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Concourse 2

Planning a lesson: a step-by-step guide

planning


three

3 types of lesson

There are all sorts of lessons but we can narrow it down a bit.

thinkwrite Task 1: Think for a moment about the kinds of lessons you have experienced in your own life and make a short list of the sorts of lessons you encountered.
Click here when you have a list of two or three.

So, the first question to answer when you sit down to plan a lesson is: What sort of lesson is it?
The answer will determine how it is structured.


stages

Stages

presentation lessons

These will need three stages at least.  Here they are:

  1. presenting the new language or skill
  2. carefully practising the language or skill in a situation which avoids too much error.  In other words, this stage must be quite tightly controlled
  3. using the new language or skill more freely and in a way which is personal and clearly relevant to the learners

Now you need to download an example of a plan of this sort.  Click here to do that.  The plan will open in a new window so you can have it on screen or print it out (or even use it!).

downloadread Task 2: Read through the plan to identify :
  1. When the language is presented
  2. When controlled practice happens
  3. When the learners use the language more freely
Click here when you have done that.

This is an example of what is called a PPP lesson: Present → Practise → Produce.  It is probably the most commonly used plan in the profession.
The lesson staging can be used for many different purposes.  For example, it could easily be adapted to present and practise things you are allowed to do (I can ...) and things that are forbidden (We can't ... / mustn't ...).  All that's needed is some different pictures and a change to the worksheet.

skills lessons

downloadread Task 3: Now download a skill lesson plan and do the same thing.  Read through the plan to identify :
  1. When the skill is presented
  2. When controlled practice happens
  3. When the learners use the language more freely
Click here when you have done that.

revision lessons

think Task 4: There's no example for this because, rather obviously, it depends on what you are revising.  For the two lessons above, however, think for a moment about how you might revise the targets and then click here.

The important thing is that language and skills lessons need to be revised.

There's no test in this area (there were enough already) but now you can go and plan a lesson!

There are some more examples of plans you can copy, use adapt or analyse in the teachers' section of this site.

Now you can go on to the first stage: presenting and explaining.