Content

Abstract...................................................................................................................................................1
1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................................2
2. What is lesson planning?.....................................................................................................................3
3. Pre-planning........................................................................................................................................3
4. The plan...............................................................................................................................................4
4.1. The four main planning elements..................................................................................................4
4.1.1. Activities....................................................................................................................................4
4.1.2. Skills..........................................................................................................................................5
4.1.3. Language...................................................................................................................................5
4.1.4. Content......................................................................................................................................5
5. Syllabus...............................................................................................................................................6
6. Lesson stages.......................................................................................................................................6
7. The formal plan: background information...........................................................................................7
7.1. Class profile..................................................................................................................................7
7.2. Timetable fit.................................................................................................................................8
7.3. Lesson aims..................................................................................................................................8
7.3.1. Personal aims.............................................................................................................................9
7.4. Assumptions.................................................................................................................................9
7.5. Skill and language focus...............................................................................................................9
7.6. Problems and possible solutions.................................................................................................9
8. Describing procedures and material...................................................................................................10
9. Reasons why we may need to modify our proposal for action once a lesson is taking place.............11
9.1. Magic moments..........................................................................................................................11
9.2. Sensible diversions.....................................................................................................................12
9.3. Unforeseen problems..................................................................................................................12
10. Evaluating lesson effectiveness.......................................................................................................12
11. Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................13
12. Bibliography....................................................................................................................................14
13. Appendixes......................................................................................................................................15
Abstract
The purpose of this essay is to present approaches on lesson planning so as to show the
importance of planning lessons. Planning is characterised by principles, procedures or strategies
to be implemented by teachers to achieve desired learning in students. These principles and
procedures are determined by the nature of the subject matter to be taught and by beliefs and
theories about how students learn. Some English teachers specifically, are only concerned with
the kind of material they are going to use in their English lessons without thinking about some
kind of planning. This leads to a chaotic lesson which could leave the students with no clear idea
of what they were doing and why they were doing. This kind of uncertainty is not good for
effective learning and class discipline.

Although experienced teachers, because they have the plan in their head, they may be able to go
into class with just a short list of notes to teach their lesson, it is important that teachers take the
time to think through their lessons before they enter the classroom, whatever level of experience
they may have. One of the most important reasons to plan is that teachers need to identify their
aims for the lesson and to be clear on what they hope students to achieve and be able to do at the
end of the lesson.

Key concept: lesson planning, aims, stages, procedures.

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1 Introduction
It is well known that a lesson is an interactive event in which people react with each other and
the language. So in order to keep this interaction efficient, teachers resort to lesson planning
which is a significant element of teaching- learning process. The main goals of this essay is to
describe the approaches and the processes of lesson planning which teachers should try to follow
as to be confident and free in the classroom when teaching. In the first place, I present
approaches of different authors towards lesson planning which one of the approaches is defended
by Scrivener (2001:23) stating that lesson planning is imagining the lesson before it happens, and
consequently there should be essential elements that will prepare the teacher and enable him to
respond to the learners and adapt what he has planned. Secondly I cover the pre-planning phase
in which the teacher already knows almost everything about the students, and that makes him
feel better equipped so as to satisfy students’ needs. In the third place, there is the planning itself
which is done on the basis of the pre planning phase, seen that in the pre planning we gather all
the necessarily information that will help us know the aims of the lesson, the new language that
the lesson contains and the main stages of the lesson along with how it divides into different
activities. We also need to know what to do at each stage. In the following point I present kinds
of syllabus, which are the breakdown of the curriculum, after that we are going to see the stages
of the lesson planning which also depend on the kind of lesson we intend to design, which can a
system or skill. The next point is about the formal lesson plan with its background information.
This kind of lesson plan is normally designed when you are to be observed, etc. The next point is
about describing procedures and material. Finally in the last two points we discuss reason that
may take the teacher modify some aspects in the lesson plan once the lesson is taking place, and
we are also going to discuss the criteria for evaluating lesson effectiveness.

