Unit 20 · Identifying the different components of a lesson plan
A lesson plan is a set of notes that helps us to think through what we are going to teach and how we are going to teach it, and which guides us during and after the lesson. Its main components show what the lesson is for (the aims), what teacher and learners will do and how (the procedures), while other components such as timing or the profile of the group help us anticipate problems and remember what matters about our learners.
◆How do we identify the different components of a lesson plan?
Do you think a lesson plan is most like …
- an instruction leaflet
- a photograph
- a story
- a road map
- a computer programme
- a series of road signs
- a written summary
- something else?
A lesson plan is a set of notes that helps us to think through what we are going to teach and how we are going to teach it. It also guides us during and after the lesson. We can identify the most important componentsThe different parts of a lesson plan, e.g. aims, procedure, timing, aids, interaction patterns, anticipated problems, assumptions, timetable fit, personal aims. click to keep open · see glossary (or parts) of a lesson plan by thinking carefully about our learners, what we want our learners to do and how we want them to do it. So a lesson plan is probably most like a road map or a series of road signs, i.e. something that shows us where we are going and how we are going to get there — although we may sometimes find that during the journey we have to take a different route!
◆Key concepts
The main components of a lesson plan show us what the lesson is for (the aimsAims are not the same as procedures. click to keep open · see glossary), what the teacher and the learners will do during the lesson and how they will do it (the proceduresWhat are the tasks and activities for each stage? click to keep open · see glossary). Other components of the plan, for example, the timingThe likely time different activities or stages in a lesson plan should take. When teachers plan lessons, they think about how long each activity will take and they usually write this on their plan. click to keep open · see glossary of different stages or the profile of the group, help us to think about possible problems and remind us of things we need to remember about the learners.
Here are some ways a lesson plan helps the teacher.
| Before the lesson | Writing down the aims and the procedures for each stage of the lesson helps us to make sure that we have planned the clearest and most logical sequence to enable us to achieve those aims. |
| During the lesson | The plan can also help us to check timing (the amount of time we plan for each stage) and to check that the lesson is following the sequence we decided on and remind us what to do next. |
| After the lesson | We can keep the plan as a record of what happened, making any changes necessary to show how the lesson was different from the plan. We can then use the plan and notes to help plan the next lesson. |
When we plan a lesson, we ask ourselves a number of questions.
Look at the lesson plan components and the questions below. Which components do you think should always appear? Which ones may only appear sometimes?
| Lesson plan components | |
|---|---|
| Class profile | Who are we planning the lesson for? |
| Timetable fit | How is the lesson connected to the last lesson and/or the next one? |
| Main aim(s) | What do we want learners to learn or to be able to do by the end of the lesson? |
| Subsidiary aims | What else do learners need to be able to do during the lesson to enable them to achieve the main aim? |
| Stage aims | What is the purpose of each stage of the lesson? |
| Personal aims | What aspects of our own teaching do we want to develop or improve? |
| Assumptions | What do we think learners already know or can already do related to the aims? |
| Anticipated problems | What may learners find difficult in the lesson? What may they not be used to doing? What may they not feel confident about? |
| Possible solutions | What action will we take to deal with the anticipated problems? |
| Teaching aids, materials, equipment | What should we remember to take to the lesson? |
| Procedures | What are the tasks and activities for each stage? |
| Timing | What length of time will we need for each stage? |
| Interaction patterns | In which ways will learners work at different stages, i.e. individually, in pairs, in groups, as a whole class? |
| Homework | What further work will learners need to do before the next lesson? |
Some lesson plans may not include all of these components. But when we're planning lessons, it's always important to ask ourselves these questions. So all the components together give us a good way of checking that we have thought about our learners and about the lesson, and anticipated any difficulties that might arise. For example, we might plan a mingle as a way of practising specific question forms, anticipate that students may find a quick way of completing the task without practising the target language, and work out some extra instructions to remind them what they have to do.
