Creating really great lesson plans is what can make or break teachers. Anyone can cobble together a lesson plan, but creating an effective one which meets the requirements of your learners is the tricky part. Here are just 10 simple things you can do to create the perfect lesson plan:
1- Think about the outcomes
It sounds simple right? But it’s really easy to get tempted into using activities that you think are fun but don’t have any relevance to what you are teaching. You need to make sure that the activities and games you’re using have some purpose. Start by thinking of what you want to achieve from the lesson, ask yourself these questions:
- What do you want your students to learn?
- How will you asses the learning?
- What levels of students are you teaching? Will the activities work for everyone?
- What age are you teaching?
2- Decide the method(s) you are going to use
It’s really important to decide on the methods you are going to use to teach the content of your lesson. For example, are you going to use group discussions, individual reading or lectures? Using a combination of these is usually the best way: beginning with an introduction to the lesson, followed by a group discussion or activity then a recap on what has been learnt. You need to give a lot of thought on this to make sure you choose the most effective methods for your lesson.
3- Think about what you will need
Now you have decided what methods you are going to use in your lesson, you need to think about what materials you are going to need. There is nothing worse than realizing you have forgotten a vital material which will make your lesson work! Write a list of everything you will need and get everything together in time for your lesson.
4- Create back-up activities
You might think the activities you have planned will take just the right amount of time and with a bit of luck they will! However, there are always times when some students are super quick and finish sooner than others, so it’s a great idea to have some extra activities tucked up your sleeve to use in an emergency! There are some handy activities you can use here.
5- Create a key vocab list
Make a list of the key vocabulary that you want to introduce in the lesson. Use this list in your activities and tick off each word once you have included it. By doing this you can make sure your students are learning all the key words you want to introduce. To make that vocabulary stick, try some of the activities in this ‘Sticky vocabulary’ article:
http://www.onlinetefl.com/tefl-chalkboard/i-to-i/posts/2791-sticky-vocabulary
6- Plan your board
It sounds really simple, but you would be surprised at how many teachers don’t use the board effectively. Plan what is going to go where on the board. For example, you might want a list of key objectives on one side of the board and key words on the other. Make sure you think about how you will organise it so it is neat and tidy!
Make sure your board doesn't end up looking like this!
7- Plan but don’t over-plan
You could spend a full day creating what you think will be the best lesson plan since sliced bread! But then as soon as you step into your class it all goes to pot. So you can actually enjoy your time overseas, rather than spending every minute planning lesson, you should spend just enough time so you know exactly what you want to achieve from the lesson and how you will do this. You don’t need to plan for every possible eventuality!
8- Think about potential problems
When you’re creating your lesson plan, have a think about potential problems that could occur. You don’t need to consider every single possible problem, just think of the main things that your students may struggle with and think of a way to overcome them.
9- Use all the resources available to you
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel! There are already some great activities and games out there that you can incorporate into your lessons, which will save you loads of time when it comes to planning lessons. There are some great resources here:
http://www.onlinetefl.com/tefl-chalkboard/groups/21-TEFL-Lesson-Plans
http://www.onlinetefl.com/activities-book/
10- Evaluate
Once you have written your lesson plan, ask yourself the following questions:
- Have the original objectives been met?
- Are the activities appropriate to meet the objective?
- Does the lesson work for different ability levels?
Once you have completed the lesson, you could ask for feedback from your class so you know how effective the lesson was for your students! This is a great way to get honest feedback and you can then focus on what works best for your students in your next lesson!
What do you do when creating your lesson plans? Post your tips below!
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