Congratulations on successfully passing the second module! 🙂
In this Creating Lesson Plans third course module, we will be taking a look at (3.1) Setting learning objectives, (3.2) Presentation/Practice/Production, (3.3) Teacher books and other resources. It is essential that you thoroughly read through all the information presented within this module, before then completing the Module Quiz and proceeding to the fourth module. If you have any module-related questions, please contact your personal tutor through the CONTACT LESSON TEACHER button. Good luck and we hope you enjoy completing your third module! 🙂
(3.1) Setting learning objectives.
It is vital to set learning objectives as these will enable you to:
- be better informed about selecting course content.
- develop assessments that will allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills.
- design teaching strategies and learning activities that will help learners develop and improve on their knowledge and skills.
- evaluate student learning accurately and effectively.
Setting learning objectives are typically categorized by implementing goals and objectives, and many teachers confuse these two terms and by doing so can reduce the effectiveness of their objectives.
Goals, are long-term, wide-ranging and achievable, but not necessarily measurable.
Objectives on the other hand, focus on what we can expect learners to be able to do by the end of the course.
Setting learning objectives is so important because:
- teachers can fittingly organize course materials by establishing a logical sequence of learning milestones.
- teachers have the ability of coordinating objectives with evaluation methods.
- teachers can effectively communicate learner expectations and in turn can facilitate the process of learners self-evaluating themselves.
- teachers can provide the framework whereby learners can interconnect goals through your courses.
So to put it simply, objectives notify the learner of the process of how they will be able to learn, regardless of whether or not they have learned and understood the lesson.
The following table distinguishes the different aspects of goals and objectives:
As you can see from the table, the teacher’s goals are general plans for learner development and progression, and the teacher’s objectives are more specific directions in facilitating the achievement of these goals.
For example, a goal might be to have your students learn the Present Simple grammar tense, but your objectives will outline the exact procedures for doing so.
(3.2) Presentation/Practice/Production.
In this section of the module, we are going to introduce the holy trinity of the three P’s: PPP – Presentation, Practice and Production. PPP make up the core of every well-planned lesson, and are sandwiched in between the Warmers and Coolers, which we covered in the previous module. Ensuring that you include Presentation, Practice and Production in your lesson plans will allow you to develop a structured and time-efficient lesson plan that conveys the material in an understandable way for your learners.
Let us begin by looking at an example of a lesson plan:
First of all, it is important to point out that although each section of the lesson plan is nicely arranged into specific time segments, these should be seen as guidelines only and you shouldn’t feel that you need to stick to them religiously. However, it is essential that you allocate the right amount of time required to successfully cover each section, so that you cover all your lesson material within the allotted classroom time. So, if for example, your Warmer or Cooler only runs for five minutes, this will give you more time to focus on each of the PPP elements in your lesson plan.
Let’s take a good look at this lesson plan now, so we can walk you through the essential organizational skills in delivering a well-developed lesson plan and learner experience.
Resources used/Duration of lesson. The resources used in this lesson are limited to the whiteboard, a balloon and classroom furniture, and these resources are appropriate for the lesson content. There are a whole wide range of other resources which you can use for your classes, and these (as some examples) can include Activity books, Apps, CDs, DVDs, Educational games, Educator workshops, Flashcards, Graphic novels, Magazines & periodicals, Maps, Models, Movies, Non-fiction books, Online courses, Podcasts, Posters, Reference books, Software, Study guides, Teacher guides, Television shows, Textbooks (print and digital,) Webcasts, Websites, Workbooks, Worksheets. The typical class takes 60 minutes to teach, although this may vary depending on where and who you are teaching.
Lesson objectives. We can see that the lesson objectives are clear and with a concluding aim for the lesson of learned content.
Warmer. The Warmer introduces the topic theme and utilizes the time to pre-teach vocabulary required for the lesson content.
Presentation. The target language is presented visually and makes use of the whiteboard and further visual illustration by example through movement.
Practice. The Practice element covers both the lesson objective of teaching Prepositions of Place, and also covers the vocabulary presented in the Warmer activity. Getting your students up and moving as part of the Practice section of the lesson will increase motivation and act as an effective memory aid.
Production. The Production section includes developing writing and speaking skills, and encourages cross-correction within the group, thus reducing TTT (Teacher Talking Time.)
Cooler. The Cooler combines Practice and Production skills and concludes the lesson with a fun, engaging activity.
We are now going to look at how to properly implement PPP techniques, but before we do, we should look at TTT a little bit more. The classic mistake new teachers make is that they speak way too much in class. This is sometimes due to classroom nerves, but you must be mindful of how much you are speaking and try to reduce the amount of TTT as much as possible, in order to allow learners the opportunity to speak (STT – Student Talking Time) and learn from their speaking. There isn’t a set percentage of TTT in classrooms which you need to adhere to, so it is something which you must judge by yourself. In general though, you should do everything to minimize TTT and maximize STT.
Presentation.
In the Presentation section of the class, the teacher introduces grammar and vocabulary, and there are two ways of introducing grammar and vocabulary:
- Deductively. This involves the learners being given a general rule, which is then applied to specific language examples.
- Inductively. This approach starts with examples and asks learners to find connections and rules.
It is essential that you:
- choose the relevant grammar and vocabulary structures necessary for your learners to succeed.
- avoid introducing grammar and vocabulary that won’t be used during the lesson.
- refrain from introducing too many words. Keep new words to a maximum of between 10 – 20 per lesson.
- encourage learners to become involved in the presentation of the grammar and vocabulary in order to reduce TTT and encourage self-learning.
Practice.
In the Practice section of the class, the main aim is to provide opportunities for learners to use the target content and vocabulary used during class, as outlined in the Presentation section of the lesson. The Practice section should be viewed as being controlled practice as the tasks prepared by the teacher have controlled results. You should make sure to try and utilize the vocabulary and content during the presentation stage for these obvious reasons:
- What’s the point of introducing grammar and vocabulary you aren’t going to be using?
- How can you expect learners to succeed if you use different grammar and vocabulary to the ones you taught in the Presentation section?
Production.
The Production section of class must consist of meaningful activities which give learners the opportunity to practice the language learned more freely, and to provide a comfortable environment in which to do so.
(3.3) Teacher books and other resources.
Most course curriculums which primarily use one particular course book also provide a student work book, containing additional exercises, and a teacher book – containing step-by-step instructions on how to teach any given class in the student’s work book. Teacher books are incredibly useful for new teachers as they literally walk you through every process in the class you are teaching by recommending how to present the materials and how to execute the functions of Practice and Production.
The four heavyweights in the English content publishing industry are Cambridge English, Macmillan English, Oxford University Press (OUP) English Language Teaching and Pearson ELT (including Longman and Penguin).
While teacher books are incredibly useful, sometimes teachers search for additional resources to complement their lessons, and we have compiled the following list for you of our ten favorite external recourses which can act as a virtual library extension of your teacher book:
British Council/BBB Teaching English
Busy Teacher
ESL Galaxy
ESL Games World
ESL Video
IELTS Podcast
Make Belief Comix
StoryPlace
TEFL Tunes
Onestopenglish
Please note that we are unable to publish live links and accept no responsibility for the content published on third-party websites, but feel free to take a look at each resource on the search engine of your personal preference.
Congratulations on reading through the third module!
Now it’s time to take the Module 3 Quiz, after which you will gain access to the fourth module.
Important! We recommend reading through the third module again to ensure that you are fully prepared to take this quiz.
Click on the VIEW THE LESSON QUIZ button to proceed to the Module 3 Quiz…