This presentation talks about the components of a lesson plan. Because most of you
are experienced teachers, you are probably very familiar with lesson plans, but I think
you will still find this presentation informative and useful.
1
Before we really get started, pause the presentation and think about the different
pieces of information you can usually find in a lesson plan. By looking at a lesson
plan, what information will you see?
2
These are probably some of the things you listed. Each of these pieces of
information is important to include in a lesson plan because this is the information
you need to make the best use of class time for your students to learn as much as
possible.
3
Lesson plans are important because they help us make the best use of class time by
being organized, intentional, and not straying off topic. Having a carefully
constructed lesson plan can also allow us to enter the classroom with more
confidence because we know we are ready and will make the best use of class time.
In addition, effective lesson plans can provide a record of our class time that allows
good, reflective teachers to go back, analyze their own teaching (what went well,
what didn't), and then improve in the future. Although lesson planning may seem
more important for new teachers, experienced teachers can also especially reap the
rewards of this last benefit.
4
Maybe you think, I just use my textbook as the lesson plan. It’s the right level,
provides the topic and all the activities, and may even provide some quizzes. It’s true
this information is usually on a lesson plan, but there are other components of the
classroom that aren’t in the textbook. Even if you follow the textbook in your class,
you still need a lesson plan to accompany your textbook to make the best use of
class time, provide more confidence, and allow for reflection and improvement.
5
Do you know just by looking at the textbook how much time an activity will take?
Your textbook doesn’t know how much time it will take your students to complete
each activity, but you might have a good idea. Planning an approximate time for
activities is a skill that teachers develop over time, and may be difficult at first, but
even writing the time into your lesson plan is still a good idea. This allows you to
quickly see how your progress through the lesson period is matching up with what
you had planned, so that you are more ready if you need to begin taking measures
such as speeding up or slowing down activities.
6
What about the different strategies you reviewed in Module 5 for monitoring and
providing feedback? Your textbook may not tell you what feedback you’ll need to
give your students or when monitoring may be needed. You’ll need to plan
specifically how you will monitor student work and provide feedback. This is another
element you need to include in a lesson plan.
7
Sometimes textbooks don’t provide opportunities for students to practice using the
language. In this module, you will learn about different ways to help your students
use English in the classroom with pair & group work. In module 5, you learned
different games and ways to add songs and other tasks to supplement textbook
activities so that students can have an opportunity to practice using the language.
Games and songs and other pair and group work activities also need to be
considered and included in your lesson plan to make sure they happen in the
classroom.
8
In this module, you will also learn more about classroom management, an extremely
important skill for a teacher in a communicative classroom. The textbook can provide
the topic, the activities, and some quizzes, but it does not tell you what management
issues you might encounter in the classroom or provide strategies to address them.
Classroom management notes are another piece of information you need to prepare
for your lesson and to include in your lesson plan.
9
Your final assignment for the TCCP Foundations course is to complete an effective
lesson plan. There are as many ways to structure a lesson plan as there are different
teaching situations, and no single plan can serve as a model for all situations, but for
our course, your effective lesson plan will have the headings on this slide and will also
include the information reviewed on slides 6-9. We will walk through this lesson plan
format in Task 5.2. This model is also one you might consider when providing
professional development for colleagues.
10
Even though we may have a perfectly planned lesson, sometimes things don’t always
go as planned. Maybe an activity takes longer than we thought it would. Maybe
students have a lot of questions about a presentation, and you don’t get to complete
the activities. That’s ok! Because you have planned out your lesson, you’re better
prepared to deal with the hiccups that might occur in the classroom, and you’re still
more equipped to make the best use of class time. This also provides a perfect
opportunity for reflection and growth.
11
This is the final slide in our presentation.
Think about what you’ve learned about lesson planning in this presentation. Pause
and answer the questions. Be prepared to talk about your ideas in the Zoom session.
12