EFFECTIVE LESSON PLANNING, DELIVERY TECHNIQUES

AND CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT SUGGESTIONS

Good lesson planning is essential to the process of teaching and learning. A teacher who is prepared is well on his/her way to a successful instructional experience. The development of interesting lessons takes a great deal of time and effort. As a new teacher you must be committed to spending the necessary time in this endeavour.

It is also important to realize that the best planned lesson is worthless if interesting delivery procedures, along with good classroom management techniques, are not in evidence. There is a large body of research available pertaining to lesson development and delivery and the significance of classroom management. They are skills that must be researched, structured to your individual style, implemented in a teacher/learning situation, and constantly evaluated and revamped when necessary. Consistency is of the utmost importance in the implementation of a classroom management plan.

All teachers should understand that they are not an island unto themselves. The educational philosophy of the district and the uniqueness of their schools should be the guiding force behind what takes place in the classroom. The school’s code of discipline, which should be fair, responsible and meaningful, must be reflected in every teacher’s classroom management efforts.

SUGGESTED PRACTICES

Establish a positive classroom environment

Make the classroom a pleasant, friendly place

Accept individual differences

Learning activities should be cooperative and supportive

Create a non-threatening learning environment

Organize physical space; eliminate situations that my be dangerous or disruptive

Establish classroom rules and procedures and consistently reinforce them

Begin lessons by giving clear instructions

State desired quality of work

Have students paraphrase directions

Ensure that everyone is paying attention

Ensure that all distractions have been removed

Describe expectations, activities and evaluation procedures

Start with a highly motivating activity

Build lesson upon prior student knowledge

Maintain student attention

Use random selection in calling upon students

Vary who you call on and how you call on them

Ask questions before calling on a student; wait at least five seconds for a response

Be animated; show enthusiasm and interest

Reinforce student efforts with praise

Vary instructional methods

Provide work of appropriate difficulty

Demonstrate and model the types of responses or tasks you want students to perform

Provide guided practice for students; monitor responses and deliver immediate corrective feedback

Use appropriate pacing

Be aware of your teaching tempo

Watch for cues that children are becoming confused, bored or restless; sometimes lesson have to be shortened

Provide suitable seatwork

Seatwork should be diagnostic and prescriptive

Develop procedures for seeking assistance; have a “help” signal

Develop procedures for what to do when finished

Move around to monitor seatwork

Vary methods of practice

Evaluate what has taken place in your lesson

Summarize the lesson and focus on positive gains made by students; use surprise reinforcers as a direct result of their good behavior

Determine if the lesson was successful; were goals accomplished?

Make a smooth transition into next subject

Have materials ready for next lesson

Maintain attention of students until you have given clear instructions for the next activity

Do not do tasks that can be done by students (i.e. passing out paper or collecting assignments); use monitors

Move around and attend to individual needs

Provide simple, step-by-step instructions

Utilize a freeze and listen signal, when necessary

Develop positive teacher/student relationships

Set a good example; be a positive role model

Create an exciting learning environment for all students

Reward good behavior; create special activities that children will enjoy doing

Correct misbehaviors; have consequences of disruptive behavior; communicate them to children

Handling disruptions

Keep is short and simple (KISS)

Use a warning system

Defer disruptive behavior proactively (eye contact, close space between you and student, use head/hand gestures)

Help students be successful

Use planned ignoring (and teach other student to also ignore)

 As we know set induction is the important part that teacher always do at the beginning of teaching and learning process .The objective of set induction is to induce the pupils to attract them and make them concentrate their attention towards teacher's presentation.

focusing attention on what is to be learned by gaining students'' interest transition from old to new materials - relating back to previous learning to provide a structure for the lesson - telling them what is expected to give meaning to a new concept or principle - for instance by giving examples.

The skill of set induction will come in time - and as with so many aspects of teaching, it links with planning.  You need to plan your set induction, as part of lesson

Five Common Mistakes in Writing Lesson Plans

(and how to avoid them )

by Dr. Bob Kizlik

Successful teachers are invariably good planners and thinkers. They didn't get that way overnight. The road to success requires commitment and practice, especially of those skills involved in planning lessons, activities, and managing classroom behavior. Planning lessons is a fundamental skill all teachers must develop and hone, although implementation of this skill in actual teaching can, and usually does, take some time. So let's begin at the beginning.

In my career as a teacher and teacher educator, I have read and evaluated thousands of lesson plans written by education students at all levels. On a consistent basis, I see mistakes that distort or weaken what the plans are supposed to communicate. If you are serious about improving your skill in planning lessons, you should begin by first thinking carefully about what the lesson is supposed to accomplish. There is no substitute for this. In teaching students how to develop lesson plans, the following are mistakes I have observed that students make most often:

1. The objective of the lesson does not specify what the student will actually do that can be observed. Remember, an objective is a description of what a student does that forms the basis for making an inference about learning. Poorly written objectives lead to faulty inferences.

2. The lesson assessment is disconnected from the behavior indicated in the objective. An assessment in a lesson plan is simply a description of how the teacher will determine whether the objective has been accomplished. It must be based on the same behavior that is incorporated in the objective. Anything else is flawed.

3. The materials specified in the lesson are extraneous to the actual described learning activities. This means keep the list of materials in line with what you actually plan to do. Overkilling with materials is not a virtue!

4. The instruction in which the teacher will engage is not efficient for the level of intended student learning. Efficiency is a measure that means getting more done with the same amount of effort, or the same amount with less effort. With so much to be learned, it should be obvious that instructional efficiency is paramount.

5. The student activities described in the lesson plan do not contribute in a direct and effective way to the lesson objective. Don't have your students engaged in activities just to keep them busy. Whatever you have your students do should contribute in a direct way to their accomplishing the lesson objective.

A lesson plan that contains one or more of these mistakes needs rethinking and revision. Below is a rationale and guide to help you develop effective lesson plans and avoid the five common mistakes.

First, You Must Know How to Plan

The purpose of a lesson plan is really quite simple; it is to communicate. But, you might ask, communicate to whom? The answer to this question, on a practical basis, is YOU! The lesson plans you develop are to guide you in organizing your material and yourself for the purpose of helping your students achieve intended learning outcomes. Whether a lesson plan fits a particular format is not as relevant as whether or not it actually describes what you want, and what you have determined is the best means to an end. If you write a lesson plan that can be interpreted or implemented in many different ways, it is probably not a very good plan. This leads one to conclude that a key principle in creating a lesson plan is specificity. It is sort of like saying, "almost any series of connecting roads will take you from Key West Florida to Anchorage Alaska, eventually." There is however, one any only one set of connecting roads that represents the shortest and best route. Best means that, for example, getting to Anchorage by using an unreliable car is a different problem than getting there using a brand new car. What process one uses to get to a destination depends on available resources and time.

