Writing a Typical EFL Lesson Plan
Dr. Abdulmahmoud Idrees Ibrahim
Introduction
Lesson planning or preparation is
not as simple as the trainees think. It is a real dilemma for the teachers
especially those who are at the beginning of their career. As far as I believe,
lesson planning in the pedagogical process, is the basis of successful
teaching. Hill and Dobbyn (1976) argue that planning a lesson is a matter of
knowing:
a.
What you want to do?
b.
How to do it?
c.
How to find out if you have
succeeded?
It is generally assumed that
lesson planning is a rather neglected area for most teachers. Calderhead (1984:
82) argues that although much of the thinking that guides classroom
activities occurs during lesson planning, teachers receive little official time
or assistance for this. This is because planning is, generally, an
individual pursuit that involves minimal consultation with others. However, if
teachers could have the opportunity to discuss the lesson planning
collaboratively, they might have valuable knowledge and in sights to exchange.
Richards, et al (1985: 163) define a lesson plan as a description or outline
of:
o
the objectives a teacher
has set for a lesson.
o
the activities and
procedures the teacher will use to achieve and the order to be followed, and.
o
the material and resources
which will be used.
However, lesson planning is a complex procedure of
selection which the teacher goes through, drawing on his experience and
knowledge. According to Dangerfield in Matthews, et al (1985), a lesson plan
should provide at least the following:
a. A clear explicit
presentation of aims and of procedure, through, which they are achieved (within
the course of the lesson).
o
aims should be valid in
terms of the students needs.
o
aims could be measureable
and practically achieved.
o
activities should match and
achieve the stated aims.
b. A reminder of the order of events, aids to be arranged and
collected, page numbers and cassette counter numbers, details of vocabulary to
pre-teach, etc.
c. An at-a glance check of the projected rough timing of each
stage; the balance of practice of the four language skills, variation in
activities, and interaction patterns.
d. A record for future reference and re-use (post - lesson
comments added and perhaps suggested alternative strategies).
e. Anticipated problems (with suggested means of handling them).
Calderhead
(1984: 69) claims that in planning teachers translate the syllabus guidelines,
institutional expectations and their own beliefs about education into guides
for action in the classroom. He argues that it is that aspect of teaching,
which provides the structure and purpose for what teachers and students do in
the classroom.
Although,
a successful lesson planning is crucial in the very process, Kailani and
Muqattash (1995) suggest that the teacher should:
o
familiarize himself with
the instructional materials he is required to utilize in his teaching.
o
decide in advance which
aspects of the unit are to be given more stress.
o
find out the degree of
proficiency the students must develop with respect to these aspects.
As a matter of fact, an effective
lesson planning contains a good record of the teacher's own ideas and comments.
Although the teacher's notes accompanying the textbook generally give the most
basic information about teaching methodology, the teacher should add several
ideas of his own to improve the lesson and to gear it towards effective
teaching.
Statement of the Problem
Preparation is defined
in terms of the preparations that teachers make for teaching. It generally follows
a certain procedure or formula and covers a wide range of activities.
Assumptions
The lesson planning should create the following situations:
1.
insures the minimum
requirement for the success of a lesson and the effectiveness of teaching.
Besides,
2.
helps teachers to assess
their students' progress and to anticipate problems that may occur in the
lesson,
3.
helps to adjust and prepare
a teacher for various eventualities that could arise during the course of a
lesson, and
4.
makes important contributions
to classroom management.
Delimits
Teachers’
preparation includes more than simply lesson preparation. It also involves
making long-term decisions about the syllabus but this topic is restricted to
lesson preparation and arrangement.
Lesson Planning Formula
There is
no one single rigid formula for a well planned lesson to be followed strictly.
Marland (1975: 84) argues that a lesson has to be organized as a sequence
arranged in time and the pattern of the learning activities must fit both the
educational aims and of fixed time. Time structuring is very important because
the student in a school is in a time – structured environment; since it is the
pacing of the lesson that creates the feeling of satisfaction.
Types of Lesson Planning
Calderhead
(1984) mentions three types of lesson planning. They are:
1.
Incremental planning:
Some thinking this type involves little thought in advance
about the lesson and its curricula context. A high value is put on spontaneity,
of staying in close contact with the students; interests and on day – to – day
development and of their knowledge and skills.
2.
Comprehensive planning
This type involves more thought both about individual lessons
and about their place within the whole course. A clearer idea of the knowledge
and skills to be achieved is directly stated.
3.
Survival planning
Some teachers do a lot of systematic lesson planning.
