3.

The Prrocedure PPage

Aims:
To conssider the pu
urpose and reality of esstimating tim
mings.
To clarify the differrence betwe
een an aim and an acttivity.
Materials rrequired:
None.
Target exp
perience levvel of teache
er:
CELTA
A.
Applicable to learnerss:
Adults at all levelss.

Input
Look at the
e following extract
e
from
m a lesson p
plan procedure page:
Time

Sttage
No
o./Title
1.
Gene
erating
Intere
est.

Stage Aim
A

Prrocedure and
a Materiaal

Wh
hy the students arre doing the
activity

What will happe

en in the lesson what the teacher does, what the
studen
nts do.

To generate
g
inte
erest in
the context of trravel
periences.
exp

2.
Conttext
settin
ng.

To set
s the conte
ext for the
textt to be read and
a for
their later writing.

Ss get a pen and pap

per and put tthem down.
Ss close
e their eyes and
a T asks prrompt
question
ns so they can visualise a bad travel
experien
nce (e.g., thin
nk of the worrst travel
experien
nce youve ha
ad where w
was it who
was therre why was
s it bad how
w did it end,
etc.).
Ss write some notes quickly.
In pairs, Ss exchange experiencees with a
partner the listenerr has to ask hhim/her one
question
n about the story.
No open
n class feedb
back.
Using the data projec
ctor, project a travel
blog and
d ask what it is, have theyy ever read
one or written
w
one additional quuestions
dependin
ng on the res
sponses.

Interaction
S/PW/GW/
OC/T/T-Ss

T-Ss

S
PW

OC

Now look a
at each colu
umn individu
ually:
Timings:
Allocatting a time is not a scie
ence the m
main purpos
se is so the teacher ca n see wherre they are
up to in
n their plan compared to
t where the
ey are in the lesson. This
T
allows the teacherr to make
amend
dments and bring the le
esson to a lo
ogical conclusion, rather than stopp an activity
y halfway
through
h only to resstart it next time.
Timings need to be
b realistic. It is better tto allocate a total time for the stagge that inclu
udes, for
example, setting and
a checkin
ng the task, the activity itself, chec
cking in pairrs and open
n class
feedba
ack. Mentally, each mu
ust be includ
ded in the estimation,
e
so
s a stage nnoted as 1-2
2 minutes

in length (unless done entirely open class as in Stage 2 above) is likely to be unrealistic.
Really think how long you want students to spend on an activity and write the time limit into the
procedure. This should be some reflection of the importance of the stage to the whole lesson.
Because lessons often fall behind or occasionally get ahead of schedule, it is important to
include flexi stages useful but non-essential activities which can be added or dropped
according to the needs of time and the lesson aims.

Stage Aims:
These state why the students are doing the activity.
This is in contrast to
The Procedure
This states what the teacher and students are doing in the activity.
Interactions Patterns
List these comprehensively and honestly so you can quickly see whether the lesson is studentcentred or teacher-led. In the example above, the interaction is also aligned to the relevant
part of the stage so the user can easily see where the pattern should change.
The most common interaction patterns are S (students alone), PW (students in pairs), GW
(students in groups), OC (open class) and T-Ss (teacher talking to the students).

Further reading
Scrivener, J., Learning Teaching, Macmillan, 2005, pp.115-124.
Harmer, J., The Practice of English Language Teaching, Pearson, 2007, pp.267-370, 374-375.
Harmer, J., How to Teach English, Pearson, 2007, pp.160-162.
Parrott, M., Tasks for Language Teachers, Cambridge, 1993, pp.134-139, 147-148.

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Task 1
Look at the following extracts from a plan and decide which are activities and which are stage
aims. Where your answer is activity, what do you think the stage aim is? When your answer is
stage aim, what kind of activity do you think it might be?
Extract from a plan

Activity (and why do you

think so?)

Stage Aim (and why do you

think so?)

Students read the text on p.84.

Students talk in pairs about their

favourite restaurants in the city.

To provide controlled written

practice of the present perfect
and past simple.
To pre-teach vocabulary so
students are better able to
complete the detailed listening
task.
Students write what they did at
the weekend in the form of a
list.
To encourage students to think
what the text might be about.

To focus on the pronunciation of

weak forms in the present
perfect continuous.
Students work out the meaning
of the past perfect.

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Suggested answers
Extract from a plan

Activity (and why do you

think so?)

Stage Aim (and why do you

think so?)

Students read the text on p.84.

This is clearly an activity

but a poorly stated one as
there is no task set and no
time limit for it.

The aim is To develop

students ability to read for
. (Could be gist,
specific information or
detail depending on the
task set).

Students talk in pairs about their

favourite restaurants in the city.

This is clearly an activity

as it says what the students
are doing rather than why
they are doing it.

The aim is likely to be

To generate students
interest in the context of
the lesson, although with
more detail and a clear
goal, it could be a final
activity to develop
students fluency.

To provide controlled written

practice of the present perfect
and past simple.

This is likely to be a gap-fill

type activity.

This says why the

students are doing the
task.

To pre-teach vocabulary so
students are better able to
complete the detailed listening
task.

The teacher will pre-teach

lexical items through
visuals, definition matching
or conveying from context.

This actually says why

the teacher is doing the
stage but it has clear
benefits for the students in
the next stage.

Students write what they did at

the weekend in the form of a
list.

This says what the

students are doing rather
than why they are doing it.

The aim is likely to be

To allow individual
preparation time before a
speaking / writing task.

To encourage students to think

what the text might be about.

This is a prediction task

which students often do
before reading a text or
listening to a recording.
The activity is likely to
involve board highlighting
and drilling of has/have
been in the context of a
sentence.
This is almost an aim but
it says more about what the
students are doing rather
than why.

This clearly says why the

students are doing the
activity.

To focus on the pronunciation of

weak forms in the present
perfect continuous.

Students work out the meaning

of the past perfect.

This says why rather

than what will happen.

The aim is likely to be

To encourage students to
notice the past perfect in
the text and to work out its
meaning from context.

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Task 2 (for practising teachers)

Next time you write a lesson plan in full, copy the format provided in the example in the input
section (above) and follow the advice given for timings, stage aims, procedures and interactions.
After the lesson, reflect and consider:
Did writing the procedure page in this way help you?
How realistic were your timing allocations? If the answer to this is not very realistic, why might
this have happened?
To what extent were the students aware of the aims of each stage? Could both you and they
see the point of what they were doing (even if this was not made explicit)?
How helpful was the procedure? Was any of what you wrote needless? Were there things you
forgot to do which you could include in your procedure the next time you write a full plan?
Was the lesson as student-centred / teacher-led as you had anticipated? Why (not)?

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