◆A sample lesson plan
Look carefully at this lesson plan, which aims to introduce and practise language for describing people. Then read the points below.
| Lesson plan components | |
|---|---|
| Level and number of learners / class profile | 24 students at Intermediate (B2) level |
| Timetable fit | Students have already worked on simple descriptions of people |
| Main aim(s) | To extend range of vocabulary for describing people Oral fluency practice |
| Subsidiary aims | Students use appropriate language for basic physical descriptions |
| Assumptions | Students can use present simple & past simple to describe habits and past events |
| Anticipated problem | Students may be unwilling to repeat the same task in the last stage of the lesson |
| Possible solution | If necessary, suggest that students report description from their original partner rather than repeating their own |
| Timing | Procedure | Stage aims | Aids and materials | Interaction pattern |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 minutes | Students talk about their families | Warmer/lead-in: to get students talking and introduce the topic | Family photographs brought in by students | Pairwork |
| 10 minutes | Students select appropriate adjectives to complete descriptions of family members in transcripts of mini-dialogues. They listen to the mini-dialogues and check answers | To introduce new vocabulary Intensive listening | Short gapped transcripts Recorded dialogues CD player | Individual work Pairwork Teacher – whole class |
| 10 minutes | Students exchange information about their own family members | To give students fluency practice: describing personalities, habitual behaviour and specific past events | (none) | Pairwork (Teacher monitors) |
| 10 minutes | Teacher gives feedback on language used. Students do gap-fill task | To highlight need for new language To introduce new language To focus on accuracy | Teacher's notes Whiteboard Worksheet | Teacher – whole class Individual work |
| 10 minutes | Students repeat family description task | To provide an opportunity for students to improve their spoken performance To give students further fluency practice | (none) | Pairwork (new partners) |
◆Key concepts and the language teaching classroom
Read these tips and tick the ones which are most important for you:
- When we make a lesson plan, we need to be sure about the learning rationale (or reasons) for the plan, to ask ourselves how the procedures will help to achieve our main aims and to make sure there are strong connections between the different stages.
- We also need to build in varietyTo introduce different things such as different types of activities or tasks, language skills, interaction patterns, pacing or timing into a lesson. Teachers try to include variety in their lessons, so that learners stay interested. click to keep open · see glossary, i.e. how we can use different activity types, language skills and interaction patterns. Learners of all ages need variety, but this is especially important for younger learners, who need frequent changes of activity.
- A lesson plan can include stages which we can leave out if necessary. We can also include some different possibilities in a lesson plan, e.g. activities for differentiationTo make or see a difference between people and things. In teaching, this can have a special meaning relating to dealing with mixed ability or mixed level learners in one class. The teacher can provide different tasks, activities, texts or materials for differe… click to keep open · see glossary or an extra activity to use if learners take less time than expected to complete a task, or if we are not sure how well parts of the plan will work.
- It's a good idea to keep lesson plans as simple as possible, so notes are better than full sentences, and there's no need to describe every step in great detail. However, we may want to write down some important things in a complete form — for example, prompts for drilling, questions to check learners' understanding, instructions, etc.
- A lesson plan should be clear and easy to read during the lesson. Different colours, boxes, underlining, etc. are useful. It is often helpful to include drawings of the way the board will look at different stages.
- A lesson plan can be divided into two parts. These are called background and procedureA set of actions that describes the way to do something. Teachers write lesson plans and provide details of exactly what is going to happen in each stage of a lesson; e.g. learners practise the language of complaints in a role-play in pairs. The details of the… click to keep open · see glossary, and you can see this division in the lesson plan above. The components in the background come from thinking carefully about who our students are, what they need and what our aims are. The answers to these questions provide a context that helps us to write the procedure part of the plan.
- Unit 19 for identifying and selecting aims
- Unit 21 for planning an individual lesson or a sequence of lessons
✎Follow-up activity
(See page 242 for answers.)
