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Many English speakers who try to teach English as a second language find that there is much more to successful ESL teaching than just knowing the language. They struggle to become effective teachers who can successfully help their students overcome the many, difficult challenges of learning to use a second language. Effective ESL teachers and classes typically demonstrate a variety of key characteristics. It is the successful combination of these characteristics that makes a teacher or class effective. In this unit we will focus on one invisible but essential characteristic of effective ESL teaching—lesson planning.
The following “scripts” represent the words and thoughts of (a) some adult English language learners speaking in their own native language (although their words here appear in English) after their English class, (b) a teacher in front of an ESL/EFL class, and (c) another teacher in front of a similar ESL/EFL class.
Scenario A. How would you feel if you heard your students saying these things about you and your class? What could you do to overcome the problems they mention?
Scenario B. What were some of the problems you noticed that this teacher had (or might have) as a result of not using lesson plans? (Here are some problems and potential problems that others have noticed: aimless wandering, failure to achieve objective, needed teaching materials or equipment not available, and poor connection with the preceding or following lessons.)
Scenario C. In what ways was this teacher’s lesson presentation better than the previous one? What did this teacher do right? (Her lesson connected with the previous one. She stayed on task and on target. She had the materials she needed for the instructional activity.)
If you don't plan your lessons properly you may fall into several traps: Your teaching may wander aimlessly without ever achieving its objective, and you and your students may never achieve the goals of the course. You may show up to teach and find that you didn't bring the necessary materials or equipment. Also, what you teach one day may not relate to what you taught earlier and it may not lead to what you will teach later. In sum, lack of planning can lead to the following consequences: poor or reduced learning, frustration (for both the teacher and the students), and wasted time, effort, and money. Can you see why lesson planning is an essential part of good teaching?
The three objectives of this unit are to help you…
Lessons that are well planned are more likely to help students and teachers avoid frustrations, prevent unpleasant surprises, stay on track, and achieve their objectives.
Lesson planning also allows the teacher to visualize (and, therefore, better prepare for) every step of the teaching process in advance. This visualization typically increases teacher success. A well done lesson plan can also save your class if for some reason you can't be there to teach. The lesson plan will provide invaluable guidance for the substitute teacher. Further, lesson plans also provide a record that allows good, reflective teachers to go back, analyze their own teaching (what went well, what didn't), and then improve on it in the future. In addition, this record will save you time in the future. When you teach similar lessons you can refer back to your old lesson plan (kept on file) and "recycle" the successful elements instead of starting "from scratch."
Here are some experienced teachers’ comments about lesson planning:
In sum, although it requires an investment of time and energy, lesson planning produces many valuable benefits. Don't you think it's worth it?
What should an effective lesson plan look like? What elements should it contain? Many different formats for lesson plans exist. Some teachers prefer one format; others prefer different ones. That's fine. They reflect different purposes and styles. After you become familiar with various formats and their elements, you can choose (or create) one that best fits your own teaching purposes and style.
Here are several examples of different lesson plan formats (just the "skeletons"). Look them over. See if you can pick out the elements common to many of them. Also, look for elements that may be unique to a particular format. Think why these elements may (or may not) be useful.
Objectives
Materials needed
Class activities
Contingency plan
Homework
Evaluation
Introduction
Instruction
Practice (with feedback)
Review or Summary
Evaluation/Testing
Warm-up/Review
Introduction to the New Lesson
Presentation
Practice
Application
Content to be covered
Materials
Activities
Background information on class/students
Objective(s)
Pre-assessment
Learning/Teaching activities (list steps and time required for each)
Evaluation of students
Assignment
Topic of this lesson:
Objectives:
Materials needed:
Time
Summary/Conclusion
Next time (preview)
Assignment(s)
Contingency plan(s)
What were some of the elements common to most of these lesson plans? (Try to come up with at least five.) (Answer: Here are some of the common elements: objectives, pre-assessment, materials, warm-up, presentation, practice, evaluation, application.) Now test yourself. Which of these are NOT normally elements of a lesson plan?
IntroductionObjectivesExperimentReviewRecessEvaluationWarm-upMaterialsSharing time
By now you may be wondering, "But what do all these titles mean? What are objectives, and what makes them important? What is pre-assessment, and how do I do it? How are warm-up, presentation, practice, evaluation, and application different?" Those are very important questions. Here are some definitions, descriptions, explanations, and examples that may answer them and help you understand the ten different elements found in most effective lesson plans.
