Catedra de Limba si Literatura engleza

Methodology IIA, 2009

LESSON PLANNING
Many of your decisions intended to promote learning in the classroom will be based on
your answer to the question: “How do I plan my lessons to promote as much learning as
possible?” Planning includes all the decisions you make before working directly with the
pupils.
Most teachers have in advance some idea of any lesson they are about to teach: they
have an idea of what they will try to cover and how. Fewer teachers prepare their lessons in
detail. However, we encourage you to write a wide range of lesson plans. Even though you
may later on choose to plan your lessons more skeletally, the exercise of thorough and
disciplined planning will provide you with an insight into your teaching and will make your
lessons more effective.
Objectives
By the end of this unit you should:
• have a good idea of what needs to be included in a lesson plan
• be able to formulate main and subsidiary lesson aims for various types of lessons
• distinguish aims from activities
• use a suitable lesson plan layout.

7.1 Introduction to Lesson Planning

Although planning is sometimes seen as a chore, lesson planning has enormous

advantages for both pupils and teachers. Here are a few of the advantages of planning:

• it means anticipation, coherence, balance and clarity of purpose

• it makes lesson execution easier
• it allows for flexibility in lesson execution
• it saves time in the long run
• it looks professional
• it makes you understand that some things are more important than others
• it makes self-appraisal much easier.
A coherent, varied, well-targeted and well-shaped lesson will be appreciated by
your pupils. Moreover, there are further advantages in the presentation of your lesson plans
to anybody observing your teaching or reading about your lessons:

• A lesson plan will help your observer or reader see how you have prepared for
your lesson and the factors you have taken into consideration.
• A lesson plan makes the task of commenting upon lessons much easier. It
explains why you are doing something at a particular point in a lesson, and it may locate and
identify any problems.
• A lesson plan is something concrete that can be referred to. This is useful either
in feedback with your inspector, observer and tutor or for your reader.

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 7.2 Pre-planning
Think first!

What elements do you need to plan for an English lesson?

Plan for your pupils. If you do not know much about the class, try to find out as much
as possible about them before you decide what to teach. Bear in mind their level of language,
their background, their motivation and their learning styles. Remember that besides
knowledge of the pupils, you also need to have knowledge of the syllabus.
In your lesson plan you will need to include four main elements: activities, skills,
language and content (Harmer, 2001).
• Decide what the pupils will be doing in the classroom and how they will be grouped.
Think what kind of activity would fit them at any particular point in the lesson. Vary
and balance the activities so that each pupil gets a chance of finding the lesson
engaging and motivating.
• Decide which language skill(s) you need to develop in that lesson. Your choice may
be limited by the syllabus or the textbook. However, you still need to plan how the
pupils will work on the respective skill(s) and what sub-skills you want to develop.
• Decide what language (e.g. lexical items, grammar structures) you need to
introduce and practise.
Starting from the textbook, select the content. Keep in mind that the textbook is just a
guide and that you are free to replace what is given in the textbook with something else. You
are, after all, the class teacher who knows the pupils personally and can predict which topics
will be found interesting and which boring. Remember however, that the most interesting
topic will become boring if the task set for the pupils is uninteresting and that, on the other
hand, topics that are not particularly interesting can become very successful if you assign a
task that your pupils find engaging.
Teacher’s knowledge of the students

Teacher’s knowledge of the syllabus

Language Language Subject and

Activities skills type content

Practical realities

The plan
Fig. 3.1 Lesson Planning
(after Harmer, J., 2001, The Practice of English Language Teaching, p. 310)
Your lesson plan will reflect many of the important features of your lesson:
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 • your understanding of aims (main and subsidiary)
• your awareness of the language
• your ability to anticipate problems
• the balance and variety of activities in the lesson
• whether or not whole stages of the lesson are missing
• the allocation of time to particular activities
We therefore need to look at writing lesson plans and consider what they should
contain.

7.3 Writing a Lesson Plan

A lesson plan results from a number of thinking processes and involves making
decisions about what topics to study, what the pupils should know or be able to do by the end
of the lesson, what examples are needed, what strategies can be used and how learning will
be assessed.
A lesson plan normally contains preliminary information under several headings.
Think first!

