1

USE THE BOPPPS MODEL TO DEVELOP

A LESSON PLAN EFFECTIVE
HO Nhu Ngoc Lecturer in Faculty Foreign Language
at Thu Dau Mot University

ABSTRACT
This study aims to explore the teaching effects of an integrated factory practicum
in BOPPPS (Bridge-In, Objective, Pre-Assessment, Participatory Learning, PostAssessment, and Summary) model, which is introduced through the Instruction Workshop
Skill (ISW) taken place from March 29th to April 1st 2016 at Thu Dau Mot University. The
participants in ISW agreed that BOPPPS strategies are extraordinarily effective for
developing students creativity and synergizing learning. Base on the strategies of TDM
university, BOPPPS will help to develop lesson plans. In this research, we focus on
using BOPPPS to create an effective lesson plan.

INTRODUCTION
A lesson plan is the instructors map of what students need to learn and how the
plan will be done effectively during the class time. Before you plan your lesson, you will
first need to identify the learning objectives for the class meeting. Then, you can design
appropriate learning activities and develop strategies to obtain feedback on student
learning. A successful lesson plan addresses and integrates three key components: 1
Objectives for students learning
Teaching/learning activities
Strategies to check students understanding
The gap between the teaching research and application of teaching methods in
practice is still big. Actually, there exist some problems, as students are not prepared well
before the lecture begins. On the other hand, aims and objectives are not clear so that
students do not know which parts are important. Moreover, direct links between the
objectives and assessments are not clear. Last but not least, students participation in
classroom is still very weak. 2
1 http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/p2_5

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BOPPPS Bridge, Objective, Pre-test, Participatory, Post-test, Summary is a
good starting for lesson plan which can solve these problem because it concentrates on
gaining students interest, clarifying the purpose of the lesson, assessing students level of
understanding of the topic, determining whether the aims have been met or not, and
summarizing the main points. BOPPPS is a good tool to help teachers organize their
teaching sessions.
In fact, BOPPPS has been applied in many universities and colleges in Canada and
USA. However, it seems to be novel in Vietnam. Understanding the importance of
BOPPPS in developing lesson plans, this paper gives a general view as well as
advantages of this model.
The main purposes of this paper are analyzing the importance, usefulness,
effectiveness of BOPPPS based on its theories and giving a small lesson plan sample
following the six steps of BOPPPS. Thanks to this paper, readers can explain the
questions What is BOPPPS model? Why do we have to use BOPPPS to create our
lesson plans? How to use BOPPPS in planning our lessons?.

I.

OVERVIEW OF THEORIES ON BOPPPS MODEL

I.1 . THEORY OF BOPPPS MODEL

The BOPPPS model stands for the number of steps in the design process: bridge,
objective, pre-test, participatory learning, post-test, and summary. This model serves to
underscore many basic elements of instruction, such as using ice-breakers or bridging
activities, writing statements and objectives, and other techniques to engage learners from
the outset.3 In more detail, BOPPPS referred to six acronyms that are focused on the
following six components: 4
Acronym
1. B

Name
Bridge-in

Description
Begins the learning cycle, gains learner attention, builds
motivation, and explains why the lesson is important.
Sometimes known as the "motivational statement" or "hook",

2 Li Jiang, School of Computer Science, Design A Survey Instrument To Test The

Usefulness of BOPPPS Approach
3 Dean Giustini, Utilizing learning theories in the digital age: from theory to practice,
JCHLA / JABSC, Vol. 30, page 1925, 2009
4 http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/BOPPPS_Model#Introduction

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the bridge-in helps the learners focus on what is about to happen
in the lesson. Bridge-ins are usually short. Some simple
strategies include: Providing reasons for learning this topic;
explaining why this topic is important and how it may be useful
in other situations; describing how it is a transferable skill
-

2. O

Objective or
Outcome

3. P

Preassessment

4. P

Participatory
Learning

Telling a story connected with the lesson topic

Referring to something in the learners' realm of
experience
- Posing a provocative question linked to a current topic or
the learners' personal lives
- Offering a startling statement or unusual fact
- Linking current topic to material already studied or to
future learning
Clarifies and specifies the learning intention: clarifies what
the learner should know, think, value or do by the end of the
lesson, under what conditions and how well.
While a course may have a few broad general goals and a
limited number of learning outcomes, individual lessons usually
focus on one or more specific learning objectives to reach those
goals or outcomes. Generally, an objective is written as once
sentence that includes:
- Who (always the learner or student)
- Will do what (performance)
- Under what conditions
- How well (to what standard or criteria)
Answer the question, What does the learner already know
about the subject of the lesson?
Pre-assessment can:
- Reveal learners' interests
- Identify learners who can be resources within the class
- Allow learners to express their needs for review or
clarification
- Focus attention and signal the purpose of the lesson
- Help the instructor adjust the lesson for depth and pace
to better fit a particular group of learners
- Enable the instructor to respond to individual strengths
and weaknesses
This is the body of the lesson, where learners are involves as
actively in the learning process as possible. There is an