So, if you agree that the purpose of a lesson plan is to communicate, then, in order to accomplish that purpose, the plan must contain a set of elements that are descriptive of the process. Let's look at what those elements should be.

THE LESSON PLAN

1. Preliminary Information

The development of a lesson plan begins somewhere, and a good place to start is with a list or description of general information about the plan. This information sets the boundaries or limits of the plan. Here is a good list of these information items: (a) the grade level of the students for whom the plan is intended; (b) the specific subject matter (mathematics, reading, language arts, science, social studies, etc.); (c) if appropriate, the name of the unit of which the lesson is a part; and (d) the name of the teacher.

2. The Parts

Each part of a lesson plan should fulfill some purpose in communicating the specific content, the objective, the learning prerequisites, what will happen, the sequence of student and teacher activities, the materials required, and the actual assessment procedures. Taken together, these parts constitute an end (the objective), the means (what will happen and the student and teacher activities), and an input (information about students and necessary resources). At the conclusion of a lesson, the assessment tells the teacher how well students actually attained the objective.

In a diagram, the process looks something like this:

Input ======>process=====>output

Let's look at each part separately.

Input: This part refers to the physical materials, other resources, and information that will be required by the process. What are these inputs? First of all, if you have thought about what the lesson is supposed to

accomplish, the inputs are much easier to describe. In general categories, inputs consist of:

1. Information about the students for whom the lesson is intended. This information includes, but is not limited to the age and grade level of the students, and what they already know about what you want them to learn.

2. Information about the amount of time you estimate it will take to implement the lesson.

3. Descriptions of the materials that will be required by the lesson, and at some point, the actual possession of the materials.

4. Information about how you will acquire the physical materials required.

5. Information about how to obtain any special permissions and schedules required. For example if your lesson plan will require a field trip, you must know how to organize it. If your lesson will require a guest speaker (fire chief, lawyer, police officer, etc.) you must know how to make arrangements for having that person be at the right place at the right time.

Process

This is the actual plan. If you have done the preliminary work (thinking, describing the inputs), creating the plan is relatively easy. There are a number of questions you must answer in the creating the plan:

1. What are the inputs? This means you have the information (content description, student characteristics, list of materials, prerequisites, time estimates, etc.) necessary to begin the plan.

2. What is the output? This means a description of what the students are supposed to learn.

3. What do I do? This means a description of the instructional activities you will use.

4. What do the students do? This means a description of what the students will do during the lesson.

5. How will the learning be measured? This means a description of the assessment procedure at the end of the lesson. For a short discourse on how to write an assessment, click here .

As an example, here is a template that I have used successfully to tea

in my classroom, I am constantly amazed by how a thoroughly planned lesson can often fall flat, while sometimes when I'm "flying by the seat of my pants," I can stumble upon magical teaching moments that really speak to and excite my students.

But, what exactly do the best lesson plans look like? What do they feel like to the students and to us? More concisely, what characteristics must a lesson plan contain in order to reach maximum effectiveness?

The following ingredients are essential to delivering effective lessons. You can even use this as a checklist when you plan your days. This basic formula makes sense whether you are teaching kindergarten, middle school, or even junior college.

State the Lesson Objective - Make sure that you know exactly why you are teaching this lesson. Does it correspond to a state or district academic standard? What do you need the students to know after the lesson is completed? After you're perfectly clear on the goal of the lesson, explain it in "kid-friendly" terms so that the kids will know where they're headed as well.

Teach and Model Behavior Expectations - Set out on a successful path by explaining and modeling how the students should behave as they participate in the lesson. For example, if the kids are using materials for the lesson, show the kids how to use them properly and tell them the consequences for misuse of the materials. Don't forget to follow through!

Use Active Student Engagement Strategies - Don't let the students sit there bored while you "do" your lesson. As I recently heard at a conference, the person who does the work, does the learning. Get your students engaged with hands-on activities that enhance your lesson's objective. Use whiteboards, small group discussion, or call randomly on students by pulling cards or sticks. Keep the

students on their toes with their minds moving and you'll be many steps closer to meeting and exceeding your lesson's goal.

Scan Peripheral Students and Move Around the Room - While the students apply their new skills, don't just sit back and take it easy. Now's the time to scan the room, move around, and make sure everyone's doing what their supposed to be doing. You'll may be able to limit your special attention to "those" kids who always need to be reminded to stay on task. You know who I'm talking about! Answer questions, give gentle reminders, and make sure the lesson's going how you envisioned it would.

Give Specific Compliments for Positive Behavior - Be obvious and specific in your compliments when you see a student following directions or going the extra mile. Make sure the other students understand why you are pleased and they will increase their efforts to meet your expectations.

Question Students to Develop Critical Thinking Skills - Ask Why, How, If, and What Else questions to strengthen student comprehension of the issues or skills at hand. Use Bloom's Taxonomy as a basis for your questioning and watch your students meet the objectives you set out at the beginning of the lesson.

Use the preceding points as a checklist to make sure you are planning your lessons in the most effective way possible. After the lesson, take a few minutes to consider what worked and what didn't. This type of reflection is invaluable in helping you develop as an educator. So many teachers forget to do this. But, if you make it a habit as much as possible, you'll avoid making the same mistakes next time and you'll know what you can do better in the future!

This information is based on the work of several experienced teachers who know what it takes to help students learn to their fullest potentials. Special thanks to Mary Ann Harper for allowing me to adapt this piece and offer it to my audience here at About.

Some songs are active but include a lot of new language. In this case, you may want to "pre-teach"

some of the vocabulary. For example, if you are going to sing "The Pinocchio," you can introduce

the parts of the body before you sing the song. This is as simple as saying, "Everybody show me

your right arm" and holding up your right arm as the students follow you. Have them say, "Right

arm!" Next say, "Everybody show me your left arm!" Continue through all of the parts of the body in

the song and then "quiz" the students. "Right arm!" (students hold up their right arms). "Right leg!"

(Students hold up their right legs).

After reviewing the body parts, say, "Make a big circle!" Then play the music and do the gestures!

It's easy to follow and there is a lot of repetition, so even if the students don't follow at first, they will

definitely catch on by the end (and will be asking you to sing it again the next class!)

You can also use picture cards to introduce new vocabulary. We have free flashcards for almost

every song onSuper Simple Songs 1, 2 and 3 and our Themes Series has printable flashcards

included with each CD. When using picture cards, try to teach a gesture along with each word.

