An overview of Lesson

Planning
TEFL Practicum
2014
Dr. Kia Karavas
 What is a lesson plan?
It is a systematic record of what will be
covered during a lesson; a written
description of how students will move
towards attaining specific objectives.
Plan: A systematic means to reach an
end (a goal).
Lesson Plan: A model of organized
learning events within a standardized time
period of a formal instructional process.
 Why plan your lessons?
The success or failure of a lesson will
often be determined by the amount of
planning the teacher has done and the
extent to which the preparation for the
lesson is linked to the teachers overall
goals
Classroom management problems can
often be traced to poor or ineffective
lesson preparation.
Planning ensures that there is some kind
of system and balance in students
learning.
 Why plan your lessons?
Planning ensures that the teacher can answer
questions accurately and can provide
explanations when required.
The knowledge that they are well prepared gives
teachers confidence.
Planning enables the teacher to improve timing
by comparing the estimated time for activities
with the actual time spent.
Planning raises teachers awareness of what
they want to achieve with their students.
 Why plan your lessons?
Planning helps teachers to think about the
lesson in advance to resolve problems and
difficulties.
Teacher can look at their plans after the
lesson has finished and evaluate the
effectiveness of the lesson.
The plan makes your workload lighter the
following year.
 Poor lesson planning
Frustration for the teacher and the
student
Aimless wandering
Unmet objectives
No connections to prior learning
Disorganization
A waste of time
Poor management
 Elements of a lesson plan
Objectives

Activities
Include practice Assessment
with feedback
 Two main sections:
A) initial information

Class/level of students (e.g. 4th year

primary students-intermediate)
Date and duration of lesson
Unit title or topic
Language to be taught (i.e. new
structures, new vocabulary)
Skills to be developed
Objectives of the lesson
Anticipated problems
 Main body

Stages of the lesson (PPP, pre-while-post)

Specific activities and how they will be
carried out (e.g. group/pair work)
Aids and audiovisual equipment to be
used for each activity
Timing of each activity
Comments: any necessary reminders (e.g.
note down student errors during speaking
task)
Back up activities
homework
 Expressing aims
Aim: This is the strategic, ultimate purpose and
overarching goal of the lesson. It establishes
the rationale for what you and your students will
engage in during the lesson. Aims are rather
general and establish the overall purpose of a
lesson:
Example: Students will be able to read and
comprehend an authentic, non-specialist, non-
fiction text in English.
 Objectives..
.are the learning outcomes of a lesson i.e.
what the students should be able to know or do
at the end of the lesson that they could not do at
the beginning
Help in the selection of activities
Provide overall lesson focus and direction
Help teachers evaluate what students have
learnt at the end of the lesson
Help learners know what is expected of them
Help learners monitor their own progress
throughout the course
 Objectives should be..
Objectives should be SMART:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Time bound
 Objectives should not
Should not express what the teacher will
do during the lesson (e.g. to present the
present continuous tense for making future
arrangements) and should not simply
describe the activities students will
complete (e.g. students will ask and
answer questions in an information gap
activity)
 The source of objectives
The objectives and content of your lesson will be
determined by the following:
student needs (age, language level, previous language
learning experiences, purposes for learning English) and
prior knowledge on the subject/topic
curriculum goals and syllabus aims.
constraints within your teaching context (available time,
size of class, layout of furniture, available resources etc.)
textbook/materials used.
 Relating aims to objectives
Lesson aim: Students will be able to read and comprehend an
authentic, non-specialist, non-fiction text in English.
Lesson objectives:
The students will be able to
Deduce the meaning and use of unfamiliar lexical items through an
understanding of word formation and contextual clues
Recognize and interpret formal cohesive devices for linking different
parts of the text
Skim the text to obtain its gist or an overall impression of its
semantic content
Extract information not explicitly stated by making inferences
The main body of a lesson plan
Guidelines for Selecting Instructional
Activities
1. Potential to help students master the
stated objectives.
2. Actively involve students in learning and
practicing the behaviors stated in the
objectives.
 Procedure/stages of a lesson
Procedure: In this critical part of the lesson
plan, the teacher and students interact and
communicate, share information, solve
problems and do assignments to achieve
the lessons aim (goal) and objectives. It
is through procedures that knowledge is
constructed and retained, and skills are
developed and applied.

 A lessons procedure can be divided

into six parts:

Introduction
(Homework Checkup)
New Material Presentation
Classroom Activities
Assessment - Evaluation
Closure