CHAPTER 8: PLANNING A LESSON In this unit we will look at how to set about planning a lesson. It is important for you to
engage in some form of planning for each lesson. At the beginning, planning will take a
lot of time; it might even take longer than the actual lesson itself! However, all is not
bleak; with time you will get more experienced and you will be able to plan much more
quickly, pulling out lesson plans and activities you have already used. Many
experienced teachers plan their lessons in no time at all.
First of all, let’s take a look at the benefits of having a good lesson plan. The plan will
give you aims for your lessons; it will remind you what to take with you when you go in
to class; it will give you guidelines whilst you are in the classroom and it will prevent
you from drying up while you are there. Having a plan will also provide your lesson with
structure; whilst the students might not notice this, they will certainly notice if your
lessons lack structure.
The format that your lesson plan takes will depend on many factors: the situation you
are in, how much time you have and even how long you have been teaching. Speaking
for myself, my lesson plans are more a series of notes; I note which pages and
exercises of the course book I’ll do with my class; I also note supplementary activities
and language to pre-teach or focus on. I think about how much time each activity will
take but probably don’t write everything down on the plan. But then I have been
teaching for over 14 years; when I started out, my lesson plans were very different!
Some teachers might go into class with no plan at all; others might go in with just the
course book and work through it page by page. Lesson plans are very much a case of
what works for you and the situation you find yourself in. They are possibly the most
personal and individual part of teaching
The comments below will help you consider the aspects that should be included in
lesson plans or at least considered during the planning stages. In some settings it is
necessary to produce a very detailed plan; for example, if you are being observed as
part of a course or as part of a school evaluation. If your plan is to be used in a
situation where you will be tested or observed, I suggest you check with your tutor or
assessor exactly what they would like to see in your plan. I can give guidelines but
different people and different situations require different aspects to be covered.
The things to consider when planning a lesson are: