Teach English in Zhoutou XiAng - Anqing Shi

Lesson PlanningThroughout this TEFL course, lesson planning has been stressed as a key component in the teaching process. The level of detail required in the lesson plans has forced me to reevaluate the lessons that I write for the standard high school english classes that I have been using for the last six years. I discovered that as a teacher I have not been considering potential problems students may have with lessons and I have been missing the ?engage? phase of the lesson almost entirely. My students have been lacking the best lessons they could receive because if there were problems with the lesson, such as students not paying attention, I was always taught that it was the students? responsibility ? I had never considered before that maybe I was the reason some of the problems were happening. The ?engage? phase of the lesson plan seems to be the critical aspect of the planning stages. If this is skipped the students will more often fail to get interested in whatever the lesson is, regardless of how enthusiastic the teacher may be about it. With this phase being so important, and it being the phase I was never taught before, this is the area in which I need to put the most effort. Using the ideas presented in these units, other teachers, and the myriad of resources on the internet, I believe that if I start each lesson making sure the students are engaged and can see how the material relates to their daily lives, I can improve my teaching and help my students go further down the road to success. The ?study? phase of the lesson plan is where I have been focusing my teaching. Because the way that I learn best is by having the information presented to me, taking notes, and then talking about it, that has been the way that I teach. I never found worksheets to be beneficial because with the way that I learn, they didn?t reinforce anything; they were a time-filler for lazy teachers. Having taken this course I have realized that notes may be too difficult when learning a new language because the students cannot learn the language and take notes in it at the same time and worksheets are necessary to visually reinforce what the students are hearing in class. I have discovered through this course that if I break up the study phase of the lesson into smaller study sessions and intersperse ?activate? ideas the students will stay more engaged with the lesson and retain more of the material. Lastly, the ?activate? stage of the lesson is another stage that I never thought much about. Before this course when I thought ?activate?, I was thinking about projects at the end of each unit. I never thought about putting smaller projects in on a daily basis so that the students interact more with the material instead of just expecting the teacher to present the material in a manner in which retention can take place. This is the phase in which students will really transfer the information from their short-term memory into long-term memory. Interaction with the information is just as important as having it presented in a clear, coherent manner and the practice of it on standard worksheets. Lesson planning is overall the most important aspect of teaching. By anticipating problems that students could have, making sure students are engaging with the material, and providing interactive activities to set the information firmly in mind, the teacher will be able to present clearer lessons and will be able to see more clearly where improvement needs to happen. Without thought to all of these details before teaching, problems that arise are harder to deal with and the teacher will often not know why the problem occurred. Always plan for more, but do less if the class struggles.