However, others seem to rely on the classroom routine. The planning which is
done by the latter is mostly done during teaching when they snatch time to
think about what comes next. Of course this type of planning is not recommended
as it inevitably adds to the burden that teachers have to think about during
lessons. This situation possibly increases the tension that some teachers
experience.
The Lesson Plan Procedure
Pre- plan
Before
writing the lesson plan, the teacher has to spend a few minutes thinking about
what to be taught and how to be taught. The teacher will need to consider many
aspects that precede the lesson plan as Harmer (1983) calls it the pre-plan. These
aspects are not a matter of luxury but, they are very essential for building an
accurate lesson plan. These aspects as follow:
A.
Aims: The role of the aims helps
in limiting the scope of the lesson. The numbers of aims vary depending on the
nature of the lesson and its topic, but will probably range between two and
five aims. The aims also depend on whether the lesson involves presenting a new
structure or function. The teacher must ask if the aims of the lesson are designed
for developing items previously introduced or to develop specific skills. the
aim/s must be measureable and precise. Teachers should avoid writing such as “to
teach reading comprehension”. (Which aspect of this skill should be
specified?) On the other hand, writing “to teach the past tense” (are
you going to teach all of it in one lesson).
Instead it should be written “to give Ss a means of talking about
habits in the past using ( used to)”
or '' by the end of the lesson the Ss will be able to talk about intention in the future using '' going to''. Teachers
should bear in mind that there are many guidelines for stating a lesson aims
o Lesson plan aims should all relate to the main topic of the
lesson.
o Each of the aims should be measurable.
o Each aim should be student-centered.
For example if the teacher wants to
state aims for the topic of the Past Perfect verb tense the following will be a
good suggestion. Every one of them is related to the topic and they are all can
be measured.
ü By the end of the lesson, students will be able to distinguish
Past Perfect sentences from Simple Past sentences.
ü By the end of the lesson, students will be able to demonstrate
knowledge of the proper form of the Past Perfect by writing five sentences in
the Past Perfect.
ü By the end of the lesson, student will be able to demonstrate
correct usage of the Past Perfect by speaking (or writing) three sentences
correctly using this tense.
All the aims are student-centered;
therefore an aim that states, "By the end of the lesson, students will
understand the Past Perfect," cannot be measured. (How do I know if the
students understand it or not if they don't somehow demonstrate what they have
learned?)
B. Analysis: The teacher must
analyze the new language to be taught and areas of learning difficulties must
be predicted. The analysis of the language usually leads to consulting a
dictionary and grammar since good teaching depends on accuracy of pronunciation
concept, meaning, and usage.
C. Activities: the teacher needs to
think about the type number of activities that are suitable for his/her lesson
bearing in mind the factors of age and learning styles. He should involve all
the students? (pair-work; group work; choral drilling, writing exercises etc.)
D.
Audiovisual: the teacher
should think about what kind of teaching aids, resources and realia (real
objects for use in class) are proper for his/her lesson. (using pictures; flashcards using tape;
reading a passage; pair-work; pin-men on the BB, a bagful of shopping,
flashcards; group-work; Ss correction and the like) absolutely these aids reduce
the TTT (Teacher Talking Time). Finally, the teacher must bear in mind that
his/her lesson is well balanced and has a fair timing format.
Writing an Organized Lesson Plan
The lesson should be designed and
executed according to a certain procedure or structure to fulfill the lesson
aims efficiently. Besides that, the steps of an English language lesson have
become standardized and the timings of the following steps should act as a
guide:
Warm-up
This part of the lesson is relatively
short. It takes approximately about five minutes. It is sometimes called
‘revision’ or ‘pre- presentation’. The purpose of the stage is to activate,
refresh, sensitize, revise and check the Ss knowledge, skills, and experience for
warming up or the teacher may take a quick oral check on homework exercise. The
role of the teacher at this step is prompter, assessor and helper. It is an aid
if this leads into the new lesson, but it is not necessarily always something
taken from the previous lesson. When the teacher writes his/her
lesson plan, should think carefully about what he/she wants to revise. At this
part of the lesson neither the student nor the teacher should be writing, moreover
we should encourage the students to interact with each other, not only with you
the teacher. So, what are the types of
interaction? The types of interaction applied are (T-S), (T-S), (T-S), (S-T), (S-S),
(S-G). Therefore, wherever possible, the students should be a asking as well as
answering questions. Always the good lesson begins with the student and ends
with him.
Presentation
This is the second step and it takes
form ten to fifteen munities approximately for 40-minute-lesson. The teacher
presents the new material paying attention to teaching new vocabulary or
structures concepts, and concepts. As well as, introducing new content, which
include new themes or topics with accurate language, pronunciation or spelling.