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2. What is lesson planning?
There are many ways to approach the planning of lessons. Thus, Woodward (2001:180) defines
planning as everything a teacher does when he or she says is planning, which means that he will
have to think about the students’ needs, the content, the materials and activities that could go into
a lesson, and anything else that he feels will help him teach well and the students to learn, as well
as to ensure our lessons and courses are good.

Lesson planning is “the art of combining a number of different elements into a coherent whole so
that a lesson has an identity which students can recognise, work within and react to whatever
teacher may use to visualise and create that identity” (Harmer, 2001:308).

Scrivener (2001:123) goes further stating that planning is imagining the lesson before it happens,
and consequently it has to contain prediction, anticipation, sequencing, organizing and
simplifying so that the teacher should be prepared to respond to the learners and adapt what he
has planned.

The concepts above establish a strong relationship about lesson planning. In summary, the
authors mean that, before going into a class to teach a lesson a teacher needs to know the aim of
the lesson, what new language the lesson contains, the main stages of the lesson and how it
divides into different activities and what to do at each stage. In other words, as a teacher you
need to know your students’ needs which will help you know what to teach, how to teach (what
will help you teach), what activities you will bring into play and how much time you need. If we
have a good combination of all these requirements we will have a good lesson where students
interact with each other and the language.

3. Pre-planning
This is a stage that teachers go through before they actually make a plan of what is going to
happen in the lesson.

In this phase teachers gather ideas and material and possible starting-off points, bearing in mind
a number of important aspects such as: the language level of our students, their educational and
culture background, their level of motivation and their different learning styles. This information

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is easily available when we have spent quite some time with the students at the beginning of the
course. This allows us to be familiar with the students as to make better decisions about what to
teach. Harmer (2007:367) points out that, ideas for pre-planning can come from various sources.
For example, we may come across activities we would like to use (perhaps in a book); we might
have seen something on the internet or on the television which might be fun for our lesson, or we
can use the coursebook. This means that our pre-planning ideas are based on our knowledge of
our students’ personality as individuals and as a group since we know their level and what we
think they might be capable of. We also studied and know the syllables we are following and
what the students are expected to have achieved by the end of the course.

4. The plan
Taking into consideration our pre-planning decisions we make the plan. This means that we
already know the syllabus which will help us produce a number of activities. There are also
things we have learned about our students and the timetable, we also know the level of the
students, their age, their level of preparation. Furthermore we know as well what material we
will need for the lesson (e.g. a whiteboard, a duster, a data projector, etc.).

In addition to that, thinking about the aim of the lesson we are about to teach is a fundamental
skill for a teacher. Teachers should know what they want to do before they go into a lesson
because many things may happen on the spot in the class. To avoid embarrassment, teachers
should predict how learners may behave because not doing so, they are more likely not to deal
with whatever happens in class.

4.1. The four main planning elements

Harmer (2001: 308) states that after knowing our students, their needs and the syllabus we can
move to the four main lesson planning elements:

4.1.1. Activities: it is important to consider what students will be doing in the classroom. We
have to consider the way they will be grouped, whether they are to move around the class,

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whether they will work quietly side-by-side researching on the internet or whether they will be
involved in an energetic group-writing activity.

We should make decisions about activities of what language or skills we have to teach. Our first
planning idea should be based on what kind of activity would be best for a particular group of
students at a particular point in a lesson, or on a particular day. That helps to balance the
exercises in our lessons so as to engage and motivate the class.

4.1.2. Skills: the teacher needs to be aware of what skills will be developed in the lesson:
speaking, listening, reading and writing. If possible, the lesson should include practice of more
than one skill – this will increase the variety and interest of the lesson. This choice is sometimes
determined by the syllabus on the coursebook. Planning decisions about language skills and sub-
skills are co-dependent with the content of the lesson and with the activities which the teacher
will get students to take part in.

4.1.3. Language: we need to decide exactly what language will be taught in the classroom. Most
lessons introduce either new vocabulary or a new structure, or both.

