Unit 4 Lesson planning

Flexibility means preparing some extra and alternative tasks and activities so that teachers 。

Lesson planning

• 1.Why is lesson planning important
  • Proper lesson planning is essential for both novice/beginner and experienced teachers. Although preparation does not guarantee successful lessons,walking into a classroom unprepared is more often than not the beginning of a disastrous lesson. Besides,students canimmediately notice if their teacher is prepared or not. receive muchless trust and cooperation from the students. Language teachers benefit from lesson planning in a number of ways. Firstly,a clearlesson plan makes the teacher aware of the aims and language contents of the lesson. Secondly,it helps teachers distinguish the various stages of a lesson and see the relationshipbetween them so that the activities of different difficulty levels can be arranged properlyand the lesson can move smoothly from one stage to another. Thirdly,proper lessonplanning gives teachers the opportunity to anticipate potential problems that may arisein class so that they can be prepared with some possible solutions or other options forthe lesson .Fourthly,good planning gives teachers,especially novice teachers,confi-dence in class. Fifthly,when planning the lesson,the teacher also becomes aware of the teaching aids that areneeded for the lesson. Last but not least,planning is a good practice and a sign ofprofessionalism. For example,theplan will enable the teacher to improve class timing/Lesson plans are also an aid tocontinuing development.
• 2.Principles for good lesson planning
  • Aims
    • Aim means the realistic goals for the lesson. Aims are not the things teachers intend to do during the lesson, but the things that students are able to do by the end of the lesson.
  • Variety
    • Variety means planning a number of different types of activities and where possible, introducing students to a wide selection of materials so that learning is always interesting, motivating and never monotonous for the students.
  • Flexibility
    • Flexibility means preparing some extra and alternative tasks and activities so that teachers always have the options to copewith the unexpected situations
  • Learnability
    • means the contents and tasks planned for the lesson should be within the learning capability of the students/ Doing things that are beyond or below the students' coping ability will diminish their motivation
  • Linkage
    • means the stages and the steps within each stage are planned in such a way that they are someway linked with one another./Good linkage makes the lesson transit fromone stage to the next smoothly and students experience less anxiety.
• 3.Macro planning vs. micro planning
  • Macro planning
    • Is planning over a longer period of time, for instance, planning for a whole programme or a whole-year course./ helping teachers get an overall feeling or idea about the course and also get familiarized with the context in which language teaching takes place./a group of teachers who are to teach the same course/.
      • 1)Knowing about the profession. 2) Knowing about the institution. 3) Knowing about the learners. 4) Knowing about the curriculum／syllabus. 5) Knowing about the textbook. 6)Knowing about the objectives.
  • micro planning
    • The latter is planning for a specific unit or a lesson, which usually lasts from one to two weeks or forty to fifty minutes respectively/often an individual activity and different teachers may have different waysof writing their own lesson plans/ in order to teach effectively and confidently in the classroom.
      • Components to point 4
• 4.Components of a lesson plan
  • background information, teaching aims, language contents and skills, stages and procedures, teaching aids, optional activities and assignments, teacher’s after-lesson end of lesson reflection teaching difficult and key points teaching methods type of the lesson blackboard design justification
• 5.Sample lesson plans
  • 4.Through intensive and extensive reading Keeping a vocabulary notebook