Ok, so, you’ve decided that making a lesson plan for your classes
is a good idea. Now what? A lesson plan can’t include just anything, heck
that’s why you should us a lesson plan: it’s tells you what and how to teach!
The four bare essential elements that are never left out of
a good lesson plan are: a warmer, review, new language and fun! Here’s why:
Warmer
– A warmer is SO important because it sets the mood for the rest of the
lesson. Warmers are essential because they help your students:
To
relax and feel comfortable in the classroom
Have
fun
Realize
that “everyone is in the same boat”
Learn
a little about you and their classmates
Gain
confidence
Get
a feel for how the rest of the class will be like
Review
– a review helps your students to retain the language they learnt in the
last lesson. Essentially a review should be:
Fun
Short
(roughly 5-10 minutes, depending on how long your lesson is)
As
student orientated as possible. IE the teacher should have minimal
involvement.
New
Language – This is what your lesson plan is based around and will take up
the majority of the lesson. Introducing new language follows three main
steps:
Presentation
– this is where you explain the new language. It’s important that you try
to elicit as much of the language as possible.
Practice
– This is where the language is “drilled” into the students. This step
contains teacher controlled drills.
Follow-up
– This is where students now get to use the language they’ve just learnt
in a fun and interesting way. This activity should allow as much student
to student interaction as possible.
In summary,
new language should:
Be
introduced with a concept that the students will understand and without,
where possible, referring to the written word.
Be
elicited from the students, where possible.
Follow
a structured presentation method so that your students can follow where
you are going.
Allow
for as much student to student interactivity as possible. Sure they
teacher takes centre stage when drilling the language, but when it comes
time for you follow-up activity your students should be in the driver’s seat.
Fun
– Although not an actual “step” in your lesson plan, fun should be
incorporated in as much of the lesson as possible. Here’s why:
Your
students will show a greater willingness to learn if they are having fun.
Your
students will be better behaved because they are not bored.
Greater
participation leads to greater language retention, which makes you look
better!
Better
word of mouth - the more fun your lessons are, the more likely word will
spread about how great a teacher you are!
There’s the core of you lesson plan. In the next section
we’ll take a look at some great tips to enhance your lessons.
