180-hour course: Assignment 1 (Vocabulary)

This guide explains the fifteen points you need to complete as you write your first assignment.
This is the same list of criteria your tutor will have when they mark your work. If you do not
pass one or more of these criteria, your work will be returned to you so that you can make
improvements.
Read the information carefully and ensure you can tick off each point before submitting your
work.

1. Writing clear aims and outcomes for the lesson, which include the target language you
will teach

Here we need to see exactly what your students will have learnt or be able to do by the end
of the lesson that they can’t do at the start. Don’t write things like ‘improve their spoken
English’ – this is far too vague. Be as specific as you can, including the target language or
relevant example sentences. Remember: keep your aims student-centred.

2. Anticipating difficulties both in relation to the learners and their L1 / age / level and to
the target language

Put yourself in your students’ shoes – what will be confusing or difficult for them with the
target language you have selected? For example, is this connected to the concept of the
language, its spelling or its pronunciation? Bear in mind the learners’ L1 – for example,
different grammar structures might not exist in other languages. You should include some
classroom management difficulties, if relevant.

3. Providing relevant solutions to the anticipated difficulties

Map your problems to appropriate solutions. The best way to do this is to number the
anticipated difficulties then write a corresponding solution with the same number.

4. Analysis of language including meaning, grammatical form and pronunciation (e.g.

phonemic script) plus how the language will be presented, and the concepts checked

Use the table provided to give all of this information – don’t miss out any boxes. Look carefully
at the example and use online student dictionaries to help you complete some of the sections.

5. Staging a lesson which will achieve the lesson aims and includes a variety of tasks
which focus on communication between students
Plan your lesson – ensuring that by the end of the 60-minute lesson, your aims will have been
achieved by the tasks that you’ve chosen. Remember – there should be plenty of
communication throughout the lesson.

6. Creating, adapting or sourcing activities which will help achieve the lesson aims

We need you to come up with engaging and stimulating activities that will form your lesson.
You can come up with your own or adapt things you’ve found online (remember to reference
where you found it). However, you can’t simply plagiarise – don’t write out a whole lesson
plan you’ve found on the internet and pass it off as your own. We want to see your creativity
in the lesson you design.

7. Writing a clear procedure such that a colleague could pick up the lesson plan and teach
a very good lesson from it

Don’t scrimp on detail! Imagine you are writing the lesson plan for a colleague who will need
to be able to follow your instructions in the classroom. You need to write out what you will
do in the lesson, as well as your students. Remember: your lesson will have a well-directed
feel if all the stages are relevant to the topic and target language.

8. Giving appropriate timings for the stages

Each lesson will last for sixty minutes so ensure you divide the time appropriately. Decide
which stages are the most important in ensuring your aims are achieved and think carefully
about how long a task will take in reality.

9. Including interaction patterns which are suitable for the tasks and varied throughout
the lesson

Use interaction pattern codes, such as T – S or S – S. Ensure you use a variety of interactions
but don’t spend the whole lesson doing all the work yourself! Your lesson should be
communicative, which usually means lots of S – S.

10. Providing relevant justification for the inclusion of each stage

So, you’ve planned the perfect lesson but you need to tell us why you did it that way. What is
the aim of each stage? Start each aim with an infinitive e.g. to engage the learners in the
lesson. If you can’t think of a decent rationale for including the stage, do you really need it?
 11. Use of appropriate terminology both with regards to the structuring of an effective
lesson and to the target language

We’ll expect to see terminology related to teaching, e.g. the teaching methodology you’ve
chosen (such as PPP or TTT), the different activities within a lesson (such as drilling or
mingling) or teaching techniques (such as ICQs and CCQs). You’ll also need to demonstrate an
understanding of your target language, using linguistic or grammatical terminology.

12. Including professionally-presented materials, with references if taken from outside

sources

We would like to see the materials you plan to use in the lesson. For some activities, it will be
easier to make your own materials, which are specific to your learners and your lesson. Ensure
they are attractive and look professional.
If you are using pictures or photos from the internet, include them in the lesson plan with a
link to the site they came from. Note: they do not need to be very big. If you are using
worksheets from the internet, include a link. If your materials are from a coursebook, include
a reference to them in your bibliography, including page numbers.

13. Providing a rationale for the structure of the lesson and how the activities will help to
achieve the lesson aims

You need to provide a 700 – 1000-word rationale for your lesson plan. You should cover:

- why you have structured the lesson in the way that you have using this specific methodology
- how each activity will contribute towards the learning aims and how this will be achieved

The most effective way to do this is to use the points as headings and answer each one
below. This ensures you cover everything.

14. Explaining what you would do if activities did not work as planned as well as explaining
which other activities you considered including but didn’t choose to use

As part of your lesson plan, you will need to also cover:

- other activities that you considered including and why you chose not to use them
- what you would do if any of your activities didn’t work in the way you have planned
Again, the most effective way to do this is to use the points as headings and answer each
one below.

15. Providing a bibliography

You may want to include references to coursebooks, websites or teaching methodology

books. If you reference an outside source, include this is in your bibliography. You do not need
to reference any content from the i-to-i course.

We hope this guide will be of use to you as you start to write your assignment. If you have
any concerns, you can contact a tutor by emailing tutor@i-to-i.com