Remember that with very young learners (4 years and younger), they enjoy the familiarity of hearing

a song over and over. You can use their favorites almost every week. If you are using a song

frequently, understand that there is no need for them to sing right away...let them become

comfortable with it and sing when they are ready (they will!).

As the kids grow older, you don't want to repeat songs as much. Students will still have their

favorites that they like to sing, but you won't be repeating songs every week like you do with the

younger learners. In this case, you'll need to build more exposure to the song into one or two

lessons, and then go back to it every once in a while for review. Here are more thoughts

on teaching songs to elementary school students from Devon.

INTRODUCTION & PRESENTATION

Introduction and presentation go together because the introduction usually leads right into the presentation phase of the lesson. They are still separate parts, however, because they accomplish different purposes.

The INTRODUCTION provides interest and motivation to the students. It focuses students' attention on the lesson and its purposes. It also convinces students that they will benefit from the lesson.

There are many ways to present an introduction. Here are a few:

Asking questions to get the students thinking about the topic of the lesson.

Showing pictures that relate to the lesson topic. Telling a story to show the importance of the topic. Bringing in "realia" (real objects) related to the lesson.

The PRESENTATION phase of the lesson is when the teacher introduces new information. The teacher guides the presentation, but there may be student input or interaction.

The presentation may be...

Inductive (where examples are presented and the students draw conclusions based on them), orDeductive (where the teacher states a rule or generalization and proceeds to explain or illustrate it), or

Some combination or variation of inductive and/or deductive. Whichever method is used, during the presentation phase, the teacher…

Relates the new material to students' previous knowledge and experiences, Checks students' comprehension, and Models examples of the tasks that will be expected of students during the

practice phase of the lesson.

Above all, when teaching English to people whose English skills are limited, it is essential to ensure that students understand the presentation by...

Keeping the language simple, Illustrating the presentation, and Checking students' comprehension periodically.

Keep the language of your presentation understandable by…

Using short, uncomplicated sentences (but don't resort to "Tarzan talk")

Using simple, basic vocabulary, Speaking slowly and distinctly (without exaggerating, of

course), and... Pausing briefly between sentences.

You will have to be sensitive to your particular students (watch their faces, ask them for feedback, check their actual comprehension) in order to adjust all these factors to the right level for them.

Illustrate your presentation with…

pictures (borrowed from a library, clipped from old magazines, drawn on paper or the chalkboard, etc.)

realia (objects from the real world, e.g., real carrots and potatoes for a lesson on the names of vegetables)

gestures (pantomime, make dramatic faces, etc. as you speak), and anything else that helps make the meaning clear.

And perhaps most important of all…

When checking students comprehension, it is not enough to ask, "Do you understand?" They will usually nod their heads or say, "Yes," even when they are lost. Have them do something to show that they understand.

For example, here is what an ESL teacher might say during the presentation stage of a lesson on the pronunciation of /s/ and /z/:

Before going on, review what you have learned in this section by writing down some of the methods, purposes and techniques common to good introductions and presentations in effective ESL lessons.

Practice is an absolutely crucial part of almost any ESL lesson.

Our purpose in language teaching is almost always to build students' skills. When they are communicating in English, they will need to use English grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation accurately and fluently, but they will have to focus on what they are saying, not how to say it.

Therefore, if they are to communicate successfully, their language skills must be developed to the point where they can use them naturally and automatically, without even thinking very much about them. That takes plenty of practice!

Building skills is very different from teaching content. For example, if you were teaching history, you would probably teach content. You would teach your students about history. You would expect them to understand history, but you wouldn't usually expect them to go out and make history.

In contrast, you do expect your ESL students to go out of class and use English. That's the whole purpose of the class. They need to communicate. If they are to do that, you must build their communication skills in class, and that takes practice.

To summarize, don't confuse skill teaching and content teaching and merely teach your students about English. Give them plenty of opportunities (in and out of class) to practice their English skills.

This practice should take many forms. For one thing, it needs to be varied just to keep students' interest high. Too much of the same kind of practice can be boring and reduce their motivation and enthusiasm.

This practice also typically follows some sort of progression. One type of progression goes from guided practice (where the teacher controls the students' responses) to free (where the students choose and create what they want to say). Another type of progression is based on a classification of language learning activities in three categories:

Mechanical Meaningful Communicative

MECHANICAL practice activities are teacher controlled. Students merely follow instructions or a model. An example is a repetition drill. Mechanical practice activities are good for some purposes (e.g., teaching accurate pronunciation). However, they quickly become boring, and they cannot be used at all for developing many other language skills.

That's why we need other types.

MEANINGFUL practice activities may also be teacher controlled, but the students are aware of the meaning of what they are saying. That also allows them to have some control over what they say.

In COMMUNICATIVE practice activities students choose the language they will use and the meanings they will express. (These choices are usually based on knowledge and skills gained in earlier presentation and practice activities.)

Quotable Quote

'Group work is problem solving in groups. it's socialising in groups, it's discovering and educating one

another. It's education. I dunno . It's difficult to describe . It's a whole combination.'

Simon Turner, Hcienertsburg, 4pril 1998

TESL

about group work

about group work

introduction

• ‘Group work’ refers to any classroom activity in which the whole class is divided up into pairs or larger groups. The specific advantages and difficulties of pair work are discussed in 'about pair work.' The comments here are concerned with the advantages and difficulties of working with ‘groups’ of any size.

• Group work has a well-established place in the theory and practice of language teaching. Still, many teachers and many students seem to be unenthusiastic about it. Teachers, I suspect, often have misgivings because working with groups means loosening control of the students. This is not an easy thing for a teacher to do: There is a natural tendency — at all times and in all places I imagine — for teachers to feel they must always be clearly in command of their class. And there is a connected tendency for teachers to fear the consequences of giving up even a small part of their authority.

• Students, on the other hand, often find group work unappealing because they it puts them under pressure to act. As long as the classroom is teacher centered, students can remain passive. In groups, they are expected to speak , to understand, and to think. They are also expected to be amiable and cooperative.

• It would be extremely unfortunate, however, if, because of these natural misgivings, teachers and students missed out on the benefits of group work. In what follows, I’ll say something, first, about what the benefits of group work are — and then something about the difficulties it presents and how they can be alleviated.

the benefits of group work

• The primary benefit of group work is that it provides practice in speaking and listening. These skills will never develop fully without a large amount of practice, and, outside the classroom, most ESL students — even those studying in English-speaking countries — get very little.

• Of course, there are ways of practicing listening and speaking that do not involve dividing a class into groups, but none of them are likely to provide practice that is as engaging or intense, as a good group-work activity can be — or to offer an experience that resembles real-world communication as closely.