What preliminary information do you usually introduce at the

beginning of your lesson plans?

7.3.1 Preliminary Information

The preliminary information sheet is usually about 1 or 2 pages:
1. Timetable fit
2. Level
3. Time
4. Class profile
5. Aims (main and subsidiary)
6. Assumed knowledge and anticipated problems
7. Materials and aids
1. This shows how your lesson fits into a sequence of lessons. Here you need to show
how this lesson relates to other lessons that have gone before and those that will follow.
State briefly what textbook you are using with the class, the work relevant to the lesson that
you have covered and give some indication of how the lesson will be consolidated in future
lessons.
2. Here you state the level of the class: Beginner, Elementary, Lower or Upper
Intermediate, Advanced, or Proficient and the year of study.
3. The usual length of a lesson is about 50 minutes.
4. Make some brief general comments about the class as a whole (atmosphere, etc)
and mention any relevant points about individual students (age, particular strengths or
weaknesses, etc). This information is particularly useful if your reader, tutor or inspector has
not seen your lesson.
5. This is probably the most important part of your lesson plan since your lesson will
ultimately be judged in terms of your aims. It is essential that the lesson aims are realistic,
achievable, clearly specified and directed towards an outcome that can be measured. If you

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are unsure about the aims of your lesson, use this maxim: “What is it that my pupils should
be able to do by the end of the lesson that they couldn’t do at the beginning?”
You can deal with aims under two headings: ‘main/major’ and ‘subsidiary’. In a lesson
of 50 minutes you will normally have two or three main aims. These should encapsulate what
the lesson is basically about. In an English class, the lesson aims will be mainly cognitive and
affective.
Generally speaking, the cognitive aims are statements that describe the knowledge
that the pupils are expected to acquire or construct. Use in the formulation of these aims
verbs like: remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate and create. Apply these verbs to
the four main dimensions of knowledge: factual, conceptual, procedural and metacognitive,
as you will most probably want your pupils to do more than “remember” facts. In the 21 st
century, your pupils will expect thinking, decision making and problem solving to be
increasingly emphasised in the classroom.
A number of aims that fit into the affective domain, which focus on attitudes, values
and on the development of the pupils’ personal and emotional growth, are also
recommended. Although much of the focus in the affective domain is implicit, sometimes we
need to concentrate on it deliberately. For example, in a lesson with reference to
multiculturalism, your aim may be to develop your pupils’ awareness of and appreciation of
another culture’s values and customs. Remember that attitudes, values and emotions
strongly affect learning, and when you plan and teach a lesson, you should keep in mind
factors like willingness to listen, open-mindedness, commitment to values and involvement.
In an English lesson, the aims may be primarily language-oriented (e.g. introduction
and controlled oral practice of a certain grammar structure) or skill-oriented (e.g. to increase
the pupils’ confidence and ability to scan a text). Subsidiary aims will be derived from the
main aims. Here is an example of how aims can be expressed:
Main aim: to improve the pupils’ listening skill; subsidiary aims: to give the pupils
practice in selective listening, in anticipating content, and in using guessing strategies to
overcome lexical difficulties.
Note that the lesson has limited aims (2 – 3), and you shouldn’t try to achieve too
much.
SAQ 1
Is “teaching the present perfect” a realistic aim for a lesson? How
about “doing a listening exercise”?

Try to formulate aims that are learner-centred, such as “to enable the pupils to use the
present perfect with a greater degree of accuracy”.
Distinguish between teaching aims and learning aims. You may have aims for yourself
in the lesson (teaching aims), such as “to improve the clarity of my instructions”. These
should be expressed in a separate section.
It is also important not to confuse aims with activities. You cannot say that your aim is
“to do a role-play” since this is an activity, not an aim. Specify what your aim for the activity is
(e.g. “to consolidate vocabulary related to previous work in class” or “to recycle expressing
polite refusals”, or “to develop fluency in…” etc.)

