All ESL teachers, regardless of their training, experience or competence, need a carefully crafted lesson plan to help their students achie...
All ESL teachers, regardless of their training, experience or competence, need a carefully crafted lesson plan to help their students achieve learning objectives, both daily and long term. Having a lesson plan is like having a complete and clear view of how a learning session will take place and how students can grasp and retain the concepts of the lesson. Numerous investigations indicate that the previous visualization of success in sports competitions, as well as commercial efforts, is a concrete step in the process to achieve it. The same is true with classroom commitments. Without a lesson plan, this visualization process is blurred at best and the learning results that will be generated will be far from ideal.
That said, the importance of lesson plans in ESL / EFL education is hard to overstate. ESL educators simply need to visualize daily lessons in advance and build the most appropriate teaching strategies in a comprehensive lesson plan. Otherwise, going to class without proper preparation is likely to be harmful to both teachers and their students. Unprepared teachers will become mediocre at work and their peers, superiors and students will see them as nonprofessionals. On the other hand, students with inadequately trained language teachers will enjoy less than optimal contributions of knowledge and will generally have low quality learning and appreciation of lesson concepts, compared to students of highly competent and trained educators.
Given the substantial resources grouped in the learning session by students and education providers, a non-professionally managed class is a terrible waste of time, money and effort. In addition, students and teachers in this scenario generally have very little motivation to improve. Having a lesson plan and using it effectively as a guide for daily teaching will reflect your professionalism and reliability. It also presents itself as a good role model for its students, who will come to appreciate the value of coming to class prepared and prepared to achieve the objectives of the lesson.
Lesson Plan 101
If you are new to teaching, a lesson plan is basically a step-by-step guide on how the teacher intends to present a lesson and the ways in which students are expected to learn and appreciate the various concepts of the lesson. An excellent lesson plan is one that can be used easily and effectively by another educator instead. This means that the ideal lesson plan is clear and complete. The details and elements of the lesson plans vary, depending on the specific format ordered by the school or organization. However, the common components of a good lesson plan include the following:
1. Lesson title
2. The period of time (in minutes, hours, days or weeks) needed to complete the lesson.
3. Class details (class name or section, age, skill level, etc.)
4. The objectives of the lesson.
5. Instructional approaches to be used (this section describes the sequence of learning events, as well as the techniques that the teacher will use to help students achieve the objectives of the lesson)
6. Instructional materials (such as a movie, an image gallery, a music video, etc.)
7. Summary and conclusions derived from the lesson.
8. Methods to practice the concepts of the lesson.
9. Evaluation and test methods to be used.
10. Contingency plans or elements (This section describes subsidiary topics or additional techniques and materials that can be used to strengthen the learning achievements generated during the session or productively fill in excess time. Fun and participation, seat work, dialogues and other activities are ideal for this section)
Unless the learning institution requires a specific lesson plan format, most ESL professionals adapt their lesson plans according to the teaching philosophies or techniques in which they believe or feel more comfortable. However, in general, ESL's excellent lesson plans have common characteristics that you must integrate into your own teaching strategies:
· Ideal lesson plans have a concise summary that fits on one page. The detailed plan itself can, and often, exceed this number, but the idea is to allow anyone to have a quick overview of the lesson.
The great lesson plans are organized in an easy way and a delight to follow.
· Lesson plans must be strongly aligned with the learning needs and competencies of your target audience.
· Each individual lesson plan must adhere to the continuity of the lesson concepts and not only must fit the curriculum but must also reflect the overall vision of the subject.
ESL lesson plans should establish platforms for students to apply language learning to real-world situations.
In ESL education, lesson plans are crucial even in purely conversational classes. To establish an environment that encourages high quality learning and attracts non-native speakers to articulate widely, proper preparation is of the utmost importance. Having a randomly designed plan is also inexcusable.
Types of ESL lesson plans
There are literally dozens of types of lesson plans depending on the teaching philosophy followed by an educator or a specific mandate of learning institutions. In ESL and EFL education, the most common lesson plans are those based on three main educational approaches:
A. PPP (presentation, practice and production)
B. TTT (Test, Teach and Test)
C. TBA (Task Based Approach)
Presentation, practice and production. . PPP is a recommended lesson approach for many ESL / EFL educators and is commonly taught in institutions that provide TESOL and TEFL certifications. Most English language educators believe that PPP is the root approach from which other approaches have evolved.
