How to prepare ESOL EFL lesson plans
Should we always prepare ESOL EFL lesson plans? Somewhat surprisingly to me, some people say:
- They are generally a complete waste of time!
- I don’t want to be tied to a lesson plan.
- A lesson plan restricts my freedom.
- Only people new to teaching need to prepare a lesson plan.
- My best lessons have been taught without a lesson plan!
Although I would reject all of the statements above, I think we can probably all agree that from time to time we are under-prepared for some reason or other and yet we teach a good lesson. Similarly, we know that we can spend ages preparing and then feel obliged to change direction mid-lesson, and still teach a good lesson. In addition, no doubt most of us would agree that experienced teachers probably do not need to do as much planning (generally speaking) as teachers who are new to the profession.
Although there are exceptional lessons which we can all point to, what can we say in general about planning? Is it likely that good teachers are going to stand up and criticise lesson planning in general? I very much doubt it. Planning at some level or other is essential and good teachers will always take it very seriously. Are there any general principles which we can point to with regard to preparing ESOL EFL lesson plans, especially when the focus is introducing new language? I think there are and I would like to outline some of them here.
Planning ESOL EFL lesson plans
Don’t make your lesson plans too long or too complicated. Try to limit the length of your ESOL EFL lesson plans to not more than about two pages of A4; one page would be even better. I generally use 1.5 spacing and 12 point font. This will not, of course, include any handouts or other practice materials for the lesson which will be kept separately. A long and complicated lesson plan may be more difficult to teach.
Number your steps consecutively. Don’t subdivide the various steps so that you end up with steps that read like this: Step 1; Step 1b; Step 1b(i); Step 1b(ii). With a plan like this you are likely to end up accidentally skipping a step and confusing yourself. Simply number the steps, 1, 2, 3, and so on. I also find it more helpful to number the steps rather than to name them (e.g. introduction, presentation, practice etc) because naming steps can be misleading.
Be clear about the overall lesson aim as well as objectives to be achieved along the way. It goes without saying that we all need to be very clear about the aim of each lesson and any objectives that we want to attain on the way to achieving that aim. The aim of the lesson could be general (a teacher might want to maximise student interaction through role play) or very specific (a teacher might want the students to be able to confidently use first conditional sentences with if). It doesn’t matter. However, it is very important to know what you want to achieve by the end of the lesson and keep that to the forefront of your mind. We are not in front of the class just to keep them entertained; we are there to improve the students’ language skills.
Be crystal clear about any target language for the lesson. Many new teachers, and sometimes more experienced teachers too, jump to the conclusion that they know all there is to know about the target language for the lesson, and then get themselves in a total muddle. For example, let’s say that the aim of the lesson is to introduce and practise have got sentences when describing a family. A casual teacher will not plan carefully and so may ask the question Do you have any sisters instead of Have you got any sisters? Muddling up have got expressions with the use of the verb to have will confuse the students. If you are introducing new grammar, try to demonstrate how it is used in context (with actions, puppets, pictures, drawings, mime, brief dialogues etc) rather than trying to explain it. Explanations are often complicated and dull (‘There are five ways to use this new tense. First …’) and also they are often difficult for students to understand.
Ideally prepare your plans so that you have one activity in each step. Try to avoid steps which are complicated and involve a number of different steps. Instead, try to allocate each activity to a different step. This will make the lesson much easier to plan and to teach.
Start with a warm-up activity. This could reflect something done in a previous lesson which links to today’s lesson. It could be a discovery activity to find out what they know about a particular topic. It could be a chance to establish what vocabulary they know. Make it quite short (no more than 5 minutes) and keep it a ‘light’ and easy. Encourage student responses and interaction.
Include examples of the target language in each step of your plan. If you include examples of the target language you are introducing/practising at each step (if this is what you are doing) you will avoid making mistakes. Generally speaking, plan your lesson as if you are planning for a colleague so make everything clear and this will help you when you teach the lesson.
Introduce one new element of language at a time. If, for example, you are introducing the Past Perfect tense to your students, don’t introduce all variations at the same time or the students will be confused. So, for example, start with positive statements using Past Simple followed by Past Perfect first of all (I bought the shoes because I had seen the advert.). Make sure that the context is appropriate and helps to make the meaning of the new language clear. Then practise in the following step. Next, you might want to introduce negative statements followed by practice. A little later introduce sentences where the Past Perfect is followed by the Simple Past. Avoid questions altogether at this stage as these are both complicated and not commonly used. This step by step approach will help the students to absorb and effectively use the new language.
With language practice activities, start with simple practice activities and build up to activities which stretch the students a little more. With the practice activities, and especially with students at lower levels of ability, start with simple well guided activities, perhaps even activities where they cannot make a mistake; an example would be a substitution table where everything fits together whatever they select from the different columns. This is a fairly mundane activity perhaps but it will build up the confidence of students, especially at elementary level. Then gradually move on to guided activities which are slightly more demanding where the students have to make choices. By the end of the lesson, if it has gone well, the students may be able to make up their own sentences completely independently. However, if you start with this latter step, the students will quickly become disheartened and lose confidence.
Try to include practice in all four language skills in your ESOL EFL lesson plans so that your lessons are varied and interesting. Try to integrate the four language skills in all your lessons. Wherever possible include plenty of speaking practice. In many ways, speaking is the key language skill and whatever else you do in class make sure that your lesson plan encourages plenty of interaction with the students and between the students. Speaking practice can be maximised with plenty of pair work and group work. Avoid choral repetition. It has little or no value and adults generally hate it!
After the lesson, annotate your plans and file them with any relevant handouts. Most important! Don’t discard your plans but make notes on them to remind yourself of what worked well and what you would change in your plan if you were to teach the lesson again, and file them away for future record. It’s a great way to help all of us to improve!
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