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 SAQ 2

In the following list of headings, say which is an aim and which is

an activity.
a) Develop the scan reading skill;
b) Dialogue building;
c) Headway p. 36;
d) Grammar revision: conditional clauses;
e) Jigsaw reading;
f) Further practice of /s/ vs. /z/ and /iz/ in plural endings;
g) Introduction of the language of disagreeing;
h) Warmer;
i) Elicit use of Present Perfect.
The following headings can help you specify aims for a reading or listening lesson: text
type, style and register, reading or listening style, specific language aim, specific skills aim,
and so on. Here are some examples of lesson aims:
• Text type, style and register:
 To provide practice in reading magazine articles in informal style.
 To present an ESP (medical) journal article, with formal style and marked
register.
 To provide practice in listening to loudspeaker announcements.
 To provide practice in listening to formal speeches.
• Reading or listening style:
 To test pupils’ intensive reading abilities
 To provide practice in skim listening
• Specific language aims
 To provide receptive practice of some discourse connectors (e.g. however,
although, though)
 To present ‘comment’ segments introduced by which (e.g. “I got there
early, which is why I had to wait so long”, etc.)
• Specific skills aim
 To help pupils use their background knowledge to make correct inferences
 To present a way of dealing with unfamiliar words by breaking them down
into parts
It is often desirable to kill two or more birds with one stone and set aims, thus:
 To provide practice in reading magazine articles in informal style and to
help the pupils use background knowledge to make correct inferences.
 To present discourse linkers such as however, although, though.
SAQ 3

How could you formulate the above aims in a more learner-

centred way?

6. Pupils’ assumed knowledge and anticipated problems. Thinking about your pupils
when you are planning is crucial. The assumptions and anticipated problems are the specific
things, relevant to the aims of your lesson, which you anticipate your pupils may either find
easy or have problems with. This is an important part of your lesson plan since it shows your
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ability to analyse language.
Specify briefly what relevant language you think your pupils already know (vocabulary,
structures, etc). If you intend to do some skill work, state the level of ability your pupils have
with that skill.
It is more difficult to make assumptions about levels of skill than about levels of
knowledge. If you have recently taken over a class, then you may need to test out the pupils’
skills before you can make any safe assumptions.
Analyse anticipated problems under the following headings on your lesson plan: a)
meaning, b) form, c) phonology, and d) level of skill (e.g. present level of your pupils’ ability in
coping with listening tasks). Occasionally, you may need to add a fifth heading, e) socio-
cultural problems.
Here are some example statements of assumptions and anticipated problems:
• The pupils have good gist listening skills but are not very used to listening to
loudspeaker announcements.
• The pupils have come across most of the vocabulary before, but only in their
reading.
• The pupils are familiar with the topic area; it was the subject of a discussion in a
previous lesson.
• The pupils have good higher processing skills but tend to make mistakes in
interpreting grammatical discourse markers.
Alternatively, you can analyse separately the pupils’ assumed knowledge and the
problems you anticipate when teaching that lesson.
7. List any materials, references, tapes, pictures, board drawings, diagrams, handouts,
realia, etc. you intend to use. State also if the material is your own or where you took it from
(as this will be very useful when you teach the same lesson again.)

7.3.2 Procedure
A good lesson plan should be clear and logical, and make the lesson reconstructable
(i.e. someone else should be able to teach it following your lesson plan). You do not need to
write a word-for-word script, but you need more than brief notes that only you understand.
When teaching the lesson, you may wish to have a simpler working document for
yourself, which shows major stages, concept questions, types of interaction, timing, etc.
Some teachers like to use a series of cards that carry instructions and contain the main
points of a particular stage so that they can easily refer to them during the lesson.
The layout style you adopt for the “Procedure” part of the lesson plan is a question of
individual taste. Here are some tips:
Give a heading to each stage. This will help you to plan logically staged lessons and
make it clear how the stages of the lesson develop, e.g.:
• presenting new language
• getting across meaning
• highlighting form and pronunciation
• controlled practice
• less controlled practice
• freer practice / personalisation / creative stage
The heading also helps to ensure that important stages of the lesson are not left out
and that appropriate materials are prepared for the practice stages.
Show how you will convey meaning and check understanding. Write concept questions
on your lesson plan, with the answers you expect. Remember that you may also need to ask
questions about style, register, connotation, etc. All this will demonstrate that you have
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analysed the language you are teaching. On the lesson plan, show the form clearly.
Where you anticipate pronunciation problems, show awareness of sounds, stress and
intonation. On the lesson plan, give the phonetic transcription of problematic words or chunks
of language and mark stress and intonation patterns. When teaching vocabulary, mark word
stress on lexical items.
The stages of the lesson should be clearly indicated on the plan. Being able to refer to
stages numerically makes the plan easier to read (e.g. 1.a, 3.b, etc.). The ending and
beginning of stages should be made clear to the pupils during the lesson.
These will make clear why you are doing something at a particular point in your lesson.
They will also help your observer, tutor, inspector or reader to assess the effectiveness of
any part of the lesson and help you to clarify the distinction between aims and activities.
Aims refer to either language development or skills improvement.
SAQ 4
In the list below, the left-hand column contains subsidiary aims
which were written by various teachers, but which may deserve closer
scrutiny. Analyse these aims and write your own comments in the right-
hand column.
Aims Your Comments
To develop the
listening skill
To practise the skill of
listening for detailed
information.
To practise gist
listening.
To practise reading for
understanding.
To practise skimming a
long written text.
To practise scanning
for specific information

