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Lesson Planning
Revision and consolidation – 1LLT600
Mark Krzanowski

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Organisation of the Lecture
• Introduction
• Interactive Discussion of Questions from
Pre-Lecture Task
• Break
• Questions from Trainee Teachers
• Review of specialist literature on lesson
planning
• Conclusions
• Confirmation of date and time of next
session

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1. What are the most important functions of a lesson plan?
• To logically plan the sequence of
activities so that learners are
meaningfully engaged in learning
and teaching
• To determine the suitability of what
needs to be delivered to learners
and make informed choices about:
the topic, structures, skills,
vocabulary and phonology to be
taught, mats to be used and
approaches, methods and
techniques to be applied
• To have a tangible point of reference
while delivering a lesson
• To reflect on its execution after a
lesson, and if necessary amend it is
ever used again
• If produced by an experienced
teacher, to act a model for
benchmarking for a „starting‟
teacher

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2. What advice about lesson planning would normally be given to
a teacher who has just started teaching?
• Write up a detailed verbatim
(i.e. word-for-word) script
• WHY? Initial teaching requires
meticulous preparation and
practice. A written blow-by-blow
scenario aids smooth execution
and is an excellent aide
memoire should something go
wrong in the process of the
execution of the lesson
• If possible, ask for the initial
short sequences that you teach
to be videoed, and ask for your
teacher trainer to point to your
specific „imperfections‟ so that
you are able to rectify certain
elements in your future teaching
practice.

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3a. How do you define aims and objectives for different types of
classes, e.g. those teaching structure and those dealing with
skills? Give some examples.
Examples of formulation of lesson aims for lessons dealing with
STRUCTURE:
(1) To introduce the Present Perfect tense and provide learners with
practice in its use
or
(2) To revise the use of Present Simple and Present Perfect Tenses in
context
Or: (3)
Learning Aim: to be able to use, when prompted, „Shall I + infinitive‟ when
offering help
Teaching Aim: to present and give controlled practice with appropriate
uses of „Shall I + infinitive‟ in contexts expressing offering assistance.

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3b. How do you define aims and objectives for different types of
classes, e.g. those teaching structure and those dealing with SKILLS?
Give some examples.
Main aims of the lesson („Body
Language‟)
to give students practice in the
listening skills of:
prediction of content
 „T/F‟ listening to verify
hypothetical guesses
 intensive listening for factual
information and note-taking
to improve students‟ speaking
skills by enabling them to
communicate about the main topic
in fluency-oriented activities
 to give SS guided/controlled
practice in converting informal
written passages in English into
more academic ones
Sub-aims of the lesson
to give SS practice in
recognising what is
relevant/redundant in listening
 to consolidate/improve group
cohesion through pair/group work
 to continue raising SS‟s
awareness of the importance of
the „high‟ academic register
 to increase SS‟s awareness of
cross cultural issues
 to continue teaching SS
relevant academic skills (e.g.
proof-reading or editing skills) by
setting relevant homework

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3b: Objectives
By the end of the session the students will have:
•improved their listening skills / made some further progress in
listening comprehension
•received more practice in speaking about the topic in question
•gained a better understanding of how to converted informal
passages into more formal and academic texts
•been exposed to more pair-work and group work activities to
exchange of information and enhance communicative language
practice
• acquired another insight into what constitutes a formal academic
register in writing
•reflected on the cultural issues linked to body language /
extralinguistic communication
• received more practice in proof-reading and editing skills in their
prospective homework task.

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4. How do you allocate time slots to different parts of the lesson before a lesson?
Imagine that you have to teach a classic P-P-P (60-minute) lesson. What proportion
of time would you give to each „P‟ – why?
60-minute P-P-P:
Circa 20 mins for presentation
• Circa 20 mins for Practice
• Circa 20 mins for Free®
Production
Timings are not ‘cast in
stone’, but this proportion
is recommended for best
synergies, and best effects.
Teaching a three-hour block
It is advisable to frontload creative
elements of a lesson or productive
skills to the 1st part when learners feel
„fresher‟
A short break seems absolutely
necessary (15 mins)
Teaching an integrated-skills
lesson (2 hours)
-It is up to a teacher to decide on a
meaningful sequence of activities and
the amount of time required
5. S-T-T: T-T-T: ideally 80% - 20%

