Recommendations for Preparing Lesson Plans

Recommendations for Preparing Lesson Plans Updated: Nov 2010 by Warwick Thorn, Academic Manager, Teach International This document is in three parts. PART 1 Procedure to prepare a lesson plan from a topic.. Page 2-16 PART 2 Procedure to prepare a lesson plan from a course book unit or part unit..page 17-25 PART 3 Reminders and help on how to teach your lesson.page 26-37 Do not overlook this document, because there seems a lot of material. Depending on your practice teaching arrangement, you only need to follow either Part 1 or Part 2 and then you can use Part 4 for starter lesson plans. Part 3 is extra help. If you follow the step by step guidelines in Part 1 or 2 your lesson plans will come together with minimal stress - one step at a time! Grammar reference book At this point in your training, you need a grammar reference book. If you do not yet have a grammar book, you should buy one now! Visit a bookstore where there are ESOL resources for sale and ask for teachers grammar reference books (University bookstores are a good place to start). There are suggested Grammar reference books on page 124 of your TESOL manual. Have a look for one that you feel helps you. Try: Practical English Usage (3rd Edition) by Michael Swan, OUP. Grammar for English Language Teachers: With exercises and a key by Martin Parrot. CUP. ISBN: 9780521477970 A Practical English Grammar (4 th Edition) by A.J. Thomson & A.V. Martinet, OUP. ISBN: 9780194313421 Simpler grammar book If you also need a simpler grammar book, useful for setting student homework and for your own understanding of levels, try: Essential Grammar in Use Edition With Answers : A Self-Study Reference and Practice Book for Elementary Students of English (Paperback) by Raymond Murphy, CUP. AND English Grammar In Use with Answers and CD ROM : A Self-study Reference and Practice Book for Intermediate Students of English by Raymond Murphy, Cambridge. ISBN: 9780521532891 If you want something in between the above options, have a look at: Oxford Practice Grammar Basic, OUP. Oxford Practice Grammar Intermediate, OUP. Oxford Practice Grammar Advanced, OUP. Teach International 2010 1

PART 1: PROCEDURE TO PREPARE A LESSON PLAN FROM A TOPIC Back to top INTRODUCTION This resource will help you prepare lesson plans for your practice teaching component. This document will use the established approach in terms of lesson stages that we introduced to you during the in-class component. You will be shown how to construct a lesson plan starting with a topic in mind, establish a communicative aim and context, and only then to establish a grammar or linguistic aim. Generally speaking we will provide you with enough direction to prepare a good lesson plan and from your first lesson we will be providing ongoing feedback. If for your first lesson you are feeling really unconfident you can email us a draft lesson plan for commenting. However, after you have read this document you will likely think this is unnecessary. The trick to gain confidence with your teaching is to plan well, go over and over your lesson plan and then teach your lesson. This document is to help you plan well. Also to jump start you in the right direction, in PART 4, we provide you with some starter lesson plans. We also ask you to resubmit your lesson plan(s) along with reflection and observation tasks as part of your Cert IV units. You should also provide lesson plans to your practice teaching supervisor or the Director of Studies at the school, centre or institute where you are doing your practice teaching. PROCESS TO UNDERSTAND THE CONSTRUCTION OF A LESSON PLAN The process outlined below helps you construct a lesson plan starting from a topic and is focussed on designing a lesson with a communicative speaking emphasis. You will start by using a communicative aim as a primary aim and from a dialogue that you devise, establish a grammar/linguistic aim. There are various other ways to construct lesson aims, but you will see as you read through this document that using this approach enables you to be very clear about the communication you want to see students demonstrate at the end of the lesson. Using the communicative aim as a primary aim provides you with a method of discovering some useful grammar/linguistic patterns that you can also teach. Following on from the steps below there is a sample completed lesson plan provided. Teach International 2010 2

LESSON PLANNING STEP 1: Decide on your topic and start imagining a dialogue in that context Imagine that you were given the lesson topic of festivals. Whatever topic you have or choose, once you have decided on it, you can start imagining a dialogue in that context. It may help to google the topic on the internet. Imaging people talking about festivals in their country. That would be a common enough conversation, wouldn t it? You might think of talking about Australian festivals, but, no, don t do that because you ll be doing all the talking. Okay, so that is just some basic thinking on the topic for a likely common conversation that could be of interest for the students. STEP 2: Work out your communicative lesson aim It is common to have two aims for one lesson. The first aim should be communicative and the second being a grammar/linguistic aim. For the topic festivals here is a Communicative aim: Students will be able to talk about local festivals in Australia and in their own countries. Notice how this aim is somewhat specific. It is more specific than Students will be able to talk about events, which would not be specific enough and your lesson would likely wander. It is less specific than Students will be able to talk about South American festivals, which would limit you being able to apply the communication to an area of student interest. This Communicative aim guides your ideas for the activities of your lesson, will be reflected in the dialogue you come up with and in the free practice activity at the end of the lesson. STEP 3: Work out a dialogue related to the communicative aim From your Communicative aim you can come up with some kind of dialogue that represents the communicative aim. This involves you imagining what people in the real world would be talking about in the situation. For example, you can imagine people talking about festivals from different countries. This fits with your communicative aim, right? Now, type out what that dialogue might look like. It could look like this: A: Do you know about the Brazilian Carnival? B: Yes, they parade through downtown streets. A: Do they wear any costumes? B: Yes, really colourful ones. A: Is there any dancing? B: Yes, they like to dance and play music. A: Is there any special meaning behind the Carnival? B: Apparently they like to celebrate their culture and there is also a religious reason to say farewell to the pleasures of the flesh. We try and make this dialogue as natural as we can. Teach International 2010 3