Showing the type of interaction for each stage and activity (e.g. T - S, S - S, in groups,
in pairs, etc.), will help you to assess if there is sufficient variety of focus in the lesson.
Show the approximate amount of time you expect to spend on each stage or activity in
the lesson. Be realistic about this. A lot will depend on your experience and judgement.
Sometimes the timing can go wrong, so don’t be afraid of being flexible in the lesson.

Timing
The time you give to particular stages or activities is often a reflection of what you
perceive to be important in the lesson, so you will need to make appropriate decisions about
timing. Remember to allow for thinking time and keep in mind that the pupils’ concentration
span on any activity is only about 20 - 30 minutes.
Giving an approximate timing can also help you to limit your aims, and it can help you
to learn from experience how long some kinds of activities can take. If you have ‘timing
problems’ with lessons, this may be due to several causes:
• poor understanding of aims
• confusion over what the main aims and subsidiary aims are
• unanticipated problems due to insufficient language analysis
• different learning rates among pupils
• the pupils’ unfamiliarity with the concepts used
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 • poor language grading
• insufficient or confusing instructions
• slow pace of the lesson, etc.
One possible solution to timing problems is to build flexible slots into the lesson plan,
which can be used or dropped as necessary.
Include brief but clear class management instructions, e.g. for organising pair work,
group work, for the use of the textbook, etc.
Board work
Plan board work before the lesson so that it is clearly organised and legible. Show on
your lesson plan how you will make use of the board during the lesson. Board work will
include titles, rules, diagrams, example sentences, phonological features, i.e. anything that
the pupils will write down as a record of the lesson.
Remember to go round the classroom and check whether the pupils are copying down
accurately. Alternatively, a well designed handout (e.g. a grammar reference handout) can be
given to save time in the lesson. Board work can also be prepared before the lesson on OHP
transparencies.
Skills work
Show how you will prepare and interest the pupils in these activities. For instance, say
what questions you prepared to elicit contributions. Include pre-set questions for reading or
listening tasks and their expected answers. For listening activities, indicate the number of
times you intend to play the tape.
Homework
Make sure the homework task you set is meant to consolidate what has been covered
in the lesson and to check if learning has taken place.
To sum up the features of good lesson plan, this should have:
• clearly specified aims
• evidence of language analysis
• logical staging of the lesson
• clear and easy to read procedure.

7.3.3 A Final Check of the Lesson Plan

Having done all the above, spend some time thinking:
• Is there sufficient variety? Look at the activities, focus, pace and interaction
patterns.
• Could the pupils be more involved at each stage?
• What are the pupils’ asked to contribute at each stage? What are the pupils
required to do?
• What is your role at each stage (corrector, monitor, resource, participant)?