5. P

Postassessment

intentional sequence of activities or learning events that will

help the learner achieve the specified objective or desired
outcome. The lesson may include the use of media.
Some ways to encourage active participation include:
- Small group discussion around a specific question or
problem arising from the course material
- Pauses in lectures for individual student reflection
through writing or discussion, question development or
short application tasks like solving an equation or a
small problem
- Critical discussions of the main point of the lesson by the
learners-perhaps through a think-pair-share strategy
- Prediction or forecasting (usually at the beginning of a
concept or unit)
- Individual tasks/presentations
- Students working on a problem, then evaluating each
other's work
- Role plays, case studies, scenarios, simulations
- Posing a "thought" question, one that is not answered
until later in the activity
Formally or informally demonstrates if the learner has indeed
learned and is linked directly with the objective or outcome.
The post-assessment answers two questions:
- What did the learners learn?
- Were the desired objectives accomplished?
Basic knowledge and thinking (knowledge recall and
comprehension) can be assessed by:
- multiple choice
- true/false
- matching
- completion
- short written answer
- short verbal answer (if testing through oral or interview
format)
Higher level thinking (application, analysis, evaluation and
creating) can be assessed by:
- problem solving tasks
- essays, critiques

6. S

1.2.

Summary/
Closure

- creating a novel theory or interpretation

- analysis of a scenario
Skill (doing) can be assessed by:
- checklists
- rating scales
- products or examples of production using the skill(s)
- performance or demonstration
Attitudes (values) can be assessed by:
- attitude scales
- performance
- essays
- journals and other personal reflection pieces
- artifacts
Provides an opportunity for the learners to reflect briefly and
integrate the learning during the closing of the learning cycle.
The summary may include:
- content review (either instructor or learners briefly recap
main points)
- group process (time for learners to discuss their group
process)
- feedback
- recognition (acknowledgment of effort and achievement)
- application (how to use this later; create a personal
action plan)
- individual voice (quick round-table for each person to
have a "last word")

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF BOPPPS MODEL

The table above presents six steps of BOPPPS model. As we can see from the
table, this model provides a clearly lesson plan, which help the instructor to ensure the
scenario of the course and reduce the gap between theory (lesson plan) and teaching
practice. Besides, this frame secures all activities of teaching and learning with the
objective of the lesson. Moreover, BOPPPS also gain students participation and
motivation in learning.
First, this teaching model produces a lesson plan definitely and completely.
Therefore, many teachers believe that this model is not different much from the lesson
plan that they have made before. Indeed, six stages of this structure are usually present in
our course details. However, we have a tendency to mix these elements. For instance, we
will combine the Bridge and the Objective when we introduce the lesson. Alternatively,
we will make the Pre-assessment before telling about the Bridge-inetc. However, these

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combinations can lead to students misunderstanding of the lesson objectives. Moreover,
people can forget some parts of the lesson detail if they do not pursue a structure
particularly.
Moreover, BOPPPS divides each lesson into small parts, each of them lasts for 1520 minutes due to the duration of the ability to focus. 5 ??? The effect of small parts is to
avoid wasting time without being able to finish our lesson. Furthermore, as a result of
dividing the lesson, teachers can predict students familiarity with the topic and prepare
for the best explanation. For this reason, BOPPPS aids to shorten the distance between
the teaching method and teaching practice.
Secondly, this design defines clearly learning objectives and establishes the criteria
to evaluate the learning. From the theory, all six elements of BOPPPS are loyal to the
lesson target. We can separate the activities in this framework into two categories:
teacher (instructor) activities and learner activities. And all activities in a small lesson
have to concentrate on achieving the lesson goals. In other words, this structure focuses
on both the learners and the teacher. The model helps us to ensure that everyone in our
class understands what is expected after the course.
Finally, another effect of this model is to obtain students engagement and create the
motivation in learning. If we can divide six elements of BOPPPS in three phase of a
lesson plan that are Introduction (combined Bridge-in and Objective), Body (included
Pre-assessment and Participatory Learning) and Conclusion (consisted of Postassessment and Summary). According to this classification, we observe that the main
actor in this scenario is the student, not the teacher. Besides, by encouraging the
participation of students, the teacher can constitute??? (stimulate) students motivation for
learning.
To sum up, BOPPPS is an effective model to design an effective lesson plan. Based
on the objectives, the learning intention can be clarified specified and respected. This
model not only provides a teaching method for instructors, but also enhances the active
participation of learners. This is clear that it will take a huge time to build a detailed
lesson based on this method. However, BOPPPS model remains a great effectiveness as I
have shown in this paper. Thus, the construction of our lesson plans following this plan is
necessary and urgent.

5 J. Sibley, Guide to Teaching for New Faculty at UBC: New Faculty Teaching Guide Developed by the Centre for
Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT), 2010.

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1.3.

