Module 6: Lesson planning

Introduction

Module Content
In Module 6, we focus on planning and its critical role in creating an excellent lesson. We show you everything you need to
think about before you walk into a classroom.
We would like you to be well prepared because we know you'll have more fun and relax and, of course, you will create a
better environment for learning. We'll give you the best methodologies to suit all types of learners. 
Learning Objectives:
By the end of this unit a candidate will:

 understand the principles of lesson planning

 be able to construct an effective lesson plan with clear objectives and structure

 understand the availability of resources available to teacher and to be able to create your own resources

Introduction
In Module 6 of the course we will examine lesson planning. We will deal with all the things you need to think about
before you walk into your lessons. This will include a pre-planning stage, building the structure stage and finally
some ideas you can use in the practice and production stages.
We have also included some model lesson plans and some suggested reading about lesson plans, for you to read
at the end of the module. Module 6 will outline a straightforward way for you to be prepared to teach a lesson. 

By learning how to create an excellent lesson, you will feel confident and more relaxed when you walk into the
classroom because you can be certain that you will have a well-timed lesson plan, with activities, which will meet the
needs of your learners. A well-constructed lesson plan will help you provide the best possible lesson for your
learners and help you relax.
Often though, even with an accomplished lesson plan, something unexpected will happen and you will have to
adapt to meet that need. However, knowing that you have a number of super activities, ready to use, will mean you
will be able to deal with most eventualities in a calm and professional manner. 
By the end of this module, you will be able to create a lesson plan with confidence, having understood the
background and context of the lesson and you will also have some excellent activities to carry out with your
students. 
How do you decide what to teach on your first day or first week?
In this Module, we will help you plan a lesson for the level of the students in front of you. In many cases, there will
be different levels within one classroom and as you gain experience you will learn how to differentiate activities to
suit the needs of these students. 
The most natural strategy for dealing with different levels is to encourage group work and also pair stronger
students with weaker students. This type of differentiation will allow both, gifted and talented children, and weaker
students to flourish together. It's good to remember that we all develop at different speeds throughout our lives and
it's natural for us to share knowledge and ideas. 
TEFL Fullcircle can promise you one thing: you will feel tremendous after you complete your first lesson. It's a
mixture of achievement, happiness, relief and reward and it will make you want to go back and do it again. 
Let's imagine it's your first week and you have just arrived at your new school. Well done! Many schools will already
have students in levels and have a coursebook for you to follow; this will be a great help. You'll find your first week a
busy time; you'll be getting to know the staff and finding your way around at the same time as getting used to your
environment outside of your new school. I can remember when I first moved to Vietnam. It was an exciting,
exhilarating and visual stunning experience. 
Most courses will have a syllabus which will correspond to the level of the students and a textbook which will
accompany the course.
A syllabus is a detailed list of topics which will be taught during the course, so that the learner can attain a certain
standard or level of English from Beginner to Advanced.
The syllabus acts as a road map, listing the major areas of grammar, vocabulary and other language areas to be
covered. The syllabus also sets targets for the students to achieve.
If you have a syllabus, this will help you a great deal and you can start to plan your first few lessons. 
However, before you meet your students and assess what they are like, you won't be able to tailor-make your
lesson plan. So, it's important that you get to know your students first. You will be able to plan a better lesson once
you have found out more about your learners. Getting to know your students will provide you with the starting point
for caressing context in your lesson. You will need to think about your learners interests and the kind of activities
they do inside and outside of school. Many teachers plan lessons to find out this kind of information in the first week
of school. 
Why plan a lesson?

You have completed the Class Management and Grammar Basics Modules. Well done!
It's now time to learn how to plan a lesson successfully. 
In Module 1, we introduced Teaching Methodologies and Techniques which we will now re-visit to refresh your
memory on the different approaches to teaching. It should also be noted that at some point in the future you will
start to incorporate many of these different approaches into your lessons. 
For the moment, though, we are going to focus on the Presentation-Practice-Production Technique. 
An outstanding teacher has many accomplished qualities but, for TEFL Fullcircle, a teacher should try to be
authentic, funny, knowledgeable, and dynamic, and aim to gain the respect of the class. Underpinning all of these
qualities is planning. 
Over time, when you have taught some lessons, you will be able to add more and more of your own personality to
the plans and you will feel more relaxed.
However, when you start, ensure you have a plan on your desk so that you can follow it step by step. Print it in large
type, so you can see it clearly, and include a few more activities than you may need, just in case your students finish
quickly or you complete the lesson too quickly. These things happen. 
Planning a lesson is crucial to your success and planning will allow you to relax more and more, showing your true
personality and your real reasons for becoming a teacher: to help and guide others to learn English.
A plan should be a written or electronic document on your tablet or laptop. Many of the schools you will work at will
have a set format to follow. However, most lesson plan documents contain the same information. There are some
sample lesson plans at the end of this Section which can be downloaded and used. 
A good lesson plan will contain: context, structure and practice. If another teacher is looking at your lesson plan, he
should know exactly what is going to happen in your lesson. 
In Module 6 we will cover 3 areas: 

 Pre-Planning work to understand the context and the background of learners.

