Reasons for planning

Lesson plans have a positive impact on both
learners and teachers

Components of lesson plans
Descriptions of the students
Aims and objectives
Procedures
Anticipated problems
Extra activities/ materials ( just in
case)
Material to be used in the lesson

Beginning a class
Effective opening of a class is very important:
It focuses student’ s attention on what they are about to
learn.
It can arouse students’ curiosity and interest in the
lesson.
It helps motivate students to become involved in the
lesson.

Rem ber !!
em
Students of all ages approach any lesson
“what’s in it for me”
If the lesson addresses this question
Motivated learner

•Strategies to engage students in a
lesson
Learning begins before the bell rings.
Be sure you have everyone’ s attention before
you begin.
The opening MUST be connected to the
main lesson.
Avoid beginning a class with routine tasks.

The opening must be connected to the main lesson.
Avoid beginning with routine tasks.
Vary your openings in order to maximize their
impact.

Guidelines for effective lesson
planning
Outline
I. Why plan lessons?
II. how to begin planning
III. variety, sequence, pacing and timing
IV. students talk and teacher talk
V. learner centured lessons VS curriculum centured
lessons

Why plan lesson?
* Lesson planning is a model of teacher’s effectiveness
* lessons require deep knowledge of a variety of
issues
* teachers need to model the way forward others
who are weak in need of strengthening and
support

how to begin planning:
*Preview of the whole curriculum
* outlinging, underlining and highlighting key
elements
* planning step by step
* choose suitable exercises and activities

variety, sequence, pacing and timing:
* variety of techniques
* logical sequence of activities
* adequate pacing of exercices &
activities

students talk time and teacher talk time
* (STT) should be around 80%
* (TTT) should be roughly limited to 20% to 30%
of the class time

learner centured lessons VS curriculum
centured lessons

Format of a lesson plan
A lesson plan is a framework for a lesson. If you
imagine a lesson is like a journey, then in the lesson
plan is the map. It shows where you start, where you
finish and the route to take to get there.
The lesson plan sets out what the teacher hopes to
achieve over the course of the lesson and how he or
she hopes to achieve it.
So, it’s important that all teachers take time to think
through their lessons before they enter the classroom.
Remember the 5 Ps: Perfect Planning Prevents Poor
Performance.

There are some essential elements that a lesson plan
should include.
Goals:
The teacher should identify an overall purpose or a
goal that he or she will attempt to accomplish by the
end of the end of the class period. He will try to finish
the following statement:
By the end of the lesson the learners will be able
to………..

Objectives:
A teacher may have objectives and aims of various
kinds for the actual running of a lesson, to do with
himself. E.g. Personal aims:” I will talk less and
involve students more, I will make my instructions
clearer”. Or to do with the classroom :” I will make
sure the seating is rearranged appropriately when the
activity changes”. Or to do with individuals “I will
keep an eye on Maria if she needs help”.

But, the most important aim usually concerns
intended student achievements: things they will have
learned, skills they have improved and points they
will have reached by the end of the lesson.
E.g. : By the end of the lesson, students will be better
able to learn the names of colours or to practice
language for buying clothes.

Materials and equipment:
The teacher should be aware of the materials and
equipment that he will use at each stage of the lesson.
So, a good planning includes knowing what a teacher
need to take with him and use it in the classroom.
E.g.: CD, cassette player, posters or handouts that he
or she will distribute to students.

Stages of the lesson:
Any lesson we teach naturally divides into different
stages and . For example, at one stage of the lesson,
the class may be listening to a dialogue; at another
stage, the teacher may be explaining new words and
writing them on the board, then encouraging them to
do some oral practice.
It’s much easier to plan the details of a lesson, if we
think in terms of separate stages, rather than trying to
think of a lesson as a whole.

Evaluation:
The teacher should make sure that the objectives
have been accomplished, and students have
understood and comprehend the lesson.
Evaluation should take place in the course of regular
classroom activity in order to help students to
improve their memory and remember most of things
that take place in the class.

Extra-classwork:
Theteacher should always find application or
extensions of classroom activity, that will help
students do some learning beyond the class hour.
For example, using puzzle games, crosswords to help
students to practice more English vocabulary and
tenses.
Or using songs with catchy melodies and chants to
teach alphabet or colours to kids.

