Whether you're working on your teaching credential or being reviewed by an

administrator, you will often need to write out a lesson plan during your
teaching career. Many teachers find lesson plans to be useful tools for
organizing the classroom experience, from beginning teachers (who are often
required to have detailed lesson plans approved by supervisors) all the way
to the most advanced veterans who use them as a way to stay on track and
ensure that the learning environment for each lesson is effective and
thorough.

No matter what your experience level or reason for needing a lesson plan,
when the time comes for you to create one, make sure it includes the eight
essential components and you'll be on your way to achieving every teacher's
goal: measurable student learning. Writing a strong lesson plan will also
allow you to easily update lessons for future classes, ensuring that your
material remains relevant from year to year without having to completely
reinvent the wheel each time.

01
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Objectives and Goals

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The lesson's objectives must be clearly defined and in line with district
and/or state educational standards. The reason for setting objectives and
goals is to make sure you know what you're trying to accomplish within the
lesson. This helps you determine what the students should take away from
the lesson and how you will go about ensuring that they are successful in
mastering the material at hand. For example, the goal of a lesson about
digestion might be for students to be able to identify the body parts related
to the digestion process as well as understand how the food that they eat is
turned into energy.

02
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Anticipatory Set

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Before you dig into the meat of your lesson's instruction, it's important to set
the stage for your students by tapping into their prior knowledge and giving
the objectives a context. In the anticipatory set section, you outline what you
will say and/or present to your students before the direct instruction portion
of the lesson begins. This is a great way for you to make sure you're prepared
to introduce the material and can do so in a way that your students will relate
to easily. For example, in a lesson about the rainforest, you could ask the
students to raise their hands and name plants and animals that inhabit the
rainforest and then write them on the board.

03
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Direct Instruction

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When writing your lesson plan, this is the section where you explicitly
delineate how you will present the lesson's concepts to your students. Your
methods of direct instruction could include reading a book, displaying
diagrams, showing real-life examples of the subject matter, or using props.
It's important to consider the various learning styles within your class to
determine what methods of teaching will best resonate. Sometimes creativity
can work well in engaging students and helping them understand the
material.

04
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Guided Practice

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Quite literally, this is the time where you oversee and guide students in
practicing what they have learned so far. Under your supervision, the
students are given a chance to practice and apply the skills you taught them
through direct instruction. For example, students might work together in
small groups to solve word problems similar to a word problem you
explained during the direct instruction portion of the lesson. Guided
practice activities can be defined as either individual or cooperative
learning.

05
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Closure

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In the closure section, outline how you will wrap up the lesson by giving the
lesson concepts further meaning for your students. Closure is the time when
you finalize the lesson and help students organize the information
into meaningful context in their minds. The closure process could include
engaging the students in a group conversation about the lesson's key topics
or asking individual students to summarize what they have learned.

06
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Independent Practice

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Through homework assignments or other independent assignments, your

students will demonstrate whether they absorbed the lesson's learning goals.
Common independent practice tasks include take-home worksheets or at-
home group projects. Through independent practice, students have a chance
to reinforce skills and synthesize their new knowledge by completing a task
on their own and away from the teacher's guidance.

07
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Required Materials and Equipment

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Here, you determine what supplies are required to help your students
achieve the stated lesson plan objectives. The required materials section is
not presented to students directly, but rather is written for the teacher's own
reference and as a checklist before starting the lesson. This is part of your
own personal preparation.

08
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Assessment and Follow-Up

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The lesson doesn't end after your students complete a worksheet.

The assessment section is one of the most important parts of any lesson plan.
This is where you assess the final outcome of the lesson and to what extent
the learning objectives were achieved. In most cases, the assessment will
come in the form of a test or quiz, but assessments can also include in-depth
class discussions or presentations.
This curriculum plan for non-trained teachers of ESL/EFL focuses on
building a program for your class or private students. The first part focuses
on the basics of ESL.

There are a few important aspects to always keep in mind while developing
any curriculum, be it only a few lessons or a full course:

 Language skills need to be recycled many times before they are

actively acquired.
 All language skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) should be
involved in the learning process.
 Understanding grammar rules does not necessarily mean that a
student can use that grammar, as students need to actively practice
skills they are learning.

Language Recycling
An acquired language needs to be repeated in a various number of guises
before it can be actively used by the student. Studies have shown that
new linguistic functions need to be repeated at least six times before most
learners can consider the new piece of language theirs. After six repetitions,
the newly-acquired language skills are usually still only passively activated.
The learner will require more repetitions before he or she will be able to use
the skills actively in everyday conversation.

Here is an example of language recycling using the present simple:

 Work on the present simple rules.

 Read an article about the daily routines of someone.
 Listen to someone who describes his or her daily tasks.
 Have a discussion asking him or her to describe what he or she does
on a daily basis.

Use All Four Skills

Employing all four linguistic skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking)
when working through a lesson will help you recycle language during the
lesson. Learning rules are important, but, in my opinion, practicing the
language is even more important. Bringing all these aspects into a lesson will
add variety to the lesson and help the learner pragmatically practice the
language. I've met many learners who can knock off a grammar sheet
without a mistake and then when asked, "Could you describe your sister?"
they have problems. This is generally due to the emphasis in many school
systems for learning grammar.

Putting It All Together

So, now you understand the basic tenets of teaching English effectively. You
might be asking yourself the question "what do I teach?" When planning a
course, most coursebooks build their curriculum around certain themes that
help glue everything together. While this can be rather complicated, I would
like to provide a simple example that develops the present simple and past
simple. Use this type of outline to build your lesson and remember to
provide a number of elements, including listening, reading, writing, and
speaking. You will find that your lessons have a purpose and specific
objectives which are clearly definable, like helping you and your learners
recognize the progress you are making.

1. Who are you? What do you do? (Daily routines)

1. A present simple example: What do you do? I work at Smith's. I
get up at seven, etc.
2. "To be" present example: I'm married. She's thirty-four.
3. Descriptive adjectives example: I am tall. He is short.
2. Tell me about your past. Where did you go on your last holiday?
1. A past simple example: Where did you go on holiday when you
were a child?
2. "To be" past example: The weather was fantastic.
3. Irregular verbs example: Go — went; Shine — shone

Finally, the lesson generally will be divided into three principal sections.

 Introduction: Introducing or reviewing grammar or function.

 Development: Taking that grammar and working on it in reading,
listening, and other forms. This section should make up the bulk of
your lesson and include a number of different activities, if possible.
 Review: Review the principle concepts covered during the lesson. This
can be very straightforward and either student or teacher-led,
depending on the level of your learners.