STEP 4: Work out your Grammar/linguistic aim The second aim should cover dominant grammar/linguistic pattern of the language. To work this out, look at the dialogue for some dominant language patterns or structure. Let s underline where we can see some grammar/linguistic patterns. The two most common dominant patterns are grammatical and functional. There are more actually: 1 st look for a grammar or functional phrases and decide on the most dominant if you could not find a pattern 2 nd look for idiomatic expressions if you still cannot find a pattern 3 rd look for vocabulary (usually in specialist contexts like banking) if you still cannot find a pattern 4 th look decide on a pronunciation pattern Okay, so lets look for a grammar pattern or functional phrases and decide on the most dominant. Actually in this case we can see either would work. Don t confuse functional phrases with grammar though. For your lesson decide on one, whichever seems more dominant or useful to you. Grammatical focus A: Do you know about the Brazilian Carnival? B: Yes, they parade through downtown streets. A: Do they wear any costumes? B: Yes, really colourful ones. A: Is there any dancing? B: Yes, they like to dance and (to) play music. A: Is there any special meaning behind the Carnival? B: Apparently they like to celebrate their culture and there is also a religious reason to say farewell to the pleasures of the flesh. Functional focus A: Do you know about the Brazilian Carnival? B: Yes, they parade through downtown streets. A: What about costumes? Do they wear any? B: Yes, really colourful ones. A: How about dancing? Do they dance? B: Yes, they like to dance and (to) play music. A: Is there any special meaning behind the Carnival? B: Apparently they like to celebrate their culture and there is also as a religious reason to say farewell to the pleasures of the flesh. Whatever we call the underlined text is what your grammar/linguistic aim is. If you look for the pattern above in the index of your grammar reference book, you will find like + infinitives. Now, you can write your grammar aim as that or a slight variation such as like + infinitives (to dress/dance/march). In the case above we have focussed more on what we call functional language rather than on any structured grammar. This is why we call it a Grammar/linguistic aim - sometimes there are clusters of phrases that clearly perform a function or functions within the language. With functional phrases it is best to teach clusters of phrases to students and what the phrases are doing. Examples of functions are: Expressing preferences and obligations, Expressing feeling about a situation, Complaining and apologising with questioning, Describing other people and professions, Asking for and giving more detailed personal information, Describing different professions, Explaining habits, Describing past experiences. For teach of these functions you can imagine a few common phrases. If we thought we would like to teach the functional underlined parts above, we could come up with a functionally focussed Grammar/linguistic aim, such as: Phrases for asking for information (do you know, Teach International 2010 4

what about, how about, is there any ). It helps to put just a few examples of what you mean inside brackets. If when you look at your dialogue, you cannot see any grammatical or functional patterns, then look for Idiomatic expressions there may be a number of those, then Idiomatic expressions (,, ) can be your Grammar/linguistic aim. If you sill cannot find a pattern then look for vocabulary. Some dialogues, because of the context, will have a lot of new vocabulary. So then underline those, the Vocabulary (,, ) can be your Grammar/linguistic aim. Idiomatic expressions or new vocabulary are just as legitimate as a grammar or functional phrases. The point is to find a pattern and write it as your grammar/linguistic aim. If you still cannot find a pattern, then you can always make an area of pronunciation the focus of your Grammar/linguistic aim. For example see below PART 3>PRONUNCIATION WORK. A grammar/linguistic aim could just as legitimately be: Pronunciation (Weak Forms), or Pronunciation (consonant clusters) or Pronunciation (connected speech) or Pronunciation (word stress) or Pronunciation (sentence stress) or Pronunciation (body language) Summary Look at your created dialogue, to underline a pattern 1 st look for a grammar or functional phrases and decide on the most dominant if you could not find a pattern 2 nd look for idiomatic expressions if you still cannot find a pattern 3 rd look for vocabulary if you still cannot find a pattern 4 th look decide on a pronunciation pattern There are examples of these different types of aims below under PART 4 Starter Lesson Plans. Let s revise. In summary, you have used the following order: STEP 1: Decide on your topic and start imagining a dialogue in that context STEP 2: Work out your Communicative aim STEP 3: Work out a dialogue related to the communicative aim STEP 4: Work out your Grammar/linguistic aim Teach International 2010 5