Differentiating Instruction
Multiple Intelligences
Emotional Intelligence
Preferred Learning Modalities

Gardner and his followers have identified specific sections of the brain
that control each of the eight intelligences he proposed:
1. Logical-mathematical: verbal skills and sensitivity to the sounds,
meanings, and rhythms of words
2. Linguistic: possessing a mastery of language and ability to express
oneself rhetorically or poetically
3. Spatial: ability to think in images and pictures, to visualize accurately
and abstractly
4. Musical: ability to recognize and compose musical pitches, tones, and
rhythms
5. Bodily-kinesthetic: ability to control one’s body movements and to
handle objects skillfully
6. Intrapersonal: possessing a high degree of self-knowledge, including
awareness of one’s own strengths, weaknesses, and inner feelings
7. Interpersonal: competent in leadership skills, communication,
understanding of others’ feelings
8. Naturalist: capacity to detect significant patterns in nature and
distinguish and categorize items of various classes (plants, animals,
chemicals)

It is crucial not to neglect any student whatever his/her
intelligence, as we have to capitalize on their
strengths to allow them excel in their scope of
interest. The aim is to personalize instruction. One
way to figure out students’ inclination is by finding
out about their preferred leisure activities, or what
they do while misbehaving.

Gardner (1993, p. 178) concludes that “it is extremely
desirable to have assessment occur in the context of
students working on problems, projects, or products
that genuinely engage them, that hold their interest
and motivate them to do well. Such exercises may not
be as easy to design as the standard multiple-choice
entry, but they are far more likely to elicit a student’s
full repertoire of skills and to yield information that is
useful for subsequent advice and placement.”
Eg: A teacher might encourage the musically inclined
student to sing the multiplication tables at home as a
memory aid.

What can the teacher do?
Design items that have easy and difficult aspects
or items
Design techniques that will involve students
Use judicious selection to assign groups so that
each group has either (i) a deliberately
heterogenous range of ability or (ii) a
homogenous range to encourage equal
participation).
Use small-group and pair work time to circulate
and give extra attention to those below or above
the norm.

Teachers determined to implement multiple-
intelligence strategies in their classroom face real-
world obstacles. The time and energy needed to
redesign instruction can be significant. Not all
administrators encourage deviating from the focus on
upping standardized test performance.

THIRTY-EIGHT STRATEGIES FOR NURTURING
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (I only chose 4)
1. Encourage students to strive for excellence, not
perfection.
2. Teach reframing to help students see events from a
more positive perspective.
3. Have students rate their feelings on a scale of 1 to 10 as
a way to encourage them to think about the intensity
of their emotions. They can draw a feeling
thermometer to indicate the intensity of their feelings.
4. Frequently use reflection-of-feeling statements to
develop empathy with your students. (For example:
“You feel disappointed because you didn’t make the
quiz-bowl team.”) En-courage students to develop a
rich vocabulary for feelings, beyond mad, glad, and
sad.

Preferred Learning Modalities (learning styles)
Most individuals learn best through a particular sensory
or perceptual channel—kinesthetic, tactile, auditory,
or visual.
Research indicates that visual learners make up 65% of
the population. Approximately 30% are auditory
learners, leaving about 5% percent as kinesthetic or
tactile learners.
Sensory preferences are developmental, with younger
children being more kinesthetic and tactile. Typically,
during the sixth grade, girls become more
perceptually mature in the auditory channel, with
boys following shortly. At about the eighth grade,
girls usually develop greater visual-perceptual acuity,
with boys catching up a year or two later.

Research suggests that matching teaching style with
students’ learning styles may increase student
motivation and improve performance. The research
also indicates that teachers almost always teach in
their own preferred learning style.
*****************************************

Homework that helps
Homework should:
 Enhance the students’ learning process.
Account for students’ age, abilities, and habits
Serve your own instructional objectives.

Attributes Signifying Modality Helpful Instructional
Preferences Strategies
for Learning Modalities
Likes music •Discussions /Debates
Enjoys talking •Oral presentations
Long, repetitive descriptions •Listening to lectures/music
Distracted by noise •Reciting content aloud
Auditory Sings
Talks to self
•Studying with peers
•Reading aloud
•Verbal directions
•Doodles •drawing
•Notices details •Note taking
•Verbal directions often difficult •Watching videos
•Enjoys drawing •Demonstrations
Visual •Vivid imagination •Computer instruction
•Solves problems deliberately •Visual mnemonics
•Tends to be quiet •Use written directions
•Distracted by movements •Use pictures, diagrams,
maps, and charts
•Flash cards
•Independent learning

Attributes Signifying Helpful Instructional
Modality Preferences Strategies
for Learning Modalities
•Likes handling Manipulatives
objects Building models
•Gestures while Hands-on activities
talking Field trips
• Often in motion Drama, role playing
Kinesthetic or Tactile •Tapping feet or Allowing to stretch
hands or stand
•Likes to try things Making flash cards
out Labs
•Jumping, pushing Walk-and-talk
•Often seems activities
impulsive Action games
•May be a poor Sculpture
speller

Homework advantages
preserves class time for activities that students
cannot do independently.
Provides students with an opportunity to practice and
reinforce new skills.
serves an assessment function for the teacher.
provides remedial instruction to students who lag in
skill development.

