Back to Lesson Planning Overview
If we consider our teaching situations, we may remember times when we have had little idea of what we were going to teach before we walked into the classroom, and other times when we have been required to complete a formal lesson plan detailing objectives, types of interaction and the timing of activities. For most of us, planning everyday lessons falls somewhere along this continuum. Look at the diagram below (adapted from Harmer 2001). Where would you place your own lesson planning on this continuum?
Gliffy.com
Looking at the diagram, experience has shown us that it is never good to 'wing it' when it comes to using technology in the classroom. Imagine if the computer lab is not available that day! We cannot expect to follow a coursebook either as we are utilizing the latest tools available on the web to create activities relevant to our own situations. It is helpful, then, to have a lesson plan of some sort. There are four key reasons for this.
- Lesson plans allow us to determine what we would like our students to achieve from participating in the lesson. These intended student achievements are often called 'learning objectives'. Sometimes, introducing a new tool can distract from the learning objectives. Articulating the objectives for the lesson should allow us to keep the focus on student learning and not get distracted by the details of the web tool.
- Lesson plans are useful for managing the many tasks are involved in during a lesson. In addition to 'setting-up' at the computer lab, working with web 2.0 tools typically requires registration and following a number of specific steps. By accurately noting the procedure for these tasks, essential information can be given quickly and we can move expediently to the learning activities.
- Lesson plans also allow us to keep a record of our best laid plans. These can serve as models to implement or reflect on in the future.
- For the purposes of this session, posting lesson plans on our blogs will allow all of us to offer suggestions and feedback.
For these reasons, we would like you to develop a lesson plan for integrating web tools as part of this session. As mentioned, your peers and the moderators will comment on your plans, but they will not assess them in any formal capacity. Therefore, a formal lesson is NOT advised. We think that the extra (time-consuming) polish is not really necessary. We would like to focus on the lessons rather than the lesson plans---The Enhancing Lessons Team.
Harmer, J. 2001. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Essex: Longman, p. 311.
Comments (7)
rogeriopaescosta@... said
at 7:57 am on Jan 14, 2009
Hi again!
I must confess my planning would be somewhere between the first two triangles: no preparation or closely follow the coursebook. Since I only teach on my own (private classes) I wonder if other private teachers prepare lessons in a different way. (I guess working for a school/institution kind of 'forces' you to plan more formally and stick to it).
Looking forward to hear from you.
Rogerio
rogeriopaescosta@... said
at 5:44 am on Jan 15, 2009
(hearing)
Juan Soto said
at 6:47 am on Jan 16, 2009
Hi,
I would say that working for an institution forces you to lesson plan. In my particular case I have gone into the classroom with a formal lesson plan. Many times this plan does not match minute by minute the way it was intended. What I have opted to do is go into the classroom with detailed notes and some other times with a rough plan. One thing I would never do is to face my students without a plan, an idea of how I would like the class to flow. Of course, when questions or extra explanation of a concept or additional help is needed, then I tend to be flexible concentrate on my students' needs regardless what my original lesson plan was.
Does anyone else do this (step out of their lesson plan to help their learners) for their students?
Juan
Nina Liakos said
at 8:43 am on Jan 17, 2009
Rogerio, I tutor advanced students in writing at home. I never have a lesson plan! I have them bring something they have written to the lesson and we go over it, dealing with grammatical and lexical issues as they arise. For my part-time job (teaching intermediate grammar to adults, one 2-hour class per week), the lesson is set up (from this page to that page) and the book is familiar, so I never even give it a thought before I walk into the classroom. For my full-time job, where I have to present and achieve specific learning outcomes, I always have a plan (weekly objectives, daily objectives) but my plan tends to specify what to cover (lessons, pages) or activities (e.g. learn to add a comment to a classmate's blog) but not to specifically mention the learning outcomes I am trying to accomplish. This is my goal for this session and this semester: to get into a better habit of started from the learning outcomes and planning backwards.
yatzirig said
at 9:07 pm on Jan 17, 2009
Well I confess that I'm an improvisation expert jeje, the deal is that where I work we've been using the same text book for more than 5 years and I'm kindda fed up with it since it's very repetitive throughout each one of the series of books, so I rather teach the same "structures" with a different approach and under real english. I begin with a video or an audio and there we build knowledge ( or at least that's what i guess we're doing). We have fun and I find that my students like a different approach to the same topics. So I'm between the first and the second triangle. :D
Nina Liakos said
at 8:36 am on Jan 19, 2009
Dear Yatziri,
When you are stuck with a boring textbook, this is the best way to go! And after five years of doing the same thing, you probably have tried-and-true lessons memorized. I am like you! The question I have for myself is whether I might be more effective or more interesting if I tried something new, planning for it in advance.... but on the other hand, my most successful lessons are often those that just happen off-the-cuff, going for the "teachable moment" rather than being planned beforehand.
zoubair said
at 5:21 pm on Jan 20, 2009
Hi!
At the private school where I work, we're not forced to deign lesson plans. But I personally feel more confident when I have designed one. I rarely refer to it during the lesson except for details at times. Over the past few days, I've tried to incorporate mainly Youtube bideos that are related to the topics under study. Students are more attentive when watching these than they are with textbook materials.
Cheers.
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