LESSON PLAN EXAMPLE

Background Information	Date:	November 5- 2015
	Course Level:	Basic 1
	Time:	9:30 to 11:30 a.m
	Main Aims	GENERAL OBJECTIVE: •Talk about jobs and places to work. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE: •Students will ask and answer questions about different types of jobs using the present simple.
	Materials:	Handout worksheets “JOBS”, posters, flashcards, textbook, CD
Stages of the lesson	Time Frame	Procedures	Stage Aims	Aids and materials	Interaction pattern
	10’	Warm Up/Review		Handout worksheets “JOBS” Posters flashcards	·         Set students in pairs. ·         Tell students they are going to receive a word search about jobs. ·         In the copy they have to find and circle the listed jobs. ·         Ask students: “what is the activity?”, “What do you have to do”. ·         Hand out students copies of “Jobs” worksheet. ·         Allow students 5 minutes to do this activity. ·         Check students’ answers once they have finished.
	5’	Introduction	To introduce the new topic	Posters flashcards	·         Before the class start stick pictures of different jobs and places of the city on the walls of the classroom.
	30’	Presentation activities	To have students understand asking and answering questions about jobs and places to work.	Posters  flashcards	·         Ask students: What do I do? ·         Elicit full answers: You are a teacher. ·         Point to one of the pictures. (Waiter). ·         Ask students: What does he do? ·         Elicit: He is a waiter; from the students ·         Ask: Where does he work? ·         Elicit: He works in a restaurant; from the students ·         Mime a doctor checking a patient. ·         Ask students: What do I do? ·         Elicit: You are a doctor; from the students. ·         Ask: Where does he work? ·         Elicit: He works in a hospital; from the students. ·         Choose other flashcards and repeat the drilling.
	65’	Practice	To have students practice asking and answering questions about what people do and where they work	Flashcards  Textbook  CD	·         Direct students to their textbooks. ·         They need to go to page 9, activity 3. ·         Students are to match the information in columns A,B and C. Point out that in column A, they will find the jobs, in column B, what people do at work and in column C, the workplaces. ·         Ask students: what is the activity about; What do you have to do? ·         Allow students 5 minutes for this activity. ·         Check students answer once they have finished. ·         Hand out each student, a new flashcard with an occupation in it. ·         Instruct students to invent new information for them: name, last name, job, place of work, hobbies. ·         Ask for a volunteer to ask you the questions: What’s your name? ; What do you do?:  “Where do you work?” ·         Have students walk around the classroom, introducing themselves and asking and answering the new information.
	10’	Evaluation	To check students understanding of the new topic.	Board Markers	·         Write on the board some words of the new vocabulary with the letters the wrong order. ·         Have students unscramble the letters and get the right words. e.g.  F-C-E-H (chef). ·         Have students work in pairs and come to the board and write the answers

      FOUR COMPONENTS OF A LESSON PLAN

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

What students should know and be able to do after the 45 minutes of instruction?

These are specific “instructional objectives” and create a clear lesson focus. In classes with high percentage of ELL’s list “language objectives” as well as the subject’s content objectives.

Standards from the curriculum frameworks are much more global and usually represent long-range objectives. It is common practice to visually post the lesson focus objectives in the same spot in the classroom for students to see daily.

Many teachers also display the standards.

TEACHING ACTIVITIES AND STRATEGIES

These should tie back to and support your objectives. These are the planned events and interactions that will take place during the 45 minutes of instruction to support achievement of the objectives.

These include specific instructional techniques such as demonstration, pair shares, pre-scripted questions, problems for students to solve or tasks to work on. T

his section done in outline form or format of 2-3 columns is useful. How will the lesson begin? Include a “hook” or motivator for students.

A variety of strategies is almost always desirable (perhaps three different instructional activities during the 45 minute class with planned transitions).

The strategies should be strategically sequenced and based on time available.

List time allotments for the different segments of the lesson. How will you “conclude” the lesson and summarize or integrate the learning?

ASSESSMENT

Description of how student learning from the lesson will be assessed.

Include “in-class-during-instruction” assessments such as oral questioning, moving about and observing students in work groups, collecting summary paragraphs or problem sheets at close of lesson.

There will also be longer range assessments if appropriate (homework, quiz or test, project completion). But the lesson plan should include instructional assessments for the 45 minute class.

MATERIALS

                                 

Resources and materials needed to carry out the lesson. 

Handouts, video player, blank transparencies, maps, lab equipment, etc.

     Some people think that lesson plans severely restrict teachers’ creativity. 

      Do you agree? Explain your answer.

On the other hand, I think that a lesson plan helps teachers foresee troubles. When planning a class, teachers keep in my mind not only the topic they have to teach, but the kinds of students they have in class.

We all are unique individuals, and as so, we all learn in different ways. There are people who learn best by listening, others by seeing and reading, while there are others that need to have their hands on the objects.

My learning style is a balance between visual, active and reflective. Being visual the dominant one. I have taken several tests online and at work. The results of my tests did not take me by surprise. 

I understand things better when reading from a text than when being told hoe to do them.

After taking a short questionnaire, I also found that I prefer to learn with visual aids, such as pictures and graphs. Visual learners remember best what they see--pictures, diagrams, flow charts, time lines, films, and demonstrations

At work I always try to use what makes me feel more comfortable when explaining a topic. That is why I always display lots of colorful posters, pictures, charts on the walls on the classroom. 

Also I resort to short video clips and other technological tools. As a teacher I need to be aware that my students do not learn in the same way and that I need to incorporate different strategies and activities to make them suitable for each and every one of my students.

At work we have been given seminars and workshops to incorporate the new technologies in our classroom, to understand and get to know about the different learning skills of the students we have in class

      Do you think it is a good idea to strictly follow a lesson plan? 
      
      Why?

A lesson plan is a reminder of what teachers want/need to do and how they want to do it, but keeping in mind that, a productive lesson is not one in which everything goes exactly as planned, but one in which both students and instructor learn from each other.

I think that a planned lesson is just better because it keeps you on track and keeps the students on track. It gives a tangible sense of accomplishment, since it provides opportunities for your learners to take part in extended practice while using the language

It can help guide a fellow teacher in case of a substitution. It enables classes to run more smoothly.

Though a lesson plan should not be a straight jacket, we need to fit in. 

Because there are events and circumstances which we never be ready for, and in that precise moment is where our experience, and improvisation abilities cme in handy.

How important do you think a lesson plan is to a successful lesson? 

      
      What features do you think a lesson plan should include?

Planning for a class is an important and integral part of the complex activity of teaching. A lesson plan should provide teachers with a general outline of their teaching goals, learning objectives, and means to accomplish them.

A lesson plan is the teacher’s road map of what students need to learn and how it will be done effectively during the class time.

A good language lesson consists of much more than a series of activities and exercises that the teacher has put together to have students busy or occupy classroom time. It involves much more than simply presenting the material in your textbook, since student learning is correlated to teacher planning.

These should be the basic steps:

•      Perspective or opening

•      Stimulation

•      Instruction/participation

•      Closure.

•      Follow-up.

OUTLINE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Determine what you want students to learn and what they will be able to do by the end of class.

DEVELOP THE INTRODUCTION

Come up with a creative introduction to the topic, in order to create expectation, stimulate interest and encourage thinking

PLAN THE SPECIFIC LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Keep students´ motivation, learning styles and interests in mind, when preparing the activities for the class

PLAN TO CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING

Think about specific questions you can ask students in order to check for understanding, write them down, and then paraphrase them so that you are prepared to ask the questions in different ways.

DEVELOP A CONCLUSION AND A PREVIEW

Create an activity to go over the material just covered in class.

CREATE A REALISTIC TIMELINE

Allot specific time for each of the activities, keeping in mind, difficulty of the activity, students´ level, motivation, tech glitches.