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6. Think how you could show diagrammatically the interdependence of all
relevant elements of a lesson for its practical execution – try to produce a
grid or a table which contains these key elements, and how you would fill
each „box‟ in.
Timing Procedure Activity Interaction
Exact
duration
Series of
steps in
chronological
order
e.g.
information
gap or
jigsaw
reading
Describing
specific
classroom
configuration

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7. Lesson plans – individual sub-headings
• Class profile: what information needs to be provided by the
trainee to the teacher trainer or a college inspector?
- age of learners; male-female ratio; level of literacy; interests;
levels of maturity; classroom dynamics to date; personality
clashes; willingness to engage in pair- or group-work; preferred
learning and teaching styles; wherever possible, individual
learning profiles (ILPs); special needs; ethnic composition;
• Aims & Sub-aims
• Objectives
• Assumptions
At the pre-planning stage of my lesson, I am making the following
assumptions:
a) There will be at least 10 students attending the class today so pair-work
and group-work activities are justified
b) The learners are not familiar with the vocabulary that I am going to pre-
teach and drill in the lesson today
c) All the students have done their homework so I can spend the first 5
minutes checking it with them.

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7. Lesson plans – individual sub-headings (continued)
• Treatment of Phonology
How much space would you give to Phonology in a lesson, and also
in your lesson plan? Justify your answer.
• (New) Lexis to be taught
How many items of new or important vocabulary would we normally
bring into a single lesson? When planning a lesson, at which stage of
the lesson would you deal with pre-selected vocabulary and incidental
vocabulary?

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9. Think of useful pedagogical strategies that you can use when in
the lesson something does not go according to plan – what do
you do? Give some examples.
• Thinking on one‟s feet
• „Extemporisation‟ of a successful solution or face-saving
strategy
• If lesson does not go to plan because of digression or deviation
which is beneficial to class / lecture: tutor may exceptionally „go
with the flow‟ (not in Teaching Practice though); such
„departures from plan‟ may at times be desirable or welcome
• Ability to foresee potential problems & „nip them in the bud‟
should they arise
• „Hope for the best, prepare for the worst‟
• Reflection on the problem properly after the lesson & talking to
colleagues you trust so that you are not “caught unawares”
again next time
• Preparation of fallback materials or emergency activities for a
„rainy day‟

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10. a, b & c
• Time management is an
integral part of lesson
planning and lesson
preparation.
• An assessor will expect you
to find ways or either (a)
executing your lesson almost
to the last minute so that the
planned 60 minutes =
executed 60 minutes or (b)
cutting it skilfully to make
sure that the 60 minutes is
when the lesson ends, with
the least possible damage
done to the content of the
lesson (sometimes a whole
activity may need to be
sacrificed).
• A trainee needs to cover
himself/herself re this in their
lesson plan (the section
which deals with time
management).

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11. There are normally at least 4 patterns of classroom interaction. Can you think
what they are? What is crucial for to having a successful lesson when it comes to
deciding on a pattern of interaction in lesson planning?
•T-SS & SS-T
•SS-SS
•T-S & S-T
•Silence
•Skilful sequencing of various
patterns of classroom
interaction – key to success
•T‟s ability to vary patterns of
interaction from class to
class for better synergies and
better classroom dynamics

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12. In some classes you may have students asking questions (this may
potentially be time-consuming). How do you deal with such situations if
you know that this may affect your lesson plan?
Students‟ questions are evidence of involvement / engagement,
and always need to be addressed. Time permitting, this can and
should be done in a lesson so that learners can see that the
teacher attends to their needs. Students‟ questions are „precious‟
and may often take precedence over certain elements of a lesson
plan that might be skipped if necessary. Trainee teachers need to
be careful about this and opt for such scenarios once they have
gained more experience.
13. Give some examples of „over-planning‟ and ‟under-planning‟. What
are the practical solutions to reach an appropriate balance?
•Asking experienced colleague or assessor for observation &
guidance
•Videoing oneself, watching the tape/DVD is diagnosing where the
problem is
•Watching other teachers in action to see how they do it

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14. Are you a good planner or bad planner? Or are you somewhere
in the middle? How does it impact on your teaching ability?
-varies from one individual to another
15. What do we mean by a „reserve‟ activity?
- additional activity to be used an extension or replacement
activity as and when required
16. Why is planning lessons meticulously and comprehensively,
on a regular basis, extremely important for a beginning teacher of
English (and any teacher/lecturer, anyway)?
- Touches of behaviourism: lesson planning can be compared to
habit formation. It can be compared to learning to drive or to swim
– once properly learnt, the skill is there to stay. Planning gives a
sense of direction to teacher, his/her fellow colleagues (if classes
are co-taught) and to students. Good lesson planning enhances
and brings out the best in teaching.

