Functions of a Lesson Plan

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

Foundation

First of all, we must understand that the lesson plan is the most important foundation in English teaching. With a sound curriculum plan, perfect teaching can be carried out. Set out the purpose of teaching in the course plan:

• arouse the student's interest in learning English, cultivate their intention to learn English and build their confidence in learning English initially.
• To cultivate the students with the necessary language sense and good phonological and intonational basis, and good study habits.
• Give them the initial potential for simple day-to-day communication in English.
• Cultivate students potentialities of observation, memory, thinking, imagination, and creativity at the same time.

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Teaching tasks

Secondly, we must understand the teaching tasks in the curriculum plan (lesson plan):

• be able to read and recognize speech sounds and cultivate students listening and speaking potential.
• be able to master the vocabulary, sentence patterns, and language materials.
• can read, speak, understand, and write everyday communication language to improve students' potential in language use.
• can progress perception understanding grammar, grasp the elementary grammar knowledge.

Good Lesson Plan Check-list

Before you start the lesson there are several practical things you can do to make sure your lesson goes smoothly.

• check that you have your lesson plan.
• run through your lesson plan and make sure you have all the necessary aids and materials needed.
• check that the equipment works.
• lay out materials and aids so that you can easily find them.
• arrange the seating as desired.
• make sure that the board is clean.
• be ready to chat with the students as they come into class. This will help break the ice with the students and get them in the mood to learn.

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At the start of your teaching careers, you are probably going to want to structure your plans more, so that you have a clear guide as to what you want to achieve and how you are going to do it. Including all of the following in lesson plan: Learner objectives, personal aims, language point, teaching aids, anticipated problems (of students and the teacher), procedure, phase, timing, interaction, class level, number of students, date and time, teacher's and observer's names.

A lesson plan is a teacher's detailed description of the course of instruction or "learning trajectory" for a lesson. A daily lesson plan is developed by a teacher to guide class learning. Details will vary depending on the preference of the teacher, subject being covered, and the needs of the students. A lesson plan is the teacher's guide for running a particular lesson, and it includes the goal (what the students are supposed to learn), how the goal will be reached(the method, procedure)and a way of measuring how well the goal was reached(the test, worksheet, homework, etc.).

Lesson plan and Unit plans

A well-developed lesson plan reflects the interests and needs of students. It incorporates best practices for the educational field. The lesson plan correlates with the teacher's philosophy of education, which is what the teacher feels is the purpose of educating the students.

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Secondary English program lesson plans, for example, usually center around four topics. They are the literary theme, elements of language and composition, literary history, and literary genre. A board, a thematic lesson plan is preferable, because it allows a teacher to create various research, writing, speaking, and reading assignments. It helps an instructor teach different literature genres and incorporate videotapes, films, and television programs. Also, it facilitates teaching literature and English together. Similarly, lesson plans focus on content, analytic thinking, scaffolding, and the practicality of lesson structure and meeting educational goals.

Unit planning is the proper selection of learning activities which presents a complete picture. Unit planning is a systematic arrangement of the subject matter. A unit is an organization of various activities, experiences, and types of learning around a central problem or purpose developed cooperatively involving planning, execution of plans and evaluation of results.

Criteria of a Unit plan:

• needs, capabilities, interest of the learner should be considered.
• prepared on the sound psychological knowledge of the learner.
• provide a new learning experience; systematic but flexible.
• sustain the attention of the learner till the end.
• related to the social and physical environment of the learner.
• development of learner's personality.

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