STEP 5: Pre-teaching vocabulary work Consider what vocabulary the students may struggle with and pre-teach it at the beginning of your Target Language stage. The vocabulary to focus on is that which could cause confusion for the students. The idea is to teach vocabulary before the point where you need to use it, so the students can generally make sense of the general script. In-fact before any activity at any part of your lesson check if there is any vocabulary that will confuse and pre-teach it. After that, begin the activity. Let s look at our dialogue and list some words that may need to be pre-taught. For example: Pre-teach: Carnival, parade, downtown streets, costumes, special meaning, apparently, celebrate their culture, religious reason, pleasures of the flesh. A: Do you know about the Brazilian Carnival? B: Yes, they parade through downtown streets. A: Do they wear any costumes? B: Yes, really colourful ones. A: Is there any dancing? B: Yes, they like to dance and play music. A: Is there any special meaning behind the Carnival? B: Apparently they like to celebrate their culture and there is also a religious reason to say farewell to the pleasures of the flesh. Teach International 2010 6

STEP 6: Work out Form and Use (Rule) of the Target Language (language you have underlined) Oh, dear, yes. Not only do you highlight some Target Language, by underlining, you do actually need to understand it. You can achieve this using grammar reference books and also using the internet to find out about the grammar. You might be confused at first, but once you think it through, you will realise that you do intuitively understand it. At the end of this process you will decide on a minimal summary of what we call the FORM and USE to put on the board during the Target Language stage of the Lesson. Okay, it does seem a bit unfair - you might spend even up to an hour working it out and then in the lesson cover it in a few minutes. Form is the way words are constructed and word order. USE explains how and when we use it. Grammar Reference books always have headings, then they list the FORM, then they list USES. So, as long as you can find the grammar point in your book you will find information on the FORM and USE. But there will be a lot of information on each. In the case of Use there are often a number of USES that are listed. You don t teach it all just select a little of the FORM to cover in your lesson and one of the USES. TIP: Don t try and guess this, or you will get it wrong and the students will know it! Use grammar books and the internet until you are clear. Here we show some form and meaning that you could select from your grammar book if you are teaching a grammar point. If you chose a functional focus the grammar book will not help you. In that case you drop your phrases into substitution tables, name the table and add similar examples. Doing this serves the same purpose to make clear the FORM (word order) and USE (how and when we use it). Grammatical focus A: Do you know about the Brazilian Carnival? B: Yes, they parade through downtown streets. A: Do they wear any costumes? B: Yes, really colourful ones. A: Is there any dancing? B: Yes, they like to dance and (to) play music. A: Is there any special meaning behind the Carnival? B: Apparently they like to celebrate their culture and there is also a religious reason to say farewell to the pleasures of the flesh. Grammar/linguistic aim: Like + infinitives (to dress/dance/march). FORM Like + infinitive (to dress/dance/march) MEANING they like to dance is close to they like dancing the difference is: to dance has more focus on the thing being done in a specific context. In this case the specific context is the Brazilian Carnival like dancing expresses more the enjoyment, so is better for talking more generally about your personal likes. Functional focus A: Do you know about the Brazilian Carnival? B: Yes, they parade through downtown streets. A: What about costumes? Do they wear any? B: Yes, really colourful ones. A: How about dancing? Do they dance? B: Yes, they like to dance and (to) play music. A: Is there any special meaning behind the Carnival? B: Apparently they like to celebrate their culture and there is also as a religious reason to say farewell to the pleasures of the flesh. Phrases for asking for information (do you know/what about/how about/is there any). FORM AND MEANING To ask about knowledge Do you know Have you heard about Have you ever seen anything about To ask for more detail What about costumes? How about To ask if something exists Is there any Is there a NOTE: During the Target Language stage of your lesson this will go on the board and you can refer to it, not in great depth, but enough to clarify the FORM and USE of the underlined target language. NOTE: During the Target Language stage of your lesson this will go on the board and you can refer to it, not in great depth, but enough to clarify the FORM and USE of the underlined target language. Teach International 2010 7

Don t get too carried away. Don t include all the detail you will find. Just try and simplify your point as succinctly as possible. Expect that students already know this and you are just revising, because students usually have an in depth understanding of grammar - more than the teacher. Your role is just to show the link where this target language is used in a context of communication. Don t get too carried away. Don t include all the detail you will find. Just try and simplify your point as succinctly as possible. Expect that students already know this and you are just revising, because students usually have an in depth understanding of grammar - more than the teacher. Your role is just to show the link where this target language is used in a context of communication. STEP 7: Decide on some concept checking questions (CCQs) for the Target Language: General CCQs (for the context) and Specific CCQs (for the underlined target language) Now, you have the text on the board you need to ask some concept checking questions (CCQs) to help with understanding. We are going to go from general to specific like a funnel. General CCQs (for the context) These are general questions to check the students understand the general situation/dialogue. Naturally, they need to understand this first, before focussing on the specific meaning of any underlined target language. Here is our sample dialogue again. A: Do you know about the Brazilian Carnival? B: Yes, they parade through downtown streets. A: Do they wear any costumes? B: Yes, really colourful ones. A: Is there any dancing? B: Yes, they like to dance and play music. A: Is there any special meaning behind the Carnival? B: Apparently they like to celebrate their culture and there is also a religious reason to say farewell to the pleasures of the flesh. Here are some example General CCQs for the context: What is a carnival? Here is a picture of a Brazilian Carnival. What can you see in it? The meaning behind this carnival is in the last line. What does celebrate mean? The meaning behind this carnival is in the last line. What does farewell to the pleasures of the flesh mean? Teach International 2010 8