1
Some parts of this extract from a lesson plan are missing. Put the notes A–E in the correct places in the plan.
| Lesson plan components | |
|---|---|
| Timetable fit | 1 |
| Main aim(s) | 2 |
| Subsidiary aim(s) | 3 To listen to authentic spoken English. |
| Personal aim(s) | 4 |
| Assumptions | 5 Students will find the topic motivating. |
| Anticipated language problems | 6 Students may make lots of mistakes. |
| Possible solution | 7 |
| Procedures | 8 |
- A To practise giving an informal spoken summary.
- B Students listen twice to the story, then in their groups prepare a spoken summary. Groups present their summaries and receive feedback from the rest of the class.
- C Be realistic about timing.
- D Correct only serious errors; ignore mistakes that don't cause misunderstanding.
- E To consolidate work on reported speech.
Check your answers — answer key (book pp. 237–244)
1 E 2 A 4 C 7 D 8 B
💡Reflect
- I know my classes, so I don't have to list all the components in every lesson plan.
- I always try to think about timetable fit — what we did in the last lesson and what we're going to do in the next one.
- It's important to think about things that might go wrong, so I always write something about anticipated problems.
🔍Discovery activities
- Look at Chapter 8 ('Why did I do it like this?') of Children Learning English by Jayne Moon, Macmillan 2000, for some useful examples of lesson plans in different styles and formats.
- Exchange ideas with colleagues on how to write a lesson plan. Try out different approaches to planning and make notes on what works best for you in your Teacher Portfolio.
- For ideas on lesson planning, look at Chapter 12 ('How to plan lessons') from How to Teach English (Second edition) by Jeremy Harmer, Longman 2007, and two short articles on planning by Callum Robertson, BBC English at http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/planning-1 and /planning-2.
- For more detailed advice on planning and further examples of how to write a plan, look at Chapter 22, Sections A, B1–3 and C of The Practice of English Language Teaching (Fourth edition) by Jeremy Harmer, Pearson Education Ltd 2007; and Chapter 8 of Teaching Practice Handbook (Second edition) by Roger Gower, Diane Phillips and Steve Walters, Macmillan 1995.
- For lesson plans on a wide variety of topics that you can download free, visit: http://www.onestopenglish.com/ The British Council in Romania offer 'an ELT lesson plan of the week' with links to all the materials you need for each lesson at: http://www.britishcouncil.org/romania-education-materials-for-teachers-elt-lesson-plan.htm
✎TKT practice tasks
These multiple-choice tasks are exactly as in the book, but interactive: pick your answers, check your score, and retry anytime. The scoring uses the official answer key from the back of the book.
📖Glossary terms in this unit
Key terms highlighted in this unit — study them on the flashcards page.
Editorial note — OCR and reconstruction notes for this unit
Book pp. 133–138 (pdf 138–143). The printed section heading 'Key concepts and the language teaching classroom' stands at the top of book p. 135, i.e. before the sample lesson plan; the sample plan is given its own section here and the heading is kept for the tips block that follows on p. 136. The p. 135 lesson plan is a framed table with vertically merged cells (one 10-minute stage has three sub-rows); cells are flattened with <br/>. OCR fixes: '§ minutes' → '5 minutes', 'Chas OOPS cement' → 'Class profile', 'i.c.' → 'i.e.', 'pot sure' → 'not sure', 'Dilferent' → 'Different', 'if necessary' printed lower case in the possible-solution cell (kept capitalised at sentence start), 'G teacher / whole class' → 'C teacher / whole class'. Follow-up task 1 prints 'Put the notes A-B' in OCR, taken as 'A–E' (five notes A–E are listed on p. 137 and there are five empty slots: 1, 2, 4, 7, 8). The eight numbered slots and the three pre-filled lines (subsidiary aim, assumption, anticipated language problems) are rendered in one two-column table; the printed plan extract itself has no column headings.