Planning: Overplanning

If you are an obsessive clock-watcher in your lessons and/or find yourself pausing often to check your plan then you are probably the victim of the dread overplanning syndrome.

On the positive side, it also means that you are an organised and conscientious teacher who wants to make sure that no learner's time is wasted and that all the learners get the most out of each lesson. That's a good thing and there is no intention here to suggest that careful planning is not helpful and desirable.
However, there are many occasions in language teaching when going with the flow is a principled decision and it has many advantages. It does not necessarily mean you are not being conscientious.

In fact, there is an approach to teaching, called Dogme, which encourages teachers to be much more relaxed about planning, use materials sparingly if at all and avoid the use of technology where possible. The central idea is to use the language that emerges from or that is clearly needed by the learners as the core of any teaching.
You still have to have some idea where you are going, but only the general outlines of a lesson can be planned because learning is seen to happen in conversation and the focus is on what emerges naturally from the learners rather than imposed upon them.
If you think you might be suffering from overplanning syndrome, you could read up on Dogme and try the approach. For more on Dogme, and some references to research, go to the brief guide on this site.

Teachers are different

You knew that but here is one reason why.
In most jobs, workers don't actually have to do much planning of their own work – it comes to them.
If you are a doctor, a pilot, a train driver or a shop worker, all you need to do is go to work at the right time and the patients, the passengers and the customers come to you. You don't even have to bring your own surgery, aeroplane, train or shop with you.

Teaching isn't like that because, although you don't usually need to bring the classroom and the equipment with you, you do have to bring the ideas, the materials and a plan of what you intend to do. If you do nothing, the students may come to you but nothing will happen.
Teachers have to make up their jobs as they go along. That's one of the things that makes it special (and tiring and stressful at times).

Emerging needs

One of the ways we make up our own jobs is in planning. Another concerns our reactions to the needs of the learners as we go along. Not reacting to their needs means you end up teaching the plan, not the learners.

Think for a moment about what sorts of needs might emerge from a group of learners as a lesson goes along. If it helps, think through a lesson you have recently taught and see if you can identify any emerging needs in that lesson.
Click here when you have a short list.

The need for extension: This happens frequently with lexis.
For example, you knew in the plan that the learners would need the adjective enthusiastic to complete a task on personality traits and understand a key part of text. What you didn't plan for is the fact that 11 out of 12 learners don't know how the word collocates and none of them can pronounce it acceptably. They are producing things like an enthusiastic job, an enthusiastic position and so on. You could, of course, just explain or translate rapidly and move on. On the other hand, if they need the word and need to produce the word, you have to depart from your plan to take account of its importance, teaching its pronunciation, likely collocations, related words and so on. This might take 5 minutes out of your carefully planned timing so something may have to be shortened or omitted elsewhere. That's the judgement call.
The need for more practice: Half-way through a lesson you have cleverly planned a stage in which the learners complete a form-based exercise intended to show you and them that they have grasped the use of a range of prepositions. What you didn't plan for is that many of the learners are very tired and have not properly understood the difference between in and at. There's little point in going on to the next stage of the lesson if they can't distinguish the uses of the words so you have to extemporise: re-present the issues with different examples, concept check again and then invent something like a quick gap-fill task or elicit some uses to make sure they have got it. This all takes time.
The need for background and clarification: You have used a reading text as the basis of a lesson on skimming and scanning skills. You weren't very concerned with the topic (American food); it was the subskills that formed your focus. Surprisingly, however, you find that the learners are actually displaying a previously hidden interest in knowing more about American food and how it varies from state to state and region to region of the USA. You could, of course, ignore this hunger for knowledge and get on with the plan or you can take 10 minutes to explore things further and provide both information and language. Another judgement call you have to make.
The need to have another go: It is sometimes the case that we need to do things more than once (or more often than we planned). For example, a reading or listening text may prove to be more difficult for our learners than we thought or a speaking task may be poorly and hesitatingly achieved and needs to be repeated. If there is an issue like this with a task, it is perilous to ignore it.