On the other hand, the students must:
- be ready for the new language.
- understand the new language.
- know which aspects of the new language are important.
- remember the new language long enough to start practicing it.
Teacher Time Talking (TTT) is
necessarily more than the Students Time Talking (STT) as the students do little
talking, however they are not at all passive. This is because the beginning of
presentation is completely teacher-centered. Emphasis here is on accuracy. The
teacher must be very keen to accurate language, pronunciation, meaning and
written form. Students may copy the new language with model examples to their
copybooks whenever it is needed.
Presenting New Language
The teacher must make sure that the
students already know the vocabulary of the new structure that will be presented.
Each new item must be presented in sufficient and clear enough contexts to make
the meaning utterly clear. Two of the most useful ways of presenting structures
are the dialogue and contrasting pairs of sentences, “the main concern at this
step should be the teaching of the spoken language specially for the early
levels, and for many of rationales dialogues seem to be best suited for this
purpose because they :
- present the spoken language directly in situations in which it is most commonly used ;
- permit and encourage the learners to practice the language in the same way;
- encourage active participation in the lesson (Byrne 1986: 23)
Presenting New Words
Presenting new vocabulary needs a certain
technique to be stuck in the students’ memory. Students should grasp the
meaning of the new word at the same time as they learn the pronunciation. Sound and meaning should go together
in the students’ minds, as closely as possible, from the first moment that they
meet a new word to help immediate understanding. New words must be presented in the context of
structures or sentence patterns that the students already know well.
Almost the new words must be presented
in more than one context to make the meaning clear. This is called multiple contextualization
which is an vital technique in presenting new vocabulary. Moreover,
presentation is always memorable if it uses several senses (e.g.
hearing, seeing, touching, even smelling and tasting). Try to give a number of different kinds of
presentation, do not always use explanation. Try to use more than one of the students’
senses in most presentations. The
following is a list of different techniques of presenting new words. It is advisable for the teacher to use two or
more in the same presentation:
1. Visual aids (including
simple blackboard drawings)
2. Gestures, mime and acting,
3. Real objects (Realia)
4. Multiple Contextualization,
5. Explanation in English,
6. Contrast with words the students know (opposites, synonyms…
etc.)
7. Prefixes and suffixes on known words (happy, unhappy, happiness)
8. Demonstration (e.g. in
– on- under – above),
9. Translation (rarely used and only when an exact equivalent
exists. it is probably better to use this to confirm that the students have
understood correctly – but do not even do this very often.
10. Sound Effects (is not common, but sometimes very helpful)
Practice
This
step comparatively is the longest one and it may take up to fifteen minutes, ever
since the students need a lot of practice with the newly presented
language. The practice stage will
usually begin with mechanical choral drills and will progress through
substitution drills to controlled pair work.
The
role of the teacher at this stage serves as monitor and facilitator. The
teacher provides the students with the maximum amount of practice and does a
minimum amount of talking. He/she starts with highly controlled drills and
gradually moves to less controlled and semi-free practice. In other words, s/he
progressively reduces her/his control over what the students practice. On the
other hand the students’ role is to do most of the talking - practicing for
themselves the already presented material. Thus, (TTT) is evidently less than (STT).
o
When the students work in
groups and pairs, the teacher takes the role of a monitor while visiting the
various groups.
o
In the practice stage,
repetition and application are important.
o
They should also make use
of their new knowledge authentically. Emphasis here is on the balance between
accuracy and fluency. The teacher would correct only major errors and mistakes
committed by some students using various correction techniques.
Production
This
stage may take up to ten minutes. The teacher’s role at this stage is to act as
a guide, adviser or authority, providing the student with well prepared
activities for free expression. He should concentrate on free and communicative
practice; if the students cannot use the new language in an accepted way for
themselves then they have not learnt the new language. He should not interrupt to
correct the errors, but to jot them down to be corrected in a remedial session.
.
On the other hand students’ role is to
exchange ideas, talk to each other directly and not via the medium of the
teacher. They are almost independent and and the process should be exclusively student-centered.
Emphasis is on fluency and free expressions. Higgens & Bates, (1984: 15) explain
that “…in doing this, (the students) draw on their own knowledge and experience
and so make the language more personal to themselves. The importance of the
activity is that students are using the language to make personal contributions
to their peer, group or class”.
Consolidation
This
step can come either before or after the production stage and may last ten
minutes more. It does not matter, but the important thing is that - at some steps
of the lesson - the students will have to write something, in order to
consolidate what they have learnt. This may involve exercise from the workbook
or copying model text from the board or any teaching aids.
