TEACHERS OF ENGLISH IN CHARGE OF 2AM CLASSES

Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:21 am

PLANNING AND SEQUENCING A LESSON

A - Planning:Thinking over what to do, what learners are expected to do. Thinking over the language items to use, how to use them. Thinking over materials and aids needed.Considering the learner's abilities, interests,preferences and of course the official programme.
Preparing a lesson plan is of an absolute necessity before teaching.

B - Sequencing:Devising a set of activities and arranging
them according to a strategy in order to achieve the set objective.

C - Lesson:A period of one hour during which things aretaught / learnt.

A - Planning a lesson:
a- Decide what and how to teach before thelesson.
b- What to teach and how: focus on developing communication skills, not finishing the programme or memorizing grammar rules.
c- Set a clear objective for each lesson. The objective should be observable and measurable.

• Observable: That can be seen and noticed. e.g.:
"pupilswill learn about …." is not an observable objective. How can we see / notice that pupilsare really learning?
"Pupils will write…" "Pupils will use …" These two objectives are observable and measurable. We can effectively see that learners are really writing and using what we want them
to write and use. We can notice the number of learners that are writing and measure how well (or how bad) they are writing. Observable and measurable objectives use verbs that refer to observable actions (e.g. discuss, describe,summarize, classify etc…)

Objectives have two parts:
• The new information ( structure, vocabulary, skill, topic)
• The communicative uses of the new information (write a dialogue,describe a friend, write aparagraph, etc…)

d- After writing the lesson plan, check that it is well planned and time bound.

B - Sequencing a lesson :Each lesson (a whole period of one hour) is tobe organized around three main stages:

a - Preparation: This stage prepares the learner's to receive the new information stated in the set objectives.

• It gives the necessary language skills to understand in the next stage (presentation).
• It checks what learners know about the subject.
• Itconnects with the pupils' experience and everyday lives.
• It gives learners a preview of the target structure.

b- Presentation: The new material is presented to learners who study it with the teacher or independently. What do learners do? They listen,Speak, read or write. When presenting new information, only one thing should be presented at once.

c- Practice: Learners practise the new information or skill. They use what is presented and studied in the two previous stages in different ways. The teacher should devise activities for:

• Checking the learners' understanding of the new information.
• A guided use of the new information.
• Applying the new information in a free and creative ways.

The practice activities should connect with the learners' interests and language needs. They should integrate the target skills with other skills.

d- Sequencing activities within a stage:

Activities should be organized in the following manner:
• From general to more specific.
• From mechanical to more creative.
• Form familiar to unfamiliar.
• Form receptive to productive.
• Form comprehension to application.