• The great, general difficulty with group work is that it requires enthusiasm and cooperation. No doubt, one reason ESL teachers sometimes avoid group work is because they realize this and they also realize that unlike silence and orderliness, enthusiasm and cooperation cannot be demanded.

• However, even though these things cannot be commanded, they can be fostered. And — because it requires them — group work does foster enthusiasm and cooperation. In fact its secondary purpose is, it seems to me, is to encourage an enthusiastic and cooperative classroom ambience, and one that is therefore also freer and more relaxed — and more conducive to learning.

• This potential for improving the ‘feel’ of a class is something that should be kept in mind by teachers who are reluctant to do group work. It is natural for a teachers to feel a need to keep control of a class, but it is also natural, it seems to me, for teachers, to feel oppressed by the need to put large amounts of effort into controlling students. In addition to its other virtues group work offers teachers a way of relieving themselves of some of the hard, unpleasant work of control.

• Despite its great advantages, in addition to the general, ‘theoretical’ difficulties just discussed. group work does present several other ‘practical’ difficulties They can all be alleviated, but none of them can be eliminated entirely. The best attitude to take toward them, it seems to me, is to acknowledge their inevitability, to do whatever is possible to reduce their bad effects — and beyond that, to accept them. However difficult it may be to get groups working properly in the language classroom it is always, I believe, well worth the effort required to do so.

The four major problems with group work are briefly discussed below and suggestions are made as to how they can be alleviated.

(1) native language speaking

• Even in a highly multi-lingual class where just a few students share the same language, group activities may be subverted by students who insist on speaking their native language. This can be an occasional problem even in a highly multi-lingual class. In a unilingual or nearly unilingual class, it can be a constant, and very frustrating one. It cannot be eliminated; but it can be greatly reduced by a combination of persuasion and logical argument.

• One way of making a simple but powerful argument against native language speaking is by asking offenders a couple of questions: “You’re here to learn English aren’t you? How is speaking your own language going to improve your English.? “

• ‘Demonstrations’ with two or three students doing a brief activity, entirely in English, in front of the class can help. Part of the problem, after all, is that students feel there is something silly or even absurd in speaking to each other in English when it is so much easier and so much more pleasant to use their native language. If they see classmates doing this effectively, they may change their minds.

• The most important thing from the teacher’s point of view is to be patient and to remember that the problem cannot really be solved until the class as a whole accepts the idea of working with each other in English — but that if that acceptance comes, the problem can disappear in a moment.

(In a highly-multilingual class this problem can be more or less ‘solved’ by putting students in groups in which everyone has a different native language, but doing that makes it difficult to maintain ‘group fluidity’ — in other words, to ensure that the make-up of the groups changes from one session to another. Sacrificing group fluidity in order to prevent native-language speaking may

sometimes be a good idea — but it is a high price to pay for a solution. The importance of group fluidity is discussed further in (4) below.)

(2) students objecting to speaking to other students because their English is not good

• Some students object that language practice with other students who have a strong accent and who make grammatical errors is valueless, and that it may even be damaging. They apparently fear they will inevitably, even if unconsciously, imitate the imperfect speech of other group members. They only want to listen to a ‘model’ with accurate grammar and good pronunciation — the teacher, in other words.

• This is not a completely unreasonable objection and it is important for teachers to have something convincing to say in reply.

• The objection is reasonable at first glance because it seems to amount to this: “Nothing is to be learned and something is quite possibly to be lost byy speaking to someone whose English is no better — and perhaps worse — than yours.”

The best response to the objection is, I think, the following:

- the other students in your group aren’t teaching you, they’re providing you with an opportunity to practice your English

- There is, it is true, always a small possibility that you will be misled about the correct pronunciation of a word, or the correct way to form a grammatical structure, by another member of your group, but there is at least as great a possibility that you will learn something about pronunciation and grammar from listening to the other students in your group, even to those whose English isn’t, generally speaking as good as yours.

- Moreover, when you are actually using language for practical communication with another person — as you are in group work — you will inevitably be frustrated by the fact that you have difficulty in being understood. And you will naturally struggle to overcome this difficulty by improving your pronunciation

and your grammar. In doing this you are much more likely to be influenced by your memories of the English you have heard spoken by your teacher and other good ‘models’ than by the English of the other people in your group

- Finally, even if the danger of being misinformed by follow group members was greater than it is, there would still good reasons for group work. Practice is essential: learning a language is not simply a matter of coming to know things about the language; it’s also a matter of getting your tongue and your brain, and your ears used to working with the language and the only way you’re going to get that practice in class is by talking to your fellow students.

It is also, it seems important for a teacher who is faced with this sort of objection to remember that although it is not completely unreasonable, it is likely to come from students who are troubled by a teaching method that radically different from the one they are used to. And that fact suggests that, once again, patience and subtle persuasion will be an important part of any solution.

(3) domination

Groups of all kinds tend to be dominated by one or two of their members — and the result is always a group that is less productive than it could be. Domination is particularly damaging in a group of language learners, however, because the whole purpose of this kind of group is to practice speaking: Group members who do not speak can gain nothing at all; they are wasting their time.

Here again, the best way of alleviating the problem is with a mixture of logic and persuasion.

The best argument, it seems to me, is to appeal to the conscience of the ‘dominators.’ They should be made to see that by discouraging others from speaking, they are depriving them of one of the things they came to the class to get — speaking practice. And it should be pointed out, in addition, that the students who are being dominated are likely to be the shier, less confident ones — and therefore the ones who need practice most. It’s also possible to appeal to the pride of the dominators, and their natural desire for status among their classmates, by suggesting that they try to make their group more productive by actively encouraging the quieter, more passive students to participate.

As with other types of damaging group behaviour, the best way to persuade students to put good advice into practice, is to walk from group to group gently reminding or reproaching when necessary. (It is important, I believe, not the

actually join any of the groups or even to stand beside one for too long a time because this will have an inhibiting effect.)

(4) animosities

Sometimes, of course, a student in a language classroom will come to dislike another student. In a wholly teacher-centered class these animosities usually go unnoticed, but they can be a serious obstacle to group work. Occasionally, one student will simply refuse to work cooperatively with another student, forcing the teacher to move him or her to another group.

Like domination, animosity is a natural social tendency. But — again like domination — it is even more damaging in a language-learning group than it is in groups of other sorts: even if it is kept under control, it will create an atmosphere that is not conducive to learning. And, as with domination once again, it is the students who most need language practice who will be most severely affected. Even if the animosity is not directed toward them, they will be inhibited by it.

