Page 163 - Teaching English at Primary Level: From Theory into the Classroom

Lesson Plan Template

skipping an activity or taking extra time to make sure all the pupils under-
stand what to do.

Lesson Plan Template
As Moon (2005) points out, there is no standard way of designing a lesson
plan. It is, in fact, better to develop our own format which would suit our
needs and teaching style. Referring to the need to have a formal lesson plan,
Harmer (2007) comments that the actual form of a plan is not as important as
all the thinking behind it. However, as we have seen above, a lesson plan may
serve several functions, such as reminding the teacher what worked or did
not work in the past, organising the activities more systematically, planning
the materials etc. At the same time, teachers are often required to present
formal plans for administrative or assessment purposes.
A formal plan for the FL classroom may contain a number of different el-
ements, such as class description (level and number of pupils), lesson ob-
jectives, materials and resources to be used, language skills and functions
addressed in the lesson, vocabulary and grammar that will be introduced,
the sequence of activities, and time reference for individual activities. Some
lesson plans are more detailed and may include information on homework
assignments, evaluation or cross-curricular links. A useful element is also a
section which includes extra activities for learners with different proficiency
levels and learning styles.
We would like to suggest adding another element to the lesson plan tem-
plate which is particularly useful for teaching YLs, namely planning and scaf-
folding teacher talk. As we have seen above, teacher talk and classroom in-
teraction in the TL represent important aspects of developing learners’ com-
municative competence. However, to develop effective classroom commu-
nication in the TL from the earliest stages, the teacher needs to be able to
modify the language used and be well aware of different levels of language
complexity. Besides language modification, a number of different strategies
can be used for scaffolding teacher talk, such as visual aids, gestures or facial
expression. By carefully pre-planning the language used with beginner YLs
(writing down the actual comments, questions, instructions, etc.) and using
different scaffolding strategies, the teacher will be able to build a classroom
communication model by progressing slowly and systematically.
In Figure 10.1 and Figure 10.2 there is an example of a lesson plan template
which is composed of two parts, the first part is focused on content, the sec-
ond on procedures.
Lesson planning is an important aspect of effective teaching and a valu-

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