Specific CCQs (for the underlined target language): These will be possible, because of the prior work you have done to establish the USE. Let s work some Specific CCQs out for the grammatical and functional options, so you can see the difference. Grammatical focus A: Do you know about the Brazilian Carnival? B: Yes, they parade through downtown streets. A: Do they wear any costumes? B: Yes, really colourful ones. A: Is there any dancing? B: Yes, they like to dance and (to) play music. A: Is there any special meaning behind the Carnival? B: Apparently they like to celebrate their culture and there is also a religious reason to say farewell to the pleasures of the flesh. FORM Like + infinitive (to dress/dance/march) MEANING they like to dance is close to they like dancing the difference is: to dance has more focus on the thing being done in a specific context. In this case the specific context is the Brazilian Carnival like dancing expresses more the enjoyment, so is better for talking more generally about your personal likes. Functional focus A: Do you know about the Brazilian Carnival? B: Yes, they parade through downtown streets. A: What about costumes? Do they wear any? B: Yes, really colourful ones. A: How about dancing? Do they dance? B: Yes, they like to dance and (to) play music. A: Is there any special meaning behind the Carnival? B: Apparently they like to celebrate their culture and there is also as a religious reason to say farewell to the pleasures of the flesh. FORM AND MEANING To ask about knowledge Do you know Have you heard about Have you ever seen anything about To ask for more detail What about costumes? How about To ask if something exists Is there any Is there a Specific CCQs What do you think the difference between like to dance and like dancing is? One of them expresses more enjoyment. Which one? TIP: At this point students may raise all sorts of odd questions. Some of them you will know because the research you did when working out the grammar and you can answer the question. If a student asks you a tricky grammar question, you have two choices: a) ask them to give you an example in a sentence, then write that sentence on the board under the correct sentence from your dialogue. E.g., 1. they like to dance 2. they like dance to Specific CCQs If you want to ask me if I know something about a carnival of festival in your country what would you say? Expected answer: Do you know.. Have you heard about Have you ever seen anything about Ask me if I know more about that? Expected answer: What about costumes? How about Ask me if something exists? Expected answer: Is there any Is there a TIP: At this point students may ask about other phrases. You can decide if they fit in the substitution boxes or not. If the suggested phrases do not fit in the boxes, you have two choices: Then ask the student to tell you why 2 is not correct. Often someone in the class can, and if not it becomes apparent to you and you can a) ask them to give you an example in a answer. In this case the answer is that, in sentence, then write that sentence on the English we have a verb structure called the board E.g., infinitive where to goes before the verb. Teach International 2010 9

If you cannot answer it b) write it on the left side of the board. Tell the student you will check for a proper answer because you want to tell them properly and there is not time right now in the lesson. Tell them in your next lesson. Ask some other teachers for the answer and tell them next time you see them. Can you tell me about Then ask the student to tell you why this does not fit in the boxes you already have. Often someone in the class can, and if not it becomes apparent to you and you can answer. In this case the answer is that, Can is more often used as a request when you think the person has the ability or knowledge to give it to you. You might even add a new substitution table on the board. E.g., To ask about knowledge where you are sure the person knows Can you tell me about What happens in If you cannot answer it, go to b) Same is left column. Another alternative which can help a lot in clarifying meaning is to eliciting words and phrases into a prewritten dialogue with gaps. This can be a little tricky because you will need to deal with students alternative ideas at the same time. Don t try this for your first lesson, but by all means try it for later lessons. The idea here is to encourage the students, as much as possible to give you what language they already know. For example: A: Do you know Brazilian Carnival? B: Yes, they through. A: any costumes? B: Yes, really ones. A: Is there any? B: Yes, they like to and. A: any special meaning the? B: Apparently they like to their culture and there is also a religious reason to say farewell to the pleasures of the flesh. You should still put something on the FORM and USE on the board, in the same way as above and ask General CCQs (for the context) and Specific CCQs (for the underlined target language). Teach International 2010 10

STEP 8: Think of media to create context (pictures etc) You can also add meaning and context by using media. In this case you might be able to download some audio of the carnivals, or at least pictures. Once you have some media related to the topic it can be used at any point in the lesson. STEP 9: Decide what pronunciation drilling work to do on the Target Language You should also drill the students in the pronunciation. There can be some variation from the steps we showed you on the in-class component/course: Level Beginners/Elementary Pre-intermediate Intermediate Upper-Intermediate Pronunciation drilling method Drill the whole dialogue Drill the whole dialogue Rather than the whole text, select a number of clauses or phrases to concentrate drilling on how the words join together when said in a natural rhythm. How to drill? Be a conductor! The purpose of drilling students is to get them to follow along with the sentence stress/rhythm. Have you ever seen a conductor jabbing the air for each note? No, they are waving their wand with the beat and rhythm. Likewise, you should not point at each individual word. If you are right handed, wave your hand like a conductor when you model saying the sentence and in just the same way while students are repeating. Remember Choral Individual drilling? It is also like a funnel: It also helps a lot to add stress markers to your dialogue To work these out, say the dialogue out to yourself a number of times, naturally and as you do you will start to hear the musical nature of what you are saying - the rhythm. Just put some dots on your lesson plan and on the dialogue on the board. This will help you and the students to stick to the rhythm as you also conduct with your hand. Another thing that can go wrong with drilling, is that the students start at different times. Again, you need to conduct them on cue to start at a sentence at the same time. Try using your other hand to signal a sentence cue in. Maybe you will do it naturally with your eyebrows. Maybe you will naturally start saying the words when you are gesturing them to repeat. Teach International 2010 11

