Lessons & Classroom Games for Teachers
Many people who have been teaching TEFL for awhile get tired of writing lesson plans. The benefit of writing them once is, you will not have to do them again. Make sure you always keep a copy of the lesson plan. It will help you later if you change jobs or work the same class next term.
Writing lesson plans does not have to be difficult and can be done within a few short minutes. Most schools have classroom books that you can use as a guide. If you have a 20 chapter workbook and your school year is 10 months, you know that you can use 2 chapters per month. Simple math will save you some headaches and worry.
If this is your first lesson plan, don't panic. I will explain how to get going and get over the hurdle. If this is your 1000th lesson plan, this will help you also.
GETTING STARTED
1. If you have workbooks open it and see what they want you to teach. If it is the first day of school, open to chapter 1 and start there. If it is the 5th month of school open to chapter 5 and start there. When writing lesson plans common sense will prevail every time.
2. OK. Now you have the correct month and chapter all set. You are sitting looking at a page and, NOW WHAT? This will depend on the age group of your students. I have found teaching older students, that it is easier to prepare. The younger students need more stimulation and will loose interest fast. Always keep in mind whom you are teaching and what you are teaching. If you are teaching conversation or grammar, science, math all of these things will play a part in your lesson plans. FOR THE SAKE OF THIS ARTICLE, WE ARE STICKING WITH TEACHING CONVERSATION TO OLDER STUDENTS.
3. OLDER STUDENTS - I class them as high school aged. You are on chapter 1 of your workbook, or whatever month it is, and the subject is greetings and goodbyes. You look through this chapter and find the key words. The key words are the main points of the subject. Here we are doing greetings and goodbyes, so your key words will be like - hello, goodbye, good morning, good afternoon etc.... Most of your students will know these things already and you lesson will last 5 minutes. This is where you need to add supplement words like - what's up, hows it going, later etc... add your own slang words that you are familiar with.
4. Don't spend the entire class speaking and repeating these words, it will get boring fast. Instead use about 10 minutes of the class speaking and repeating these words. Then go around the class and have students use the words with you. *TEACHER: Good morning, Paiboon. *STUDENT: Good morning, teacher. You get the idea.
5. This will take up 20-30 minutes of class. You still have 20-30 minutes left, so now what? This is where your supplement worksheet will come in handy. Find a worksheet that uses greetings and goodbyes and have the students complete that. There are plenty of free worksheets out there, you just need to search and find one.
6. After the students have completed the worksheet call on students to stand up and read. Go around the room and have each student read the conversation with a friend. This will get them speaking and you can help them with pronunciation. If you still have time left, use the workbook for any extra work and have the students read aloud.
That is basically a one class lesson plan. As you gain more experience and get to know your students you may have to add material or spend more time on pronunciation. This is something you will have to decide for yourself.
One of the biggest mistakes a new teacher will make is to “assume your students want to learn English". Most don't want to be there and will have no interest. Try to keep the class moving and fun. If what you are doing is not working, move on to another area. Don't try to force the students to speak every word, just keep the flow going and the time will be up faster.
Below is a sample lesson plan. Each place you work may their own lesson plan format and what they want on it. If not, you can use the one below as a guide to help you get started. It will give you an example of how to write this lesson out on paper. You can think of your lesson plan like a road map. If you have no map, you will not know where to go and when to stop.
CLASS: M1
DURATION: 50 minutes
MATERIALS: Workbook chapter 1, worksheet
VOCABULARY: Hello, Goodbye, Good Morning, Whats up, Later etc......
OBJECTIVE: Have the students know and understand greetings and goodbyes and use them in a conversation context.
PROCEDURE: Open the class with workbook and have students repeat the greeting and goodbyes (10 minutes). Go around the class and have student pairs use the words taught (10 minutes). Have the students complete the worksheet and practice using the vocabulary with pair speaking (15 minutes or more).
ASSESSMENT: This is important as it will help you see what worked and didn't work. The students completed the workbook with no problems, but the worksheet seemed a little difficult. Will have to make an easier worksheet next time.
That's it, a basic lesson plan idea and a simple lesson plan write up.
