Lesson planning

Lesson planning seems to have become a dreadful phrase. Most teachers still remember the torture they had to undergo in their methodology classes. 

However, the importance of properly set objectives and outcomes, aims and contents of any class is essential. My favourite author of methodology and teaching instruction, Jeremy Harmer, stressed that

“Lesson planning is the art of combining a number of different elements into a coherent whole so that a lesson has an identity which students can recognise, work within, and react to - whatever metaphor teachers may use to visualise and create that identity. But plans - which help teachers identify aims and anticipate potential problems – are proposals for action rather than scripts to be followed slavishly, whether they are detailed documents or hastily scribbled notes” (Harmer, 2001, p. 308). 

When asked which part of the lesson plan seems to be causing the greatest difficulty, most teachers complain about being confused when they have to differentiate between objectives and outcomes. Yet, the difference is amazingly simple: objectives are the results planned to be achieved and outcomes are the results projected to be achieved. 

When trying to define the objectives for their lesson plan, syllabus or curriculum, teachers further confuse objectives and activities. However, this distinction is also rather simple as objectives describe all the facts or skills students are expected to have mastered as a result of completing a particular set of instructions. Unlike that, activities refer to the particular tasks and exercises the students are supposed to complete in order to learn the facts or skills. Clearly, objectives focus on what is expected to be learned as a result while activities describe what is actually to be performed to achieve that goal. 

When it comes to lesson planning for computer-assisted classes, the task seems to be even more difficult. Many different decisions have to be made, which are not only related to the issue of the particular tools to be used, but also to the question involving the amount of computer-assisted activities to be involved. More importantly, in what way should they be involved? 

Nowadays, there are different terms used for more or less the same purpose. So there is technology-enhanced language learning and teaching, web-based language learning and teaching, computer-assisted language learning and teaching, blended language learning and teaching. And if that were not enough, terms, such as information technology, information communication technology, technology education, etc. are considered closely related to the different forms of language learning and teaching. Yet, there is little practical advice regarding a clearly structured lesson deploying straightforward ideas based on the use of the computer in general. And that is probably why so many teachers decide not to use the computer at all.

Most ideas that may be implemented nowadays depend on the Internet. In other words, many tools, programs and technological solutions are used either online or are downloaded. These tools are basically referred to as Web 2.0 tools. A separate page within this blog, Web 2.0 has been designed to be dealing with these tools. A common thing related to these tools other than the Internet is that they are being used on a computer, tablet or smartphone. However, most classrooms will probably depend on the computer, sometimes even on a single computer. 

Of course, planning a lesson can be quite useful. After all, that is what this blog is supposed to be about - suggest applicable ideas easy to implement and yet rendering good results. Therefore, here is an example of a draft for a computer-assisted lesson that can be adapted to almost any type of content (general English, ESP, literature, culture, etc.) and expanded to a properly designed lesson plan:

Corpora-based writing in computer-assisted classes for a General English class:

1. Define a provocative topic, such as corporal punishment.

2. Instruct the students to open the Corpus of Contemporary American English. They will find a number of different entries, each supporting a stance of its own.

3. Tell the students to select five different sources (articles from the media, academia, etc.) by means of the narrowing search criteria provided in the search panel on the left of the main window.

4. Ask them to copy and paste the provided expanded context for each resource selected in separate word documents.

5. Instruct the students to read through the resources, compare and contrast the points of view, make a list of ideas they could extract from them.

6. Tell them to write a 300-word report clearly stating differences in views and opinions regarding the topic.

A possible follow-up would be reading the reports in class and evaluating them in the form of peer assessment. A rubrics evaluation sheet, created by Rubistar (more about this tool in another post) could be prepared beforehand and distributed to the students so they can evaluate their peers’ writing. Alternatively, in order to protect students who are less self-confident, the assessment can be conducted in the form of self-evaluation also based on rubrics.

This particular lesson plan (with slight adaptations) may be used in other types of classes (literature or culture courses) quite effectively. Obviously, the teacher would have to supply the necessary corpus for the students to use. There is an enormous pool of pages to resort to for this purpose. Some very useful pages can be found at Writingcenter, which supplies guided instruction for poetry appreciation as well as essays on prose and drama. Furthermore, an excellent resource to be incorporated in a lesson plan, and probably used extensively both in class and for homework writing assignments as well as exam practice would be the pages on Purdue supplying clear instructions, explanations, definitions, etc. Another excellent resource can be found at the Education-portal. At the bottom of the home page several links are supplied to video tutorials to be used for guided literature analysis. 

For a more detailed lesson plan, I would like to suggest the example for a class in Legal English prepared on the page CALL for ESP.