Before you can prepare a lesson you need to know something about the background of the students you will teach. Here are some questions you might want to find the answers to before you plan your lesson:
Learning about students' background (especially their ability level) through testing, observation, etc. is often called pre-assessment.
The topic is what the lesson is about. Possible ESL lesson topics could include greetings, colors, handwriting, etc. That's pretty easy to understand.
Objectives, however, are a bit more difficult. Good objectives specify the new skills that the students will gain as a result of the lesson. They focus on student (not teacher) behaviors.
Here is an example of a good objective for ESL teaching (this one is a functional objective): Students will use socially appropriate greeting expressions in role play situations (for example, "Hi!" for friends in a casual setting, and "How do you do?" for first-time acquaintances in a formal setting).
Here is another example of a well written objective for ESL teaching (this one is a pronunciation objective): Students will distinguish between English /s/ and /z/ sounds when they are used in sentences spoken naturally. They will choose the right picture card from a pair (e.g., ice and eyes) when they hear the spoken sentence "I like blue ice." or "I like blue eyes."
Here is one more example of a well written objective for ESL teaching (this one is a grammar objective): Students will understand the difference between simple present tense (e.g., "We eat.") and present progressive tense (e.g., "We are eating.") and use these tenses appropriately when they complete the worksheet accompanying this lesson.
Can you imagine the teaching problems you create for yourself when, in the middle of a lesson, you realize that you don't have the materials or equipment you need? The materials needed section of your lesson plan will prevent such problems from occurring. It functions as a "checklist" that will remind you about things you need to take along with you to class.
You create this list by writing down needed items as you go through the process of planning or "envisioning" your lesson step by step. Then, when your lesson is planned, the list is complete. Shortly before going to class, you merely consult the "materials needed" list to make certain that you have everything you need. Using this section of your lesson plan properly will ensure that you won't find yourself in the middle of class without the equipment or materials you need.
Some lessons begin with a warm-up. Others start with a review. It is even possible to start with both a warm-up and a review. It all depends on your class situation.
A review connects the current lesson with previous lessons by going over points that were taught or learned previously. For example, "Last time we learned about introductions…" Good reviews are not teacher dominated. Rather, they allow the students to demonstrate what they learned and what they remember. For example, "Kyoko and Maria, please show us what you remember about introductions by coming up here and pretending you are meeting each other for the first time.” The review often leads into the current lesson. For instance, as a follow up the preceding example review, the teacher might say, “That's great! You did a good job with casual, informal introductions. Now today we are going to learn how to introduce ourselves and others in more formal situations.” Do you see how a review can also serve as a warm-up?
In some classes, such as those where a different group of students shows up each time, a review is not an appropriate way to begin. A warm-up activity is still needed, however.
The purpose of a warm-up is to help students get in the mood for class. A warm-up may be necessary to "wake them up," make them happy to be there, or to set the tone for what will follow. A warm-up may take many forms. It can be a question, or a story. It might involve showing the class a picture and drawing them into a discussion. Use your imagination and creativity, but keep the warm-up connected to the lesson that will follow. For example, continuing the example lesson above (on introductions), the teacher might say, “What do you see in this picture?” (Students respond.) “Have you ever been to a really fancy party like this one?” (Students respond.) “How would you introduce yourself to other people in this kind of situation?"
Introduction and presentation go together because the introduction usually leads right into the presentation phase of the lesson. They are still separate parts, however, because they accomplish different purposes.
The introduction provides interest and motivation to the students. It focuses students' attention on the lesson and its purposes. It also convinces students that they will benefit from the lesson. There are many ways to present an introduction. Here are a few:
The presentation phase of the lesson is when the teacher introduces new information. The teacher guides the presentation, but there may be student input or interaction. The presentation may be inductive (where examples are presented and the students draw conclusions based on them), or deductive (where the teacher states a rule or generalization and proceeds to explain or illustrate it), or some combination or variation of inductive and/or deductive. Whichever method is used, during the presentation phase, the teacher…
Above all, when teaching English to people whose English skills are limited, it is essential to ensure that students understand the presentation by making your speech comprehensible (see Unit #10 “Adjusting your spoken English to make it comprehensible”). Perhaps most important of all, when checking students comprehension, it is not enough to ask, "Do you understand?" They will usually nod their heads or say, "Yes," even when they are lost. Rather, have them do something to show that they understand.
For example, here is what an ESL teacher might say during the presentation stage of a lesson on the pronunciation of /s/ and /z/: “In English, there are two sounds that may sound the same to you, but they are actually quite different. They are "sssss" and "zzzzz." When you make the first one, "sssss," there is no vibration in your throat, but when you make the second one, "zzzzz," it feels like there is a bee in there. Put your fingers on your throats and repeat after me: "sssss" "zzzzz" "sssss" "zzzzz." Can you feel the difference? Jorge, let's hear you make the two different sounds.