 The Structure of the lesson.

 Activities to use in the Practice and Production Stages.

Pre-Planning Work to build context:

 Methods of language teaching 

 Timetable and classroom 

 Who are your students?

 Age of your students

 Level of your students 

 Class size 

 Differentiation

 Learning styles

 SMART aims and objectives

 Potential problems

The Structure of the lesson:

 Teaching techniques

 Stages of the PPP Technique

 Timing 

 Presentation Stage 

 Practice Stage 
 Production Stage

 End of the lesson: Summary and Reflection 

Activities to use in the Practice and Production Stages

 Practice and Production Activities

A well-planned lesson will allow you to show your humour, personality and passion. It will let you have fun and
become an outstanding and inspirational teacher. 
Let's show you how and give you some tips from real teaching experiences on how to create a well-planned lesson
within your safe and fun learning environment. 

Unit 1: Pre-Planning Stages

In the Pre-Planning section, it's crucial that you try to understand all the elements that will help you gain a better
feeling of the context of the lesson. Therefore, it's critical that you know the age of your students and their levels, or
range of levels, so that you can plan some activities. Once you have been given your timetable you will be able to
ascertain the level and size of the groups. If you have large groups you will have to think about re-arranging the
layout of the room and using some larger group activities. 
As you get to know your class, you will begin to understand who the gifted children are and you'll also have a better
idea of potential issues. 
As mentioned in Module 2, success is the classroom is all about building solid relationships. Having a sound plan
will help you relax and build these relationships.
Let's now consider some of the key points you will need to consider to understand the context of the classroom. 
Pre-Planning Work to build context:

 Methods of language teaching 

 Timetable and classroom 

 Who are your students?

 Age of your students

 Level of your students 

 Class size 

 Differentiation

 Learning styles

 SMART aims and objectives

 Potential issues
You will have to plan different lessons for different ages and different levels of students. Unfortunately, 'one size'
does not fit all and you will have to tailor-make each of your lessons to meet the needs of your learners.
A small group of Business English learners will have very different needs to those of a large group of teenage
students. Young learners will require lots and lots of short, fun activities to help them keep their focus compared with
adult beginners who might feel self-conscious when trying to speak.You will find that having a Wikispaces site will
help you manage many different types of groups and allow you to differentiate lessons. There is a wealth of
information on the internet and your Wikispaces site will give your learners a central location from which to locate
games, activities and acquire knowledge. 
In summary, you will have to adapt activities to meet these different needs. However, by having an outstanding
lesson plan and staying calm you will be able to cope and also have fun.
Connecting with your learners will make your lesson much easier for you.
At this point please download a copy of an TEFL Fullcircle lesson plan so you can start to understand each part as
we go through the different sections.

1. 2.
Teacher's Name: Level of Students:
   
Date:  Age of Students:
   
Time of lesson and length: Class size:
   
Learning Aims/SMART Objectives: Nationalities: 
   
Learning Outcomes /Success Criteria:
 
 
3. 4.
Resources to be used: Differentiation:
   
 
Potential Issues:
 
 
Strategies to deal with issues:
 
 
 5.
Introduction / Warmer:
 
6.
Lesson Activities:
Timing Stage  Interaction  Reason for activity 
       
       
       
       
7.
Detail:
 
Activity 1: 
 
 
 
Activity 2:
 
 
 
Activity 3:
 
 
 
Activity 4: 
 
 
 
 
8.
 Reflect and Cooler: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
9.
Extension Strategies:
 
 
 
 
10. Cross Curricular Link and use of IT 
Homework:
 
 
 
 