Practice drilling in front of a mirror. Finish drilling off with a pair s practice of the dialogue. STEP 10: Design a practice activity, or activities (controlled) Take the dialogues text and turn it into either: a) a gap fill activity using a handout. b) a jigsaw with a student A and student B sheet, completed by back to back talking. c) Cut up the dialogue into strips so pairs have one speaker each, then ask them to match up the dialogue by reading them out (number the first two lines to get them going. d) Cut up the dialogue and distribute. Get the class to make up the dialogue, with the teachers guidance. e) A running dictation, where the dialogue, or the A or B part is on a wall at the back of the class. STEP 11: Practice activity (semi-controlled - free) Now, you might think of another activity where the students can use the language in a freer way. So far you have controlled the language the students have been using and for those you had pre-designed the dialogue. This semi-controlled free activity should match the communicative aim. In our example the communicative aim is: Students will be able to talk about local festivals in Australia and in their own countries. For semi-controlled free activities you can design some prompt or role play cards that will enable the students to do exactly what the communicative aim says. Don t worry about thinking about the Grammar/linguistic aim, because it will naturally flow out of the conversation. For our example, you could have some cards with some more pictures of festivals, with some facts about the festival on the other side of the picture. While an A student can see the picture and ask questions about it, the B student can answer by constructing sentences from the facts on their side of the card. In this case, you need to think of how the activity would work. There will need to be a rule that the students have to face each other for the activity. Note any rules in your lesson plan. You would demonstrate it with you being A and B or with you as A and a confident student as B. Once you have demonstrated it, set them up to practice in pairs. You should still have the target language on the board and remember you are hoping they will use some of the underlined text in this activity. So, while you are demonstrating, keep an eye on the target language and even point when you happen to use some of the target language. The students will do the same during the activity and you will likely be very pleased with the result. The result is seeing your aims realised! Your students using the new language in a real world context! Once you set the activity in motion, you can facilitate by going around helping them by echo correction if they make grammatical or pronunciation errors. An alternative is to go around writing down some errors you hear. Then for the take up, write them on the board, working with the students to correct the errors. Teach International 2010 12

STEP 12: Possible extended reading or writing activity NOTE: If you are teaching a one hour lesson, do not do this, because you won t have time. Only do this if you are taking a class for two or more hours. You might build in extended reading and writing activities to your lessons. For this lesson, you could have a reading activity from a magazine on festivals or perhaps an online article, that you can copy and paste into a Word document with your exercise questions added. For writing you could get students to write an email home to describe a festival or other event they have experienced. These are just an example of ideas you come up with your own. STEP 13: Warmer Now, think of a warmer for starting the lesson. In this example we are looking at festivals, so maybe you could ask for volunteers to talk about festivals in their countries. Because you will have done some research you would know the names of a few. Another idea could be to play some music from festivals or carnivals and ask them to guess where the music is from. STEP 14: Review and Homework Review: If you taught the class before you could add a review into your lesson. Otherwise, see part 3 of this document there are specific examples of how to include some pronunciation work in addition to drilling (Page 29-32). If you are going to teach them again you could add a homework section. But if it is an extra class, it may be too much to expect them to do homework in that case set some really easy homework, such as to have a similar conversation with someone during the week. STEP 15: Write up your lesson plan and prepare any materials Now that you have your lesson plan stages, (Warmer, Review, Target Language, Activities, Homework) you should write up your lesson plan. Also you should prepare any resources, pictures or cards for example, or dialogue that you will use for your lesson. Let s just revise the steps: STEP 1: Decide on your topic and start imagining a dialogue in that context STEP 2: Work out your Communicative aim STEP 3: Work out a dialogue related to the communicative aim STEP 4: Work out your Grammar/linguistic aim STEP 5: Select a block of text for the Target Language stage of the lesson STEP 6: Elicit the target language (possibly to a substitution table) for the Target Language STEP 7: Decide on some concept checking questions (CCQs) for the Target Language: General CCQs (for the context) and Specific CCQs (for the underlined target language) STEP 8: Think of media to create context (pictures etc) STEP 9: Decide what pronunciation drilling work to do on the Target Language STEP 10: Design a practice activity, or activities (controlled) STEP 11: Practice activity (semi-controlled - free) STEP 12: Possible extended reading or writing activity STEP 13: Warmer STEP 14: Review and Homework STEP 15: Write up your lesson plan and prepare any materials Teach International 2010 13

