3.

The Prrocedure PPage

Aims:
 To conssider the pu urpose and reality of esstimating tim
mings.
 To clarify the differrence betwe
een an aim and an acttivity.

Materials rrequired:
 None.

Target exp
perience levvel of teache
er:
 CELTA A.

Applicable to learnerss:
 Adults at all levelss.

Input

Look at the
e following extract
e from
m a lesson p
plan procedure page:

Time Sttage Stage Aim

A Prrocedure and
a Materiaal Interaction
S/PW/GW/
No
o./Title Wh
hy the students arre doing the What will happe
en in the lesson – what the teacher does, what the
OC/T/T-Ss
activity studen
nts do.

8 1. To generate
g inteerest in  Ss get a pen and pap per and put tthem down. T-Ss
Gene erating
the context of trravel  Ss closee their eyes and
a T asks prrompt
Intere
est.
periences.
exp questionns so they can visualise a bad travel
experiennce (e.g., thin
nk of the worrst travel
experiennce you’ve ha ad – where w was it – who
was therre – why was s it bad – howw did it end,
etc.).
 Ss write some notes quickly.
 In pairs, Ss exchange experiencees with a S
partner – the listenerr has to ask hhim/her one PW
questionn about the story.
 No open n class feedbback.
2 2. To set
s the conte ext for the  Using the data projec ctor, project a travel OC
Conttext blog andd ask what it is, have theyy ever read
textt to be read and
a for
settin
ng.
their later writing. one or written
w one – additional quuestions
dependin ng on the ressponses.

Now look aat each coluumn individu ually:

Timings:
 Allocatting a time is not a scie ence – the mmain purpos se is so the teacher ca n see wherre they are
up to in
n their plan compared to t where the ey are in the lesson. This
T allows the teacherr to make
amend dments and bring the le esson to a lo
ogical conclusion, rather than stopp an activity y halfway
throughh only to resstart it next time.
 Timings need to be b realistic. It is better tto allocate a total time for the stagge that inclu
udes, for
example, setting and
a checkin ng the task, the activity itself, chec
cking in pairrs and openn class
feedbaack. Mentally, each mu ust be includ
ded in the estimation,
e so
s a stage nnoted as 1-2 2 minutes
 in length (unless done entirely open class as in Stage 2 above) is likely to be unrealistic.
 Really think how long you want students to spend on an activity and write the time limit into the
procedure. This should be some reflection of the importance of the stage to the whole lesson.
 Because lessons often fall behind or occasionally get ahead of schedule, it is important to
include flexi stages – useful but non-essential activities which can be added or dropped
according to the needs of time and the lesson aims.

Stage Aims:
 These state why the students are doing the activity.

This is in contrast to …

The Procedure
 This states what the teacher and students are doing in the activity.

Interactions Patterns
 List these comprehensively and honestly so you can quickly see whether the lesson is student-
centred or teacher-led. In the example above, the interaction is also aligned to the relevant
part of the stage so the user can easily see where the pattern should change.
 The most common interaction patterns are S (students alone), PW (students in pairs), GW
(students in groups), OC (open class) and T-Ss (teacher talking to the students).

Further reading
Scrivener, J., Learning Teaching, Macmillan, 2005, pp.115-124.
Harmer, J., The Practice of English Language Teaching, Pearson, 2007, pp.267-370, 374-375.
Harmer, J., How to Teach English, Pearson, 2007, pp.160-162.
Parrott, M., Tasks for Language Teachers, Cambridge, 1993, pp.134-139, 147-148.

2 of 5
Task 1

Look at the following extracts from a plan and decide which are activities and which are stage
aims. Where your answer is ‘activity’, what do you think the stage aim is? When your answer is
‘stage aim’, what kind of activity do you think it might be?

Extract from a plan Activity (and why do you Stage Aim (and why do you
think so?) think so?)

Students read the text on p.84.

Students talk in pairs about their

favourite restaurants in the city.

To provide controlled written

practice of the present perfect
and past simple.

To pre-teach vocabulary so
students are better able to
complete the detailed listening
task.
Students write what they did at
the weekend in the form of a
list.

To encourage students to think

what the text might be about.

To focus on the pronunciation of

weak forms in the present
perfect continuous.

Students work out the meaning

of the past perfect.

3 of 5
Suggested answers
Extract from a plan
Students read the text on p.84.
Students talk in pairs about their
favourite restaurants in the city.
To provide controlled written
practice of the present perfect
and past simple.
To pre-teach vocabulary so
students are better able to
complete the detailed listening
task.
Students write what they did at
the weekend in the form of a
list.
To encourage students to think
what the text might be about.
To focus on the pronunciation of
weak forms in the present
perfect continuous.
Students work out the meaning
of the past perfect.
Activity (and why do you
think so?)
 This is clearly an activity
but a poorly stated one as
there is no task set and no
time limit for it.
 This is clearly an activity
as it says what the students
are doing rather than why
they are doing it.
This is likely to be a gap-fill
type activity.
The teacher will pre-teach
lexical items through
visuals, definition matching
or conveying from context.
 This says what the
students are doing rather
than why they are doing it.
This is a prediction task
which students often do
before reading a text or
listening to a recording.
The activity is likely to
involve board highlighting
and drilling of ‘has/have
been’ in the context of a
sentence.
 This is almost an aim but
it says more about what the
students are doing rather
than why.
Stage Aim (and why do you
think so?)
The aim is… ‘To develop
students’ ability to read for
….’ (Could be ‘gist’,
‘specific information’ or
‘detail’ depending on the
task set).
The aim is likely to be…
‘To generate students’
interest in the context of
the lesson’, although with
more detail and a clear
goal, it could be a final
activity to ‘develop
students’ fluency’.
 This says why the
students are doing the
task.
 This actually says why
the teacher is doing the
stage but it has clear
benefits for the students in
the next stage.
The aim is likely to be…
‘To allow individual
preparation time’ before a
speaking / writing task.
 This clearly says why the
students are doing the
activity.
 This says why rather
than what will happen.
The aim is likely to be…
‘To encourage students to
notice the past perfect in
the text and to work out its
meaning from context’.
4 of 5
Task 2 (for practising teachers)

Next time you write a lesson plan in full, copy the format provided in the example in the input
section (above) and follow the advice given for timings, stage aims, procedures and interactions.
After the lesson, reflect and consider:
 Did writing the procedure page in this way help you?
 How realistic were your timing allocations? If the answer to this is ‘not very realistic’, why might
this have happened?
 To what extent were the students aware of the aims of each stage? Could both you and they
see the point of what they were doing (even if this was not made explicit)?
 How helpful was the procedure? Was any of what you wrote needless? Were there things you
forgot to do which you could include in your procedure the next time you write a full plan?
 Was the lesson as student-centred / teacher-led as you had anticipated? Why (not)?

5 of 5