Evaluation
This step is the final one and it should
not exceed five minutes. The teacher is highly responsible to check that the
students have understood what he/r has just taught them and met the lesson plan
aims. The evaluation may be concept questions; written homework; or a quiz. The
teacher must explain the homework which is relevant to what has been learnt. Every
lesson should be ended with this kind of activity to get the students involved
in the language most of the time since the language is foreign and need more practice
or exposure so as to be learnt better. All exercises should be written and answers
should be in complete accurate sentences.
These steps can be used to write all of
the best EFL lesson plans; including lesson plans for reading, writing,
speaking, listening and grammar even if the teacher uses the modern technology.
Conclusion and Pedagogical Implication
If
we ask ourselves what is ‘a good lesson plan’, the answer will be what has been
generally agreed among educationalist that a ‘good’ lesson plan usually should cover
at least the following features:
o
Experienced attention to
routine affairs such as taking attendance, checking seating, lighting,
ventilation, picking up waste papers, clothing …etc.
o
Revision of work done
during the previous lesson.
o
New material, introduced in
a variety of ways and linked with what has done earlier as well as a variety of
presenting techniques and a selection of tasks.
o
Cycling and testing of the
new material.
o
Time for students,
questions and inquiries.
o
Homework and extra
activities for more exposure.
o
The presentation is not a
monologue by the teacher
o
During the presentation and
practice stages, Ss’ books should be closed.
However, a lesson plan should always
be flexible. In the classroom things hardly ever go according to prescribed plan.
Consequently, the teacher should not be adamant to do what is only in his preparation,
but he should be witty to deal with unexpected conditions.
Not less than seventy percent of the lessons taught
should have the above format of planning, but not all; the teacher may want to
spend a lesson developing skill- using a cassette/video tape or a film for the
whole lesson or text. Furthermore, the lesson may consist of a number of
mini-presentations or the whole lesson may be revision.
The following
table below is an attempt to summarize the main points which have been declared
in our lesson planning. The above format is for a ‘typical’ lesson –
recommended not obligatory
Table 1
Tabulating the Steps of a Typical Lesson
|
STEP
|
TIME
|
PURPOSE
|
TEACHER’S ACTIVITIES
|
STUDENT’S ACTIVITIES
|
|
REVISION
|
5
|
Warm up
Prepare
Motivate
Refresh
Test
|
Asking questions
Eliciting
Joking
Chatting
|
Chatting
Talking to teacher
Talking to each other
Listening
Settling down
|
|
PRESENTATION
|
10
|
Explain new language
|
Explaining Drawing
Demonstrating
Miming/Acting
Asking questions
Checking understanding
Writing up model examples
|
Listening
Watching
Thinking
Responding to teacher
Copying model examples
|
|
PRACTICE
|
10-15
|
Make Ss use the language
|
Instructing
Listening
Encouraging
Correcting
Monitoring
|
Talking to teach other
Listening
Monitoring each other
Practicing
Working
|
|
PRODUCTION
|
10-15
|
Ss use the new language
communicatively
|
Instructing
Monitoring
Listening
Checking
|
Communicating
Inventing
Listening (tape)
Role-play
Speaking
Correcting each other
Reading a text / dialogue
|
|
CONSOLIDATION (+HOMEWORK)
|
5
|
Reinforce Ss understanding
through writing
|
Monitoring
Checking
|
Writing up
Writing exercises
Guided writing
Paragraph writing
|
References
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Dangerfield, L. (1985). ‘Lesson planning’, in Matthews, A, et al (Eds), At the Chalk Face: Practical Techniques in Language Teaching (pp 18-23). London: Edward Arnold.
Doff, A. 1988. Teach English: A Training Course for Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University press.
Harmer, J. (1983). The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman,
Higgens, J., and Bates, M. 1984. The Nile Course for the Sudan, Harlow, Essex: Longman.
Hill, L., and Dobbyn. (1969). A Teacher Training Course, London: Cassel EFL.
Kailani, T, and Mugattash, L. (1995). ELT Methodology (2). Amman: AL Quds Open University.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (1986). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. New York: Oxford University Press.
Marland, M. (1975). The Craft of the Classroom: A survival guide. London: Heinemann.
Matthews, A. (1985). ‘Choosing the Best Available Textbook’, in Matthews, A, et al (Eds.), At the chalk Face: Practical Techniques in Language Teaching, (pp 202-206): Edward Arnold.
Richards, J. (1985). Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics: Longman.
Read, C. (1985). Presentation, practice and
production at a glance. In S.A. Matthews, M. Spratt & L. Dangerfield
(Eds.), At the chalk face: Practical techniques for language teaching
(p. 17). London: Edward Arnold.