Unit 2: Teaching Methodologies

To begin this section we're going to re-visit the different methodologies of teaching English again, just for a little
revision.
As stated in the introduction to this section, TEFL Fullcircle will teach you the Presentation-Production-Practice
technique to create a well-planned lesson.TEFL Fullcircle would also like to state that, over time when your
experience grows, you should try all of the methods below in full or in parts in your lessons. 
There have been many different methods of teaching introduced over the years. Here are some of the main
methods which are used for Teaching English as Foreign Language. 
The Grammar-Translation method: Students have to memorise grammar rules and vocabulary and practise by
translating sentences from their mother tongue into the foreign language. There is little time spent developing oral
skills. 
The Direct Method or Oral method or Natural method: This method advocates teaching in only the target
language. This method also focuses on teaching oral skills, practice in having conversations, and
improving pronunciation. Writing and reading is developed later. Grammar is learnt using the inductive approach.
The Audio-Lingual method: This is a drilling method where a student listens and then repeats. Students practise
different dialogues for different situations. 
The Structural-Situational method: A model pattern is introduced and often practised with drilling. However,
context is added to the scenarios. Grammatical rules are learnt one at a time. 
Task Based Learning: With this form of learning, the students are given a task and try to work out the structure
themselves. Often there is no formal instruction, as students must find the solution themselves.
The Silent Way:
In this method, the teacher will say as little as possible and encourages students to create their own language,
prompted by physical objects.
Immersion:
In this method, students are immersed in English throughout the day in school. They are taught all subjects in
English. This method is often used in Asian schools. 
The Lexical Approach: In this approach, the students are taught the most commonly used lexical chunks of words
and structures. The idea is that common phrases are taught
Eclectic Approach: This approach uses all of the above teaching methods and uses styles which suit learners at
different levels.
Communicative Approach: As described in depth, previously in Module 1.
Let's consider the difference between inductive and deductive teaching. The main difference between the two is the
direction of information that flows between the teacher and student. 
Inductive: With this approach, an activity is introduced first and students are expected to work out the rules
themselves, before the teacher explains it. This approach is often used in smaller classes. The inductive approach
allows for creativity in the lesson. 
Deductive: With the deductive approach, the teacher (or the concept) introduces rules and then they are applied to
an activity. This approach is often used in larger classes. This approach is also quite traditional in its nature.
TEFL Fullcircle recognises that to be an outstanding teacher you need to be an authentic person who can build solid
relationships with your students and can adapt your teaching methods to suit the needs of your students. 

Unit 3: Timetable and Classroom

Before you start any planning, it's important to get a timetable of your lessons with the room numbers and
building numbers. Some schools use weekly or two-weekly timetables so you might not see a class for a couple of
weeks.
Once you have your timetable, you will then know how long your lessons will be and what time they take place.
Often a timetable will have the same room number but it will be in a different block. Once you get your timetable, it's
a wise idea to go and have a walk and find where your classroom is located.
Also, if you can, go and have a look inside and see what you have to work with. Ask yourself questions like:

 What kind of board does the classroom have?

 Do I have the right pens?

 Is the classroom locked and do I need a key?

 Does the technology work or need to be plugged in?

 What do the classroom walls look like?

 Do I have a list of students?

 How long is the lesson?

It's important to go and find out the level of resources you have available in your new classroom. Remember that if
you have planned a lesson, which relies heavily on technology and when you arrive in the classroom all the
technology is redundant or has been moved, you will have to think on your feet quickly!
Once you have your timetable with room numbers and you have found your classrooms, you are ready for the next
step.

Unit 4: Are your students young learners, teenagers or adults

and Video 17?
When you get your timetable, you will be able to find out the age of your students and often you will be told the level
of the students. Some schools will also have information on each individual student in terms of their background.
However, most of the time, you will have to wait until you meet your students to find out more information. 
During the first week or first few lessons, it's a good idea to get to know your students and build up some rapport,
with some games and simple activities. This will also make you feel more relaxed, knowing that the first week will be
spent getting to know the new school and students.
Nobody will expect you to walk in the door and start teaching without getting to know your students first.
If you are teaching in a slightly different environment, like a private language school or within a business, you will
also have to get to know the background of your learners.
Their background will directly affect the course and the way you deliver the content and add context. For example, a
group of Business English learners will have very different backgrounds compared to school age students. 
Its not so good to teach explicit and direct grammar to an age group of 8-9 years old

Your aim is not to teach grammar but to show them some forms and how to use it e.g the s sound at the end to make
plural words

Show them grammar useful for their contexts

In groups of kids, You shouldn’t teach just grammar by itself but teaching it with other activities like reading or writing

Use easy words whrn teaching grammar. Avoid to use grammar vocabulary like nouns, verbs, adverbs

You cans use this grammar vocabulary if they already know from previous English classes

Ensure your activities are well planned and make them fun specially in younger groups
Unit 5: Teaching different age groups and Video 18
In the initial stages of planning, it's important to know the age range of the students. You might be teaching young
learners, teenagers or adults. Within those age ranges, the context will be very different. You might be teaching
adults who are beginners or adults who wish to learn Business English.
In summary, you will have to tailor-make all your lessons to meet the needs of your students. 
We have included some super resources in the Suggested Reading section to help you when teaching young
learners and teenagers.

