This is the 2nd part of my post on lesson planning. If you haven’t read through part 1 yet, there do that first. Click here for part 1.

In this part we’ll start with some of the unanswered questions in Part One. Concerning possible problems that may occur in some of the activities that you have planned for your lesson, it is a good idea to perhaps change the activity altogether or at least have an alternative. For example, if the activity in which students were asked to find 5 things that they had in common (an ice-breaking activity) it would be best to change it to one in which they discuss free time activities they like and dislike and then see what, if any, common ground there is.

Concerning the aims of the lesson, there needs to be a clear justification and aim not only for the overall aims of the lesson but for each activity and how it connects with each of the overall aims. It is obvious then that the overall aims need to be carefully measured and the individual activities be closely related to the to what you are planning to do in your lesson in general. This is what makes for a tight lesson.

A tight lesson however, needs other elements and one of the most important of these is timing. Timing of course refers to the amount of time each activity should be given. If too much time is given to each activity, the lesson may drag and students may be left with little or nothing to do. Conversely, if there isn’t enough time to do an activity, then students may be unable to complete the task well and feel rather frustrated.

The end result in either case is that little learning is taking place. As a teacher trainer it has been my experience concerning planning lessons and then carrying them out, that teachers tend to be overly ambitious about what can be done in a 50 minute lesson. When planning an activity it is important that “thinking time” be taken into account so that information is digested and mulled over before we can expect students to provide us with brilliant responses. Having said that a briskly paced lesson does act like a tonic to learning and is necessary in most cases when teaching young learners, but still it is still necessary to include adequate meditation time, depending of course on the nature of the activity.

And lets get to the nuts and bolts of the lesson plan, the activities. Whenever you are planning an activity, it is important that you are able to visualize what is going to take place in the classroom. Think about how you are going to introduce the activity, what language you are going to use to make your instructions clear, how you are going to monitor the activities, etc. Doing this will also greatly help in estimating the amount of time the activity will take. As regards the activity itself, it is paramount that you have a very clear idea of what the teacher and most importantly what the students are doing in each activity.

Are the students in your lesson required to listen while you spout off gems of wisdom for the full teaching hour or are they actually required to produce language? Do they have countless grammar exercises on the same structure till it’s coming out their ears or are they going to be actively engaged in performing tasks that stimulate them? Whenever you plan an activity keep in mind if the activity is interesting, relevant to their needs and will engage them in a stimulating way. If the activity is able to do all this and is one which the students can successfully complete, chance are it is going to be a great lesson and both you and your students will be, at the end of the fifty minute session, very happy people.

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