UNIT 2: LESSONG PLANNING AND TASK DEVELOPMENT

2.1 Preparing your lesson

What is a lesson?

A lesson is something which primarily involves cooperative social interaction, and which promotes the
participation of all members of the class. It’s necessary to do an effort to achieve a goal

The lessons should be varied to maintain students engaged.

• Lesson components
Try to choose a route. It is useful to try not to apply same sequence of activities every day.
Follow a proper order

Lessons should be prepared in advanced, and you must be clear in your aims, times, variety of
activities… Using a template may help.

- aims and learning outcomes

- timing of activities (even if we allow for flexibility)
- variety of activities (to avoid students’ boredom… and your own!)

Try to vary your activities and organisation to engage students: Variety is the spice of life >>> more
engaging >>> more fun >>> cater for different learning styles

• How to set lesson goals?

❑ Note that lesson goals are most usefully stated in terms of what students are expected to achieve or
will have done at the end of the lesson.

❑ The topic (e.g. “Work) is not a goal, but it will help you to develop your goals.

❑ Identify specific linguistic content (vocabulary, grammar or language use)

These are usually prescribed by the course textbook or course curriculum.

If they are not, select points that are connected in some significant way with the topic of the lesson:

- Try to cover all the skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing)
- Identify specific tasks to be completed by students.

It is imperative to do activities that involve communication and non-communicative activities.

- The amount of learning is likely to correlate with the amount of the foreign language class
engages with in the course lesson.
- The tasks should allow students to use the vocabulary, grammar, and strategies presented in the
lesson.
- At the beginning, of the lesson, tell your students how you have organized it, so that they are
also aware of what they will be doing in class.
- At the end of the lesson, devote some time to reflect upon how it went, so that next time you
must teach the same lesson know what can work and what to improve.
- You should try to end on a positive note: it will give your students a sense of success to see what
they have learnt.
- Therefore, there must be always a plan B in case there is extra time.
An English lesson may include some or all the following components:

• Work on a listening or reading text, with associated comprehension tasks.

• An oral communication task, such as discussion of a controversial topic.
• Presentation and explanation of a grammatical point.
• Presentation and explanation of vocabulary
• Exercises on linguistic usages, such as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling, or
punctuation.
• A writing task.
• Silent reading or simplified readers chosen by the students.
• Review of homework
• Preparation for a test.
• A test.
Lessons may vary in several ways:
• Tempo. Activities may be brisk and fast-moving (such as guessing games) or slow and
reflective (such as reading literature and responding in writing).
• Organization. The students may work individually, in pairs, in groups, or as a full class
interacting with the teacher.
• Material. A lot of your lessons may be based on the coursebook; however, it is good to spend
at least some of the time working on teacher-or student-initiated tasks or computer-based
materials.
• Mode and skill. Activities may be based on the written or the spoken language; and within
these, they may vary as to whether the students are asked to produce (speak, write) or receive
(listen, read)
• Difficulty. activities may be easy and non-demanding or difficult, requiring concentration and
effort.
• Topic. Both the language-teaching point and the (non-linguistic) topic may change from one
activity to another.

2.2 Functions of the teacher

In principle, of course, most teachers would like to see themselves as supportive rather than
dictatorial, and to encourage learner independence and autonomy. But an extreme learner-
centered approach, where learning is totally based on students’ initiative, can actually be
counterproductive, particularly in language courses.
The teacher can have several functions during lessons:
o Instructor: the teacher provides information about the language (sounds, letters, words,
grammar…)
o Activator: getting the students to use English themselves is essential for acquisition to take
place. You need to provide tasks that activate students to do something that involves engaging
with the forms, meaning and uses of language.
o Model: the teacher normally represents the prototype of the English speaker during a lesson.
It is your accent, writing and language uses that the students will use as their immediate model.
Students need to see and hear you using the language.
o Provider of feedback: in order to progress, students need to know what they are doing right or
well, what they are doing wrong or not so well, and how they can improve.
o Supporter: you should help the students understand and produce appropriate language,
suggest learning strategies or resources that may be useful.
o Assessor: we need to go where we are to know where to go. That’s known through graded
classroom tests, or through quizzes and dictations.
o Manager: to manage a classroom includes things such as organizing group work, making sure
that the individual members are attending and responding properly, bringing the class
together…
o Motivator: the level of initial student motivation may vary, but whether the language-learning
process is interesting and motivating or boring and demotivating is up to the teacher.

