Finishing the lesson Any lesson is only as long as the school timetable allows. When planning, teachers obviously have to consider the amount of time that they have with the class and stage their lessons accordingly. A longer lesson may have more than one teaching sequence. Shorter lessons may not, for example, contain a study stage, but may follow on from the study stage of a previous lesson. But one thing is sure, every lesson does have to finish and a good ending of a lesson is as important as a good start. It is important when ending a lesson that the students have some sense of achievement. Some teachers like to give a recap of the subject of the day, highlighting again the main points - directly or through elicitation. This is a good way to consolidate the language point and give the students a clear sense of what they have accomplished. It is also common for teachers to finish the session with activities similar to warmers. The aim here is not to warm up the students but to round of f the lesson with an enjoya ble game or activity. As with warmer s, the activity may or may not be connected with the focus of the lesson.
Summary Our aim here has been to demonstrate the importance of planning and preparation and the considerations that guide it. Teachers need to plan so that their teaching can be efficient and professional. The elements that need to be considered when planing are summarised here: Background
• •
Have clear aims - realistic and appropriate for your class. Know your subject - if it’s a grammar point, make sure you understand how that language is used and formed - if it’s vocabulary, check pronunciation and spelling and so on.
•
Know your students - base your materials and activities around the needs and character of your group.
•
Know your school - what room are you in? - this may influence what kind of activity you can do. What materials and equipment can you use? What is the syllabus of the course? - and so on.
•
Involve the students in the process - try to give them as much time using the language as possible. Personalise language work so they can use English for describing their own lives. Elicit where possible, don’t ‘lecture’.
• •
Variety - keeps the students moti vated and engaged.
In class
Engage, Study, Activate - three key planning considerations for effecti ve teaching and learning.
To demonstrate these principles in action, we took the example of a teaching sequence based around a language point and planned a sequence as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Warmer Lead-in Language presentation Controlled practice
5. Freer practice 6. Feedback
To engage and activate. To establish a context for the target language. To show the students a model of the target language and establish its concept. To allow the students to become familiar with the concept and form of the target language. To allow students to activate their English. For reinforcement, consolidation and correction.
This is a basic model for teaching a grammar point. There are other elements to lessons which we haven’t considered here such as homework and revision, for example, and there are, of course, many other kinds of lesson. However, in this section we have highlighted the overall principles of planning which can be applied to most lessons and teaching situations.
