If you're just starting out as an English teacher, or if you're simply a substitute teacher who has been hired for the job rather quickly, you might feel a little stressed out when it comes to making a lesson plan. English can be a tricky subject for some students, so having a varied lesson plan is important. Keeping track of your ideas and learning tools is also pertinent.

Parts of Speech

Start the lesson plan by introducing your students to proper speech construction. Learning the parts of speech will teach your students about nouns, verbs and adjectives. To make it interesting, create small games the children can play that will aide in their education of the topics. Crossword puzzles, Mad Libs and other word games will stimulate their minds and inspire them to excel. One fun game you can play can be to have the students all sit in a circle, and play a grammatical version of "Hot Potato." The children will be told to say a noun, and toss the potato or a hackysack. Each time every child in the circle has said a noun (or other part of speech), instruct them to go faster, until someone messes up or drops the sack. This will make learning new words, and their placement in sentences, more enjoyable.

Vocabulary and Spelling

Create a word wall to display new words for the students to learn. Every day, place a new word on the wall, and tell the students what the word means at the beginning of each class. During the remainder of the period, introduce the new word into your sentences, and use it as naturally as you can without forcing it on the students. The natural repetition of the word or words will actually help the students greatly. For each word you place on the word wall, write it phonetically on another piece of card stock or construction paper, and place it under the original word. At the end of the week, after you have introduced 7 to 10 new words, remove them from the wall, and surprise your students with a spelling and vocabulary test.

Syllables

Syllables are an important part of learning basic English, because they allow the children to articulate their speech patterns in order to emphasize words correctly. It also creates a sort of link between English and mathematics. An example of this would be writing a haiku. Set aside a week out of your ordinary teaching plans to develop a creative writing project. Teach the students about the basics of syllables, and then have your students learn and follow the formula of a haiku, which is a 17-syllable Japanese poem. The first line of the haiku must be five syllables long, the second line seven syllables, and the final line of the haiku five syllables. At the end of the week, allow your students to read aloud their haiku poems, to determine how well they grasp the concept of syllables.