Teach English in GAdasu Zhongchuchang - Tongliao Shi

Structure can give us freedom when properly instilled. Within a classroom, lesson plans can provide room for intellectual growth and creativity. Lesson plans give teachers the power to organize and prepare their work; they provide an extensive record, useful for analyzing completed courses or planning future courses. It is important to remember that lesson planning can be applied to the standard classroom as well as privates and small groups. All forms of lesson planning are beneficial to both the teacher and the students, and create a platform for success. The lesson plan for the first day of a course should be quite different from the rest. The goals of the first day should be to establish good rapport with students and to set a motivating tone for the rest of the course. Talking activities allow students to share information about themselves and to learn about their classmates, while questionnaires and/or surveys can inform the teacher about the wants and needs of their students. Course books should be saved for the second class to create a comfortable environment for the students. The following lesson plans should involve three components: Engage, Study, and Activate. These phases can be varied in order to provide flexibility and variety, but all three should be included in every class. The Engage phase comes first, and introduces the subject at hand through activities and materials meant to ‘warm up’ the students. This could be done with a video relevant to the subject followed by questions and conversation, or possibly a picture or game that encourages discussion. Next, the Study phase focuses on the actual construction of language, and typically starts with an elicitation tactic. The Study phase clarifies pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and common errors. Activities for the Study phase include role-play games, gap fill worksheets, word searches, etc. More than one Study phase may be necessary in order to ensure students fully grasp the subject at hand. Following the Study phase, the Activate phase encourages students to utilize all components of English that they know. The focus of this phase is to strengthen students’ fluency and comfortability with the language and new topics. Role-play activities are very common in this phase, such as a mock-interviews or role-play between a customer and sales representative. These creative Activate phase activities require both partners to communicate verbally and to listen carefully. Choosing activities that match each phase will provide the class with a clear path and an exciting long-term course. The Engage, Study, and Activate phases are a guide for creating a thorough lesson, and should be used accordingly. Although lesson planning can be a unique process for each teacher, it is common to provide structure and a learning objective for each plan. This allows for flexibility and structure within every lesson. I prefer to have my learning objectives, procedure, timing, and teaching aids listed on every lesson plan. I have found that these are the most time-consuming elements to prepare and organize, so I write them down first. I write my lesson plans in an open-chart format that is easily transferable for future lesson plans. Using the same format for each of my lessons helps me to stay organized and accountable. Lastly, this format forces me to prepare key components of every lesson, while also allowing me to see the potential for creative activities and games. My lesson plans provide me with a clearer vision of each class, and furthermore inspire me to be creative with my teaching techniques. Lesson planning gives teachers the ability to devise short-term and long-term goals while providing a stimulating and organized course for students.