Introduction to Lesson Planning

Purpose of lesson planning

Why

Is lesson Planning Important? Planning before the lesson gives the teacher the opportunity to make choices before the lesson is done in the class. A lesson plan allows a teacher to think through and get materials for the lesson. It acts as a route map and serves as a reminder on the sequence of the activities and what materials are needed.

.......Why Is lesson Planning Important?

Early

planning enables the teacher to get the software and hardware necessary for implementing the lesson in classroom. Lesson plans act as a record of work done. Although a teacher may never repeat a lesson, the notes in the lesson plan (has taught earlier) helps him/her to improve teaching performance as well as getting insights on activities that can be conducted based on the students proficiency and ability.

Factors to Bear In Mind When Planning A Lesson

1.

The General and Specific Objectives It Sets Out To Achieve Decide on the general aim of the lesson Example: To enable ss to use contextual clues in guessing the meaning of an unknown word. To enable ss to use the clues learnt in Activity 3 to process a paragraph containing unfamiliar words

.....Factors to Bear In Mind When Planning A Lesson

Behavioural Objectives - students will be able to get at least 15 out of the 20 items correct on the contextual clue exercise given at the end of the lesson. - students will be able to get at least 70% on the comprehension items set on the paragraphs in Activity 3

.....Factors to Bear In Mind When Planning A Lesson

2. Student Characteristics Take note of your students preferred mode of learning. Take note of students interests, their motivation to learn, and their language proficiency. This will have to be considered when a teacher deciding on specific materials, and learning styles to be used during the lesson.

.....Factors to Bear In Mind When Planning A Lesson

3. Previous Knowledge of the Students A lesson usually involves a topic, some tasks, related language, a genre and a situation. Therefore a teacher must know what the stds already know about the topic.

.....Factors to Bear In Mind When Planning A Lesson

4. Tasks Are based on what a teacher is going to teach What ss seem to be interested in What the ss already know Choose a task that would allow ss to get practice in all relevant skills. Combination of tasks to create a useful and enjoyable lesson

.....Factors to Bear In Mind When Planning A Lesson

5. Materials A teacher would have to decide on the types of materials that will be used and how they will be exploited once a task is chosen/planned.

.....Factors to Bear In Mind When Planning A Lesson

6. Language Requirements of Task/Activity Stage 1: When a task is being selected and the focus should be: - would this task generate and give opportunities for practising the kind of language the student needs to learn. - what kind of focussed language teaching may be required before the ss can do this task - at which point should this language be taught

6. Language Requirements of Task/Activity Stage 2 After materials for the tasks have been assembled - is there any language that is unplanned for in the material assembled? - is it likely to pose any problem for the ss? - how should I solve this problem? - would it be useful for the pupil to be taught this language? - If not, should I simplify or adapt the text? - Should I modify the task?

.....Factors to Bear In Mind When Planning A Lesson

7. Time Time is important from a number of perspectives: 1. When the lesson will take place - it can affect the quality of attention expected from ss - the last period of the day is not the best time to have a grammar lesson - listening lesson cannot be conducted if it is noisy outside-eg: another class having a PE lesson outside the class

.....Factors to Bear In Mind When Planning A Lesson

.....Time 2. How much time is available - right amount of time should be allotted for each activity. If too little or too much time is given for a particular activity, the lesson will not achieve its desired aim. - age is also a factor in time management. Young children have short attention spans and therefore requires a variety of short activities rather than a single long activity.

.....Factors to Bear In Mind When Planning A Lesson

.....Time 3. Timing of activities A question set before a ss reads or listens to a text is likely to enable him to learn prediction skills. The same question posed after the ss has read the text is more likely to nurture other skills, for example; understanding the literal or inferential meaning of a text.

.....Factors to Bear In Mind When Planning A Lesson

8. Amount and Type of Pupil-Teacher Participation In different kinds of lessons and different phases of a lesson, the proportion of teacher vs. stds contribution would vary. For example, in presenting a new language item- teacher talk is more compared to std talk. Discussion stage of an oral interaction taskthere should be more std talk. It is obviously wrong if there is more teacher talk.

.....Factors to Bear In Mind When Planning A Lesson

9. Balance in Allocation of Time It is not possible or even desirable to have a balance of all four skills at the same time in a lesson. Is the time allocated for each skill is appropriate to the lesson aims. At times, ss spend reading instructions or thinking about the task in an oral interaction activity may be more than he actually gets to speak.

.....Factors to Bear In Mind When Planning A Lesson

10. Sequence and Grading of Activities The way a lesson begins and proceeds depends on what is being taught, what view of language and language learning and what approach the teacher takes into consideration. A few questions to bear in mind in preparing a lesson plan: 1. Should I begin with easy activities first and difficult ones later? 2. Should earlier activities prepare for later activities? 3. Should each activity address different aspects of what needs to be learnt? Eg: Activity 1 for Activity 2 function Activity 3 Context of use

Possible Procedure for Planning A Lesson

Different

teachers have different ways in the planning of a lesson plan. Grading, sequencing, providing feedback, timing, etc are all universal and need to be addresses by every teacher. The following are the possible procedure in preparing a lesson: 1. Deciding on what to teach 2. Deciding on the general aims of your lesson

Possible Procedure for Planning A Lesson

3. Interpreting the chart (if any) 4. Deciding on specific aims or levels of achievement 5. Taking stock of circumstances under which learning will take place. 6. Deciding on the staging of the lesson 7. Deciding on activities 8. Checking for balance and variety 9. Making a final copy of the lesson plan

Basic format of a lesson plan

A

lesson plan should be in a format that makes filing and reference easy. A sample of a lesson plan is given to you. You can also refer to sample lesson plan on page 35-36 (ELT Methodology:Principles and Practice; Nesamalar Chitravelu,SS,TSC)

THE END