.g. Students might keep pronouncing –ed ending as /id/ in all cases.
• classroom management problems, e.g. Some students might finish the reading of the text quicker than the rest of
the class.

After identifying potential problems, teacher should try to think of possible solutions in order to avoid spending to
much time on it at the lesson, avoid chaos, and be prepared.
P1: Students might keep pronouncing –ed ending as /id/ in all cases.
S1: I’ll highlight the pronunciation on the board and include an activity which would allow students to have plenty of
pronunciation practice.
P2: Some students might finish the reading of the text quicker than the rest of the class.
S2: I’ll encourage students to work in a group with other early finishers to check their answers and underline the key
words.
 Procedure and stage aims

When you write a procedure for your lesson it is important to include an aim for each stage. It helps a teacher to be
sure that there is a clear purpose of each activity, all the activities included are relevant and contribute to the main
aim of the lesson.
It is also helpful to look through the sequence of stage aims to evaluate whether the learning progression makes
sense, and the activities are ordered logically. Moreover, you can clearly see whether the activities are varied to
keep the students engaged. The lesson can be monotonous and boring if you choose the activities of the same type.

On the next page you can see an example of the lesson procedure and stage aims.
The main aim of the lesson: by the end of the lesson students will have practiced making and responding to

suggestions in the context of arranging a meeting.

Looking though the sequence we notice that students proceed gradually to achieve the main aim.
 Procedure and stage aims

Procedure Stage aims

T greets Ss Lead-in: to set the topic of the lesson, to

T says that she is thinking of celebrating the end of the course and asks Ss to share some draw Ss’ attention to the TL
ideas about how it can be done. Ss make their suggestions, T responds to them using
the TL.
T boards some ideas.
T shows Ss the target phrases on the slide. Ss have to divide them into the three Pre-task: to develop students’
columns: conversational skills
- making suggestions
- responding positively
- responding negatively
They do it individually, then check in pairs in the BORs.
When Ss are back to the main session, the task is checked together. T drills the phrases
with the Ss using their ideas from the previous task.
T tells Ss to imagine that they want to meet up and celebrate the end of the course. T Speaking task 1: to provide Ss with
shows some options on the slide. Ss have to discuss the options and choose the one meaningful practice of making
that everyone in a group agrees to do. Ss work in pairs or in groups of three depending suggestions and responding to them
on the number of students present.
T asks Ss what activity they agreed on and why. T draws Ss attention to problematic Feedback and error correction 1: to
language and drills the target language again if necessary. provide feedback on the task, to correct
Ss’ language