2.3 Interaction patterns

The most common type of classroom interaction is IRF (initiation, response, and feedback),
which is assessment, correction, and comment. It is characteristic from the teacher a teacher-
fronted classroom, where the teacher is the focus and center of attention. It is important to
create feedback between you and your students.
example:
T: Peter, is the boy happy or sad?
S: he’s happy.
T: yes, exactly, he’s happy. Very good.

There are alternative interaction patterns, ordered from the most teacher-centered to the most
student-centered:

- Teacher talk
- Choral responses
- Open-ended or close-ended teacher questioning (IRF)
- Full-class interaction
- Student initiates, teacher answers
- Individual work
- Collaboration
- Group work
- Self-access.

Now, what is self-access? This is when students choose the task(s) they want to do and work on
their own. The tasks can be on a printed handout or on the computer
 Open-ended questions have many possible answers.
They tend to promote authentic communication (Genuine questions) Close-ended questions
only have one correct answer.
They normally require short responses. They are not authentic communication. (Display
questions).

IMPORTANT NOTE: Note the distinction between collaboration and group work:
o Collaboration: students work in pairs or small groups (i.e., they collaborate) to complete a
task.
o Group work: students work in pairs or small groups on interaction-based tasks (as in the case
of speaking activities where they need to exchange information). The tasks require interaction.

Types of questions

• Length of expected response: Eliciting short or long responses?

• Number of expected :Close-ended or open-ended questions?
• Genuine or display questions?
- Some notes on the distinction between GQ and DQ:
GQ: promote authentic communication. The teacher really wants to find out the answer.
They are normally open-ended. e.g., what would you like to do after high school?
DQ: are not authentic communication. They ask students to demonstrate knowledge (i.e.,
they are used to check if students know the answer). They are normally closed-ended and
require short responses. E.g., what is the past tense of take? Taked or took?

• Requiring lower-order thinking (simple recall or basic information) or higher-order thinking (which
implies: analyzing, comparing, and evaluating)? Blooms taxonomy

2.4 Homework. (BASED ON UR, 2012: 55-58)

The role of homework

With younger students, homework should be used as reinforcement of what has been done in class,
where more learning takes place. ´

For example, finishing tasks they haven’t finished in class or re-reading a text which they have already
read in class.

The older the students are, the more important homework becomes, as it helps them to continue
learning outside the class and to foster their autonomy as learners. For example: essay writing,
recommended readings, projects, or creative assignments.

Types of homework tasks:

o Routine review (grammar exercises, learning a list of vocabulary…)

o Previews and preparation for the next lesson (reading a text, finding information…)

o Creative assignments (creating questions for an exercise…)

o Preparing presentations to give in class.

o Projects (usually culminating in oral presentations or posters displayed in the classroom).

The role of homework

• With younger students (especially children), homework should be used as reinforcement of what has
been done in class, where most learning takes place

• For example, – Finishing tasks they haven’t finished in class – Re-reading a text (which they have
already read in class)

• The older the students, the more important homework becomes as it helps to continue learning
outside the class and to foster their autonomy as learners.

• For example:

– Essay writing

– Recommended readings

– Projects (either individual or in group)

– Creative assignments

Making homework work

• Take time to explain and give clear instructions.

• Say why. • Make homework a component of the grade.

• Limit homework by time rather than quantity.

• Provide extras or optional homework assignments.

• Give feedback on homework tasks.

Some strategies:

- correcting at home (if the group is big, you can take some assignments each week = selective checking)
- providing feedback or the right answers on the board, through the virtual platform or via email.