SAMPLE COMPLETED LESSON PLAN This sample lesson plan is expanded from the one on page 357 in your TESOL course manual. This is because we are asking you to take into account a number of additional issues: The aims section has been added so that you are asked to have a communicative as well as a grammar/linguistic aim, the activity stages have been split to define controlled and semi-controlled activities, a pre-teaching vocabulary section has been added, optional reading and writing sections have been added, with notes on when to include them. NOTE: Remember also that if you are teaching children the stages are broken up differently as per page 358 of your TESOL course manual. Lesson Plan Teacher: Date: Level: Pre-intermediate Time: Room: Age: Teens/Young Adults/Adults Topic/Theme: Festivals Communicative aim: Students will be able to talk about local carnivals and festivals in Australia and in their own countries. Linguistic/Grammar aim: Like + infinitives (to dress/dance/march). Stages Activities and notes Resources Warmer Play some music from carnivals and ask them to guess where the 5 minutes music is from. Review Target Language (Drill-work) 15 minutes From something you have taught them before or some pronunciations. Pre-teach vocab: Carnival, parade, downtown streets, costumes, special meaning, apparently, celebrate their culture, religious reason, pleasures of the flesh. Carnivals pictures on whiteboard: Dialogue to board (add sentence stress dots, now or just before drilling) recorded music, player Matching meaning with word cards 3 sets of pictures Model General CCQs: What is a carnival? Here is a picture of a Brazilian Carnival. What can you see in it? The meaning behind this carnival is in the last line. What does celebrate mean? The meaning behind this carnival is in the last line. What does farewell to the pleasures of the flesh mean? Teach International 2010 14

CCQs specific: Can we say, they like dance? Expected answer: NO Can we say, they like to dance? Expected answer: YES Can we say, they like dancing Expected answer: YES, actually. Can anyone tell me the difference between they like to dance? and they like dancing in this dialogue? Expected answer: <maybe someone answers correctly> Explain the difference by reading out the difference as written under USE below. USE (rule) to the board USE they like to dance is close to they like dancing the difference is: to dance has more focus on the thing being done in a specific context. In this case the specific context is the Brazilian Carnival like dancing expresses more the enjoyment, so is better for talking more generally about your personal likes. FORM to the board: FORM Like + infinitive (to dress/dance/march) Activities (Controlled) 10 minutes Drill Model, Choral, individual Drill part of the target language [just a part for pre-intermediate level]. Choral individual drilling. A: Do you know about the Brazilian Carnival? B: Yes, they parade through downtown streets. A: Do they wear any costumes? B: Yes. And they like to dance and play music. Pairs practice A: Do you know about the Brazilian Carnival? B: Yes, they parade through downtown streets. A: Do they wear any costumes? B: Yes, really colourful ones. A: Is there any dancing? B: Yes, they like to dance and play music. A: Is there any special meaning behind the Carnival? B: Apparently they like to celebrate their culture and there is also a religious reason to say farewell to the pleasures of the flesh. Check answers correct in pairs, then as class. Two sets of multiple cards: Question and Answer cards on different carnivals. Pre-teach vocab Centrepiece, formal dress, flashy, betting, sweep stakes, attendance. Matching meaning Teach International 2010 15

5 minutes with word cards Activities (Controlled) 10 minutes Activities (Semicontrolled - Free) 15 minutes A: Do you know about the Australian Melbourne Cup Day? B: Yes, it is a horse race held in Melbourne and the centrepiece of the Spring Carnival. A: How do people dress when they go to the race? B: They wear formal dress with the women wearing colourful and flashy hats. A: Is there much betting? B: Yes, around Australia, people run sweep stakes and there is a lot of celebrating. A: Is there any special history behind the Melbourne Cup? B: It started in 1838 and in 1865 it became a public holiday in the state of Victoria, with the biggest attendance being 120,000 people. The total prize money is over four million dollars. Students find information about carnivals and events, by asking questions. Rule: Students back to back. Student s answering can only answer direct questions and offer hints. Take-up: Get questioning students to summarise to the class. Echo correct language as needed. Two sets of multiple cards: Question and Answer cards on different carnivals. Cards with more pictures of carnivals form the countries where the students are from - information on the other side of pictures. Reading 15 minutes Writing 30-45 minutes Homework Possible extended reading activity Students to answer questions on article based on a magazine article on an Australian Carnival or Event. Students to answer three main questions (skimming for gist) on topic. Students to answer three questions on details of the text (scanning). Elicit opinions on meaning Possible extended writing activity Write about a festival or event in your own country or one that you have attended in another country. Check students understand and each has topic. Help with planning 5 minute time limit for first draft Look at drafts and help with ides and indicate areas for students to correct. Prepare for a class presentation on any carnival, festival or event Source info and pics form the Internet Magazine article on an Australian Carnival or Event. Also refer to your TESOL manual: Unit 6: Lesson Planning and Syllabus>How to make a great lesson. Unit 2: English An International Language>Lesson Plan Model. Unit 9 Activities. Teach International 2010 16

