Category Archives: Lesson Planning

Thanks for the comments for Scenerio 1- sorry for the delay

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I was too busy with my doctoral studies and could not respond to the comments for a while.

Most of your comments made make a lot of sense. This teacher started off well, we might say. However, she did not reinforce the target language in context but asked for the production which made the students stumble.

Here are some ideas for Scenario 1.

The teacher must answer these two questions first:

1. What is the purpose of asking students to produce sentences before they get the proper input?

2. Why does the teacher ask grammar questions before ensuring the meaning of the dialogue?

 Also the teacher must reconsider the learning process. Without grasping the function and the use of the target language, students cannot usually come up with tasks that require higher levels of understanding or production. Language input could have come earlier, that way students would have been exposed to the target language in context.

The lesson consists of isolated sections, so we cannot say that it is contextual.

 A communicative group work requires genuine interaction- members need to learn smth that they wouldn’t be able to otherwise.

So this lesson is not a very successful lesson. The best part is the application of concept check questions.

If we go back to the principles mentioned by Prof Richards- see my previous post. the following principles could be reminded.

Principle 5 Language learning is facilitated both by activities that involve inductive or discovery learning of underlying rules of language use and organization, as well as by those involving language analysis and reflection

Principle 9 The role of the teacher in the language classroom is that of a facilitator, who creates a classroom climate conductive to language learning and provides opportunities for students to use and practice the language and to reflect on language use and language learning

Scenario 2 is coming soon. Promise much sooner than this response..

 

When does a lesson start and end for an ELT Professional? II

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BenefitsofTeachingEnglishOnline_thumbWell, you have planned your lesson considering your learners’ needs, exploited the course materials in such a way that you are sure it will be engaging for your learners, ensured that there is a learning outcome which is assessable as well as realistic, and incorporated meaningful communicative activities. Yes, you are definitely a genius. You are righteously proud of yourself.

Now, it is time to actually execute the lesson you have planned so carefully.

First of all, your instructions and classroom procedures need to be clear to students. They need to be staged and graded according to the level of understanding. They need to be checked as well. You need to make sure your students are all clear about what they are doing.

I can help youHow about the questions you ask during the lesson? Do you ask genuine questions or didactic ones? Are they balanced in quantity? Do you give enough time to students to answer the questions you ask? How do you respond to the answers? Do you show interest or do you concentrate on the language problems? Are the students involved in the discussions? What do you do if they aren’t?

Let’s think about the way you present the content of your lesson. What approach do you apply? Is it appropriate to the learners’ interest and background? Are the activities cognitively stimulating your students as you thought they would? Do you have to adapt any changes?

 I love englishAre the students able to cope with the pacing? Is there anyone who is falling behind? What do you for that student? Do you find ways of making him part of the lesson or do you ignore him/her? What if s/he is not interested in anything today?

 At the end of the class period, do you think your students achieved the lesson aims? Are they able to do something that they were not able to do at the beginning of the lesson? Have you assessed their learning? How? Orally or in a written format? What kind of feedback have you given? Is you feedback encouraging and constructive?

How did the lesson end? Abruptly? With the homework notes? A whole class feedback on what has been achieved that day and how well the students performed?

Well, the lesson has ended here… OR???

When does a lesson start and end for an ELT professional? (I)

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Does the lesson start when the teacher gets into the classroom? Does it start right after the teacher takes the attendance or when the students open their books?teaching 3  When does the lesson start?             

The lesson starts when the teacher begins to think about the content of his/her lesson and how it relates to his/her students’ age group, interests, skills and learning styles. Exploiting the materials according to the very needs and the background knowledge (or schemata) of the particular group are very important.

Teacher has to consider the content of the lesson in relation to the time fit within the program as well. How much do the students already know about the content and what needs to be exploited in the course book accordingly have to be considered. For example, do the students know anything about the main theme of the lesson? How much do they already know about the language point? How would this affect their learning?

Say, the focus is Unreal Conditionals; teacher should think and evaluate what learning difficulties or misconceptions may occur while introducing the language point. How the language point in question is represented in L1 and whether or not this may cause any confusion should also be thought about while planning the lesson.

objectivesIn other words, teacher has to think about the lesson objectives in relation to his/her students. What will the students be able to do at the end of this lesson that they weren’t able to do before?

Of course, this is not enough. You have to think a couple of more things: Are the lesson aims realistic, are they conceptually offering enough challenge to the students but not overwhelming them. Are they clear, are they assessable? (i.e. would there be tangible learning outcomes that would allow the teacher to get some feedback on how much the lesson introduced is acquired?) How much more exercises do the students need to improve the language point?

Is that all? Of course not. And remember, teacher has not steppelesson pland into the lesson yet:) Now that the teacher thought about his aims and the relevance of the content to his/her students, it is time to think about what activities will allow the learners to reach these aims. How are these activities going to engage the learners into a meaningful learning environment? What kind of interaction patterns will be implemented?  Are the activities coherently linked? What about timing of the activities?

What about vocabulary? Teacher has to go through the material and see if there are words that require pre-teaching. If so, how is he/she going to teach them, how much time should be allocated to this stage?

The lesson has already started and the teacher has not entered the class yet..