Tefl Lesson

  Hello. This presentation is going to cover this section on lesson planning and what we're going to do is to have a look as to why we go about planning a lesson, what do we actually put in it? We'll create an empty lesson plan pro-forma and then having done that what we'll do is to fill in that lesson plan for a particular teaching point. So, our starting position is going to be: "Why do we plan lessons at all?" There are a number of reasons why we need to plan a lesson. The first and foremost perhaps is that it's going to create a logical sequence for our lessons. If we didn't have a lesson plan, it is quite possible that we could go all over the place and it would become confusing for the students. By having this plan, what we've created is a structure that we can work from. So,...  [Read more]

  So, the document itself needs to contain some general information about the class, for example the name of the teacher, the date and time of the lesson, what level of class is being taught and in what room, how many students are we expecting, this is important, when we've got things like photocopying and materials to do, what is the context of the lesson, in other words, what is the lesson actually about, what vocabulary or grammar point is this lesson covering and sometimes it's also useful to write out what the focus of the lesson is. So, in effect, the context of the lesson is telling us the grammar point, for example, that might be the present continuous tense, whereas the focus is telling us how we're going to go about teaching it. Another example to illustrate this: Let's...  [Read more]

  Then, we have a set of objectives and aims. Here, the learner objectives relate to what we're hoping the students are going to be able to do by the end of your lesson and quite often, that can be a useful way of writing out what the objectives are. So, we would start the sentence "By the end of the lesson, students should be able to?" and then a list of two, three or four items that we're expecting the students to be able to do by completing this lesson. The learner objectives are different to the teacher aims the teacher aims are what you are expecting from that lesson itself. Now, when you first start teaching, quite a normal aim might be to complete the lesson successfully, to get through the whole thing without having any problems. As time goes on and you become more...  [Read more]

  Okay, so we're going to use this pro-forma as our lesson plan and we're going to fill one out as though we were planning for an actual lesson. So, we start off with some basic information about the class. So, the name of the teacher, date and time and the class level. In this particular case, our class is going to be an elementary class and the room will be room 3. Having looked through the registers we see that the expected number of students for this particular class is going to be 10. This will help us in creating our worksheet copies. The context of the lesson for this class is going to be present continuous tense and it may well be the first time that this particular level of class has been introduced to this tense. So, our focus is going to be fairly general and it's going...  [Read more]

  So, now we're going to fill the actual procedure of the lesson plan out itself. We mentioned at the start, the first thing we do, is to get some general information about the class that we'll be teaching and then, in order for someone to be able to cover our lesson, we need to present enough information in our lesson plan that they can actually carry it out. What I'm going to do is for each stage of the lesson, I'll indicate what I'm going to do in the lesson and then, we'll cut away from that to have a look to see how that will actually be achieved. So, our lesson is going to be based on a 45-minute lesson and the first phase is going to be the engage phase and it's going to be a straight arrow ESA lesson. I'm going to take approximately five minutes on my engage phase and in...  [Read more]

  So, having elicited this particular structure, what I'm now able to do is to move on to the actual study activities. Typically, they will be in the form of worksheets to check that the students actually understand this information. So, I might prepare three activities. They may not do them all but, for example, I could prepare these three study activities. So, the first one is going to be a fairly straightforward matching activity, where perhaps they match the subject to its correct verb "to be" in that part of the sentence. The second one is going to be a gap fill. For example, I might use this verb here and ask them to complete a sentence using that verb, so that I can check that any spelling changes that take place are correct and the final one is going to be an unscramble,...  [Read more]

  The first part of my study phase is going to be the board work and I'm going to use the information that I generated in the elicitation part of my engage phase to move on to the actual board work. What I'm going to do is to show the structure of this particular tense. So, the phase study I'm expecting to take about ten minutes on this particular part and, again, the interaction will mainly be the students talking to me. So, how am I going to achieve that with this information? Well, we could ask the students to have a look at the sentences themselves and to tell us what they can see. If we look at each of the first words in here, then at this level, I should hopefully be able to elicit from my students what each of these words have in common and they may well give an answer that...  [Read more]

