TEFL St. Clairsville Ohio

Lesson planning is important for all types of teachers, from inexperienced to veteran teachers. Lesson planning is helpful for teachers because they use it as a guide when they teach. When having a lesson plan each day, teachers are more comfortable in teaching the material and feel more in control and confident. An effective teacher is to plan ahead for the whole year or course, week, and each day. Lesson planning is the best way to pace teacher instruction and student learning. As mentioned from ITTT's Unit 9, creating lesson plans has many important functions, such as an aid to planning, a working document, and a record (ITTT, pg. 1). Having a guide on what you need to achieve students' learning is essential. Writing lesson plans helps teachers stay on the path of success and makes sure the teachers are focusing on all the vital information they need to teach to their students. Knowing the class expectations for that particular class is helpful to write lesson plans. teachers need to know students' level of ability and skills, to make an effective lesson plan. Lesson plans are great tools because they are flexible and open to adaptation (ITTT, pg. 2). . They provide a skeleton on the coursework that needs to be covered. Each teacher can create their own lesson plan as long there is a structure and important components they follow each time. From my teacher preparation program in college, I learned to always include four key components in my plans, goals and objectives, instructional methods and strategies, differentiations, and evaluation and reflection. In every lesson I have written, I have always stated the learner's objectives. Using my state's standards or the common core standards as a guide, it is important to state what the students will be able to do after I complete my lesson. By looking at the objectives, I will know if I have met my goals and objectives at the end of the lesson. Including the instructional methods and teaching strategies in the procedure is crucial because the teacher will know how to approach the students with the appropriate methods and strategies. Along with the instructional methods and strategies, adding differentiations to the lesson plan is also important because each student is different. Understanding and meeting each individual's necessities will aid teachers to anticipate their possible problems and come up with different solutions to avoid those problems. To each every lesson plan I create, I always incorporate my evaluation and reflection. I want to know the strengths and weaknesses of my lesson plan. Additionally, I can reflect on what went well and what I need to improve. teachers need to reflect after each lesson because they can make notes to improve on their lessons the next time they teach the same lesson. This way, teachers can change and edit their lessons to their best potential. When reflecting, the lesson plan acts as a record, such as what materials and evaluations were used. Furthermore, lesson plans are great to give to guest teachers and substitutes that cover your class (ITTT, pg. 1). Going along with the four key components to a lesson plan, ITTT Unit 9, discusses the importance of including other elements to lesson plans such as teaching aids, timing, class level, number of students, and context (ITTT, pg. 3-4). Timing is fundamental because teachers must consider how long each activity will take. teachers must effective manage their time when teaching. From personal experience, I also think it is important for teachers to over prepare by having back-up activities when a lesson plan is finished early. Also, teachers should always have extra activities planned for fast learners and students who finish quickly. Keeping students on-task during instructional time will help them increase their skills. To be an effective teacher, having well thought out lesson plans are important to reduce stress on the teacher and minimize class disruptions. Furthermore, including different types of activities in the lesson plans will keep students engaged and alert. Using group activities, games, simulations, and discussions will give students a better learning experience than reading from the course book every day. Cited Sources: International TEFL and TESOL training, Unit 9 Lesson Planning, pg. 1-16.