Practice is an absolutely crucial part of almost any ESL/EFL lesson because the purpose of language teaching is almost always to build students' communication skills. When your students are communicating in English, they will need to use English grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation accurately and fluently, but they will also need to focus on what they are saying, not how to say it. Therefore, if they are to communicate successfully, their language skills must be developed to the point where they can use them naturally and automatically, without even thinking very much about them. That takes plenty of practice! Building skills is very different from teaching content. For example, if you were teaching history, you would probably teach content. You would teach your students about history. You would expect them to understand history, but you wouldn't usually expect them to go out and make history. In contrast, you do expect your ESL/EFL students to use English outside of class sooner or later. That's usually the ultimate purpose of the class. They need to communicate. If they are to do that, you must build their communication skills in class, and that takes practice. To summarize, don't confuse skill teaching and content teaching and merely teach your students about English. Give them plenty of opportunities (in and out of class) to practice their English skills.
This practice should take many forms. It needs to be varied just to keep students' interest high. Too much of the same kind of practice can be boring and reduce their motivation and enthusiasm. (Other units in this program present many different ways to provide practice that will build your students' language skills.)
This practice also typically follows some sort of progression. One type of progression goes from guided practice (where the teacher controls the students' responses) to free (where the students choose and create what they want to say). Another type of progression is based on a classification of language learning activities in three categories: mechanical, meaningful, and communicative. (See unit #18 “Creating and using exercises for mechanical, meaningful, and communicative practice” to learn more about this important classification system.)
Evaluation may sound a bit scary, but it doesn't have to be. Evaluation doesn't always correspond to testing. Evaluation can and should be carried out both during and after instruction. It may be both formal and informal. Informal evaluation done during instruction is often the most useful and influential type. (Formal evaluation done after instruction [testing] confirms whether the teacher and students have successfully accomplished the objectives, but its results often come too late to do the students much good.)
Here are some ways to carry out informal evaluation during the presentation and practice phases of instruction:
Formal evaluation is a bit beyond the scope of this unit. It typically involves either creating or selecting an appropriate language test and then administering, scoring, and interpreting it. (See units 36 “Choosing and using general proficiency tests” and 37 “Developing valid and reliable measures of student achievement” for some information on this topic.)
Whether it is informal or formal, evaluation is an essential part of every lesson and should be included in your planning.
The application part of a lesson is also essential to effective language teaching. After you have introduced and presented a new language skill and your students have practiced it, the lesson is far from over. You must evaluate the students to make sure that they are performing the new skill correctly and then provide activities that require students to take what they have practiced in class and try to apply it correctly in "real life" situations. (This is especially important in ESL teaching situations. See unit 2 “The differences between teaching English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL)” for more information on this distinction.)
These "real life" situations may be in-class or out-of-class, or both. Here are some examples:
When you plan your lessons, don't forget to bridge the gap between your classroom and the "real world" outside of class by providing appropriate application activities.
A contingency plan is not absolutely necessary, but it's always a good idea to have some idea of what you will do if things don't go as planned. In fact, most of the time your lessons will probably not proceed exactly as you have planned them.
Many things can happen in the course of a lesson that will require you to do something differently than you had planned. In such cases, flexibility (and a well thought out contingency plan) will save your lesson from disaster.
As you plan your lesson, you ought to think of things that could possibly happen as you teach it that would require some sort of adjustment. For instance, if your lesson's too short, you've got to have something to fill in that extra class time. If it's too long, then you've got to quickly modify things so that you don't give your students homework on something they haven't covered. If it's too hard, then you have to slow down your pace. If a section's too easy, you need to skip through it, and have other activities to fill in the extra time. A common thing that happens is that some students don't do the homework, so you need to have a contingency plan for what you will do when that happens. Write your ideas for those adjustments in the contingency plan section of your lesson plan. Then, if you have to make changes, you will be ready.
One of Murphy's laws is "If anything can go wrong, it will." However, with some flexibility and a good contingency plan, you can survive almost any unexpected classroom situation.
Self-evaluation is a very important part of every lesson even though it typically takes place after the lesson is over. It requires you to think back on the lesson and consider the answers to questions like these:
Your self-evaluation comments may be written in a space on your lesson plan, or in a separate teaching log. For ideas on what to write, see the self-evaluations in the example lesson plans given below.
