Planning Awesome Lessons

Ashley Levin November 15, 2013

AgendaYour role in teaching English communicationBasics in creating an effective lessonHow to input effective picturesHow to expand a topic into multiple lessonsSample lesson plansGeneral tips for challenging classesQ&A

My School Izu Sogo Koko-Half Kogyou (vocational training), half

Sogo (general/academic course)Teach 250 students total, class average is 20

students Multi-media is not standard at my school. Projectors

and TVs are unavailableNo textbook or existing curriculum in my class, so

what should I teach?Answer: Not grammar, writing, reading, but English

Communication!

What does “Teaching English Communication” mean?

Your class is a break from normal textbook-based classes with the JTEs

The level of English in your classes should in general be lower than their other classes

Your class is a chance to apply what they knowWhat’s the target?

For my school, it’s for the students to come away thinking English is fun and practical

Basic Lesson Model

10 minutes- warm-up or review game

15 minutes- learning vocabulary10 minutes- listening activity15 minutes- competition/group activity

__+________________________________________50 minutes

Warm-up Activities Examples

Get students out of their chairs or have them move their desks

Use the black board (ex. whiteboard relay race, spelling competition)

CrossfireReview Karuta

Basic Lesson Model

10 minutes- warm-up or review game15 minutes- learning vocabulary

10 minutes- listening activity15 minutes- competition/group activity

Introducing VocabularyUsually I have students match: Pictures with English wordsSentences (in English) with English wordsEnglish words with Japanese words

From EFL Press Books

Car Parts Vocabulary Example

Basic Lesson Model

10 minutes- warm-up or review game15 minutes- learning vocabulary10 minutes- listening activity

15 minutes- competition/group activity

Listening Activity Examples

Students will listen to a dialogue/monologue and: Fill-in-the-BlankCircle items from a listIdentify pictures

From EFLPressbooks

Listening Activity Example

From EFL Pressbooks

Basic Lesson Model

10 minutes- warm-up or review game15 minutes- learning vocabulary10 minutes- listening activity15 minutes- competition/group activity

Competition/Group Activity Examples

Competition and games is the key to motivating low-level students!

Read and RunWriting on Mini-WhiteboardsBoard GamesKaruta

Read and Run: Competition Activity

Example

Board game: Example Group Activity

From EFL Press Books

How to expand on a lesson topic

Try to avoid one topic per lesson Focus on topics that can be extended to several

lessonsExample:

The first lesson on a topic may focus on learning and listening to vocabulary

The second lesson focuses on sentence structure and writing/applying the vocabulary

Cooking Week 1Example lesson plan

Warm-up (5 minutes)Vocabulary (20 minutes)

Kitchen Vocabulary--students match pictures with wordsCooking Verbs--students match pictures with sentences

Listening (15 minutes)ALT reads a recipe dialogue with the JTE, students fill-in the blank

Competition (10 minutes) ALT reads recipes-students guess the dish they make?

Introducing Kitchen Vocabulary

Introducing Cooking Verbs

Cooking Listening Activity

Cooking Week 1: Competition Activity

ExampleALT reads, “Drop the spaghetti into the boiling salted water and cook for 6 to 9 minutes. While the pasta cooks, combine the eggs, cheese, cream and olive oil in a bowl and stir until completely mixed.Drain pasta, toss with the egg and cream mixture, then add the cooked bacon and chopped parsley. Serve right away, with additional grated cheese.”Who can guess the dish this recipe makes?

Cooking Week 2:Example lesson plan

Warm-up (5 minutes)Review Vocabulary (15 minutes)

Crossword-can be done in teams or individually Word search for students who finish early

Reading Recipes (15 minutes) Students read sample recipes, fill-in missing vocabulary Students read sample recipes then put them in order

Writing Recipes (10 minutes) Students write their own recipes

Cooking Crossword: Example Review Activity

Putting recipes in order: Example Activity

Worksheet modified from ISLcollective.com

Example StudentRecipe

Cooking Review Week Example Activity: Karuta

Review all vocabulary with Cooking Karuta picture cards

Also can be used to play Bingo

Tips

Tips: Dealing with mixed level classes

Always bring something extra! Especially for advanced classes

Crosswords and word searches--can be made easily from online generators

Extra activities give you peace of mindActivities you don’t get to can be used for

review the next lesson.

Tips: When a lesson doesn’t go as planned

Don’t get discouraged over failed lessons. Can be due to a number of factors: It takes time to learn students’ level Students performance in class can be due to other

factorsDon’t drive yourself insane trying to fix a lesson which

failedThings to improve for next time:

Clearer explanation Giving more student and teacher demonstrations Check understanding before starting the activity

ConclusionDevelop your lesson format which can be applied

to any topic Focus on topics that can be extended to several

lessonsFocus on building on skills and previously learned

vocabularyGive lots of opportunities to reviewRemember the target is for students to walk away

thinking English is fun

Recommended Resources

ISLcollective.com, all worksheets can be modified

EFL Press books--great for pictures, activities and adopting whole lesson plans. Can order free samples easily online

Snagit-application for taking screen shots which makes editing pictures much faster

Q & A

Shuzenji, Izu-shi

Appendix

Determine what kind of test you’ll have

Listening- Pre-recorded CD or live. Examples include: dialogues with JTE, fill in the

blanks/dictation, circling pictures.Speaking- Students have an interview with the

ALTNeed to start early--usually a full semester projectStudents need a lot of practice time

Performance Test: Students write a 1-minute speech to recite in front of the ALT Usually in addition to a listening/writing-based test

Health/body parts vocabulary example

Modified from ESLPress Books.