Teach English in Jingsheng Zhen - Jinzhong Shi

Lesson plans are the road map to navigating the difficult task of breaking down not only the English language, but also breaking down the divide between student and teacher. A proper plan gives the teacher a well organized understanding of how to break down the material in an easily understood format for the students with an engaging feel instead of a dry lecture. It can break down complex grammatical formats with complex vernaculars and alter it to a format comfortable for everyone to learn with minimal complications. Failing to do so results in confused students, poor grades, and a poor experience as a student of English as a foreign language. Procedural phases have provided for not only myself, but for many other instructors an opportunity to understand what gets a student motivated and excited for a lesson. A bored student is an unreceptive student, thus the procedural phase of a warmup or engagement phase is extremely important. The examples provided in the units provided a great example to not only prepare a fun lesson with an excellent breakdown of materials for an adequate understanding, but also leaves room for self critique on where there can be improvements. With the right beginning to a class, the enthusiasm can continue on into the phase of learning new material without hesitation or lack of interest. When instructing new material, it is important to think of it as you managing a long road trip. Which route will you take and what risks are involved? Much the same with teaching English, what method will you use to teach the new content and what issues can arise? Teaching new words can be easy but adding them in a sentence can become difficult. Having a well thought out study phase you can see the largest complications or most lengthy spots from which you will need to understand how a new student could struggle with it. Leaving yourself notes on where complications could arise with breakdowns and backup plans is vital or you'll be stuck having the class unenthusiastically repeating the phrases without any true grasp on the material. It is important to plan more than necessary with extra games, songs, and engaging activities that everyone can play in order to provide backup for yourself should a lesson go stale. When instructing a topic that can be rather dry in nature such as conjugating for verb tenses in past and future, approaching it with key factors written down is an absolute must in order for not only the students but you reviewing a lesson to really drive the point home. To understand this, provide examples of each tense that the students can understand. Using cultural events or other such things from the students' lives or cultures can always assist students in learning English. For example, if you are trying to discuss the past tense, you may use the previous year's calendar animal to represent it. 2018 being the year of the dog and 2019 being the year of the pig to provide context to the students on what was then, and what is now. Lesson plans are a vital piece of the greater picture that is English teaching. Without it, a teacher can instruct numerous lessons without properly engaging students and notice the class dwindle in numbers as the enthusiasm fades with time. A lesson plan does not need to be an unbreakable contract with yourself but a vital road map with numerous easily perceived examples at the ready for any teacher, regardless of experience, to pick up and use. With proper breakdowns of the information and games that you have practiced, a lesson can become something students look forward to rather than understand as a necessity. With a good lesson plan, any teacher can become a mentor or entertainer while still delivering the necessary material for proper English instruction.