Effective lesson plans

It's safe to say that, if you're a teacher, you have second guessed the effectiveness of your planning at least once in your life. "Does this planning make sense? Will it be engaging? Is the timing correct? Have I over or underplanned? Is it a good lesson plan?"

While it's impossible to objectively judge a lesson plan without knowing the context – like the method or approach that is being used, how many students there are in the classroom or their profile – we most definitely can analyze some key aspects that EVERY lesson plan should have to be considered effective.

How do I know if my lesson plan is right and effective?

There can't be a definitive right or wrong LP. Different methods and approaches in ELT will have completely different steps to be followed.
Some will rely on presenting unknown vocabulary before dealing with a reading comprehension exercise, others will have the student find out the meaning of these words as a part of their language development. And there is such a thing as blending methods and approaches to better fit both your teaching style and your students' learning needs.

Having this in mind, how can one say your LP is wrong? No, no, this is just not possible. However, we can measure the effectiveness of the lesson plan by analyzing how clear it is, if the timing is indeed appropriate while teaching the lesson and, of course, the outcomes. To analyze those , you can check the aspects below that, regardless of how you choose to teach your lessons, will help you gauge how effective your LP is — both for you and for your students.

1. The lesson objective is clear

Whether you are teaching general English, Business English or English for specific purposes, your lessons should have a specific objective.

Let's say that you will you be working with a video today. Why? What will they practice and learn from it? Are they supposed to practice their listening skills as part of their exam training ? To observe non- verbal communication and how it reflects their culture because they will go abroad for a business trip? To extract and focus on the grammar or vocabulary used in the video? To practice pronunciation and intonation so they can be better understood? There is a plethora of learning objectives that can come from a video lesson, as you can see. How you will use this medium in the classroom will vary depending on what the course is about, what you want your students to focus on, their learning needs and so on. The one thing that would definitely make such a planning an inneffective one would be adding this video for no reason at all.

Watching videos is fun and all, but it becomes irrelevant if you're using class time for something that won't add up to their English learning development. And please – using videos in lessons is just one example. Choosing any exercise for your lesson plan should match the learning objective of the lesson, even the ones from the coursebook. Ideally: think of the objective first to then decide on how the lesson will carry on.

2. Each step of the lesson leads to the Lesson Objective

That is actually why knowing the LO first is so important – if you know where you're headed, it's easier to see the steps you will need in order to get there. Thus, every activity is a step that will get you closer to the lesson objective.

For instance: if you're planning a lesson which the objective is writing a letter to a school friend, does it make sense to watch a snippet of "The Big Bang Theory" in the same lesson? If you answered "of course not!", let me tell you: you 're probably correct. But we can only say that for sure once we've analyzed the rationale behind this choice. It could be okay if this letter was to talk about their favorite TV show, for example. Any activity is valid if it is a step towards the learning objective.

Some teachers think it's easier to plan the lesson backwards - thinking about the final activity first (i.e.: the outcome of the LO) and then thinking about the previous activities that will lead students to their lesson goal.

3. There 's planned room for feedback

Students' performance can never be a surprise for them or for us. The only way in which we can guarantee that their progress is clear to all parties is by giving feedback every class. And there are numerous ways of doing that.

You can take notes of their speaking and writing performance during activities to help them see what can be improved AND what is already great. This can be done by writing samples of language that they produced on Slingui's collaborative Whiteboard and asking them to notice which are correct and how to correct what isn't on the spot. This is great to raise students' confidence and awareness while having a dynamic and engaging activity.

Storing their marks after doing exercises is another great way of not only showing their progress at the moment, but also comparing their results over time. This is why here at Slingui you have access to the Progress Tracker – to ensure both you and your students know exactly how their learning development is going at all times.

4. Descriptors and links to all materials needed

A great lesson plan helps the teacher deliver the lesson smoothly. If you know exactly what you will each, then you know exactly what materials you will use.

Are you using a video from Youtube? Don't look it up during class – have the link in your LP readily available. You're not using the whole video? Make sure you take note of the part(s) of the video you will use so you don't waste time looking for it in front of the students. By using the collaborative Whiteboard while teaching in Slingui's virtual classroom, you're able to embed youtube videos and many different types of media for easy and interactive access. This type of organization will give you much more confidence in your delivery!

Effective lesson plans help the students learn effectively ...

...and only an engaging and caring teacher who's constantly developing is able to make those. And if you've reached the end of this article, then you're certainly one of those!

Count on us to help you have the best teaching experience while providing meaningful learning experiences to your students. Start your free account here to see how much Slingui can transform your online teaching today!