In a nutshell, PPP facilitates the presentation (teacher-centered) of new concepts of language, the practice (joint participation of the teacher and students) of the new concepts of language and production (student-centered) of new concepts of language. During the presentation phase, up to 80 percent of the period may be appropriate for a lecture or an explanation of the concepts of the teacher-led lesson. During this time, the teacher can discuss grammar, spelling and common use of the new concept of language. The teacher also raises the concept of appreciation appreciation to verify students & # 39; Understanding of the new concepts. When students clearly understand the new concepts, the teacher can move on to the next phase. Otherwise, a brief recap of the subject should be made.
In the practice phase, the teacher encourages students to participate more through an orchestrated conversation of gradual recitation. Ideally, this phase should allow students to articulate 60 to 70 percent of the time, with the teacher assuming a secondary role as moderator. Written and verbal activities and exercises should be used, with varying intensities depending on the new concept of language.
Finally, students should be encouraged to master (90 percent participation) the production phase. The teacher only monitors class dynamics and only gives feedback when the lesson ends. At this time, students should be comfortable enough with new language concepts that they can use accurately and fluently to communicate.
Test, Teach and Test . TTT is a frequently used alternative to the PPP method, in which the production phase moves sequentially to the first part of the lesson. During the (first) test phase that corresponds to the production phase in the PPP approach, students are more or less abruptly asked to produce a language concept communicatively based on their existing knowledge and without any previous teacher orientation. The teacher will then evaluate the students & # 39; level of competence in the area of particular language, determine their needs and proceed with the teaching phase (corresponding to the presentation stage in the PPP approach) based on a general assessment. The teaching phase allows educators to discuss problem areas and guide students towards the correct use of the concept of language.
The final stage of the TTT approach is the second test that aims to verify how students have absorbed the teacher's new contributions. The logic of this sequence is that students learn the new concepts of language better by differentiating their invalid uses (most likely they are committed during the first phase of testing) from the correct use (it is likely to be achieved after the teacher presented the concept of language during the teaching phase).
In general, the TTT approach is a good way for teachers to determine the specific needs of students in different areas of language. With this knowledge, educators can optimize their teaching strategies to produce optimal learning outcomes. It is best used in intermediate and higher proficiency levels, as well as in classes where students have mixed language skills. However, a constant criticism about the TTT approach is that it has an element of randomness since several unexpected needs may arise for students who are beyond the scope of the planned lesson. Despite this disruptive possibility, many educators are still adopting the TTT approach because it is very "economical" and "focused" in the sense that it is not necessary to waste valuable time in teaching language areas with which students already They are competent.
Task Based Approach . TBA is a good alternative to the PPP approach or the TTT method. In structured classes with TBA, teachers do not predetermine the details of the language to be studied, but instead base their lesson strategies on how students complete a central task. Similar to the other two approaches, TBA follows a sequential progression: 1) a previous introduction to the task that the teacher must perform; 2) the students & # 39; complete a central task that involves a particular aspect of language; 3) reports, analysis and feedback to be made by the teacher regarding how the students accomplished the central task; and 4) practice sessions to improve students' competencies in the language area.
The task-based approach is defended by many educators due to several clear advantages. On the one hand, TBA allows students to use all their linguistic resources to complete a task and not just preselected language areas as in the case of PPP. In addition, TBA uses real-life natural language contexts that are highly relevant to students. Therefore, exploration and language learning arise directly from the students & # 39; real needs and not as suggested in textbooks. TBA is also based on the premise that a holistic exposure to language, unlike the incremental exposures common to PPP, is a better way to learn a new language.
conclusion
Based on the profusion of online materials, each approach enjoys strong support from their respective proponents. It would not hurt to try each one depending on your classes & # 39; Learning environments Remember, there is no written rule that restricts anyone from modifying, combining or optimizing any of the three approaches. At least in the design of lesson plans, flexibility is a more preferred option than dogmatic rigidity. The conclusion is to personalize the lesson plan that will help each one achieve the learning objectives and offer the best value for their students.
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