Want the above format? Copy and past this into a Word document. The Starter Lesson plans in section 4 can also be selected and pasted into your own word document. Lesson Plan Teacher: Time: Date: Room: Level: Age: Topic/Theme: Communicative aim: Linguistic/Grammar aim: Stages Activities and notes Resources CONCLUDING REMARKS If you can check these off you are ready to teach: I have researched the topic. I have prepared my Lesson Plan. My aims are clear. My target language is clear. If it was my first lesson I have had some feedback on it and updated it as necessary. I have checked out the grammar in a grammar book or online and considered variations that students might spring on me. Each stage is clear and I have the resources prepared for each stage, ordered so when I get to the class I can locate the bits I need for each stage. I have worked out where I am going to do my practice teaching and how to get there with about 30 minutes lead time (time to meet/find any people involved + 15 minutes before hand to set up the classroom. I have some professional looking clothes to wear. You don t really need luck, now, but good luck anyway! If you feel nervous realise that as long as you have checked off this list, it will be just fine. Teaching is a bit of an art, so there will always be things that you can improve. That is the nature of it. After the lesson, reflect on what was positive and what you can improve and realise that you are now teaching real ESOL students. Your TESOL experience has begun. Teach International 2010 17

PART 2: PROCEDURE TO PREPARE A LESSON PLAN FROM A COURSE BOOK UNIT OR PART UNIT Back to top INTRODUCTION This resource will help you prepare lesson plans by adapting and adding to course book units or part units. To do this we need to explore the lesson aims to ensure your adaptations and/or additions are relevant and meet the needs and interests of students. When we do this, we will retain an emphasis on communicative aims. This is because we are considering the communicative aim as more important than the grammar/linguistic aim. The idea of your language teaching is to teach students to use the language and that use is serve the students needs and interests. Grammar/linguistic content, as with vocabulary and pronunciation is a building block to enable the students to use English. Therefore the communicative aim should be the dominant aim. Procedure: Step 1. Decide what unit or part unit is being covered from the course book. NOTE: Often a unit will take up to three hours, so when we are looking at delivering over an hour, we need to decide what part of the unit is being covered. In this case we will agree to teach From English in Mind, Unit 7, p48-49: Teach International 2010 18

Step 2. Note the different focus in the unit, or part unit in the margin of the text book, using pencil or post-it notes. These will be: Speaking, Listening, Reading, Writing (to a model), Writing (creative), Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Task based. NOTE: Often units provide headings, which make this clear, as below. Units often cover a range of skills that are logically linked. Teach International 2010 19

Step 3. Note lesson stages in the margin of the text book, using pencil or post-it notes. Because many lessons are integrated skills lesson, there can be the full common range of stages. First, find the speaking focussed stages, then check for vocabulary and pronunciation stages. Thirdly, look for listening, reading and writing stages. Lastly, look for and any task based activity. Focus All lessons Speaking Listening Reading Writing (to a model) Writing (creative) Grammar Vocabulary Pronunciation Task based Stages to note in the margin of the text book, using pencil or post-it notes warmer, review, presentation, controlled practice, semi-controlled practice, free practice pre-listening, listening-gist, listening-detail, post listening pre-reading, reading-gist, reading-detail, post reading model, language work, imitate model brainstorm, structuring ideas Eliciting form, form, controlled practice, semi-controlled practice, free practice pre-teaching vocab, vocab development pronunciation Task based activity Teach International 2010 20

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Step 4. Write down the grammar/linguistic aim of the lesson or part lesson. The grammar is usually outlined in the contents page, however, there may be a grammar items covered over the unit. If you are teaching part of a unit work out which grammar is covered in that part and write it down as your grammar aim. Here is the information from the course book table of contents. This is the whole chapter, so unless you are teaching the whole chapter only one some of these grammar and linguistic areas may be covered in your section: You can look at the course book pages: So, here is your Linguistic/Grammar aim: Linguistic/Grammar aim: Make & do + Present perfect passive + Future passive If you like you can specify further, which could include some examples of the language: Make & do (eg make room for ) + Present perfect passive (Eg have been built ) + Future passive (Eg will be built ) OR it could require you to locate the particular use in your grammar reference book: Make & do (in collocations) + Present perfect passive (past events with emphasis on subject) + Future passive (future events with emphasis on subject) Step 5. Write down the communicative aim of the lesson or part lesson. You can come up with a communicative aim by primarily describing production. It is determined by how the students will be able to use the language by the end of your lesson in order to achieve a communicative purpose. Note: The linguistic and grammatical patterns provide hooks as users build and manipulate language to achieve their communicative aims, so you won t expect to find your communicative aim by looking at the grammar, vocabulary or pronunciation areas. Look at the communication expressed by listening, speaking, reading, and writing. When we look at these we see that listening and reading are receptive ie we are receiving communication, and speaking and writing are productive ie we are producing language. Sometimes communicative aims are found in the receptive skills, where they are ends in themselves, but more often than not communicative aims are found in the productive skills of speaking and writing. If we focus on the productive skills of speaking and writing, we can see that the Communicative aim is : Communicative aim: The students will be able to discuss changes that will be evident in the future (9 Speak, space exploration, computers ) If we also take into account the preceding receptive skills we can see two aims: Communicative aims: The students will be able to understand views expressed about proposed town planning (5 Listening) + The students will be able to discuss changes that will be evident in the future (9 Speak, space exploration, computers ) Step 6. Form an opinion of what could be added or adapted while focussing on the communicative aim. Think about what might be boring, what their needs and interests are, what type of conversations, interactions, or writing can you imagine the students enjoying or needing. When doing this think of it as a matter of adaptation, rather than throwing out the course book material. The following ideas are related to the communicative aim/s and therefore generally need to be devised by the teacher. In most Teach International 2010 22