The adult class

The adult class is a diverse group : age, education, employment history, objectives,

Don’t assume all of them are competent in grammar

Carry out explicit sessions in grammar

All of the activities can be used whether for adults ot kids, just need a little tweak to be used in adults

Do a needs analysis to need why they attend your class and their grammar needs

Unlike younger classes, you can use metalanguage (grammar vocabulary) to teach them grammar topics and let them
study like meaning, form and function. Let them learn by themselves

Use different teaching techniques like visual material, cards, games, drills

Different levels needs different approaches

Unit 6: Teaching different levels
Once you know the level and age of your students, you can start to formulate an idea of the content that will go into
your lesson plan.
The following information on the different levels will guide you with the content. The coursebook will also have the
topics, which you will cover during the course. 
Beginner:
At the beginner level, the student will know very few words in English. It's a rewarding level to teach because
everything is new. A beginner can be a child or an adult. Remember to set everything in a meaningful context when
teaching all students.
Lexis and Grammar Syllabus for the Beginner Class
Here are typical areas of lexis and structures for your beginner class:

 Subject pronouns: I, he, she, it, we, you and they

 Question words: what, who, where, when and how

 Demonstrative pronouns: this, there, that, those

 Possessive adjectives: my, yours, his, hers etc.

 Nouns: singular and plural

 Verbs: 'to be' and 'to have' in positive and negative forms

 Vocabulary: whatever the context is

 Numbers: 1 to 100

 Jobs

 Countries and nationalities

 Basic food

 Days of the week and months

 Family

 Different types of room

 Everyday objects

Elementary:
An elementary student can form very basic phrases in English. 
Lexis and Grammar Syllabus for the Elementary Class
Here are typical areas of lexis and structures for your elementary class:

 Verbs: Present simple in the positive and the negative, past simple, future simple

 Adverbs: Adverbs of frequency, which include 'sometimes' and 'usually'

 Quantities: How much?

 Lexis/vocabulary: teaching new vocabulary to cover: shopping, cooking, directions, telling the time including
months and years

 Comparatives

Pre-intermediate:
A pre-Intermediate student has knowledge of basic grammar structure and a good range of vocabulary.
Lexis and Grammar Syllabus for the Pre-Intermediate Class
Here are typical areas of lexis and structures for your pre-intermediate class:

 Verbs: Modal verbs: I can/can't and I must/mustn't, present perfect tense, past simple with irregular verbs,
past continuous

 Adverbs

 Vocabulary to cover the following topics: movies, shopping, clothes, booking hotels and holidays, and many
more useful areas that you think your students will enjoy.

 Possessive pronouns: Mine, his/hers/theirs/ ours

Intermediate:
An intermediate student will be able to handle more complex structures.
Lexis and Grammar Syllabus for the Intermediate Class
Here are typical areas of lexis and structures for your intermediate class:

 Verbs: Modal verbs, conditionals, gerunds and infinitives, present perfect continuous, past perfect tense

 Vocabulary to cover the following: Comparing and contrasting

 Deeper level understanding of form: newspaper and magazine articles.

Upper Intermediate:
A student at this level will be confident and have a good command of all structures and will have a wide range of
vocabulary.
Lexis and Grammar Syllabus for the Upper Intermediate Class
Here are typical areas of lexis and structures for your upper intermediate class:
 Third conditional

 Reported speech

 Modal verbs in the past

 Passive verb forms

 Verbs: I wish, to be used to/ to get used to, past perfect continuous tense, future perfect

 Vocabulary: Feelings and more specialised vocabulary depending on the learning needs of your
students. For example: medical terminology, marketing words in Business English.

Advanced:
They will have an in-depth understanding of English Language.
Lexis and Grammar Syllabus for the Advanced Class
At the advanced level, students can communicate in English to a very high level and we suggest the following
syllabus for advanced speakers.
Try to cover the following:

 Question tags

 Future perfect continuous

 Phrasal verbs

 Vocabulary to include the following:

 Idioms like 'he kicked the bucket'

 Connotations from words in newspaper articles or reports

 Humour: Monty Python and Peter Sellers!

 Metaphors and similes

The syllabus provided should be used as a guide. It's crucial to identify your students' needs and teach what they
need and would like to learn.
Always set the learning in meaningful context and play to your strengths.
You will all have a number of wonderful experiences that you can bring into the classroom at any level. Sharing your
life (to a degree) with your students will create a warm and friendly classroom.
Many of you will use a textbook with a syllabus when you are teaching the different levels of students, so don't worry
about creating a brand new syllabus every time you walk into a new school or classroom.