New vocabulary: not all the words in the lesson are equally important. The teacher should
decide which words need to be practiced, and which only need to be mentioned.

Structure: if new structure is introduced in the lesson, it will need to be presented carefully and
practiced.

When language is the main focus, it is the only decision that teachers make, where once the
decision has been taken to teach the present continuous, for example, it is sometimes tempting to
slip back into a drill-dominated teaching and which may not be the best way to achieve our aims.

4.1.4. Content: lesson planners should sellect contents which provoke interest and involvement
as they know their students personally. Even where the choice of subject and content is to some
extent dependent on a coursebook, we can decide when and if to use the coursebook's topics, or
whether to replace them with something else.

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5. Syllabus
A syllabus provides a long-term overview. It lists the content of a course and puts the separate
items in an order, in some schools the syllabus may simply be the coursebook. For Ur (1999:76)
a variety of different syllabus types have been developed by designers over the years. For that
reason there are different syllabus types as follows:

Grammatical: a list of grammatical structure, such as the present tense, comparison of

adjectives, relative clauses, etc.

Lexical: list of lexical items (girl, boy…).

Grammatical–lexical: both structure and lexis are specified.

Situational: sections headed by names of situations or locations such as: eating a meal, in the
street, etc.

Topic-based: headings are broadly topic-based. E.g. food, the gamily, etc.

Notional: general notions may include: number, time, place,etc.

Functional–notional: things you can do with language, e.g.: denying, promising, etc.

Procedural: specify the learning tasks to be done. e.g.: map-reading, story writing, etc.

Using one and leaving out another kind of syllabus has its disadvantages. Because of that, most
designers and coursebook writers try to provide a kind of multi-syllabus. This means an
interlocking set of parameters which includes not only the categories above but also issues of
skills and pronunciation.

6. Lesson stages
Any lesson we teach divides into different stages of activities. It is much easier to plan the details
of a lesson if we think in terms of separate stages rather than trying to think of the lesson as a
whole. If we think of the main stages of a lesson not on particular activities or techniques (e.g.
asking questions on a text), we have the following stages:

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Presentation: the teacher presents new vocabulary or structure, gives examples, writes them on
the board, etc.

Practice: students practice using words or structure in a controlled way, e.g. making sentences
from prompts, asking and answering questions, etc. this can be oral or written.

Production: students use language they have learned to express themselves more freely, e.g. to
talk or write about their lives and interest, to express opinions, etc. this can be oral or written.

The transition of one activity into another depends on how different parts or stages of a lesson
hang together. Students need to know, during a lesson, when one stage has finished and another
is about to begin. Ur (1999:97) suggests summing up one component in a few words and
introducing the next. So, we need to think carefully, about what stages a lesson will go through
and how we will get from one to another.

7. The formal plan: background information

Formal plans are sometimes required when for example, teachers are to be observed or assessed
as part of training or for reasons of internal quality control. Therefore Harmer (2007) presents
some important elements.

7.1. Class profile: it includes aspects such as: the age of the students, the gender, their level, the
number of students we have, their learning styles, the material we are going to use, the time
which the lesson takes place and conditions or facilities. This information tells us who the
students are, and what can be expected of them. It also gives information about how the group
and how the individuals in it behave.

Class profile
São Dâmaso Secondary School
This is a grade nine class, stream 5 made up of 45 teenagers aged between 15 and 17. In this
class 40 students are boys and 15 girls. Students’ proficiency level ranges from elementary to
pre-intermediate. The lesson starts at 7.00 a.m. and some students may arrive late because of lack
of transport and the majority of the students live far from school. Besides that, they seem

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energetic in this period of the day what turns the lesson more interesting.
Length of the lesson: 45'
Material: board, chalk, duster.

7.2. Timetable fit: it tells where the lesson fits in a sequence of classes, what happens before and
after it. It also includes information not only about the topic, but also about the language syllabus
which this lesson slots into.

