Teach English in Zhuangwu Zhen - Linyi Shi

Lesson planning is an important part of any classroom, whether is be in an ESL classroom or high school math classroom. Having a lesson plan prior to entering the classroom alleviates the stress and time of wondering what to do next and what activity to go along with that task. Creating a particular lesson plan from the many ways one can be devised might prove challenging, especially to new teachers. Therefore, from my experience in a classroom, it seems that having an lesson plan that is flexible while making sure that key points are covered is the best for any type of classroom. In the ESL classroom that I assist with, I have learnt that during any downtime, even if it is for a few minutes, most students go straight to their phones or speaking with a classmate in their native language. Therefore this adds up quickly to wasted time in the classroom where the students can be learning. Downtime seems to most often happen when other students are completing reading or writing tasks in the classroom, therefore students who have completed their reading or writing task prior to others can also cause disruption when speaking to each other. Having something for the students to work on continually to avoid any downtime is an important part of lesson planning. I currently work in a volunteer based ESL program, held in the evenings, where the qualified teachers hold other full time jobs and are therefore limited in their time to create fully detailed and written out lesson plans. Yet, even with their lack of time teachers have come prepared with a loose lesson plan so as to keep focus in the classroom. This is a more intermediate level classroom, where students can either read or speak some or little English, and need to study and work on how to make more complete sentences using correct structure and grammar as well as to work on their pronunciation. The class is three hours long and usually begins as soon as the first two students arrive, with question cards to initiate conversation in English. Each card has a simple question on it, which the student must read aloud and everyone else in the group must respond to. We have the classroom set up in groups of four desks, so as students arrive to class they join a group or start a new group of their own. This is done until every student has arrived, preparing the student to think in English for the class ahead. After about thirty minutes of discussion (it takes some time for some students to arrive to class) the teacher then begins the evening’s lesson by standing up and asking the classroom questions regarding the topic of the lesson. For example, if the lesson is going to be about jobs, the teacher asks the students what kinds of jobs they have or want, how they found the jobs they do, and where one can look for a job. This engages the students to think about their jobs using the English language, and as the teacher is writing the jobs on the board it also allows students to learn new language about different jobs that could be available to them. Students are then asked to write down descriptions about their jobs and what they do during their time at work using complete sentences, which at the end will be read aloud in the classroom. This is just a basic idea of what may happen in one class, but this is the general structure of how the class begins and where lesson planning can be very important. I don’t believe that a class should be planned out to every last detail and minute. Too many things can occur during a class, and obviously things never go as planned. I believe a more open concept to lesson planning should be used. One should have a focus of subject matter for the lesson. Such as above, where we were discussing jobs and how to find one, how to understand the rights one has as a worker, etc. The teacher should also then have an itemized list, in their mind or written down, of what they want to accomplish during the class. An idea of an open concept lesson plan would be to open the class with discussion, then move to a writing or reading task, then move onto summarizing, ending the class with discussion or an activity. An example for an activity would be to have the students, within their groups using English only, write advertisements for their jobs. Then, each group or pair can then present their advertisement to the class. The hardest part seems to be restricting the use of the students’ native language in their discussion and from having them use their phones when the teacher isn’t nearby, so keeping focus on students by walking around the class and listening to their discussions and answering their questions is important here. This plan seems to work well for a smaller class of up to twelve to fourteen people. Also, different topics can create different plans to help focus on what the class needs more time for that particular topic. I have also found that the more you let students work together, the more they tend to help each other and then actually use the English language while helping each other. The idea of an open concept lesson plan has worked extremely well in the class that I volunteer with. I have also seen it work well in another classroom I volunteered in, where the students had less knowledge of the English language. The engage and activate stages of a lesson are extremely important. Today, with the use of mobile phones, students can easily go to use Google Translate when working alone or in small groups. I have found the class discussions and activities have kept the students more accountable and less likely to use their phones during this time. Lastly, I have realized that while the ITTT program has given many ideas while discussing lesson plans, the reality of being in an actual classroom is that nothing goes to plan. While we as teachers can hope to follow the lesson plan guidelines that ITTT has taught us, the basic form of open discussion, engagement, reading or listening exercises, then activity with practice in pairs or small groups and ending the lesson in discussion seems to be the best fit for the intermediate level classroom I have been volunteering with.