GOTOCO
how to create lesson plans
unit 3 – how to createlesson plans
The aims of lesson plans
What questions need to be asked
How teachers use lesson plans
contents
unit 3how to use lesson plans
in this unit:
Learn how to create lesson plans and what questions to ask when doing so
Learn how to form a plan
Learn how to use your lesson plans
how to uselesson plans
For this third unit we will review the importance of lesson plans, how to create them as the teacher, the questions you should ask when doing so, and how the �nished product should look.
how to use lesson plans
Lesson plans are vital for all teachers,
even if they are informal plans.
It seems ideal to be able to think on your
feet, come up with new ideas at the spur
of the moment, but planning allows you to
think about where you are going to head
over the course of the next few days,
providing a chance to remind you what
you wanted to do.
A good lesson plan
needs to have logical
patterns.
It must connect
different activities in
the ESA fashion.
It should also help
integrate variety into
a lesson so as to
sustain learning and
the attention span of
the class.
A lesson plan can be as robust or as thinned out as you please. You are the teacher and you
might need to only write down the name of an activity you want to do, the corresponding page
number from the textbook, and notes for students.
On the other hand, you might need detailed paragraphs about what you want to teach.
The precise format you use is really up to you. There are teacher training courses which require
you to write out lesson plans in different formats. But no matter the format, you need three
components:
A written plan
detailing your
students (ages,
experience,
behavior, etc.…)
A plan detailing
what you want to
do (write a
narrative, read a
passage, etc.…)
A plan detailing how
the activities will take
place (the students
will work in pairs, the
teacher will play a
video and students
will listen, etc.…)
what are the aims of a lesson plan?
what should be included in a lesson plan?
Mrs. Shannon’s Lesson Plan
Day: Date:Class:Bell Ringer.
Standard:
Daily Outcome:
Topic:Chapter: Lesson: Page #sResources:
Purpose Strategy Procedure
Purpose Strategy Procedure
Purpose
RE
FLE
CTI
ON
SA
SS
ES
SA
FTE
RD
UR
ING
BE
FOR
EIN
FOR
MAT
ION
How will I measure if the outcome is met?
Strategy Procedure
T W T R L
sample lessonplan
what questions should teachers ask when creating a lesson plan?
As a teacher, you should ask eight
questions of each lesson
Who are the
students for this
activity? What is
their level of
understanding, their
background, their
age?
Why do you want
your students to
do this activity?
What will this plan
achieve? What will
students learn
from it?
How long will it
take?
What things could
go wrong?
What materials do
you need to do
the task?
How does it work? How will it fit into
the activities before
and after?
It is very important to plan classes effectively. Although
many of your Chinese students and their parents have
some idea that foreign teachers are more relaxed and
carefree than their usual teachers, they still expect a
level of professionalism. Planning classes ensures you
always know what you are doing in the classroom
and, just as importantly, look as if you know what you
are doing.
When you begin teaching there is often a moment in a
class where you finish an activity and suddenly your
brain is totally blank. You have forgotten the next part
and the students see it. You can easily avoid this by
casually glancing at the lesson plan you have in front of
you as the current activity comes to a close. By the
time it finishes and you have provided some feedback,
you can smoothly introduce the next activity.
Form
There is no ‘correct’ form for a lesson
plan. The most important thing is that the
plan is useful to you or anyone observing
you.
Sequence
The sequence of the plan is important too.
Some activities can be completed in one
day. Others must be completed over the
course of two weeks. If you are creating a
longer sequence of activities, remember
that a two week plan should be divided
into smaller lessons which can be done
each day, and of those smaller lessons
you want three or four miniature lessons
you can do during the class.
The detail of lesson plans depends on the content of the lesson. It may be a list
of vocabulary to review or just a few bullet points of activities or games that you
know well and need no more notes.
However sometimes a more detailed lesson plan can help you, particularly when
you have limited experience.
Lesson plans can sometimes be imperative for lessons on difficult grammar. Let’s
take a lesson on the present perfect as an example. As we will learn later, the
present perfect has a variety of uses that can be slightly confusing. When you are
teaching you must seem authoritative and knowledgeable about the language so
having the basic rules of the tense in a logical order can provide a reference
during the class. These can then be accompanied by ready-made examples of
usage in the form of sentences which are sometimes hard to think up on the
spot in a class.
This type of lesson plan works well with grammar that has patterns like
comparatives and superlatives where you have the pattern followed by examples:
Pattern
1. A [verb phrase] more/less than B
2. A [be] more [adj] than B
3. A [be][adj]+er than B
4. A [be] not as [adj] as B
5. A [be] the [adj.]+ est
6. A [be] the most [adj.]
Examples
1. Fred likes to eat more than Michael.
2. Books are more interesting than movies.
3. Cows are fatter than monkeys.
4. This building is not as tall as the bank.
5. Henry is the slowest.
6. That is the most dangerous thing I have done.
Using a simple plan like this with minimal preparation you will not get mixed up
with your sentences and examples as they are all pre-made.
Lesson plans help teachers to focus, especially if they lose their train of thought in the middle of class.
Formats for lesson plans tell you who you will be teaching, what they will learn, and how they are going to complete the lesson.
There are eight questions teachers should ask while planning any lesson plan.
Teachers should �nd a format for lesson plans which best �t their personal preference.
summary
worksheetunit 3
Explain the importance of a lesson plan.
Describe what should be in a lesson plan.
Explain what form lesson plans should take.
List the questions you should ask while creating a lesson plan.
Here is a simple plan for a children’s class of a fairly low level.
The title makes it clear it’s a review class so they have
probably learnt the content before and need to practise it
again and refresh the language they learnt before.
At the top there is the date, which helps you to remember
when the students did this and the class number refers to the
order of the classes which helps you organise your material
and know how many classes you have done.
Records can be kept of spelling test scores and/or homework
done. This is very useful to show parents how their children
are developing or how they have not done homework and are
not making progress.
The warm-up and main activities are laid out and with clear
examples of keywords or sentences. These kinds of notes
can be useful for planning the next class as you can see what
you have done already and if a student misses a class it is
easy to inform them of the content and the homework given
to the other students.
Of course, this plan does not detail exactly how the class
should be taken. There might be games or fun ways to carry
out the activities but the key information of what to do and in
what order is there. Often it is good to over-plan a little as
students sometimes have studied something before or find
some activities easier and need to move on faster. If you do
not use all your activities then you can do them in the next
lesson.
Always consider planning a variety of activities. Making
students write long passages can waste class time and
teacher contact time, but it does not mean you should not
do it in class. Try to plan a mixture of short writing activities,
mixed with the other skill areas: listening, reading and
speaking. Always cater to your students’ needs and try to
improve their weak areas. Variety makes the lesson more
interesting and keeps students (especially young ones)
engaged.
XX/XX/XXXX (Date)
Class #12
Names:
Homework done:
Spelling score:
First class back review
Review/warm-up: How are you? I’m fine/I’m ok
Main activity: Do you like________________? E.g. Do you like fish?
Yes, I do.
No I don’t, I like________________.
Review numbers 1-10 and play game (students line up in random order and must say
numbers out loud in order, mix up the line again and repeat).
Practise numbers and grammar: I want______(#) _______________(countable food) e.g
I want three hot dogs.
Review food vocabulary
Fruits
vegetables
hamburger
hot dog
cake
Practise ‘Th’ sound [θ] with the following words: think, thin, Thursday, throw, three.
Homework: 5 sentences: ‘I want _________(#) ______________ (countable food)
+Spellings: 1. ten 2. three 3. one 4. seven 5. eight
sample lesson plan for children’s class