Teach English in Yanghe Zhen - Tianshui Shi

ITTT Unit 9 Summary: ?Lesson Planning? The very pertinent topic ?Lesson Planning? was carefully addressed in the materials for Unit 9. At the onset of the lesson the question was posed: ?Why do we plan lessons in the first place?? The following answers were given in the Video Lecture. 1.In order to ?create a logical sequence for our lessons (so we don?t go all over the place and confuse the students?by having a lesson plan we create a structure we can work from.?) 2.The lesson plan becomes ?a working document (we can refer to it various times during the lesson if ever we?re not quite sure what we?re supposed to be doing next the plan will show us where we should be going).? 3.The lesson plan ?creates a record or document of what has been taught (in case there?s ever a question about material covered it will show that we have covered the information listed on the syllabi).' 4.The lesson plan ?can be used if someone else needs to cover your lesson. (This way the students won?t lose the sequence of lessons).? The second and equally relevant question was ?What do we need to put on the plan? (In case someone else needs to come in and cover our lesson).? The answers were as follows: 1.?Some General information about the class that?s going to be taught (see below)? 2.?What should happen during the lesson?? We were told that the General Information that should be included in the Lesson plan was: ?The Teacher?s Name? ?Date and Time of the Lesson? ?The Class Level? ?The Room #? ?The Expected numbers of Students in the Classroom (for count on photocopying and materials)? ?The Context of the Lesson (what grammar point is being covered e.g. Present continuous)? ?The Focus of the Lesson (how we?re going to go about teaching the lesson.) e.g Context: color Focus: fruits and vegetables.? ?A Set of Objectives and Aims? such as? ?Learner objectives: By the end of the lesson the students should be able to?.? ?Teacher aims: e.g. to get through the lesson successfully, to improve my boardwork, to reduce teacher talk-time, to increase student talk time.? After filling in the above-mentioned information it was strongly suggested for the teacher to consider what the anticipated problems that the Students might encounter; as well as what difficulties could arise for the teacher that would prevent he/she from achieving their aims for that lesson. The following things were brought out as possible problems that might come up and ways to deal with it. ?Anticipated problems for the students: difficulty with pronunciation? ?Solution: To do some form of drilling to help the students with pronunciation. And putting the grammar in context? ?Anticipated problems for the teachers: Making sure we stick to the plan? ?Solution: to make sure I stick to the lesson plan (plan with bullet points), refer to the plan throughout the lesson. Bullet points on a piece of paper to make sure we are following the plan? Listed here below is the information given in this Unit as a suggestion for a lesson plan. We were told that we could print and use the Sample Plan given in the materials, or develop our own. Since I am a novice when it comes to developing this type of Lesson Plan, I intend to make use of the one that was provided in our materials. SAMPLE LESSON PLAN Teacher Name: Date and Time: Class Level: e.g. Starter Expected number of Students: Context of the Lesson: e.g. Present continuous Focus: Actions happening around now ?Teaching aides: anything that we bring to the lesson that will help us to teach it ?e.g. Worksheets for the Study phase and activate activities for the Activate phase.? ?Learner objectives are what we are hoping that the student will be able to do once they have been taught. E.g. for the student to be able to both recognize and use the Present continuous tense? ?Personal Aims of the Teacher: e.g. improve my board work and elicitation techniques from the students.? ?Anticipated Problems for the Student: e.g. Pronunciation and difficulty in being able to use the Present Continuous in a real context.? ?Solution for Anticipated Problems for the Student: e.g. Drilling would be important to assure correct pronunciation. To make sure that the student knows how to use the tense in a real context it is necessary to have a strong Study Phase (to make sure that the student understands this tense in its context before they begin to try to use it.)? ?Anticipated Problems for the Teacher: Concerned about being drawn away from the actual lesson plan sequence.? ?Solution for Anticipated Problems for the Teacher: To have my plan available throughout the lesson.? Concerning Procedure for the lesson plan: ?First we would need to give the general information and then enough information for someone else to be able to carry out the lesson in our absence.? The Process for the Study activity could use D.E.G.O. ?(It was brought out in the lecture that If this is done correctly the teacher shouldn?t need to explain anything the students should be able to understand the instructions by our gestures thus reducing teacher- talk time.? ?D = Demonstration of the process of the activity (teacher doesn?t explain how the activity works; instead they actually demonstrate how it works)? ?E = Elicit a correct answer? ?GO = Give out the material? How to Monitor the Students: ?Go around the classroom but don?t stop the students from working (monitor from a distance)? ?Note their progress? ?Look for the errors and mistakes (But leave that for the feedback section of the lesson)? ?Close the activity before you begin the feedback? Another crucial point that was brought out was concerning the best way to correct the student if they did not give the right answer. The lecture taught us that ?it?s important to go through the process of correction rather than going straight through to teacher correction.? ?First: allow for ?self-correction? (we can often do this in a non-verbal way) ?Second: allow for ?peer correction? (is there somebody in the class who can give us the correct answer.)? ?Third: teacher correction? For the Planning a sequence of lessons we should consider at least 3 things: ?Goals: for the Examination/Syllabus.? Is the Lesson sequence Flexible? i.e. ?Can we adjust the sequence to the student?s needs?? And, lastly, does the plan have sufficient Variety i.e. does it Cover all skills needed such as Productive skills and Receptive skills which will include speaking, writing, reading, and listening??