LESSON PLAN

Lesson plans are important as they help set the aim and objective of a lesson,
provide step-by-step guidance on how the lesson will flow, help with timing,
and draw attention to the key skills and/or vocabulary needed for the class.
Lesson plans can also help you grow as a teacher by providing an opportunity
for reflection and possible ideas for future lessons to come.
Test your knowledge with multiple choice flashcards.
1/3
True or false, the format of a grammar lesson should be the same as a writing
lesson?
True False
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Which activity could be used in the presentation stage of a PPP lesson?
A Video That Contains The Target Language A Matching Worksheet A Role-
Play Activity
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Which activity could be used in the practice stage of a PPP lesson?
A Song That Introduces The Target Grammar ConceptA Vocabulary Matching
Worksheet A Debate
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Importance of a Lesson Plan
Ask any English as a second language teacher, and they will tell you the
importance of lesson plans. A well-thought-out lesson plan will benefit the
students and the teacher and ensure lessons stay aligned with chosen
curriculums.
Some benefits of lesson plans include:
 Helps students and teachers understand and work towards the main
objective of the lesson.
 Secondary objectives for the lesson can be set, meaning the teacher can
encourage students to work on another skill simultaneously without
losing focus.
 Gives the teacher a chance to predict any issues and difficult language
concepts that may appear.
 Preplanning highlights any resources that may be needed for the lesson.
 Helps the teacher follow an appropriate format for the lesson objective.
  The teacher can preplan how long they will spend on each section, thus
helping with time management.
 The teacher can look back at their lesson plans to remember what has
been covered and reflect on what went well and what didn't.
 The teacher can plan the communication style of each activity (e.g., will
the activity be the teacher talking to students, students talking to each
other, or open class feedback?) This can help keep teacher talk time low
and ensure that the students are given plenty of time to talk themselves.
Without a lesson plan, it's easy for lessons to become fun and entertaining
but unaligned with the curriculum or learning objectives.
Lesson Plan Ideas
Before you begin planning a lesson, you need an idea of exactly what you want
to teach. The best language courses will follow some curriculum to ensure
students are introduced to the correct language at the best time; therefore, the
first place to look for lesson ideas is within the assigned curriculum or textbook.
Outlining a Lesson Plan
Before we look at some different formats for lesson plans, let's outline the basic
components every lesson plan should include.
An Objective
Each lesson should have an objective (aka an aim), i.e., what will the students
learn and why? You should consider which of the five skills students will
practice and what they will be able to do at the end of the lesson that they
couldn't do at the beginning.
The five skills in language learning are speaking, listening, reading, writing, and
grammar.
The objective should be the starting point for any lesson plan and should be
referred back to through the planning process to ensure the lesson is "staying on
track."
Most good lesson plans will have more than one objective, outlining a main
communicative aim (what the students will be able to say/do after the lesson)
and a sub-aim (what additional skills will be practiced throughout the lesson).
Teaching Grammar
When we teach grammar, especially tricky and complex concepts, we typically
incorporate another aim to "distract" the student from the grammar and prevent
them from becoming overwhelmed or bored by it. For example, the past perfect
progressive tense might be taught via a speaking lesson about the students' lives
prior to starting the language course.
Here are some example objectives:
Main communicative aim: "The students will be able to discuss cooking and
give some simple cooking instructions."
Sub-aim: "The students will improve their receptive listening skills."
Main communicative aim: "Students will be able to discuss artwork using
positive, negative, and neutral adjectives."
Sub-aim: "Students will build on their vocabulary by learning new adjectives."
Main communicative aim: "The students will be able to discuss what they
were doing in life before starting this class."
Sub-aim: "Students will practice using the past perfect progressive tense."
It's important to ensure that the lesson's objective is attainable and suitable for
the level of your students. A lesson that is too easy will easily bore students,
whereas a lesson that is too difficult can scare and demotivate students.