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17. Lesson planning is in a direct relationship with schemes of work and
records of work, and a syllabus design – can you say why?
There appears to be some incremental progression in one’s mastering
teaching skills. An ability to design a good lesson plan feeds positively
into acquiring sound skills of designing schemes of work, and an
appropriate syllabus. Also, there is almost constant cross-referencing
between lesson plans, records of work and syllabi (even if one’s lesson
plans gradually evolve to become merely ‘skeletal ones’ or ‘mental’ ones).
18. Lesson plans, like any other sub-area of ELT, have their own sub-
set of phrases, expressions, collocations, jargon/terminology that ELT
teachers use. Try to brainstorm some of these and see if you use the
concepts actively already now in your studies and / or your teaching.
•elicitation; teaching aids; choral drill; pre-teaching lexis;
reformulation; group cohesion; spiky profile; back-chain
drill; receptive skills; productive skills; review activity;
high frequency items; modal verbs; auxiliary verbs;
relationship between tense and time in English; demo-
ing; lead-in; seating arrangements (e.g. horse-shoe);
realia;

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19. Review of Specialist Literature on Lesson Planning
1. Penny Urr “A Course in Language Teaching”
I. Ways of Varying a Lesson (p. 217)
• Tempo
• Organisation
• Model and skill
• Difficulty
• Topic
• Mood
• Stir-settle
• Active- passive
II. Guidelines for ordering components of a lesson
1. Put the harder tasks earlier
2. Have quieter activities before lively ones
3. Think about transitions
4. Pull the class together at the beginning and the end
5. End on a positive note

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19. Review of Specialist Literature on Lesson Planning
2. Marianne Celce-Murcia (Ed),
“Teaching English as a
Second or Foreign Language”
Basic Principles of Lesson
Planning (p. 406)
1. A good lesson has a sense of
coherence and flow (on a
macro- and micro-level)
2. A good lesson exhibits variety
(again at macro- and micro-
levels)
3. A good lesson is flexible
“Even failure can be a valuable
lesson for both the novice and
experienced teacher”

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19. Review of Specialist Literature on Lesson Planning
3. Martin Parrott “Tasks for Language Teachers”
[lesson planning] „Personal experience‟ (p. 127‟)
“More time may be devoted to planning:
-When the teacher feels unsure of himself
-When using unfamiliar materials
-With very demanding classes.
For some teachers there is a kind of evolutionary cycle whereby
they plan in very great detail to begin with, but then plan less
and less until something „happens‟ (for example, a criticism
might be made that the teacher is lazy) […]
Planning ensures that there is some system and balance in the
students‟ learning […]
Although a teacher may have planned a lesson in great detail,
he also needs to be sensitive to demands which arise in the
lesson”

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19. Review of Specialist Literature on Lesson Planning
4. Jeremy Harmer “How to Teach English”
What Qs do we need to ask for each activity we intend to use in
a lesson (p. 123):
•Who exactly are the students for this activity?
•Why do you want to do it?
•What will it achieve?
•How long will it take?
•What might go wrong?
•What will be needed?
•How does it work?
•How will it fit with what comes in before and after it?

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19. Review of Specialist Literature on Lesson Planning
5. Jeremy Harmer “The Practice of English Language Teaching”
Using lesson plans (p. 318)
• Action and reaction (response of SS & T‟s decision: to continue
or modify the lesson plan)
• Reasons for modifying a lesson plan:
• (a) magic moments (recognition & sustainability)
• (b) sensible diversion (unexpected announcement & acceptance
that it needs to be accommodated in lesson)
• (c) unforeseen problems (boredom, time management, level of
difficulty)
• “A sensitive, insightful and conscientious teacher needs to take
this on board when planning a lesson or a series of lessons”
(MK)

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Conclusions
• Lesson planning is an integral part of a teaching
repertoire of a new teacher of English and needs to
be given sufficient prominence in teacher training
courses. Trainee teachers are able to master the skill
gradually as if in a behaviouristic-like „habit-
formation‟ manner. Lesson planning, like anything
else in ELT, is not „cast in stone‟, and it is not a
science. It is an art, and may well be executed
differently by various teachers. Good lesson
planning leads naturally in due course to planning
schemes of work, course syllabi and subject
curricula. ELT teachers continue to practise the
skills not only on certificate, but also diploma
courses. MK