Planning

for Your Lesson

Your lesson plan is the vision you have for your lessons where your students are going and how to help
them get there. Another aspect of planning is before-class rehearsal thinking through the branching
alternatives in a lesson plan, and anticipating how you will give instructions and conduct activities. This
rehearsal gives you confidence and makes your tutoring sessions go more smoothly. (Adapted from
Zero Prep: Ready-to-go Activities for the Language Classroom, by Laurel Pollard and Natalie Hess.)
There is no correct way to write a lesson plan, although a good lesson plan should give a clear picture of
what tutors intend to do in the lesson. There are three main parts that you need to know before
teaching a lesson:

The Aim of the Lesson

Decide what you want your student to learn today in terms of topic, function, and/or grammar:
A particular topic: food, getting around town, getting a job, etc.
A function/skill: giving directions, inviting/declining an invitation, instructing, etc.
A grammar point: can/cant, should/should have, simple present tense, etc.

What New Language This Lesson Contains

It is important for the tutor to know exactly what new vocabulary will be taught in the lesson. You dont
want to overwhelm your student with too many new words. Ask yourself:
What new words will you introduce?
Which are the most important?

The Main Stages of the Lesson

Any lesson we teach naturally divides into different stages of activity. Keep in mind that the stages are in
no fixed order, and they overlap. When we talk about stages of a lesson, we are thinking of the main
focus of the activity. Make sure you try to integrate all skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing)
even if you are emphasizing listening and speaking.
(Adapted from Teach English: A Training Course for Teachers, by Adrian Doff.)

53

What to Do at Each Stage

Write down brief notes for each stage of your lesson. Describe how you will teach and what your tutee
will do.
Warm-Up/Preview/Pre-reading

Presentation

Practice/Production/Discussion

Wrap-Up

Start with chitchat and discussion of material

student already knows. If convenient, pick
something related to the days planned lesson.
Introduce new material. Show a story, dialogue, or
pictures; highlight/model the target grammar
forms (if any); check for learner understanding
through questions or reproduction activities.
Ask students to summarize the story, and apply to
students own lives through discussion
(encouraging student thinking and creativity). If a
particular grammar point or vocabulary list is
introduced, get students to use them by creating
sentences based on the story or new situations
related to their lives.
Sum up what you have worked on today, and tell
your student what you will be doing next lesson (if
already planned). Give homework, if any.

54

Sample Lesson Plans

A
I
M

S
K
I
L
L
S

Topic: My Life Story.

Function:
Asking and reporting personal information/background.
Grammar:
Simple past tense.
Vocabulary: Regular verbs: live, start, graduate, finish, work . . .
Irregular verbs: be, begin, become, come, get, have, go . . .
Materials:
photographs, timeline, handouts from a grammar book.
Stages:
Warm-up:
Show pictures of different life stages.
Elicit from tutee what you want to focus today.
(What do you see in the picture? Whats happening here?)
Presentation/Practice/Production:
Introduce new vocabulary.
Write them on a piece of paper.
Present the concept of past tense by using the timeline.
o Listening/Speaking
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
o Reading/Writing
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Wrap-up
Remind your student what s/he learned today, check comprehension. Give HW.
Homework: Based on tutees timeline, have him/her write out a life story for
next session.

55

Topic: Housing
Functions: Reporting housing problems & Requesting repair.
Grammar: Can/could/would you ___________?
New Vocabulary:
Household appliances: sink, toilet, door, bathtub, A/C, W/D,
Rooms: living room, bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, laundry room.
Adjectives: broken, leaky, clogged.
Materials: pictures of household rooms and items, pictures of household problems.
Stages:
Review: show pictures of different rooms in an apartment. Tutee gives words: sink,
bathtub, lights, etc.
Presentation: show visuals with household appliance/facility problems.
Present new vocabulary. Write them on a piece of paper together.
Practice:
o Reading/Writing
Tutee looks at pictures and creates phone dialogues with tutor, based on
the example dialogues written by tutor beforehand. E.g. Excuse me, there
is a problem. The sink is clogged . . . When can you fix it?
o Speaking
Tutee/tutor role-play 3 different phone conversations to report problems
and request fixture. Alternate roles.
o Listening/Speaking
Give tutee a picture of a house. As tutor reads a pre-written phone
conversation between the tenant and the superintendent, tutee circles the
problematic household items reported in the conversation. Then, tutee
retells the situation to the tutor.
Homework:
Have tutee write out 2 short dialogues for 2 household problem scenarios to practice for
next session.

56

Lesson Plan on What do you do?

Topic: _______________________________________________________________________________
New Vocabulary:
(Tip: Explain new words with clear examples/contexts instead of (equally difficult) synonyms. E.g.
instead of saying, Promote means to advance to another level, give an example: Zhou is working as a
busboy right now. His boss says, Zhou, youre doing good work. I want to promote you to a waiter
position. So Zhou was a busboy, and he later became a waiter. What happened to Zhou?)
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Materials:

__

Stages:
Warm-Up/Preview/Pre-Reading

Presentation

Practice/Production/Discussion

Wrap-Up

57