  Lesson planning is an important part of being a teacher. While experienced teachers may appear to not require a plan it is only because they have probably taught a lesson so many times that the majority of their plan is in their head. They will still have a good idea of how they want and expect the lesson to proceed. Inexperienced teachers will need the structure a good lesson plan provides. A good plan acts as a guide to your planning. It helps a teacher consider the direction of the lesson and possible pitfalls and diversions. It also helps a teacher keep on track during the lesson but should not be so restrictive that it prevents flexibility in class. A lesson plan also serves as a record of what you have taught before enabling you to easily see what to review at later dates...  [Read more]

To prepare effective lesson plans, TESOL teachers follow a structured approach that ensures the delivery of engaging and comprehensive lessons. Here is a step-by-step guide on how TESOL teachers prepare lesson plans: 1. **Understand the Learning Objectives:** The first step in preparing a lesson plan is to clearly understand the learning objectives. This involves identifying what students should be able to achieve by the end of the lesson, whether it is improving their speaking skills, learning new vocabulary, or understanding grammar concepts. 2. **Assessment of Students' Needs:** TESOL teachers need to assess the language proficiency level of their students to tailor the lesson plan accordingly. This could involve conducting placement tests, observing students in class, or reviewing...  [Read more]

  For the lesson that even takes place, there are a number of things that you need to have considered. Obviously, you need a very clear idea of what it is you're expecting the students to have to do and they need to know why. It's very important before you ask them to do an activity that they have an understanding of the purpose of that activity. You should, secondly, have had a thought about what they already know. Linked to that is, will it be necessary to do any form of pre-teaching before I can expect them to do this activity and finally, we need to make sure that we have prepared all our materials and our instructions for this particular activity. So, we'll consider a straight arrow ESA lesson, the focus of which is to be speaking skills. So, we'll start with our engage and in...  [Read more]

When creating TESOL lesson plans, it is essential to include a variety of components to ensure a well-rounded and effective learning experience for your students. A well-structured lesson plan not only helps you stay organized but also ensures that you cover all the necessary components of language learning. Here are some key elements to consider when developing your TESOL lesson plans: 1. **Learning Objectives**: Clearly outline the specific goals and objectives of the lesson. What do you want your students to learn or achieve by the end of the lesson? Make sure your objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). 2. **Language Focus**: Identify the language skills or grammar structures that you will be focusing on in the lesson. This could include...  [Read more]

  The next example is going to be that of a boomerang lesson and remember the structure is like this. So, again, we're going to start with an engage phase and for our engage, the students are just going to have a discussion about jobs. What happens at interviews and so on and so forth. So, during that engage phase, what we'd hope to do is to elicit some useful language about jobs and interviews and the types of questions that are being asked. Then, we're going to move immediately into an activate activity and this is going to involve a role-play. So, we'll break the students into pairs. One will be an interviewer, the other will be an interviewee and they'll generate the language that that role-play will produce. What the teacher can do whilst that is taking place is to go around...  [Read more]

  A final example is going to be an example of a patchwork ESA lesson and remember we said the form of this particular lesson will start with and engage always and will finish with and activate and there'll be some variation of E, S and A within the brackets here. So we're going to generate our patchwork ESA lesson as follows. Starting with the engage, the students are going to look at holiday photos and talk about what they like and don't like from what they see. From that, we're going to move directly into an activate phase and what the students are going to do is to make comments about holiday brochures and try to act out a role-play between the travel agent and a customer. Again, as this is taking place, the teacher will be moving around and looking for gaps in knowledge in...  [Read more]