Recognising the need and judging the response

Naturally, however you deal with needs as they emerge in your teaching, the effect will be a departure from your plan. The ability to depart appropriately from a plan and deal with what learners actually need then and there is part of being a good teacher. It comes with practice but see if you can work out what to do with the following symptoms of an emerging need. Click on the table for some comments.

events

Event 1: This is the introduction to the lesson so giving the class a blow-by-blow account of your holiday is unlikely to involve the learners in the topic and will disrupt the timing for the rest of the lesson. A combination of b) and c) is probably the wisest response but you do need to respond.
Event 2: It's actually quite complicated because buses can be two deck and coaches can't and buses are timetabled but coaches are hired for special occasions. Unfortunately, we usually use the word coach for a single-deck, long-distance bus! Eliciting the difference will take too long so the preferred response is to give the student half the truth (single vs. double deck or hired vs. timetabled) and make a mental note to sort the issue out later.
Event 3: Response a) will take forever and is of questionable value (unless you are teaching English for maritime purposes). Again, a combination of b) and c) is probably wise.
Event 4: If you can do a), don't. It's an excessive response. b) is much better (and if you have a map in the classroom, you can point to the country). You do, however, need to get pronunciation right so pausing to drill is a good response.

These are, of course, rather trivial events. Less trivial is the occasional need to depart completely from your plan and teach a different lesson. Why might that be necessary? Think of some reasons and then click here.

Misjudgement: If you have badly misjudged the difficulty of the materials or the abilities of the students then one of two reactions is needed.
If the material is too difficult or the learners less able than you thought, you will have to slow down and teach the language the learners need to understand it. In extreme cases, it may be necessary abandon it. Anything is better than steamrollering ahead and frustrating, depressing and demotivating the learners.
If the material is easier or the learners more able than you thought, it is time either to raise the challenge of the task (asking them to read and summarise, getting them analyse the grammar and lexis etc.) or move on more quickly than you had planned, abandoning, if necessary, the text explanation phase. It is frustrating for learners to be asked to demonstrate they understand something below their abilities.
Responses: There are times when a learner's response to something comes as a surprise and is compelling enough to warrant some divergence from the plan. For example, in practising short responses to present-perfect questions, the following exchange was observed:
T: Have you ever been to Brazil, Michael?
M: Yes, I have.
T: Good. Dana, have you ever eaten a full English breakfast?
D: No, I haven't.
T: Good. Michiko, have you ever been in an earthquake?
M: Yes, I have, it was in ...
T: Good. Frederic, Have you ever ...
etc.
Please don't do that. It was important to Michiko if not to you.
Involvement: Some classroom activities can surprise in terms of how involved learners get. If you expected something to involve people and it doesn't, cut it short. If something is unexpectedly involving for your learners, extend it and catch the buzz.

Improving in this area

Planning

When you next plan a lesson, re-read the plan and look at each stage in turn.
About each stage, ask yourself:

What could be the learners' response to this stage?
1. What will I do if the response is negative?
2. What will I do if the response is very positive?
What language and/or skills do the learners need to complete this task well?
1. What will I do if they don't have the knowledge or the skill?
2. What will I do if they finish it very quickly?
3. What will I do if they are struggling?

In each stage of the plan insert a 'flexi-stage', i.e., one that you can implement or not as the needs arise, which responds to the possible answers to those questions. That way, you'll have planned to go off plan and still be in your comfort zone.

Monitoring, reviewing and being observed

Monitoring your own behaviour in class is a start. Try to notice when people are struggling or wanting more and be brave enough to depart from the plan and attend to it. If you have time try:

Record a lesson on video or audio.
Play it back in privacy and look particularly for events or questions which show an emerging need.
Ask three questions:
1. did I notice?
2. did I react?
3. was my reaction wise and proportional?

You can do the same thing if you are lucky enough to be able to get an observer to follow your instructions. Set them the same questions and then discuss your responses and the events and talk about how to make them better.

Gauging progress

There's a separate guide in this section of the site to gauging and measuring progress in your development. Go there for more ideas.
In terms of making adjustments to the plan as you go along, you may not be the best judge so, if you can, get someone to observe how you react to emerging needs and discuss whether your reaction was the right one.
If it wasn't, try to think together about what would have been the right response.