Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Dongli Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Zibo Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language.
Why do we need to plan our lessons? Wouldn´t it be much easier to improvise? We are teachers; we know what we are doing. We also might say that planning a lesson is time consuming, and do we really want to spend our free time working? Moreover, classes might be more fixed and rigid and maybe they will be more teacher centered. We might get too used to planning and following lesson plans that we forget how to be flexible. But do these possible disadvantages outweigh the advantages? On the one hand, we do not want our classes to be rigid and teacher centered but on the other hand, planning a lesson has many advantages: It is an aid to planning, a working document, a record of what a class has done and which material has been used. If we have a guide, the lesson will tend to flow more smoothly and we will not waste class time searching through the textbook, making copies, and thinking about what to do next, etc. While preparing the lesson plan we are able to focus on learner objectives and personal aims, for example what we would like to achieve at the end of the class and what we want our students to have learned. We can program a language point that shows the theme of the class and how it fits in with past and future planned lessons. Another important argument is that it is less likely to have problems with the timing, because we will know if we have too much or not enough content and we can adjust according to our needs. When we think about probable student problems, mistakes or errors while planning our lesson, we can plan solutions and therefore not be surprised and nervous. This is very helpful for unexperienced, younger teachers in particular. The planning gives us the opportunity to think about our choice of lesson objectives, chosen activities and materials, how long each activity might take and group- and pair work. Another important advantage of lesson planning is that if we have to teach, for example, a complex grammatical structure and we are not sure of the rules, we will be able to become aware of this during lesson planning and we can take steps to acquire the necessary information. As we write and execute our plans in the classroom, we will see their effectiveness and where they need to be adjusted. If we keep our lesson plans we will quickly build up a portfolio of lessons that we know will work. Because we have considered these points and can now make the connections explicit to learners, the lesson will be more meaningful to us. But our lesson plans can also be useful for others, such as substitute teachers, who need information about past and current lessons or for our supervisor, so that s/he knows what has been done and when. Lesson plans can serve as evidence of our professional performance. We should not forget that we can find our own way of planning a lessons. We can prepare and plan our lessons more (without scripting everything) or build in as much flexibility as we are comfortable with. But is lesson planning enough in order to achieve a successful class? Planning never guarantees success but it helps a lot! It gives confidence and our confidence will evoke more respect from the learners, thereby reducing discipline problems and helping the learners to feel more relaxed, confident and open to learning. Concluding we can say that planning a lesson is necessary for us as teachers and our students. Both benefit from lesson planning and it should be realized in a way teachers feel comfortable and confident.