Anyone who has spent time as a teacher in any capacity will know that having a pre-written lesson plan is an important part of the job, as without one things can go off track very quickly. Once you have gained some experience the amount of effort you need to put into your plans will be reduced, but in the early stages of your teaching career it can sometimes be the difference between an efficient and successful lesson and a complete and utter disaster. A proper lesson plan allows you to lay out your targets for the lesson, organize your timings efficiently, ensure you have all the necessary materials and equipment, and identify any expected problems and how to deal with them. With a solid plan in place you should be able to move through every stage of the lesson on time, without...  [Read more]

  When our answers are not correct then, obviously, they need to be corrected but it is quite important that we go through a process of correction that will help students. Quite often they've made a mistake simply because of something like reading the incorrect answer out or misrepresenting what they've actually written down. So, always give the opportunity when a mistake has been made for the student to self-correct first. We can often do this in a nonverbal way to show them that they're not actually correct. We might repeat back what they've said to us in a questioning manner or we may just make a gesture to make sure that they understand that they're not correct. So, we allow for a process of self-correction. It may be that the student has actually got the answer wrong and so we...  [Read more]

  Just to finish off this particular section on lesson planning, we're going to go through a couple of procedures that should take place during the study phase periods, particularly when we're doing the activities. It is quite important that before we actually go into a study activity that we go through a process of showing how that activity is going to work and one acronym that is often used for this is D-E-GO. The D part of this stands for a demonstration of the activity. Now, it's very important that you don't try to explain how the activity is going to work but rather you actually demonstrate the process. An example of the demonstration of the process of the activity could be something as simple as taking the first question and using it and writing it on the board. This will...  [Read more]

  Now an example of a straight arrow ESA lesson for our engage phase. What we're going to do is to show the students a video of animals and they are going to say what they like about those animals and try to create a list of some more. So, remember what we're trying to do here is to get the students talking and thinking in English. We're using a typical engage activity, which is to create a list and we try to make sure that all the students have been involved in some way in creating those lists. Moving on to the study phase, the first part is going to be the board work and the teacher is going to try to elicit from the students what each of those animals can and can't do. Typically, what the students will say is just single words, so "run," "jump," "fly," etc. What we would then...  [Read more]

To make your TESOL lessons more engaging, you can incorporate a variety of interactive activities and teaching strategies that cater to different learning styles and keep your students actively involved throughout the lesson. Here are some key tips to enhance engagement in your TESOL classes: First and foremost, consider the interests and backgrounds of your students when planning your lessons. Incorporating topics and materials that are relevant and engaging for them will increase their motivation to participate and learn. Utilize a mix of teaching methods, such as visual aids, hands-on activities, group work, and technology, to cater to different learning preferences. This variety will help maintain your students' interest and focus. Incorporate real-life scenarios and practical tasks...  [Read more]

To make your TESOL lessons more dynamic, it's important to incorporate a variety of teaching strategies and techniques that engage students and cater to different learning styles. Here are some tips to help you create dynamic and interactive TESOL lessons: Firstly, consider incorporating technology into your lessons. Utilize multimedia resources such as videos, interactive whiteboards, and online learning platforms to make the lessons more engaging and interactive for students. Technology can also help cater to visual and auditory learners, making the lessons more dynamic. Additionally, incorporate real-life scenarios and authentic materials into your lessons. This could include using newspaper articles, podcasts, or videos that are relevant to the students' interests and everyday lives....  [Read more]

To make your TESOL lessons more student-centered, there are several strategies you can implement to create a more engaging and interactive learning environment for your students. First and foremost, it is essential to consider the individual needs and learning styles of each student in your classroom. By taking the time to get to know your students and their preferences, you can tailor your lessons to better suit their needs and interests. This can involve incorporating a variety of activities, such as group work, pair work, role plays, and games, to cater to different learning styles and keep students engaged. Another key aspect of student-centered teaching is providing opportunities for students to take an active role in their own learning. This can be achieved by encouraging students to...  [Read more]