Timetable fit: The class meets twice a week, on Tuesdays from 7.00 to 8:45a.m., and on
Thursdays from 7.00 to 7:45. In the two past lessons the students dealt with the present simple to
talk about their daily routine and read a text about Billy's daily routine and they also looked at
will/won't to make predictions.

7.3. Lesson aims: although a lesson may focus on a particular topic, a particular structure or a
skill, for every lesson you teach and for every activity within that lesson you need to be able to
state what the aims are, what is the point of doing it? What will the students get out of it? The
best classroom aims are specific and directed towards an outcome which can be measured. Many
trainers used the acronym SMART to describe lesson aims, which should be specific,
measurable, achievable, realistic and timed.

A lesson will often have a main aim and its subsidiary aims, as well as personal aim. When the
main aim of a lesson is a skill, usually you have a system as a subsidiary aim and vice versa.

Main aim: By the end of the lesson students will be able to use the first conditional to make
decisions about what to do when encountered with different situations.
Subsidiary aim:
To revise the present simple

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7.3.1. Personal aims
Personal aims are those where we seek to try something out that we have never done before, or
decide to try to do better at something which has eluded us before.

Personal aim:
The teacher expects to improve his performance on giving instruction.

7.4. Assumptions: assumptions are always important because they are vital for the coming
lesson. This means that when planning we need to include them because they enable teachers to
measure what students know and can do.

Assumptions: Since the students already looked at the present simple tense, they will not have
difficulties to use the first conditional to make decisions about what to do when encountered with
different situations.

7.5. Skill and language focus: sometimes we say what language and skills the students are
going to focus on in the aims. For example: the students will use the first conditional to make
future decisions about what to do when encountered with different situations.

7.6. Problems and possible solutions: a good lesson plan tries to predict potential pitfalls and
suggests ways of dealing with them. When listing anticipated problems, it is a good idea to think
ahead to possible solutions we might adopt to solve them.

Anticipated problems Possible solutions

Students may tend to use verbs in the third Teacher will write two sentences on the board
person singular after will in the result clause. to show that after we use verbs in the infinitive
after will.

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8. Describing procedures and material
Once you have written the background information the other essential part of a plan is the main
body where you list the activities and procedures in the lesson together with the time we expect
each of them to take. This is often done as a list of separate stages with indications of what you
will do, what the students will do, how long you expect it to last, what kind of interaction there
will be, what the aims of the stage are, etc. you can give a name to each stage such as:
presentation, practice, production, etc., or just numbering them. Aids which show the different
interactions which will take place in the class are also included. Some planners to show the
classroom interactions just say groupwork, or teacher working with the whole class. Nevertheless
symbols that show this interaction can be used, e.g. T = teacher; S = an individual student; T→ C
= teacher working with the whole class; S,S,S = students working on their own; S↔S = students
working in pairs; SS↔SS = pairs of students in discussion with other pairs; GG = students
working in group, and so on.

Activity/Aids interaction procedure time

1 Card game: T→ C Teacher divides the class into groups of three. 1'
students ask T gives each group a set of picture cards and a set of
and answer time cards
questions in T→ C T goes through the picture cards and elicits the 3'

the past various activities

continuous T→ C T asks students to shuffle the picture cards and then 4'

about what deal them out equally. The time cards should be
they were shuffled and placed face down in a pile on the desk.
doing at The first student picks up the top time card from the
certain times pile and the player on their right say what they were
yesterday. doing at that time yesterday, e.g. what were you

(GG) doing at 6:00 a.m. yesterday? 10'

The player must then choose one of the picture cards,
show the card to the other student and give a
Picture cards convincing answer that matches with the time on the
card, e.g. I was drinking coffee.
If the answer is appropriate for that time of the day,

