Chapter 10: How To Plan a Lesson

Format of a Lesson Plan:

1) Goal(s): overall purpose that you will attempt to achieve through the
lesson, and it is ususally a generalized, but it serves a unifying theme
(unifies different objectives that are related). The goal is usually
achieved in the long term unlike the objectives that are usually more
specific and achieved in the short term.
2) Objectives: It is essential to state under the objectives what exactly
you want the students to achieve or be able to do at the end of the
lesson. You need to be as explicit ( very specific, very clear, about
what u want your students to achieve ) as possible about your objec-
tive(s).
There are usually two types of objectives that you can include in
your lesson plan:
a. Terminal Objective(s): what I want the students to be able to do at
the end of the session/lesson. ( Usually we have 1-2 )
b. Enabling Objectives: They are the sub-objectives that’ll help the
students to reach the terminal objective.
Structure of a good objective:
Students will be able to (SWBAT) + Action verb ( not mental verbs ) +
Condition ( “examples: with their groups, in five minutes, given, after..”
so basically in what conditons it’ll be achieved) + criterion for success
( what will make the final task ).
Example: Students will be able to write a descriptive paragraph about
their favorite place using at least adjectives and figures of speech.
3) Materials and Equipments:
Include all what you need to achieve the lesson.
This is essential for good planning and it’d help teachers not overlook
anything they would need to make their lesson successful.
4) Procedures:
The detailed step by step description of what you want to do and what
you want the students to do during the class. Try to include all the ques-
tions you want to ask, expected answers from the students, reminders
you want to follow, etc..
Usually written this way:
- T asks SS …
- T elicits answers from students
- T shows a pictures and asks…
- SS work together and … ( 10 minutes )
Along with these steps, we need to include the time needed for each of
these steps - We need to be careful with the time we dedicate to each
step and not to over or under-estimate it.
5) Evaluation:
How you are planning to check if the objective(s) is/ are met or not. It can
be through simple questions or a certain acitivity.
6) Extra- Class Work/ Follow up:
What follow up activities you have for the lesson/ homework / project /
etc.
7) Reflection:
Your notes/comments on how the lesson went - What worked well and
what didn’t work very well
Usually we write these after teaching the lesson as a reminder for our-
selves next time we want to teach it.

Guidelines for Lesson Planning

1) How to begin planning?
a. We need to ensure that we are familiar with the curriculum and with
the scopes of the lessons.
b. Based on our view of the whole curriculum and our perceptions of the
language needs of our students (POV, and what we think they need),
we need to determine what the topic and purpose of the lesson will be
and write down the overall goal.
c. Considering the curriculum and the students’ needs, draft out 1-3 ter-
minal objectives for our lesson.
d. Decide which of the exercises/ activitites/ tecniques in the textbook
we want to keep, change, delete, add to, suppliment, etc.
e. Draft a skeletal ( main point of the lesson plan ) outline of what your
lesson’ll look like.
f. Carefully plan the step-by-step procedure for carrying out all your
techniques especially those that involve changes and additions -
State the purpose behind each activity/technique as enabling objec-
tives.

FOR TEACHERS WHO HAVE NEVER TAUGHT BEFORE, it is often very use-
ful to write a script of the lesson plan in which you try to draft all the an-
ticipated words you want to say and what you expect the students to say
in return.

Mostly plan the script for:

• Introduction to activitites
• Directions for a task
• Statements of rules or generalizations
• Anticipated interchanges ( what kinds of conversations we migh ex-
cept to happen, questions.. ) that could easily go astray ( in an unex-
pected way ).
• Oral testing techniques
• Conclusions to activities and to the class hour

2) Variety, sequencing, pacing, and timing

- Variety: of techniques and activities to keep the lesson lively, interest-
ing and motivating.
- Sequencing: it is about how logically related the activities are and
how each one builts on the previous one - For example: moving from
controlled activities to semi controlled to free. OR from simple to
more complex.
- Pacing: How much time is spent on each activity - It needs to be just
enough/adequate and we have a smooth flow from one activity to the
next. It should neither be fast pace nor slow one - JUST ENOUGH!
- Timing: One of the trickiest decisions to make - How much time I
should spend ona task/lesson and it needs to be properly timed.
3) Gauging Difficulty: Figuring out in advance how easy or difficult cer-
tain parts, techniques, activities, etc. are and being prepared to address
them before they cause the students any misunderstanding.

4) Individual Differences: Be aware of the different needs of your stu-

dents and how they learn best and try to design techniques that will in-
volve ALL students - Use different learning configurations: Individual,
pain and group activities.

5) Student talk and teacher talk: Give careful consideration in your

lesson to the balance between teacher-talk and student-talk

6) Adapting to an established curriculum: Need to be aware of the

curriculum and what it focuses on without following it blindly. We need to
make sure that we are aware of the big goals and work towards them.
Try also to be aware of several factors that might affect your choices like
learner factors and institutional factors in implementing the curriculum.

7) Classroom Lesson Notes: Make sure that you note down your re-
flections based on how things went in the classroom.