A Sample Lesson Plan for Elementary and Pre-Intermediate Level Students

Lesson planning is an essential part of your teaching practice. Moreover, it is vital to be creative all the time. This sample lesson plan will help you to set a perfect lesson for beginners or lower-intermediate students.

This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Michelle M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.

Brainstorming ideas

List a number of role-play situations that would be appropriate for beginner and low intermediate level students. These role-play situations should include variety with multiple structures for students to exploit.

• Asking where the closest hospital is
• Buying a bus fare
• Enquiring about train times and buying a ticket at a train station
• Discussing a movie you just saw
• Withdrawing money from a teller at a bank
• Booking accommodation at a hotel
• Colleague asking an employee to complete a task
• Enquiring and making a purchase in a bookstore
• Making plans to meet a friend in the city
• Making a booking at an internet cafe
• Ordering and buying a drink at a bar
• Asking and talking about where someone is from

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Preparing the lesson

Choose one of the situations on your list and design dialogue. Make sure that the dialogue your students are expected to come up with is also included. Explain the main functions and structure your students are practicing.

• Situation – Informal
• Roles – Customer and Ticket officer
• Setting – At the train station
• Level – Low intermediate

The linguistic aim of this activity is to teach students how to ask for information at a train station. This roleplay gives students the opportunity to practice the function of ‘asking for something’ (e.g. directions, times, a ticket) in a practical everyday situation.

I provide the students with cards to prompt the dialogue. Students can develop their speaking and listening comprehension, practice their intonation and learn which words to stress when forming interrogative and WH-questions in English.

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Students can choose different exponents to reply to the questions. They can also observe how questions in the present continuous/progressive sound in connected speech. Both students would take turns in each role and can adapt the activity to suit their local area. The prompts are clear and direct without giving the students the exact answers they are expected to reproduce.

Students will need to swap between the roles of “customer” and “ticket officer” so that they can both practice the target language and key structures. As this is a roleplay with prompts and not a dialogue, students have some scope to personalize their answers which should avoid repetition and the activity becoming boring.

Target dialog 1

• Customer: Hello.
• Ticket officer: How can I help you?
• Customer: Can you please tell me how to get to Brighton?
• Ticket officer: Yes. You need to take the Sandford line.
• Customer: When is the next train?
• Ticket officer: The next train departs at 3.00 pm from platform eight.
• Customer: Can I buy a ticket, please?
• Ticket officer: Yes. That will be five dollars, please.
• Customer: Thank you.
• Ticket officer: Goodbye.

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Additional materials

Design the role cards or guidelines your students might follow to role play the dialogue. Remember that without those prompts the only way the students can act it out is by reading the dialogue aloud. Reading aloud could be good for pronunciation, and fluency, but it is not role-playing.

(Customer approaches counter)

• Customer: Greet ticket officer
• Ticket Officer: Ask what the customer needs
• Customer: Ask for directions to..... (insert destination)
• Ticker Officer: Tell the customer about train lines
• Customer: Ask about train times
• Ticket Officer: Tell the customer about train times
• Customer: Ask to buy a ticket
• Ticker Officer: Tell the customer cost and give a ticket
• Customer: Thank ticket officer
• Ticket Officer: Thank. Say goodbye or something similar

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