Teach English in QuanshAn Zhen - Wuwei Shi

This unit deals with the issue of lesson planning, which is essential for inexperienced teachers, who may not be able to deal with the unexpected outcomes of flexible lessons, that allow classroom activities to be decided by students. It not only sets out a model lesson plan but requires teachers to devise their own lesson plans, according to what was learned in Unit 3. We learn that is advisable for teachers to settle for a place between the two extremes of lesson planning that is set, and flexible lessons, they will take notes or complete lesson plans but will build in flexibility. The benefits of lesson planning include: provision of an aid to planning, including working towards a goal ie what the teacher wishes to achieve in the lesson; it serves as a working document that helps keep the teacher on target but allows too for flexibility and postponement; it provides a record. The principles of lesson-planning are: simplicity, that it not be scripted, that it be structured in a sustainable way; it provides an anticipated time for activities and includes a balance of skills. Being organized includes checking the lesson plan, ensuring equipment works, seating arrangement is in place, the board is clean and be prepared for students when they come into the class. The unit provides an example of a lesson plan, spelt out in a clear format but it is up to teachers to decide how best to plan lessons. To begin with however, lesson plans should include learner objectives, personal aims, language point which is the theme of the lesson, teaching aids, procedure and phases including Engage, Study, Activate. The unit refers back to Unit 3 and indeed this leads to reading material suggested initially in the introduction, including Swan?s Practical English Usage and Jeremy Harmer?s How to teach English. Timing is essential as is a consideration of the interaction, class level, the number of students, time and date for future monitoring and a list of class names. In addition, a suggested self evaluation form allows for the teacher?s own monitoring. This allows for as assessment of strengths and weaknesses as well as improvement in each of the phases and provides incentive for modification. The unit deals with planning a sequence of lessons taking into consideration, flexibility, goals, revision, variety and balance. It provides grammatical materials to be covered in two lessons set out in Task 2 and 3 of the unit. TASK 2 asks for a straight arrow ESA lesson using the materials provided for Task 2. These include a questionnaire that asks where have you been and provides a series of questions about places you have been and things you have done as well as providing a score chart. The grammatical materials for Task 2 deal with ? present perfect simple ? experiences ? deals with actions that happened in the past over an indefinite period of time, ie have you ever visited the City of London? ? Past simple -- used when asking for information about these experiences such as how, when how long and where, ie when did you visit the City of London? Form has/have past participle = present perfect simple It includes contractions of he has etc (he?s) He?s played football, I?ve eaten octopus Have you ever had problems? It provides exercises: writing the past participle ie play, wear, love (played, wore, loved) writing sentences using past simple or present perfect Ie have you ever bought flowers for someone else and what did you eat Exercises to be used in the patchwork ESA lesson are provided with grammatical rules and questions that deal with possibility Task 3 deals with expressions of possibility -- May and Might Modal auxiliary verbs that take the same form for all persons BUT don?t use the auxiliary form do in question and negative forms Possible future events might and might not + base form It might/ might not snow tomorrow May or may not is more certain than might There may not be rain TO PREDICT THE FUTURE USE WILL / WON?T It?ll be windy in the North There won?t be much sun By going back to Unit 3 and reexamining the ESA structure and the ideas about how to teach in each phase, this unit ensures consolidation of the basic principles of teaching