Interesting Homework:
ideas for worthwhile homework assignments.
Write new endings to old stories.
Keep a journal.
Develop a creative solution to a
problem.
Take sides on an issue.
Plan and produce a film or skit.
Construct a Web page.
Attend a public meeting.
Do volunteer work.

some practical suggestions for effectively
making homework assignments:
The procedures for assigning homework must be taught as
part of the classroom routine
clarify your expectations regarding homework from the
very beginning.
Do not compete with student noise when
giving oral directions.

homework assignments should be highly structured
and have very specific directions to be completed by
students.
It may be helpful to reserve specific days for regular
assignments.
Try to be creative in designing some homework tasks.

Collecting and Grading
Homework
Not every homework assignment must be collected
and graded
If you assign homework – comment on it!
Vary the approaches to providing feedback

Evaluating the Effectiveness of
the Lesson

According to you, why is it
necessary for teachers to evaluate a
lesson after it is closed?

Teachers should ask these questions at the end of a lesson
to see if it worked or not.

1 –Was the lesson successful?
2- Did students learn what you had hoped?
3- Did the students enjoy it?
4- Did they learn anything from it? How do you know?
5 -Did any new learning goals emerge during instruction?
6-What exactly did they get from the activity?
7 -What instructional strategies were the most effective?
8 -What one thing might you have done differently which
would have made the lesson more effective?
9 - What else would you like to change, next time you use
this lesson?

What’s wrong if the
instructors do not
ask themselves these
questions?

Unless we ( teachers) ask ourselves such questions, we
are in danger of continuing with activities and
techniques that either do not work, or, at the very least,
are not as successful as they might be with appropriate
modification.

Feedback helps teachers evaluate lessons and
activities
One way to judge the quality of a lesson is to get
feedback from students .
For example, we can ask simple questions like: « Did
you like the lesson? Did you find it useful? ». Based on
what they say, we judge the lesson, or we can ask
them to write their answers down and hand them to
us.

Another way to get feedback from students is to ask them
once every week to write down two things they want more
and two things they want less. The answers we get may
prove a fuitful place to start a discussion, and we will then
be able to modify what happens in class.
Give Ss special evaluation forms where they have to rate
different activities with a score and add comments about
what they tought.
Invite colleagues to observe your class and make
suggestions afterwards. ( Peer observation)
N.B. it would be great if the teacher who comes into
your class does so in order to offer constructive advice
rather than to focus on the teacher’s apparent
failings.

Get your lesson videoed.
Some teachers keep journals in which they record
their thoughts about what happened as soon as
possible after the lesson has finished.
Good teachers also need to assess how well their
Ss are progressing ( a variety of measures
including homework assignments, speaking
activities, frequent small progress tests.

Humor in class

The incorporation of humor in
the class
Is humor valued in the classroom?
Humor can be a valued tool in the classroom
when it is used to motivate students, help
students retain information, and create a
comfortable, supportive environment.
The benefits of using humor as an educational
tool may be obvious when the class is full of
elementary or middle-school aged students.

 Humor can reduce stress and anxiety, create a
comfortable learning environment, and increase
motivation, comprehension, and retention of information.
It may be beneficial for the teacher to incorporate humor
at the beginning of class to set the tone.
The teacher can use humor during the class time to
provide a breather. (a short pause for rest or to relax )
Effective teaching and learning is built upon the
relationship between the teacher and students, and this
interactive relationship can be enhanced with a good
sense of humor.
The use of humor can help set a tone in the classroom that
invites participation and increases learning.
to keep students' attention

Teachers who incorporate appropriate humor in the
classroom are often rated higher and considered to be
more credible than teachers who do not make use of
humor.
Types of humor studied include funny stories or
anecdotes, funny comments, jokes, professional humor,
puns, cartoons, riddles, sarcasm …etc