However, although animosities, can stand in the way of effective group work, the work itself can have the effect of reducing animosity. A frequent result of getting two people who dislike each other to work with each other is to persuade them that they do not dislike each other as much as they thought they did.

The conciliatory power of group work is even greater, I believe, if groups are kept ‘fluid’ — in other words, if their make-up always changes from one session to next. If group fluidity is scrupulously maintained, students know that, if they have to work with someone they don’t like one day, the next day they will probably be free of that person; and it is easier to make the effort to get along with someone temporarily than it is to accept the necessity of getting along with them for a long time.

The only way to ensure group fluidity is by creating randomly selected groups. It is possible for a teacher to create such groups at the beginning of every session. But this can become a time-consuming nuisance — and it is difficult to ensure that the results will be truly random: there will always be a temptation to avoid groupings that seem to be unfortunate for one reason or another. An ‘automatic’ method of some kind seems preferable.

The easiest method is to assign each student a permanent number, and then to create groups by choosing the numbers ‘blindly’ in some way at the beginning of each session — pulling numbered cubes or even numbered slips of paper — out of bag or box for example.

It is also possible to turn random selection of groups into a brief but useful whole-group conversation activity by cutting up an appropriate number of photographs into an appropriate number of pieces, distributing one piece to each of the students and asking them to circulate, find the other people with parts of the same photo and form a group.

To involve students in their own learning, to make course topics come alive, to deepen students’ knowledge about a topic, and to develop particular skills, try assigning tasks to small groups during your class time

Teaching Discussion Sections

Group Work

Group work is one pedagogical strategy that promotes participation and interaction. It fosters a deeper and more active learning process, and it also provides instructors with valuable demonstrations of the degree to which students understand particular topics or concepts. In addition to exposing students to different approaches and ways of thinking, working with other students in groups can promote a sense of belonging that combats the anonymity and isolation that many students experience at a large campus. Some students may initially be reluctant to participate in group work, so sharing the reasons for group work with your students can help to convince the reluctant ones. It might help them to know that research has shown that groups frequently devise more and better solutions than the most advanced individual (Barkley et al., 2004; Cooper et al., 2003). Working together in groups also gives students the opportunity to learn from and teach each other. Classroom research has shown that students often learn better from each other than they do from a teacher (Barkley et al. 2005, 16–20).

From a practical standpoint, group work also fosters interpersonal skills highly valued by employers, not to mention friends, neighbors, and family.

For instructors, group work can save some preparation time. Although preparing for effective group work does take some planning, it is less time-consuming than preparing a lecture.

It is not difficult to incorporate group activities into your lesson plan, but there are some general rules of thumb about structuring group work so that it has useful outcomes for students. Below are some basic guidelines to consider when designing a group activity, along with several kinds of group work learning techniques.

Guidelines for Designing Group Work

Learning Objectives

How to Form Groups

Group Size and Duration

The Structure of Group Work

Fostering Group Interaction

Tips for Formulating Productive Group-Work Assignments

Group Work Learning Techniques

Think-Pair-Share

Structured Controversy

Paired Annotations

Roundtable

Three-Step Interview

Think-Aloud Paired Problem Solving

Think-Pair-Square

Peer Editing

Reciprocal Peer Questioning

References for Group Work Techniques

Guidelines for Designing Group Work

Learning Objectives

There are many learning objectives that can be achieved by having students collaborate either in pairs or in small groups. (Bloom’s Taxonomy is a useful resource for formulating your learning objectives.) In groups, students can

summarize main points

review problems for exams

compare and contrast knowledge, ideas, or theories

solve problems

evaluate class progress or levels of skill and understanding

Think about your goals for the activity: what do you want your students to get out of their participation?

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How to Form Groups

Small groups or learning teams can be formed in four ways: randomly, teacher-selected, by seat proximity, or student-selected. Random and teacher-selected group assignments avoid cliques and ensure that students interact with different classmates throughout the semester.

Once you know your students fairly well, teacher selection can be useful for grouping students. Consider selecting groups or pairs with varying strengths and skill levels, since research has shown that groups of problem solvers with diverse skills consistently out-perform groups of problem solvers who are highly skilled in the same way (Page, 2007, cited in Davis, 2009, p. 194).

You may also want to consider using your students’ attitudes toward group work as a mechanism to help you create groups. Take a one-question survey, or add this question to the initial survey you use at the beginning of the semester:

Which of the following best describes your experience of group work?

I like group work because my group helps me learn.

I question the value of group work because in the past I've ended up doing all the work.

I have little or no experience working in groups.

I have different experience of group work than the choices above. (Please explain.)

Those who check “B” can be put into a group of their own. They might find this to be the first time they are really challenged and satisfied by group work (adapted from Byrnes and Byrnes, 2009).

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Group Size and Duration

Group size can vary, as can the length of time that students work together. Pairing is great for thirty-second or one-minute problem solving. Groups that work together for ten to 45 minutes might be four or five people. (If there are more than four or five, some members will stop participating). Groups can be formal or informal. Informal groups may be ad-hoc dyads (where each student turns to a neighbor) or ten-minute “buzz groups” (in which three to four students discuss their reactions to a reading assignment). Formal group assignments can serve semester-long group projects.

In large groups it is useful to assign roles within each group (examples: recorder, reporter to the class, timekeeper, monitor, or facilitator). If students are not used to working in groups, establishing some discussion guidelines with the class about respectful interaction before the first activity can foster positive and constructive communication.

It is useful to arrange the students in groups before giving them instructions for the group activity, since the physical movement in group formation tends to be distracting.

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The Structure of Group Work

Successful group work activities require a highly structured task. Make this task clear to students by writing specific instructions on the board or on a worksheet. Include in your instructions:

The learning objective. Why are the students doing this? What will they gain from it? How does it tie into the rest of the course?

The specific task: “Decide,” “List,” “Prioritize,” “Solve,” “Choose.” (“Discuss” is too vague.)

Structure the task to promote interdependence for creating a group product. Create an activity for which it is truly advantageous for students to work together.

The expected product: for example, reporting back to the class; handing in a sheet of paper; distributing a list of questions to the class.

The time allotment. Set a time limit. Err on the side of too little rather than too much. You can decide to give more time if necessary.

The method of reporting out; that is, of sharing group results with the class. Reporting out is useful for accomplishing closure

Closure, which is critical to the learning process. Students need to feel that the group-work activity added to their knowledge, skills, abilities, etc. Summary remarks from you can weave in the comments, products, and ideas of the students in their small groups is also an effective way to close a group-work activity.

