Lesson Planning

Lesson planning and preparation can take an hour or more for every hour of teaching, but the time required will be reduced as you gain experience, plan lessons that carry over week to week, and find good teaching materials such as textbooks or online lessons.

How To Plan A Lesson

Whether you use published ESL resources or plan your lesson from scratch, you will need a basic structure. With some experience, you may only need to jot down a quick list of topics and activities and then gather your materials together, but especially for new teachers, it's usually helpful to write a complete lesson plan. Consider the following framework.

• Goals/Purpose
  Decide which communication skills you wish to develop. Will you focus on reading? writing? listening? speaking/pronunciation? a combination of these? In what context? Consider a useful application for the language you will practice, things such as taking phone messages, using the post office, or interviewing for a job. These types of specific skills are sometimes referred to as "competencies." Seemingly non-interactive themes like gardening or holidays are fair game, as long as you integrate communicative activities.
• Beginning
  It's often a good idea to begin with some kind of warm-up activity to help the learners focus on English and block out the distractions of daily life. This doesn't necessarily need to be connected thematically to the rest of the lesson, but it's nice if it is. Warm-ups usually take 5-15 minutes and practice material the learners already know. Avoid new material in a warm-up because the goal of a warm-up is to diffuse inhibitions and help students transition into English thinking and speaking. A game-like atmosphere can help capture student interest, or you may choose a quick review of the last lesson or homework. When reviewing, ask learners what they remember and then fill in missing pieces rather than simply summarizing the last lesson for them.
• Middle
  Most of your meeting time will probably be spent focused on one or two themes. Present new material and give learners a chance to practice it thoroughly. You may want to include pair or group work, silent reading/writing, games, or conversational discussion. Your lessons will be more interesting if you use real-life materials to support the text. For example, if the lesson theme is telling time, bring in a large clock with adjustable hands to demonstrate with. Show a video of a job interview, bring in a rental application, play a recorded clip from the radio, share photos of your family. Try to incorporate something outside of the textbook or printed lesson every time you meet.
• End
  Especially if the lesson content has been challenging, end by reviewing what what was covered as well as what the learners already know. By finishing with something familiar, learners will leave with the impression that English isn't too difficult after all.

You can use the following reproducible worksheet to design a thoughtful and complete lesson plan. You may choose to omit a section or add activities based on the time you have. Use the "Time" column on the worksheet for estimating the amount of time you wish to spend on each section. If you find during your lesson that your estimate was incorrect, you can adjust by adding or cutting another activity. New teachers frequently over-estimate the time needed for an activity, so it's wise to have some backup ideas to fill in leftover time. Write any handouts or real-life objects you will need in the "Notes/Materials" column.

• Lesson Plan Worksheet
  Blank photocopiable lesson planning worksheet.

Lesson Preparation

The first step of preparation is to plan your lesson. Once you have decided what to teach and how to teach it, look at your lesson and think about ways to expand it, and make note of what else needs to be done before your class. What can you bring to add interest? What will you photocopy and how many copies will you need? If you copy double-sided and have an odd number of pages, is there something fun like a cartoon or tongue twister you can put on the last blank side?

In addition to preparing a specific lesson every day or week, it's helpful to build yourself a collection of potential ESL resources to draw on as needed. Think about upcoming holidays or future themes in your textbook. Create an organized storage system from the beginning or you may find your growing collection of pictures, handouts, and games becoming unmanageable. Label all important personal items with your name. Here are some ideas for lesson preparation:

• Gather Basic Teaching Items
  These will make planning and teaching easier.
  • Good textbook or lesson (perhaps from the Internet)
  • Small white board with pens, if you don't have access to a classroom board
  • Blank paper (a student may ask for some)
  • Regular or picture dictionary
  • List of extra activities to fill leftover time (see the Activities section of this guide)
• Collect Useful Materials
  Be sure to protect your materials because they may be handled many times. Slip paper materials into page protectors or magnetic photo album pages, glue them onto card stock, or laminate them.
  • Cut out magazine pictures
  • Select photographs of a vacation, family members, etc.
  • Collect travel brochures and public service pamphlets
  • Save interesting newspaper or magazine articles
  • Save cartoons or humorous drawings
  • Borrow library books with pictures, such as children's stories or travel guides
  • Collect blank note cards or postcards for students to write on
  • Consider board or card games
  • Bring children's building blocks or legos
  • Bring objects like clothing, fruits, a clock, canned food, etc.
  • Find relevant handouts on the internet (see the Lesson Materials section of this guide)
• Make Your Own ESL Materials
  Creativity helps, but you don't need to be a creative genius to make useful materials to accompany your lessons.
  • Write simple quizzes
  • Write dialogs and role plays
  • Write tongue twisters to focus on a problem sound
  • Create crossword puzzles using vocabulary words
  • Make alphabet or vocabulary flash cards
  • Create games, drawings, posters, etc.
  • Use a craft with your lesson, such as cutting snow flakes or decorating Easter eggs
• Use Available Technology
  If you have access to a TV and VCR, cassette/CD player, overhead projector, or even a computer, use them to bring variety to your lessons. Always be prepared with a non-technical backup activity should your equipment unexpectedly fail.
  • Videotape TV commercials or news clips, or borrow a library video
  • Copy outlines, diagrams, cartoons, etc. onto overhead transparencies
  • Tape record a few minutes of radio talk
  • Choose a popular song to play and make a worksheet of the song lyrics with missing word blanks; if you use a cassette, record the song 2-3 times for easy playback
  • Play background (instrumental) music while students work on an activity
  • Find a website your students can use for ESL activities (see the Further Resources section of this guide)

Lesson Planning Tips

Lesson planning will help you teach with confidence. The longer your class session, the more important it is to have a good lesson plan. Here are some tips to consider.

• Plan Alternative Activities
  Always have one or two alternative activities in case the material you've selected doesn't take all the time you thought it would. How will you fill an extra 10 minutes? 20 minutes?
• Build on Previous Material
  Try to continuously practice material that you've covered recently. It's often possible to teach the same theme several sessions in a row which can help ingrain vocabulary and concepts.
• Balance the Challenge of Content and Activity Type
  If your content is challenging, choose activities that are relatively easy to do like fill-in-the-blank exercises or guided discussion questions. If your content is fairly simple, try more challenging activities like role plays or problem-solving.
• Create Your Own Materials
  Build your own library of materials to support your lessons. You can find several ideas in the Lesson Preparation section of this guide. Be creative. If you invest some time into developing and collecting materials, you'll cut down on your preparation time when you are actually planning lessons.
• Center Lessons Around the Student
  Keep the focus on the learners and minimize the time you spend talking as a teacher. In other words, make the lesson as interactive as possible. Focus on communication.
• Assess Needs
  Periodically take time to think through your particular learners' needs. Think about cultural factors as well as language deficiencies. This can help you prioritize what you choose to study. Are any of your students dealing with culture shock? What kind of language skills might help alleviate it? Try asking the students themselves what they would like to learn.
• Keep a Log
  After each class, write a brief log of what you did. Include notes about what worked or didn't with ideas for improvement. Write down specific page numbers you covered in a textbook. You could also keep your lesson plans collected together, making sure to write notes on them about the success of various activities and whether you modified the lesson during class.