Teach English in Daliu Zhen - Wuwei Shi

IMPORTANT FUNCTIONS OF LESSON PLANNING: 1.Aid to planning ? Write down what expect students to achieve by en d of lesson & how you will make that possible 2.A working document ? Lesson plan helps keep you on target & you can refer to it during a lesson. 3.A record ? Lesson plan acts as a record of what was done in a class & materials used. Also helps if you are ill and another teacher has to take your place. HOW SHOULD A LESSON PLAN BE WRITTEN DOWN? No specific way ? teachers write formal notes, jot notes, log details in class notebooks etc. When changing your plan make note of changes made. Basic principles of lesson planning are: ?Keep it simple ? easy to refer to during lesson ?Don?t script the lesson ?Structure it & maintain same structure ?Write anticipated time for each activity in margin ?Check for balance of skills ? try to make sure activities fit together to give lesson a smooth flow ?Keep it flexible & open to adaption Being organised: ?Before starting a lesson: ?Check that you have your lesson plan ?Run through it & make sure you have necessary aids/,materials ?Check equipment works ?Lay out materials/aids so you can easily find them ?Arrange seating as desired ?Clean board ?Be ready to chat to students as they come in ? this helps break ice & gets them in mood to learn What should be included in a lesson plan? What you include is up to you. Many teachers just write down few brief notes. At start of career you may want to structure your plans so that you have a clear guide as to what you want to achieve & how you want to do. The following is recommended: Learner Objectives: What you want the students to be able to do by the end of the lesson. Personal Aims: What you as a teacher wish to achieve and improve. Language Point: Shows theme around which your lesson is based & also how it fits in with past and planned future lessons. Teaching Aids: materials & other aids i.e. cassette player etc that you will need in lesson. This helps you quickly check if you have everything at the start of the lesson. Anticipated Problems for Student & Teacher: Important to try and anticipate any problems that student/teacher may have with lesson. Although of no use unless you have thought of solution for said problems. Procedure: Activities used to achieve the learner objectives. Phase: Engage-Study or Activate. Ref Unit 3 Timing: plan how long each activity expected to take. Will then see if have enough content or too much content. Be realistic/flexible with timing-if not will have to make up or fill in extra time. How long will take students to read text? Only experience & a sound knowledge of your students will tell you this. Interaction: Who will be interacting at each stage of the lesson/ Will it be teacher-student (T-S) or student-teacher (S-T) Class Level: The level of ability that the class has with English Language. Number of students: Anticipate how many students will attend to make sure your activities are suitable for class size. Date & Time: Allows you to keep track of what you have done with a class & when. It will also help teachers who may teach the same class later. Teachers & Observers Names: may be useful if the class is being monitored. LESSON PLANNING FORM: Teacher: Observer: Date & Time: Class Level: Room: Expected Number of Students: Teaching Aids: Learner Objectives: Personal Aims: Anticipated Student Problems & Solutions: Anticipated Teacher Problems & Solutions: Procedure ? Phase ? Timing - Interaction Monitoring Your Lessons: A good teacher will want to observe the quality of his/her lessons. As teachers we are repeatedly striving to improve our skills and make classes as enjoyable as possible. An effective way of doing this is for the teacher to evaluate his/her lessons and make notes of what went well and where the lesson could have been improved, By focusing on each lessons strengths and weaknesses teachers will be helping themselves to develop. SAMPLE OF SELF-EVALUATION FORM: i.e. Name: Class level: Date: Number of Students: Extent to which the learner objectives & personal aims where met: Accuracy of Anticipated Problems/Solutions: Modifications Made To The Lesson Procedure; Reasons For Them & How Affective Were They: Effectiveness of Engage Phases: Effectiveness of Study Phases: Effectiveness of Activate Phases: Strengths & Weaknesses of Lesson: In Retrospect/Areas for Improvement: Planning a Sequence of lessons: Nearly same as for a single lesson but there are special issues to consider: ?Flexibility: We will often need to make changes to plans during lessons. This can throw out our sequence of lessons so we need to continually update our plans & aims So we need to be flexible in approach & not just stick to our planning. ?Goals: Experienced teacher will build goals for the students into a sequence of lessons. This will give both teacher/students something to aim at whether they are end of week tests or major revision lessons. ?Revision: Lesson content needs to be continually reviewed over a sequence of lessons to ensure students retain this information. ?Variety & Balance: When planning sequence of lessons we want to make sure all skills are included & given equal treatment. We will want to include a good variety & mix of activities.