If your group work consists of a set of short problems for students to work through, as often happens in science and mathematics courses, there are many ways to structure the activity. Here are a few ideas, with some advantages and disadvantages:

You can give the whole class a single problem, break into groups to solve it, and then come back as a class and discuss the problem, either by having groups report out or by leading the discussion yourself. Then repeat.

Advantages: You know everyone is exposed to the correct way of thinking about things, so there is good closure for each problem.

Disadvantages: Potentially too much idle time for faster groups. This method can be very slow, so less material can be covered.

You can give each group a different problem, and have the groups report back to the class to walk through the solutions.

Advantages: Students get some practice teaching as well as good exposure to problems and solutions.

Disadvantages: Students don’t get to practice as much problem solving.

You can give each group a different problem, have them solve it, and then have these groups split up and re-form in such a way that each new group has someone experienced with each of the problems. Then they can explain the solutions to each other.

Advantages: Students get a lot of practice explaining, as well as good exposure to problems.

Disadvantage: Students don’t get to practice on many different problems.

You can give the whole class a set of problems and discuss the set of problems with each group.

Advantages: Students work through more problems without significant idle time. You can address difficulties specific to each group.

Disadvantages: You may end up repeating yourself a lot. You also may be spread too thin, especially if several groups are stuck at the same time. If this happens, call the class back together when you find that all the groups are having difficulties at the same place.

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Fostering Group Interaction

During group work, as tempting as it may be, do not disengage from your class and sit at the front of the room! Circulate and listen to your students. Are they on task, or are they talking about their weekend plans? Are students understanding the concepts and the assignment, or are they all stuck and confused? Do they have questions for you? Pull up a chair and join each group for a while.

On implementing group work for the first time in their section, some GSIs find that the students fall awkwardly silent when the GSI walks by or listens to their discussion. This is only temporary, and it should stop once your students are familiar with you and the group-work format. Because unfamiliarity drives this reaction, it is good to implement group work very early in the semester and to use it often in your section.

When a student in a group asks you a question, the natural reflex is to answer it. That’s your job, isn’t it? Well, not exactly — it’s lower on the list than empowering students to find answers to the questions they ask. Frequently a student asking a question hasn’t discussed it with the group yet and is not aware that members of the group either know the answer or have enough information to figure it out together. So, especially early on when your class is forming group-work habits, it is important not to answer questions — at least not at first. Instead, ask the other group members how they would approach the question. If no one in the group has an idea, you can either give the group a start on how to answer it, consult with a different group on the question, or answer the question yourself. (The latter is best considered a last resort.) Following this pattern will foster group interactions, and soon students will only ask you questions after they have discussed them with their group.

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Tips for Formulating Productive Group-Work Assignments

One common mistake that leads to failure in group work is that the assignment is too vague. For example, if you tell your students to “discuss” a particular concept, students may make a few vague or general comments and then turn to discussing what they did over the weekend. Instead, make sure you have concrete and descriptive assignments. For example, instead of “Discuss projectile motion,” try “Solve for the final velocity of the projectile.” Instead of “Discuss the use of technology in the classroom,” say “List the pros and cons of using clickers in the classroom.”

Ask questions that have more than one answer. (This may not work for all disciplines.)

Make the material that groups will analyze short — maybe just a short paragraph or a few sentences. Present it via handout, overhead, chalkboard, or another medium that all can easily see.

If the material is longer, give concrete lines of questioning, which you display prominently or hand out. Understand that groups often take longer with longer material than their GSI anticipates, which can produce frustration.

Vary the format of the tasks. For example, on one day students might generate the questions they want to analyze; on another students may give arguments or provide evidence for or against a position or theory, etc.

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Group Work Learning Techniques

Think-Pair-Share

The instructor poses a question. Students are given time (30 seconds or one minute) to think of a response. Each student then pairs with another and both discuss their responses to the question. The instructor invites pairs to share their responses with the class as a whole.

Structured Controversy

Divide the class into groups of four. The instructor identifies a controversial topic in the field covered in the course and gathers material that gives information and background to support different views of the controversy. Students work with one partner, forming two pairs within the group of four. Each pair takes a different side of the issue. Pairs work outside of class or in class to prepare to advocate and defend their position. The groups of four meet, and each pair takes a turn stating and arguing its position while the other pair listens and takes notes without interrupting. Each pair must have a chance both to listen and take notes and to argue their position. Then all four talk together as a group to learn all sides of the issue. Next, each pair must reverse its position and argue the opposite position from the one it argued before. Lastly the group of four as a whole discusses and synthesizes all the positions to come up with a group report. There may be a class presentation in which each group presents its findings.

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Paired Annotations

Instructor or students identify a number of significant articles on a topic. Each student individually outside of class writes a reflective commentary on one article. In class, students are randomly paired with another student who has written a commentary on the same article. The two partners read each other’s commentaries, comparing key points to their own commentary. Then the two students team-write a commentary based on a synthesis of both their papers.

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Roundtable

Students in small groups sit in a circle and respond in turn to a question or problem by stating their ideas aloud as they write them on paper. The conversation can go around the circle, each student in turn, more than once if desired. After the roundtable, students discuss and summarize the ideas generated and report back to the class.

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Three-Step Interview

This can be used an icebreaker or as a tool to generate ideas and discussion. Ask each student to find one partner they don’t know well. Make sure everyone has a partner. You can use triads if there is an uneven number of students in the class. Students interview their partner for a limited amount of time using interview questions given by the instructor. Often questions are opinion- or experience-generated: How do you use writing in your daily life? Should premed students study holistic medicine? After a set time, students switch roles so that both get a chance to be interviewed. Then, join each pair with another pair to form a group of four. Each partner in a pair introduces the partner to the other pair and summarizes the partner’s responses. Other variations on this activity are possible.

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Thinking-Aloud Paired Problem Solving

Students in pairs take turns thinking through the solution to a problem posed by the teacher. The student who is not the problem solver takes notes, and then the two students switch roles so that each student gets a chance to be both solver and note taker. Then they can go into larger teams or back to the class as a whole and report back about the solutions and the process.

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Think-Pair-Square

Same as think-pair-share except that instead of reporting back to the entire class students report back to a team or class group of four to six.

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Peer Editing

Ask students to hand in a first draft of a writing assignment. Photocopy each paper and identify it with a number instead of the student’s name. Give each student in the class an anonymous paper to edit. It is helpful to give the students verbal and written guidelines for editing criteria. After the students edit a paper, each student receives the anonymous feedback from his or her unknown peer editor. It is often useful to have a class discussion about how this process worked for everyone.

