In this section we’ll take a look at ways that you can
improve you basic lesson plan. These tips can help your good lessons become
great lessons! These tips, by themselves, cannot make a lesson plan. You should
always use the steps outlined in the previous section to build the foundation
of you lesson plan, these tips are like the sizzle to the sausage!
There are several considerations to take into account when
developing you lesson content. Here are the main things that you should
consider:
·Age – how old are your students? Are your
activities appropriate for the age that you are teaching?
·Ability/level – what do you students already
know? Are you building a foundation of knowledge of just teaching a bit from
here and there?
·Classroom environment – what resources are
available to you? How many students are there? How big is the classroom? Can
you take the students outside if you need to?
·Sensitive topics – be aware that you are
teaching to students from a different culture to you own (usually) and they may
have different values and beliefs.
Why use games? I’ve mentioned using games a fair bit in this
article, besides being fun, why is it a good idea to use games?
They
provide a lot a language repetition.
They
help to consolidate language points/vocabulary
However, not all games are good for all classes, when
choosing games you should consider:
Age/level
appropriateness – will the students be able to understand the game or even
enjoy it?
Safety
– don’t risk your student’s safety for the sake of a fun lesson.
Number
of students – some games only work with a certain number of students.
Does it flow?
The
whole point of a lesson plan is so that at any point in your lesson you
can quickly glance at where you’re up to and what’s coming up next. If you
can’t make sense of it, then you’ve wasted your time planning a worthless
lesson plan and possibly the student’s time because you may have missed
something from your lesson.
Lesson
plans take the guess work out of calculating the length of your lessons.
This allows you to include as much of the content as you had intended.
Why should you use worksheets in the classroom?
Worksheets
help to consolidate learning as well as providing an opportunity for
student to student interactivity.
They
can also help you gauge how well a student is doing as you never know what
kind of “help” they’ve received at home with their homework.
This article has seen use learn why we should develop ESL
lesson plans, the core structure of a lesson plan, as well as tips to help you
make your lessons great. This is only the beginning, in the next section we
will reveal a bunch of resources for you to use when creating new lessons.
Enjoy!
Resources: Simply ESL! – Here
you’ll find a great range of ESL resources for teachers and students, including
lesson plans, forums, newsletters, learning ideas and much more. Come and see
what Simply ESL has to offer today!
In ESL Jobs – “In
ESL Jobs” has ESL job listings from all over the world! Get notified of new
jobs instantly with our easy-to-use Job Alerts feature! Find your next ESL job
at In ESL Jobs.
