LESSON PLANNING
The lesson plan : includes description of aims, activities Ss will carry out, the time needed for each activity, aids, strategies to be used, grouping arrangements, possible problems, alternative possibilities. Teaching: a thinking process, involves making a great number of individual decisions. Planning decisions-before teaching a lesson. Interactive decisions- on-the-spot decisions concerning diffrent aspects of the lesson, many of which may not have been planned. Evaluative decisions- made after a lesson has been taught, evaluate its effectiveness and determine what the follow-up to the lesson will be. Kinds of objectives:
Instructional goals- objectives exprssed in terms od teacher's role Description of course and lg content- objectives expressed in terms of topics to be covered and activities which would be carried out. Learning materials: objectives expressed in terms of the coursebook and materials to be used. LESSON STRUCTURE
The opening- procedures that the teacher uses to focus Ss attention on the learning aims of the lesson(first 5 minutes).Purposes:
-help SS to realate the content of the new lesson to that of the last or previous lesson (cognitive contrbution)
-assess relevant knowledge(cognitive contribution)
-establish appriopriate”set: in learners- preapre them for what is follow(cognitive and affective contribution)
-allow tunning-in-time which may be especially important in situations where Ss have come directly from a radically different environment (pragmatic contribution)
-reduce the disruption caused by late-arriving Ss(pragmatic contribution) Sequencing - T analyzes the overall goals of a lesson and the content to be taught and then plans a sequence of activities to attains those goals. Principles: -simple activities before the complex one -a involving receptive skills should precede those that involve productive skills -Ss should study grammar rule before trying to use it -Ss should practice using a tense or grammar structure before studying the rule that underline it -Accuracy focused activities should precede fluency focused. -There should be progression within a lesson from mechanical activities to meaningful-based activities.
Lesson in situational Lg teaching:presentation, controlled practice, free practice, checking, further practice.
Lessons in communicative language teaching: pre communicative activities, communicative activities.
The teaching of writing in the Process Approach: pre-writing, drafting-writing, revising activities. The teaching of reading: pre-reading, while reading, post-reading activities. Transition-moving from one activity to another within a lesson (15% of classroom time) Effective transitions help maintain students' attention during transition times and establish a lin between one activity and the next. Pacing - the extnent to which a lesson maintains its monumentum and communicates a sense of development, a locating time to each part of the lesson.
Recommended strategies to help achieve suitable pacing within lessons:
-avoid over lenghty explanations,
-using a variety of activities,
-avoid predictable and repetetive activities,
-activities of appropriate level to SS,
-setting a goal and time limit for activities,
-monitoring Ss performance on activities to ensure students have had sufficient but not too much time.
Closure- bringing a lesson to a close.
-summarizing what has been covered in the lesson,
-reviewing key points of the lesson,
-pointing out links between the lesson and the previous and to a forthcoming lesson,
-praising students for what they have accomplished during the lesson,
-showing the lesson relates to students; real-world needs.
LANGUAGE USE IN CLASSROOM
Lg- the goal of the lesson and the means by which this goal is achieved Teacher strategies to modify their lg: repetition, speaking more slowly, using pauses, changing pronunciation, modifying vocabulary, grammar. T talk - a special type of discourse which T use when they are trying to make themselves as easy to understand as possible and to provide essential support to facilitate both lg comprehension and learner production. Reason for using questions: -they stimulate and maintain SS' interesr, -encourage Ss to think and focus on the content of the lesson, -enable T to clarify what a S has said,
-enable T to elicit particular structures or vocabulary items,
-enables to check Ss' understanding -encourage S participation in a lesson Types of questions: -procedural- have to do with classroom procedures and routines and classroom management, a s opposed to the content of the lesson.
Question designed to engage Ss in the content of the lesson, to facilitate their comprehension and to promote classroom interaction are divided into:
Convergent- encourage similar S responses, which focus on a central theme, they are not require students to engage in higher- level thinking, often focus on the recall of previously presented information. Deivergent questions- the opposite of convergent, they encourahe diverse S responses which are not short answers and require SS to engage in higher-level thinking, they encourage SS to provide their own information rather than recall previously presented information, they generate student ideas and classroom interaction. The range of question types that t use: -display question- T know the answer to these q, they are designed to elicit or display particular situation,
-referential questions- q that T do not know the answer to.
Wait time- the lenght of time that the teacher waits after aksinh\g the q before calling on a student to answer it, rephrasing the q, directin q to another studen or giving the answer. FEEDBACK -lets learners know how well they have performed, -increases motivation, -builds supportive classroom climate. Feedback on content- strategies: -ackonowledging a correct answer, -indicating an incorrect answer, -praising, expanding or modyfying a student's answer, -repeating,
-sumarizing, -criticizing. Feedback on form- directed toward the accuracy of what tuent sys, error feedback.
How to correct learners errors? -asking S to repeat what he said, -pointing out the error and asking the S to self-correct or asking another student to correct teh error, -using a gesture to indicate that an error has been made, -commenting on an error and explaining why it is wrong, without, without having the student repeat the correct form. Teacher's mistake in giving feedback: -tending to repeat the correct target lg from instead of showing the learner where the error occurred and why it was incorrect, -being inconsistent in whom they correct and which errors they correct, -rejecting or correcting a learner's utterance because it was not what they had expected to hear.
display questions- quest.that T know the answer to,they are designed to
get info from students(elicit) or display particular structures
referential questions - quest. That T does not know the answer to
Wait-time - the length of time tjat T waits after asking the quest. Before
calling on a student to answer it, rephrasing the quest., directing the quest.
To another ST. or giving the answer (3-5 sec)
Teacher Talk - a special type of discourse, which T use when they are
trying to make themselves as easy to understand as possible and to provide
support to facilitate lang. comprehension and learner production.
The lesson plan-intended to help the T to organize the lesson efficiently
and effectively.
- It includes a description of the aims or objectives of the lesson
- the activities the students will carry out
- the time needed for each activity
- teaching strategies to be used
- grouping arrangements for each activity
- possible problems that may occur
- alternative possibilities
AIM: * decide on the main teaching point, * which stage of practice is to
be attempted with the patterns(controlled, freer, completely free)
*choose a suitable situation for the activities you have in mind
* what new lexical items fit with this situation
*what phonological problems or teaching points should be included
ACTIVITIES: * plan the stages to be followed
*calculate the timing of the stages
*simplify your aims, what extra activities could be added
* balance the activities in the rough plan
Aids (most effective,varieted enough,full use of the)
Anticipated difficulties - what could go wrong? (flexibility!!)
General view - is the lesson going to be a success?
Interactive decision - on-the-spot decisions concerning different aspects
Of the lesson, many of w3hoch have not been planned
Evaluative decisions - made after a lesson has been taught, evaluate its
Effectiveness and determine what the follow-up to the lesson will be
An activity - a task which has been selected to achieve a particular teaching
gole; the basic structural unit of planning and action in the classroom