Step 1. Revision

Step 2. New Lesson

Unit 4 Lesson Planning   

        In this unit we are going to look at one of the most important components of language teachers’ work, lesson planning. We will focus on the following: 

1. Why is lesson planning important?

2. What are the principles for good lesson planning?

3. What are macro-planning and micro-planning?

4. What are the components of a lesson planning?

I. Why is lesson planning important?

1.What is a lesson plan? 

        A lesson plan is a framework of a lesson in which teachers make advance decisions about what they hope to achieve and how they would like to achieve it. That is teachers need to think about the aims to be achieved, materials to be covered, activities to be organized and techniques and resources to be used in order to achieve the aims of the lesson. So, it is very important for us to prepare lessons well, otherwise we can’t make the lesson transit from one stage to the next smoothly and you can’t finish your teaching tasks.

(1)Do you think it is the only task for novice teachers? Do experienced teachers need to plan their lessons why?

   The answer is “No!” Experienced teachers also need to plan their lessons.

      Because no teaching or learning situation is really static, social and educational circumstances change views of methodology change and resources available change.

(2)What do language teachers benefit from lesson planning?

    A clear lesson plan makes the teacher …

---aware of the aims and language contents of the lesson.

--- help the teacher to distinguish the various stages of a lesson

       ---see the relationship between stages so that the lesson can move smoothly from one stage to another.

---think about how the students can be fully engaged in the lesson.

---aware of the teaching aids that are needed 

      ---help the teachers to think about the relative value of different activities and how much time should be spend on them.

       So proper lesson planning is essential for both novice and experienced teachers. That means you can benefit a lot from it.

II.Principles for good lesson planning

There are five major principles behind good lesson planning they are:

(1) Aim — means the realistic goals for thelesson. The teacher needs to have a clear idea of what he/she would like to achieve for the lesson or what outcomes are expected from the lesson.

(2) Variety—means planning a number ofdifferent types of activates and where possible，introducing students to a wide selection of materials so that learning is always in retesting.

(3)Flexibility—means planning to use anumber of different methods and techniques

(4)Learn ability—means the contents and tasks planned for the lesson should be within the learning capability of the students

(5)Linkage—means the stages and steps within each stage are planning in such a way that they are someway linked with one another. Good linkage makes the lesson   transit from one stage to the next smoothly.

III. Types of lesson planning

There are two kinds of lesson planning. Macro planning vs. micro planning

1. Macro planning is planning over a longer time.(for a month, a termor the whole course) This is often done at the beginning of the term by a group of teachers who are to teach the same course.

2 .Micro planning is planning for a specific unit or a lesson which usually  lasts from one to two weeks or forty to fifty minutes respectively and different teachers may have different ways of writing their own lesson plans. In fact there is no clear cut between them.

※How do we make a macro planning? 

(1) Knowing about the profession

(2) Knowing about the institution 

(3) Knowing about the learners

(4) Knowing about the curriculum/syllabus

(5) Knowing about the textbooks

(6) Knowing about the objectives