cases supplementary activity books are indexed by grammar point, which, though providing additional practice of the grammar structure, won t keep the lesson on task in terms of the communicative aim. By coming up with ideas focus on a communicative aim, you ensure students language production is geared to real world use. Firstly, you might adapt the content of activities: For the 5 Listen section, there could be an additional listening activity on expected town planning changes in the city where the class is being held. To get that you may need to find out information which you can then report to the class. and /or For the 9 Speak section, the topics could be changed to be more relevant to the interests and motivations of the students. For example, if the students are mid teens, the topics could be (your town, technology in our daily lives, social networking via the internet). Notice that these ideas are close enough to the original language focus and that we have not changed the skill. Secondly, you might change the skill of the activity: For the 8 Grammar: Future passive section, you could turn the Gap fill activity into a speaking activity. To do this you might type each sentence, so you have an A4 landscape sheet of all the sentences, with the same gap fills. Photocopy that and then cut the sentences in two, eg The town authorities have announced that a new sports centre (build) over the next five years. This could work with pairs of students having sets of half the sentences and the rule that they have to work out the complete sentence by talking (not looking!). The course book can be closed and then the take up could be by confirming the correct answers with the class to write into the course book. Notice that this idea is close enough to the original language focus and that we have not changed the skill. Thirdly, you might add a new activity: At the end of the 5 Listen or the 9 Speak section, there could be a reading activity cut out of a local English paper about some proposed town planning change. Dealing with it as a reading text the students could also discuss their ideas of the proposed change. This discussion, then would be building confidence in line with the productive Communicative aim. Because, in this case we are adding something, the lesson will take longer and we might want to drop something out which we don t think is important. Possibly you could drop out the whole 7 Grammar section. Step 7. Form an opinion of what could be added or adapted while focussing on the linguistic/grammar aim. There are a number of supplementary activity books which are indexed by grammar point. If you feel any of the grammar points presented in the course book need further work, you can explore reference these for interesting additions or adaptations of ideas. Teach International has published two resources: Treasure Trove of Tricks for TESOL Teachers (TTTTT), which offers a number of game activities which can be indexed by grammar point and works across a number of levels. Best Basic Book for Building Beginners (BBBBB), which suggests a number of game activities which can indexed by grammar point and works for lower level classes. Step 8. Design your adapted or new activities. Go ahead and design the resources for your changes. It can be that you have been too creative and in reality need to thin down your ideas, simply because of the work required. In some cases resources are photocopiable and in other cases you will need to develop the resources yourself. Teach International 2010 23

Step 10. Write up your lesson plan. Use the following format. Refer to the completed example, in PART 1 of this document. Remember that although you have the course book to rely on, writing up your lesson plan will consolidate in your thinking how you will deliver the lesson. KEY: Black font is taken from the course book. Red text is from the lesson stages that were worked out. The purple text is added to enhance Ss understanding of the grammar rules. Blue are activities, that are either adapted or added, as per discussion above. Lesson Plan Teacher: Date: Time: Room: Level: Intermediate Age: Teens/Young Adults Topic/Theme: (English in Mind, Unit 7) discussing pending changes for the future - Town planning and other topics Communicative aim: The students will be able to understand views expressed about proposed town planning (5 Listening) + The students will be able to discuss changes that will be evident in the future (9 Speak, space exploration, computers ) Linguistic/Grammar aim: Make & do (in collocations) + Present perfect passive (past events with emphasis on subject) + Future passive (future events with emphasis on subject) Stages Activities and notes Resources Warmer 5 minutes Pretend that a decision has been made to have the Olympics in their city. Get them to ask questions about how what will happen. Answer with Present perfect passive for what has been done so far and Future passive for what will be done. Review ONLY NEEDED IF TAUGHT THEM BEFORE Pre-listening 5 Listen 15 minutes Listening gist SKIMMING Listening detail SCANNING Post-listening EVALUATING 5 minutes a) Listen to Samantha and Phil and decide who likes and dislikes the plan For the 5 Listen section, there could be an additional listening activity on expected town planning changes in the city where the class is being held. To get that you may need to find out information which you can then report to the class. CD and CD player 5.a P48 Have interviewed someone to get information b) gist questions about Samantha listening to a crowd CD and CD player 5.b p48 c) detail questions of Phil talking to crowd CD and CD player 5.c p48 Ss in pairs to decide who they agree with. Take-up Don t think I will add the idea from above. P48 Vocabulary development 6 Vocab 10 minutes Make and Do. a) Completing sentences from CD audio. Do first two with whole class. At end do pairs check - class take up. b) Make and Do matched to in collocations. First one together individually facilitate take up. Course book CD and CD player p48 Presentation Present Perfect Passive Course book p49 Teach International 2010 24