Fig 1. Creating a plan ensures students are getting a lesson that meets their
needs.
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Class Details
Building upon the last statement about the student's level, there are other critical
details that need to be considered when planning a lesson. Some of these
include:
 Class size: This is an important consideration when it comes to
classroom management and communication patterns, i.e., is the class big
enough to break into groups and pairs?
  Ages: The average age of the class will impact your planning
dramatically. The way we teach adults and children can be very different,
and not many adults enjoy learning through singing nursery rhymes!
 Class level: You should be provided with an approximation of the
students' level before planning begins — this level should be used as a
guideline when looking for resources for the lesson. Typically, language
learner levels are divided into beginner, pre-intermediate,
intermediate, and advanced. It's likely there will be differing language
levels within a class, so it's a good idea to have some additional activities
planned for early finishers.
Resources
Lesson planning can help teachers decide what resources they might need
before class begins.
Some possible considerations include:
 Will students be using textbooks? What contingencies are in place if a
student doesn't have their book?
 Will students be using worksheets? Are there spare copies?
 If using technology, are all the necessary cables, etc., in place? What
contingencies are in place if the internet or power is down?
 Is it possible to bring in realia to support students learning?
Realia
The term realia refers to real-life examples of language, such as newspapers,
menus, magazines, flyers, etc. Using realia can be hugely beneficial for
language learners as it provides an opportunity for them to see how native
speakers of the language communicate.
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Timings
It's a good idea to plan how long will be spent on each activity; this will ensure
students have sufficient time to spend on each activity and can also keep a
lesson on track. A good lesson plan will allow enough time at the end of the
lesson to review what has been covered, correct mistakes, and congratulate
good language use.
Anticipated Problems
As you've been reading this explanation, you've hopefully noticed some
problems that can arise during a lesson — the same should be done when lesson
planning. Some potential problems we've already mentioned, and some others
include:
 Missing resources
 Mismatched language levels among students
 Fast finishers
 Technology issues
 Time management
Anticipated problems can also refer to potential learning blocks with the
language itself; conducting a language analysis can help with this. Language
analysis involves identifying difficult language that might arise in the lesson and
learning all about it before class begins. The meaning, form (e.g., word class),
and pronunciation of the target language should be learned when conducting a
language analysis.
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Reflections
It's a good idea to leave a small space at the end of a lesson plan to leave notes
and reflections on what went well and what could be improved and built upon
for next time.
Lesson Plan Steps
We now have a good idea of everything "extra" that's needed in a lesson plan,
but what about the steps in the lesson itself?
The type of lesson plan to use depends on the type of lesson being taught (we'll
cover different formats for teaching different skills next!); however, there is one
lesson plan framework that every ESL teacher should know - the PPP format.
PPP stands for Presentation Practice Production
The PPP format is perfect for teaching new grammar concepts; however, it's
also the basis for other types of lesson plans, so it is the perfect place to start.
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Presentation
The presentation stage is when the teacher introduces the students to the new
concept/language construct they will learn in class. This stage typically happens
after a warm-up activity.
As we mentioned earlier, it's best to "conceal" grammar concepts within
something else, such as a written piece of text, a video, a song, etc. In summary,
the language should be placed in context to make it more engaging for the
students.
The presentation stage also involves drawing students' attention to the grammar
concept being taught and asking them questions to elicit (get the students to
provide) the purpose and meaning.
Imagine you're teaching a lesson on second conditional sentences (e.g., If I won
the lottery, I would buy a horse). You could draw a stick man on the board with
the above sentence written in a speech bubble and then ask the students what
they would do if they won the lottery. You could then write up some more
example sentences and draw the students' attention to the sentence format (i.e.,
the use of if and would). You could then ask concept-checking questions about
the language itself (e.g., Have they won the lottery? Are they likely to win the
lottery?)
Practice
The practice stage is when students get an opportunity to practice what they've
learned in a controlled way, meaning students are given preexisting language to
work with, such as sentence frames, provided answers, and true or false
questions. This stage often involves textbooks, worksheets, or provided
questions on the board. Once the students have completed the activity, it's a
good idea to go through the answers together — this way, students can help
each other, and the teacher can correct any mistakes and provide more guidance
where needed.
Production
The final stage is the creative stage, where students can use the new language in
real-life and meaningful scenarios. One of the most critical aspects of this stage
is ensuring all students have an opportunity to talk. Suitable activities for this
stage include:
 Role plays
 Interviews
 Debates
 Group discussions.
 Speaking games
While the students are talking to each other, the teacher should observe and take
notes of any common mistakes - these mistakes can be corrected after the
activity.

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Fig 2. It's important that the students get an opportunity to properly
practice language.
Lesson Plan Format
As we mentioned previously, the format of a lesson plan depends on the
objective of the lesson. For example, the stages of a listening lesson will be
slightly different from a writing lesson. We've already covered the format for a
grammar lesson (PPP), so let's look at the other four skills now.
Listening and Reading
Here is a basic lesson plan format that can be followed for both listening and
reading lessons:

Lesson Stage Stage Aims

Warm-up To set the context.

To get students thinking about the topic and to activate

Pre-reading/listening
preexisting knowledge.

Reading/listening for To encourage students to skim and scan, looking for key
gist details and the overall point of the text/audio.

Reading/listening for To get students to look for specific details within the
detail text/audio.

To give the students an opportunity to discuss what

Post-reading/
they've learned, ask any questions, and practice any new
listening talk
language.

An opportunity for the teacher to provide feedback on

Feedback
good work and correct any mistakes.

Speaking
Here is a basic speaking lesson plan format:

Lesson Stage Stage Aims

Warm-up To set the context and engage the students.

Introduce the Model the activity for the students and give them an
speaking activity opportunity to practice and ask questions.
Speaking activity Students conduct a speaking task in pairs or groups.

Feedback The teacher gives feedback and corrects vital mistakes.

Speaking activity Students have the opportunity to practice the speaking

repeated task again, taking feedback onboard.

Feedback The teacher provides more feedback.

Writing
Here is a basic listening lesson plan format:

Lesson Stage Stage Aims

Warm-up To set the context and engage the students.

To provide students with a model text and help them analyse

Text analysis
the target language within.

Controlled To give students a chance to practice writing the target

practice language using sentence frameworks.

Writing To give the students a chance to create a draft or plan and to

preparation brainstorm ideas.

Writing To give students time to write.

To give students an opportunity to read each other's work and

Feedback
receive feedback.

Lesson Plan - Key takeaways

 Lesson plans are a vital part of any lesson, especially for new teachers.
 Lesson plans can help ensure that lessons achieve the target objective, run
smoothly, are well-managed in terms of time and resources, and are in
line with the curriculum.
 Each lesson plan should include: the objective, lesson stages, resources
needed, anticipated problems, timings, class details (e.g., size, age, and
level), and a space for reflection.
 A common ESL lesson plan format is PPP (presentation, practice,
production).
 Lesson plan formats will change slightly depending on which skill is
being taught.