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 the player can discard their picture card.
If the answer is doubtful, e.g. I was studying English.
The other students challenge the player and ask them
to provide a convincing explanation as to why they
were doing that activity at that time of day.
If the player can provide a reasonable explanation,
the picture card can be discarded, e.g. I was studying
English, because…
If not the player must keep the picture card.
The next student then picks up a time card and asks
the player on their right what they were doing at that
time yesterday and so on.
T→ C The first player to get rid of all their picture cards
wins the game

9. Reasons why we may need to modify our proposal for action once a lesson is taking place
Harmer (2007: 366) says that although it is a good idea to try to follow the plan that we have
made, there are a number of reasons why we may need to modify our proposal for action once a
lesson is taking place:

9.1. Magic moments: this happens when there is a sudden development of a conversation or
when a topic produces a level of interest in our students which we had not predicted. So when
such magic moment occurs, we have to make decisions about what to do. We could carry on
with our planned lesson as if the moment had never occurred. A better course is to recognize the
magic moment and see how it can be used rather than denying it life because it does not fit in our
plan.

9.2. Sensible diversions: this happens when unpredictable things happen, such as students trying
to use some new grammar structure or vocabulary which we had not planned to introduce.

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9.3. Unforeseen problems: however well we plan, unforeseen problems often arise. Some
students may find an activity that we thought interesting incredibly boring; an activity may take
more or less time than we expected. It is possible that something we thought would be simple for
our students turn out to be very difficult (or vice versa). We may have planned an activity based
on the number of students we expected to turn up, and some of them are absent, etc. if one of the
problems mentioned take place it would be difficult to carry on with our plan as nothing had
happened. If an activity finishes quickly, we have to find something else to fill the time. If some
students have already finished an activity, we cannot just leave those students to get bored.

10. Evaluating lesson effectiveness

There is one key test as to see if you plan was a good one or not. Could someone else who did
not talk to you about the lesson, pick you plan and see exactly what the teacher intended and be
able to go in and teach your lesson?

Going further, Ur (1999:98) suggests a list of criteria for evaluating lesson effectiveness: were
the learners active all the time? Were they attentive all the time? Did they enjoy the lesson?
Were they motivated? Did they understand the lesson? Did the lesson go according to the plan?
Was the language used communicatively? Etc.

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11. Conclusion
After researching and writing about lesson planning I understood that a lesson is like a journey
and the lesson plan is the instructor's road map of what students need to learn and how such
learning can be done effectively during the class time. So, having carefully made your lesson
plan, it will allow you to enter the classroom with more confidence and reduce the chances of
having a bad learning experience with your students. I also understood that lesson planners do
not necessarily need to detail every interaction with students in the lesson plan, but it should
have the general overview of the aims of the lesson, the stages of the lesson, the procedures of
the activities along with the aims and the time each activity will take. This means that the teacher
is clear on what needs to be done, how and when, but this can only be achieved if we consider
the pre-planning stage where we are already familiar with the students and with everything we
need for the lesson.

When I was having Teaching Practice at Francisco Manyanga Secondary School, I was not able
to manage the time very well and I could not feel more confident in the lessons, apparently
because the aims of the lessons, the stages and the activities were not clear enough. But now,
after researching about this topic and see exactly the steps of lesson planning I feel that I could
have taught my lessons better during the Teaching Practice.

Although some teachers think that lesson planning takes too long, they can be used again in other
lessons months or years later. And in case you have a teacher to replace you, if the plan you
designed is very well detailed he will not have difficulties teaching your lesson. I also had the
opportunity to realise that one of the benefits of writing a lesson plan is that it produces more
unified lessons, which means that lessons are related to each other. This means saying what we
assume students know and can do.

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12. Bibliography
Harmer, J. (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Harlow: Pearson Longman

Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching. 4th Edition. Harlow: Pearson
Education

Scrivener, J. (2001). Learning Teaching: The essential Guide to English Language Teaching. 3rd
Edition. Oxford: Macmillan

Ur, P. (1999). A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. Melbourne: Cambridge
University Press

Woodward, T. (2001) Planning lessons and Courses: Designing a Sequence of Work for
Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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13. Appendixes

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