7.4 Layout of Lesson Plans

Your lesson plan layout can be linear or tabular (arranged in the form of a table).
Linear plans are written as any normal text would be, with headings and sub-headings.
If you choose to use a tabular layout, here is what it may look like:

Aims Time Interaction Aids Teacher Pupil

Patterns activity Activity
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 The advantage of the tabular layout is that you have to think about what needs to
be written in each of the columns for each stage of the lesson. It is also easy to see if the
lesson is too teacher-centred. However, some people may find this layout difficult to follow.
A compromise layout can also work quite well:

Stage Procedure Aim

Practice1. Each pupil writes down three ways in • To give pupils written and
which s/he thinks they are different spoken practice in
10 – 20 from their partners. S/he does not expressing their opinions,
minutes show the partner what s/he has in agreeing and
written. disagreeing.
2. Both pupils tell each other about the • To encourage pupils to
Pair differences and talk about where get to know someone
work they were right or wrong, then they better.
talk about the similarities.
(activity from Klippel F., Keep Talking, CUP, 1991)

This layout has several advantages. The name of the stage, the time and type of
interaction all fit into the Stage column, and there is plenty of space left for detail in the
Procedure column. Also, there is space in the Aim column to indicate the aim of particular
stages and activities in the lesson. The lesson plan is also easy to follow for your tutor,
reader, observer or inspector.

7.5 You and the Lesson Plan

After having spent so much time to produce the lesson plan, you will feel inclined to
follow it closely, for fear of failing to achieve any of your stated aims. However, you should
feel free to diverge from it when you have to deal with any unanticipated learning difficulties
that your class may encounter. This will show your willingness to respond to the classroom
situation as it develops, and you will be given credit for doing this. It is not a good idea to
stick to your lesson plan, regardless of what happens in the classroom. Do not be afraid to go
back and clarify, reintroduce, check concepts again, or stop the class and repeat your
instructions.
The execution of a lesson involves a whole series of decisions that you are called to
make as the lesson progresses. You need to show sensitivity to pupils and their difficulties
and an ability to respond appropriately.
If you do not follow your lesson plan, be prepared to explain afterwards why you
decided to diverge from it. Do not be afraid to show flexibility, confidence and independence.

7.6 Timetabling

Timetabling involves planning and sequencing a whole series of lessons. You need to
consider a few questions when you sequence a series of lessons. Here are some:
1. How far ahead do you plan (in terms of lesson hours)?
2. What do you need to include in your timetable?
3. What factors do you need to consider when timetabling?
4. How do you see the role of the textbook in timetabling?
5. What problems can you anticipate and what solutions?
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 7.6.1 Timetabling in Practice
Here are some practical guidelines for timetabling:
1. Analyse the contents of the textbook unit and fill in an analysis sheet.
2. Review and note down separately:
a) links with previous unit’s work;
b) your perceptions of the pupils’ needs (in terms of language needs, skills,
recycling and remedial work).
3. Take a look at the next unit.
4. Using the information from 1 and 2 decide a) what to teach, and what to omit; b)
which material is useable for what (input and practice, skills and freer practice, warmers and
homework, etc.); c) where you need to supplement with other material.
5. Fill in the immovable slots, e.g. tests, which may be given to you by the school’s
administration.
6. Allocate a) input and skills, paying attention to the balance within and between
lessons; b) relevant bits of textbook; c) homework (including balance and variety).
7. Review and make changes as appropriate. Think about when you teach
vocabulary and pronunciation, what and how often you recycle, when you introduce new
language receptively for later activation, when you set grammar preparation homework, etc.

Summary

Planning lessons is an operation that needs to take place before teaching can be
effective, and it is entirely the teacher’s responsibility. Here are some of the principles that a
teacher should follow:
• Take your pupils from dependence to independence.
• Build in your lesson plan, backward and forward links (revision, consolidation,
skills work, presentation, practice, etc.)
• Formulate aims clearly.
• Be realistic: do not attempt to cover more than you can in the time you have.
Limit your aims.
• Provide balance of input, skills work, controlled / freer / free practice activities.
• Provide variety of pace, focus, activity, intensity, interaction patterns.
• Ensure logical progression in the staging of activities.
• Make the plan layout clear and easily accessible.
• Provide enough detail to make the lesson reconstructable
• Include in the lesson ways of checking that your pupils have understood or can
produce something of what you have introduced or practised.

Key Concepts
• pre-planning
• planning
• timetable fit
• assumed knowledge
• anticipated problems
• aims
• timing
• plan layout
• timetabling

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 Further Reading
1. Harmer, J., 2001, The Practice of English Language Teaching,
Longman

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