STANDARD LESSON PLAN
PART ONE
1. Class Details :
Make a note, for reference purposes, of the level of the
class. Where appropriate, information about the number of
students, their “type”, age-range, etc.
2. Aim(s):
Decide on the main teaching point(s) : it is vital that the
lesson has a clear focus and a sense of purpose. The main
teaching point could be a Structure (e.g. a verb tense), a
Function, (e.g.”inviting”); or a particular Language Skill
( e.g. listening, speaking, reading, writing )
a. If a structure is being taught, specify firstly which
form(s) of the structure are to be practiced ( e.g. positive,
meaning or use of the particular form is to be focused on
negative, question, short answer , regular, irregular, etc).
And secondly which ( e.g. present Continuous for
something happening at the moment of speaking, or for
temporary current activities not necessarily at the
moment of speaking, or for future arrangement).
b. If a function is being taught, specify : firstly, which
particular forms will be practiced and whether this will
involve making students aware of the level of formality/
informality, etc; of different language items; and
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secondly, if it will be necessary to teach co-functions, i.e.
responses to the main function (e.g. when teaching
“Inviting”, is it advisable to teach students how to accept
and refuse an invitation too?)
c. If a language skill is being taught, specify which
particular sub-skills are to be practiced (e.g. does a
“reading Lesson” practise : skimming for gist, reading
for detail, making inferences from the text, guessing
meaning from context, etc.).
d. In all of the above cases, also decide to what extent it
will be necessary to emphasize pronunciation, stress
and intonation.
When deciding on your aims, it will also be necessary to
consider the following points :
i. What should the students be able to do by the end
of the lesson ?
ii. Will the students feel, at the end of the lesson, that
they have actually made progress and learnt
something new ? On the other hand, will the lesson
over-load them with new things which can only be
half –assimilated (thus leading to a sense of
frustration and dissatisfaction)?
iii. Are your aims practically realisable, given the
limitation of time, circumstance and student
ability ?
iv. Does the lesson connect up with what went before ?
Is it building on previous learning ?
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v. Does the lesson lead towards useful activities in
later lessons ?
It will be obvious from these last two points that it
is necessary to do more than just plan “the next
lesson”. So, PLAN AHEAD – have long term aims
as well as short term aims.
3. Main language items :
List the actual examples of the structural / functional points
you wish to teach. For instance, your aim : to present and
practice common Preposition of Place. So, in this case
make a list of exactly which prepositions you intend to
include : in,at,on,next to,near, between,etc; as well as the
sentence structures they will be found in. Or, if you intend
to teach a function such as “Making Request”, which
particular ways of making requests do you intend to
concentrate on: “Could you …..”,”Can you …..?”, Will
you …..?”, “Would you …..?”, “I was wondering if you
could possibly…..?”. And which ways of accepting /
rejecting requests do you wish to practise ?
4. Materials :
list any handouts, worksheets, texts, page numbers,
recorded listening passages, etc that you intend to use. A
quick check before the lesson will help to avoid
embarrassment of forgetting something.
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5. Aids :
A checklist of teaching aids ( pictures, wordcards, realia,
OHP transparencies, bluetack, etc ) which will be needed
during the lesson can be very useful for reference
purposes. Again, this will help you to avoid
embarrassment and unnecessary interruptions to the flow
of the lesson. Of course, there is no need to write down
“White board” here. It is usually a good idea to plan in
advance and put down on a piece of paper what your
whiteboard layout is going to look like.
6. Anticipated problems :
This is very useful section of the lesson plan because its
existence requires the teacher to think about problems
that students are likely to have during the course of the
lesson: she can then build into plan ways of tackling
these problems in advance, rather than coming to them
completely unprepared. For example, a lesson in which a
new structure / function is to be taught will commonly
involve problems of:
 Concept : e.g. the meaning of various forms
referring to the future (pres.cont, will, to be going
to)
 Form : e.g. difficulties in forming negative and
question forms, infinitive vs –ing form.
 Pronunciation : e.g. contracted forms, stressed
vs unstressed forms.
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 Which caused by the teaching materials you wish
to use : e.g. cultural background, poor layout,
unfamiliar accents on a tape, etc.
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7. Lexis / Vocabulary :
It is also wise to note down word-fields (e.g. household
objects) or particular keywords in the lesson. Check in
the previous lesson plans if they have occurred before
with this class. Will it be necessary to elicit or (pre)teach
these words or expressions, and if so, what will be the
most effective way of doing this ?
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PART TWO
1. Stage :
Warmer, Revision, Lead in, Pre teaching Vocabulary,
Scene Setting, Elicitation, Presentation, Controlled
Practice, Freer Oral Practice, production, Round up,
etc.
2. Time :
Estimate the approximate amount of time you think
each stage will take and write down. It is clearly not
easy to get the timing exactly right, particularly if you
are using a piece of material or trying out an activity
for the very first time, but it is important to think about
it. With experience your estimates will become
increasingly accurate. Remember that some kinds of
activity (e.g. drilling )take longer if there are a lot of
students in the class, and that a new type of activity
will probably need longer instruction than one already
familiar to the students.
3. Procedure :
This is where you write down the details of each stage :
e.g. what exactly you are going to do, what you’ll be
asking the students to do, model sentences, important
concept-checking and comprehension questions, cues
for drilling, etc.
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4. Interaction :
Who is talking to whom ? You can develop a list of
symbols (
one way,
two way ) and
abbreviation ( T, St, Sts, Cl,etc ). From this column
you can see if there is : (a) enough STT
(b) sufficient variation in the
type of interaction
5. Student Activity
Again, you can use abbreviations ( L,Sp,R,Wr ) to
indicate the skills which the students are practicing at
any given stage. It is obviously important to strike an
overall balance between the four skills.
6. Materials / Aids :
Make a note of any materials / aids that will be
introduced at any particular stage. Make sure that any
sets of worksheets are in the correct order so that they
can be easily found at the right moment.
7. Notes :
As soon as possible after the lesson (While what
happened is still fresh in your mind ) write comments
on the success or otherwise of the different phases of
the lesson and of the lesson as a whole (giving reasons
for any lack of success, if possible). Note down any
unexpected problems that arose and any big
differences between projected timing and actual
timing. Also note down any brilliant ideas you had
during the lesson or any successful spontaneous
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activities that you were able to introduce ( perhaps
because of something a students said ). All of this will
improve the quality of your lesson the next time you
tackle that particular language-point or those particular
materials
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