LESSON PLAN TEMPLATES6

Template 1: Lesson plan for completion

Lesson title: XXX
Bridge-in: Explains the value of the lesson to the learner. Provides motivation
Learning Objective:
What the learner must do
The conditions under which it must be done
How well it must be done
Materials:
Pre-assessment:
Identifies any prior knowledge and
The equipment necessary
whatever or not the learner can already
to conduct the lesson
accomplish the objective.
Participatory Learning
Time
Instructor Activities
Learner Activities
Resources
Number of
What the instructor does to What the learner does Materials or
minutes
facilitate learning
to actively learn
equipment
used
Post-assessment:
To determine if the learner can demonstrate the skill described in the learning
objective
Summary:
Process and evaluate the lesson information and interaction
Template 2:
Date:
Time
Bridge-in:

Resources

Learning-Objective:

Pre-assessment:

6 All templates from ISW Network (2012). Active Learning Strategies handbook.

Time
(minutes)

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Participatory Learning
Instructor Activities
Learner Activities

Post-assessment:
Summary:
What worked well/what needs revision:

II.

A SAMPLE OF LESSON PLAN FOLLOWING BOPPPS MODEL

`This sector of paper will present an example lesson in 15 minutes which uses
BOPPPS to plan the course.
Lesson title: The definite article in French

Resources

Bridge-in:
Could you please to enumerate all articles in English? Please
explain the usage of these articles! Do you think if it exists
also the definite articles in French? How many people in
class believe that the definite articles in French are used as in
English?
Learning-Objective:
Amical 1 At the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
unite 2 - Understand the forms of the definite articles.
Lecon 5
- Practice the definite articles in writing and speaking French.
Pre-assessment:
Divide the class into 4 groups. Each group will discuss
definite articles in French by answering the questions below:
1. Do you know any definite articles in French? What are
they?
Question
.
sheet
2. How people can classify these articles?
A. By gender
B. By quantity
C. A&B
Explain for your choice: ..
Participatory Learning
Instructor Activities
Learner Activities

Time
(minutes)

0.5

2.5

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1. Explain the forms of the
definite articles. In French, articles
are a determining element of
nouns. The articles are always put
before a noun. The articles are
divided in 3 genres base on group
of noun: Noun masculine singular
(nm), Noun feminine singular (nf)
and Noun plural (np).
Masculine singular
le (l)*
Feminine singular
la (l)
Plural
les

Listen and note

Amical 1

2,5

Listen and note

Amical 1

2,5

* when the articles le la proceed

from a noum which is commenced by
the vowel as: a-e-i-o-u-y-h, the articles
le, la will become l

2. How to use these articles:

- The definite article refers to
specific people or things:
ex: Le livre est sur la table. (The
book is on the table.)

- The definite article is used before

the noun that is unique.
Ex: Nous visitons la tour Eiffel.
(We visite the Eiffel tower). The Eiffel
tower is unique in the world.

- In lists of nouns, the article is

usually repeated before each noun:
ex: Il aime les chats, les chiens et
les chevaux. (He likes cats, dogs
and horses.)

Post-assessment:
Check for learning.
Give correction to the exercise.

- Cite how the definite

articles are used?
- Do exercise
Question
complete the phrases
sheet
by using the right
definite articles
Summary: Reinforce that, after do more exercises at home, at the next
course student should be able use the definite article fluently.

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CONCLUSION
This research has achieved the initial aims. First, it has shown a general theory of
BOPPPS model. In addition, the importance of BOPPPS model in developing lesson plan
has been analyzed. Indeed, most goals in teaching these days focus on students. To be
more specific, an effective lesson plan is mainly made for students activities, also their
understanding about the topic. Furthermore, the paper has given a small lesson plan
sample based on six steps of BOPPPS. From the sample, we easily see how to develop
and what includes in a lesson plan with BOPPPS model.
However, this paper is such a short article that it is not able to show deeply, yet a
general view of BOPPPS. Because of the scale of an article, the study just gives
important details and basement of using BOPPPS. Besides, due to the stress of time and
the size of this article, the author has just given a very small sample of lesson plan using
BOPPPS model.
In summary, to ensure the quality of our students outcomes, the BOPPPS model is
one of the best method that can provide not only a standard design of our lessons but also
criteria for students evaluation in each lesson. In the future, I hope that this method can
be developed and applied in planning the course by our department.

REFERENCES:
1. http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/p2_5
2. Li Jiang, School of Computer Science, Design A Survey Instrument To Test The
Usefulness of BOPPPS Approach
3. Dean Giustini, Utilizing learning theories in the digital age: from theory to practice, JCHLA /
JABSC, Vol. 30, page 1925, 2009
4. http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/BOPPPS_Model#Introduction
5. J. Sibley, Guide to Teaching for New Faculty at UBC: New Faculty Teaching Guide
Developed by the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT), 2010.
6 All templates from ISW Network (2012). Active Learning Strategies handbook.