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Reciprocal Peer Questioning

The instructor assigns outside class reading on a topic. The instructor asks students to generate a list of two or three thought-provoking questions of their own on the reading. (Note that asking productive questions can be a new skill for students to learn; you may want to give some attention to this.) Students bring the questions they have generated to class. Students do not need to be able to answer the questions they generate. Students then break into teams of three to four. Each student poses her questions to the team and the team discusses the reading using the student-generated questions as a guide. The questions of each student are discussed within the team. The team may then report back to the class on some key questions and the answers they came up with.

At the GSI Teaching & Resource Center we have other material to help you plan and design group work activities. Come and visit us in 301 Sproul Hall, or send an email with your comments or questions to gsi@berkeley.edu.

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References for Group Work Techniques

This section draws on the following works:

Barkley, E., et al. (2005). Collaborative Learning Techniques. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Byrnes, Joseph F. and Mary Ann Byrnes (2009). “Dealing with Students Who Hate Working in Groups.” Effective Group Work Strategies for the College Classroom. Madison: Magna Publications, 6–7. Available through facultyfocus.com.

Cross, K. Patricia (2000). Collaborative Learning 101. The Cross Papers 4. League for Innovation in the Community College.

Davis, Barbara Gross (2009). Tools for Teaching, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Johnson, D., R. Johnson, and K. Smith (1991). Cooperative Learning: Increasing College Faculty Instructional Productivity. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 4.

Meyers, C. and T. Jones (1993). Promoting Active Learning: Strategies for the College Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Millis, B. and P. Cottell (1998). Cooperative Learning for Higher Education Faculty. Oryx Press.

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Finally, the production part of the lesson. This is the fun part. This is the part of the lesson where the teacher should have minimal to no involvement. It gives students the chance to use their newly learned material freely and openly. The production activity can be done in a group, in pairs, or individually depending on what it is. As a group, they can gather to solve a solution to a problem, or they can pair off to act out a role-playing activity. In the end, the student should be able to achieve the goal's lesson: to express an understanding of language by using the new material in context, with minimal, if any, teacher interference.

Use this as a simple guide when planning a lesson for ESL students. Use the links provided as helpful resources. And please, leave a comment below.

Closure

Do you want your students to attach personal meaning and relevance to what they glean from your daily lessons? An effective "Closure" activity at the end of each class period can help with that objective, creating what psychologists call the Recency Effect, otherwise known as a last impression.

Ideally, closure activities create powerful learning effects at the tail-end of the class, something that will reverberate for hours after the lesson is over, something a little sticky.

The defining element of the closure activity is that which your students will soon come to realize: class isn’t over until it has taken place. The bonus added-value factor, of course, is this: as they come to realize that the closure activity is an essential part of the overall lesson, your students are more likely to think twice before leaving early!

Closure activities also help define both your teaching agenda and the intended learning progression, weaving today's lesson with yesterday's while providing a look ahead at what tomorrow's will bring. As a deliberate part of your planning

process, these activities summarize the current lesson, provide it context, and build anticipation for the next. Properly implemented, they will help you establish and maintain course momentum.

Reinforcing what students have learned, closure activities also serve as an assessment tool with which to evaluate your students retention level—Did they get it?—as well as your own effectiveness.

Including a closure activity with a SET Activity in every lesson is an effective classroom management strategy. It establishes a clear classroom framework for your students, with a clearly delineated and articulated BEGINNING and END, a format they will come to expect and on which they can depend.

Closure

When planning a lesson, it is very important to set aside time for a closure activity. As a supervisor of student teachers, I often see this portion of the lesson being skipped, short changed, or merely perfunctory, “What did you learn today?” Closure should go much deeper than that. Closure is really the lesson ‘wrap up.’ It is also a way to check to see if the students understood the lesson as well as to determine exactly what they learned. Information from a closure activity can help to inform future instruction.

Of course it is important to check for understanding throughout the entire lesson; however closure, as the word implies, is that activity that comes at the end of the lesson. Checking for understanding is part of good instruction, which is why it is important at various points during the lesson to probe by asking questions from concrete ‘what’ questions to higher level thinking ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions. Of course it is also crucial to ask the students “Are there any questions?” But none of that takes the place of bringing closure to the lesson. The closure section of the lesson, first described by Madeline Hunter, helps the students coalesce all aspects of the lesson by having them demonstrate what they have learned today.

Closure should link learning to what was just taught as well as to past and future lessons. There are lots of closure activities to choose from and can be as simple

as asking students to summarize 3 important things learned in the lesson or identify and explain 2 key points of the lesson. Closure activities can also require students to build on the statements of others; can require students to draw conclusions or to identify when and how the information learned in the lesson can be used. It might be helpful to think of lesson closure as an informal formative whole group assessment, which can help drive future instruction. From a closure activity the teacher is should be able to determine if the students require more practice on the topic, understand the topic, or require additional teaching on all or part of the topic before moving on.

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A good lesson plan is one that is engaging for the students. If a subject or an assignment is considered boring by students, they are less likely to pay attention. When they fail to pay attention, they don't retain the information as well. Good lesson plans are laid out in a logical order, starting with a broad overview of the subject and working toward more specifics and details as the lesson continues. Hands-on activities, if applicable, are great additions to lesson plans.

Were the learning objectives met?

Yes: Pupils were able to use both a number line and a calculator to find the difference between numbers, involving

negative numbers.

Quality of learning that took place:

The lesson was less tight than the one yesterday. Most pupils worked well, but some were off task, talking. I will

move Darren or Sharon next lesson if the work level does not improve. Pupils were happy using the number line

to find the difference, and I could see that they were getting the answers correct, so we moved on very quickly to

the calculator use. Quite a few pupils got onto the extension worksheet and showed that they could calculate differences in a range of contexts.

Quality of teaching that took place:

Not as good as the last few lessons. This was because when I was doing the input, the pupils were already able to do

part of the work I had planned to cover. I was thrown by this and found it hard to pick up the threads of the lesson again.

In my planning I need to try to predict where pupils will find work easy or struggle, and plan alternatives accordingly.

This will cut down the number of problems I could have in the classroom as I will be prepared for them in advance.

I saw most of the pupils’ work throughout the lesson, but my timing was a little off: I didn’t have enough time for

a proper plenary at the end, and I had to delay reading out the answers until next lesson. I had also planned to

give marked work back, but I ran out of time.

Good feature: I used some weather temperatures I had gathered from the internet before the lesson and projected

it onto the screen, incorporating some geography, ICT and knowledge of the world into the lesson.

Control of class:

My control of the class was quite good. I didn’t allow pupils to talk when I was talking, but I still need to work in

my whole class awareness throughout the lesson.