In the rush of teaching, you may be tempted to skip self-evaluation. There are always plenty of other, pressing things that need to be done. But if you don't evaluate yourself, you will be the loser. Self-evaluation is a powerful tool that will help you become a better teacher. Reflecting on and evaluating your teaching after a lesson is over will give you insights that may save you lots of trouble later. Even a few brief evaluative notes on a lesson plan will help you immensely the next time you teach that lesson. You will be surprised how much you forget if you don't write your ideas down, and you may end up making the same mistakes over and over. Also, you will be surprised at how just a few minutes of reflective writing can help you discover things you would have otherwise not noticed. Regularly evaluating your teaching in this way will eventually lead you to develop a solid understanding of the language teaching process. Time spent doing self-evaluation is time well invested in your teaching future.
Knowing about the different elements of lesson planning is important, but you must still decide which elements are important to your teaching and create a lesson plan that works for you.
Before you do that, here are some additional guidelines that may help you decide which elements to put in your future lesson plans and how to organize them.
A good lesson plan…
In addition, a good lesson plan is…
A good lesson plan may also…
Here’s one more important point: You don't always have to stick religiously to your plan (even if it is well made). As we saw earlier, in the “Contingency Plan” section, flexibility is an important characteristic of good teaching. When circumstances warrant deviating from your plan, it is perfectly fine to change it.
Here’s a lesson plan template you can use to get started and modify later as needed.
Lesson Plan TemplateClass: ____________Date_____________
If you will be teaching a class soon, think how you might be able to find the answers to pre-assessment questions such as those given in the “Background” section above before you actually meet the class (and before you plan your lessons). Whom could you contact? What questions would you ask?(Hint: Here are some possible sources of background information that may be useful in pre-assessing your students: the person who asked you to teach the class, previous teachers of the class, scores from placement or screening tests given to the students, members of your students' ethnic or native language group.)
Instead of videos, this unit has three sample ESL or EFL lesson plans prepared by experienced teachers. Of course, your lesson plans will not (and should not) look exactly like these samples. Each teacher has a distinctive lesson plan that reflects his or her particular teaching situation, objectives, and style. You will probably have to experiment to find the format that works best for you.
After you have looked at these three lesson plans, respond to the reflection questions at the end.
Background Information
Objective: Students will learn and practice basic vocabulary used when filling out job application forms
Materials Needed:
Warm-up/Review: (estimated time: 5 minutes)
Introduction: (estimated time: 5 minutes)
Presentation: (estimated time: 20 minutes)
Practice: (estimated time: 10 minutes)
Teacher circulates around room, observing, and helping as needed.
Evaluation: (estimated time: 5 minutes)
Application: (after class)
Contingency plans:
Self-evaluation (written in teacher's log after lesson)
Topic:
Background:
Materials:
Warm-up:
Introduction:
Presentation:
Practice:
Summary:
Assignment:
Self-Evaluation: (written in teacher's log after lesson was taught)
New vocabulary:
Warm-up: (3 minutes)
Presentation: (12 minutes)
Practice: (25 minutes)
Evaluation: (concurrent with last part of practice)
Summary (and expansion): (10 minutes)
Contingency plan:
Self-evaluation comments:
Here’s where you get additional information on the topics presented in this unit.
A number of lesson plans made by TESOL students are in a lesson plan database on the World Wide Web at
To learn more about lesson planning, check out the Web-module at
Here are some good textbook sources for additional reading on lesson planning in second-language teaching:
"Planning Lessons and Units" by Katherine B. Purgason, pp. 419-431 in Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (2nd ed.) edited by Marianne Celce-Murcia (New York: Newbury House, 1991).
Planning Lessons” by Linda Jensen, pp. 403-414 in Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (3rd ed.) edited by Marianne Celce-Murcia (Boston: Heinle & Heinle, 2001).
Snow, Don. (2006). More than a native speaker: An introduction to teaching English abroad (rev. ed.). Alexandria, Virginia: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. ISBN 978-193118532-5. Chapter 5 ‘Lesson planning and classroom survival,” (especially pp. 75-80).
Cross, David. (1999). A practical handbook of language teaching. New York: Prentice Hall International. ISBN 0-13-380957-9. Chapter 11, “Planning Lessons.”
Nunan, David (ed.). (2003). Practical English language teaching. New York: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary. ISBN 0-07-282062-4. Chapter ???
"Unit C: Preparing Lessons" in Teaching: No Greater Call (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1978).
If you have suggestions for other resources (books, websites, etc.), please send them toTLYSK@byu.edu
*Here's how we might have responded to these questions:
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