#30 Guidelines for Writing Lesson Plans

Purpose of Lesson:

Develop appropriate procedure in planning and organizing a lesson to ensure effective learning in class.

By using the lesson plan for proficiency, develop a lesson plan for a lesson to teach.

Description of material used:

• Guidelines for writing a lesson plan
• Lesson plans for proficiency
• Schematic approach to writing a unit

Lesson Format:

1. Read and discuss the guidelines in writing a lesson plan and Lesson plans for proficiency.
2. In pairs write a lesson plan for teaching a particular topic.
3. By referring to the unit guideline, plan a unit.

Assessment:

Teach a lesson using the lesson plan guidelines.

Description of materials:

1. State level of students.
2. State length of lesson i.e., 40 min.
3. State objectives from the point of view of the students. --- The student will learn the vocabulary necessary for shopping in a market.
4. Decide on some activities to afford students the opportunities for achieving these objectives. (Effective teaching)
5. Select the resource material that may best help accomplish the objectives.
6. Select the equipment that will enhance learning.
7. Design some means to evaluate how the objectives were achieved.

Lesson Plans for Proficiency

Self-evaluation checklist to verify whether the lesson plan aims toward proficiency.

1. Did I include a warm-up activity which asked students to perform a function or a contextualized or personalized activity?
2. Was most classroom interaction in the target language?
3. If I presented vocabulary or grammar, did I do so in context?
4. Were any exercises I did contextualized or meaningfi~l?
5. Did I include some speaking practice which required students to interact or be creative with the language?
6. Was small-group work included in the class hour?
7. Did the students participate in some type of role-playing activity?
8. Did I include sufficient listening practice to help my students understand utterances in situations?
9. Did I include or assign writing practice which gave students practice in writing on topics of interest to them?
10. Did I provide a context for culture and an opportunity for students to express a culturally appropriate act?
11. Did I correct students in a way that was helpful to them?

Not all of these areas may not be included each day because of time constraints, but the checklist will provide a reminder of daily goals.

Choosing and adapting materials

After inspecting the grammar, themes, and vocabulary, you may want to take the following steps:

• Prepare materials using real language in context to demonstrate functions and content to be added. This can be done with video, audiotapes, or written dialogues.
• Gather the needed materials, e.g., realia, handouts, and visuals to help students practice.
• Allocate class time so that students practice the language activity which may include small-group work and interviews, games, mini-dramas, filling out forms, and listening to tapes.

Theodore Higgs (1985),Teaching for ProJiciency, the Organizing Principle

Learning a language is a cumulative, spiraling process, and any communicative function can apply to a variety of situations and topics. Once the functions, situations and topics are identified, they can be combined in innumerable ways to provide the focus of a unit of instruction. The units can be interrelated and contribute to the progressive acculturation of knowledge and skills if each unit reinforces previous units.

The statement of learning outcomes for a unit should delineate the specific communicative tasks that the students will be able to perform as the result of instruction. It should be clear, relevant, and attainable, and should reflect both the students' communicative needs. And their interests. It is important that the learning outcomes be realistic for the student(Teachers are advised to refer to the proficiencies described for each checkpoint in formulating their statements of learning outcomes.