Issues with work covered:

I started off with work that was too easy but the extension sheet was at the right level to stretch pupils.

Issues with SEN or G and T pupils:

I need to plan separate activities for Bertha as she has already covered this work.

Even though this class was mainly facilitated by the teacher, the students were engaged for the entire class period. Within each activity the students played an active role, whether they practiced grammar through conversation with a partner, corrected homework collaboratively, raced to finish an exercise with candy incentives, or offered answers and questions during the class discussion. The variety and large number of content-based activities kept the students' attention and challenged them to integrate grammar into writing, reading, listening, and speaking. It was clear that the teacher facilitated Content-Based Instruction because of its support of error correction during conversation, the use of negotiation of meaning, and the matching of content and language learning objectives (Horwitz, 2008).

I learned that differentiated instruction and a comfortable environment really keep students engaged. This class covered a lot of information in an hour and a half, but students had a positive and eager attitude about learning. Because this is an academic class, the teacher mentioned how a few rules they discussed would be useful to know for the standardized tests they must make. Helping students plan and understand why they need this content is a part of good teaching.

I learned new techniques to integrate reading, listening, speaking, and writing into a grammar class. I was surprised that a few different topics of grammar were being taught in one class period, but the students seemed to manage it well. This encourages me to think differently about the goals of my lessons in the future, in which I could integrate more topics at once. This observation was very useful for me because I saw similar teaching patterns that I have used before and because I was able to recognize methodologies and theories learned in my graduate courses- both a confirmation of how I have taught in the past and what I am learning now.

Consider Your Destination

When creating lesson plans, always keep your destination in mind. Where do you want students to end up? If you're planning daily activities, think about how these activities connect to the larger goals for the course. Ask yourself, how will each activity prepare students for the upcoming portfolio assignment? Assuming that your assignment sheets accurately reflect the course goals, use them at the beginning of each unit to determine:

What is the overall goal for this assignment? What is the assignment asking students to do?

What knowledge do students already have that will help them meet the goals for writing this assignment?

What skills and concepts will students need to meet the goals for this assignment?

From these questions, create a list of smaller objectives to use as stepping stones for your destination. If you are planning writing assignments for student portfolios, your list of objectives may include:

Sequence Your Objectives

While sequencing your objectives, consider how each one builds off another. How might one objective prepare students for learning another? If reading critically helps students summarize an argument, you might address your critical reading objective before teaching summary.

Also, think about what your students know. Given the information they already have, which objectives would be best met at certain points in the unit? Will simpler objectives work better at the start of a unit? Will more complicated objectives make clearer sense to students after some basic objectives have already been met?

Finally, determine how your sequencing of objectives will best meet these goals and requirements for the upcoming assignment.

Know Your Time Frame

While sequencing your objectives, be aware of the amount of time allotted for each portfolio. Based on the overall goals for the portfolio, determine how much time you will need to spend addressing each objective. Keep in mind that a single lesson will address only one or two objectives. Some of these goals will be easily met, while others will present a challenge for students. You may decide to build in extra time to review concepts that are more challenging.

Try to be flexible, but remain within a reasonable time frame. Spending three days on one essay may be too much (even if students are thrilled by the subject matter). One strategy to help you keep up your pace, is to utilize outside resources such as the CSU Writing Center or online tutorials. The Writing at CSU home page contains plenty of online resources as well. Use these resources to compliment discussions and save you some time in class.

Below is an example for how you might organize your sequence and time frame for the first student portfolio:

Develop Activities to Meet Objectives

Once you've sequenced your objectives within a given time frame, the next step is to create activities that will help students meet each objective. Decide which activities are most relevant to your desired objectives. Take the time to revise existing activities and to create new ones that meet the needs of your class. You may also combine activities or eliminate some that seem less related to your objectives.

Two questions that you should always keep in mind when constructing activities are: "What do my students already know that will help them meet a desired objective?" And, "What activities will best help students meet a desired objective?"

Below is an example illustrating how you might design activities to meet a particular objective:

Objective: Students will use critical thinking skills and critical reading strategies to become better writers.

Activities:

1. Define critical reading and provide a list of strategies on an overhead (this is useful because many students do not know what critical reading is).

2. Model critical reading strategies (show students how to implement critical reading strategies).

3. Have students practice critical reading strategies with their homework.4. Ask students to respond to an in class writing, describing their

experience with the critical reading assignment. Have them speculate as to how this process of critical reading will influence their own writing. As a group, discuss the connection between reading and writing.

Just as you did with objectives, you'll need to create a sequence and time frame for your activities. Which activities should come first? How much class time will each activity take? Planning this out ahead of time will help you create smoother transitions between activities and it will help you connect your activities to larger, writing-related objectives.

Check for Understanding

The final step in planning lessons is to make time for assessing students' learning. How will you check to see that students understand the new concepts you're teaching? When will you revisit the material that they didn't quite grasp?

Intervention along the way can help you learn what students are struggling with. Many instructors collect homework once a week, or assign quizzes and short writing exercises to assess their students' progress. Conferences and e-mail exchanges are other effective means for gauging students' understanding.

Depending on what you learn from using evaluative measures, you may need to revise your lesson plans. If students' homework indicates that they're having trouble summarizing main points, you may spend the first fifteen minutes of the next class reviewing this concept. Addressing such struggles early on will help students face the more challenging objectives that follow.

Just as you did with objectives, you'll need to create a sequence and time frame for your activities. Which activities should come first? How much class time will each activity take? Planning this out ahead of time will help you create smoother transitions between activities, and help you connect your activities to larger, writing-related objectives.

Teaching Guide: Writing Lesson Plans

There are many approaches to writing lesson plans. Some instructors develop their plans independently from scratch, while others borrow plans from a shared curriculum. Some carefully write out all the details for their lesson, while others use a brief outline. Your approach to writing lesson plans will depend on various factors: how well you know the material you're teaching, how long you've been teaching, the kinds of teaching you've done, and the students you expect to have in your class. There is no single formula for writing lesson plans, but this guide will help you think through some of the processes that other instructors have found valuable to their own lesson planning.

If the trademark of a doctor is the stethoscopes, the engineer is the calculator, the teacher cannot be able to teach without his or her lesson plan. Can be tedious on the part of the teachers especially when it is done for the first time, lesson plans are actually very essential in inculcating students and pupils necessary skills, knowledge and wisdom they need.

A lesson plan is vital in teaching, it gives you the guide you need to pull through. Remember, that

teaching is a difficult since you are dealing with children or teenagers with raw skills, knowledge,

and wisdom.

Finally, with lesson plans you will be able to impart the things they need to learn, to the best of

your abilities.