Lesson Planning For Language Teachers Evidence-Based Techniques For Busy Teachers (Language Teaching Essentials Book 1) (David Weller) (Z-Library)
Lesson Planning For Language Teachers Evidence-Based Techniques For Busy Teachers (Language Teaching Essentials Book 1) (David Weller) (Z-Library)
Lesson Planning For Language Teachers Evidence-Based Techniques For Busy Teachers (Language Teaching Essentials Book 1) (David Weller) (Z-Library)
First edition
I. INTRODUCTION
1. Welcome
2. Why Lesson Plan?
3. The Process of Lesson Planning
4. How to Use This Book
II. STUDENTS
III. AIMS
IV. CONTEXT
12. What is Context?
13. How to Set a Context
14. Continuing a Context
15. Context vs Coursebooks
16. Four Types of Context
V. STRUCTURE
22. Definitions
23. Activities & Exercises
24. More Activities
25. Task Design
26. Using Materials
VIII. ASSESSMENT
IX. REVIEW
Introduction
1
Welcome
I’d guess either too long, or not enough. Too long because planning is hard
to get ‘just right’, or not enough because your schedule is crazy right now.
I want to show you a framework that makes planning fast and effective.
One that works for you and your students, for every lesson.
If you’re short on time, it’ll give you the best chance of delivering an
excellent lesson.
If you want to go all out, I’ll show you evidence-based techniques to plan
amazing lessons.
Either way, you’ll finish planning with time to spare, zero stress, and a great
lesson for your students.
Let’s get started.
Does your planning look like this?
2
There’s a theory in the stock market that says everything known about a
stock is reflected in its price. It’s the same with teaching. All your
knowledge and current beliefs about teaching shine through in your plans.
It can help you after class, as a reference to figure out what went well (and
what not so well). Plus, you can scribble notes on it for the next time you
teach that lesson. Oh, and if you don’t plan, your manager may fire you.
As most language teaching jobs require you to plan for every lesson, you’ll
be doing it a lot. You might as well learn to do if faster, better, and with less
stress. That’s where I hope this book comes in.
Over the years I’ve seen lesson plans in every style, format and length.
They are as individual as the teachers who make them. I’ve seen great
teachers walk into class with a post-it note, and not-so-great teachers using
detailed ten-page plans.
The one thing I’ve noticed about all the outstanding teachers I’ve met, is
that they plan, reflect, and make changes. If you combine that with the
knowledge in this book, you’ll see a tremendous improvement in your
lesson planning, I promise.
3
It’s really the same planning process for anything, but applied to teaching.
You need to know where your students are at, linguistically. Then decide
what you want them to achieve. Choose exercises, activities, tasks and
materials that engage and support them. Then decide what you need to see
or hear that proves they’re learning.
Simple? Yes.
Easy? Not exactly.
In the diagram below you can see how each question relates to each section
and chapter of this book.
Skip around and read whatever interests you. Although if you’re new (ish)
to lesson planning, I suggest reading all the way through once, to see how
the concepts fit together.
If you’re still with me, let’s start with that first question; ‘where are your
students starting from?’
II
Students
5
The better you know your students, the easier it is to plan. You’ll also
deliver better lessons, they’ll learn more, and you’ll all have more fun.
Why?
If you know reasons for learning English (psychographics), you can make
the topics more relevant, which also increases engagement.
If you know their linguistic strengths and weaknesses, you can work on
areas that are most useful for them. Here are some questions for you to
think about for each area.
Demographics
Psychographics
Linguistics
1 Ausubel, David. Educational Psychology. A Cognitive View. New York: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, Inc, 1968.
6
It could be the first lesson of a new class, or you’re covering a class for a
colleague. It could be the way your school functions - students ‘pay-as-
they-go’ and attend when they have time. Which means you don’t know
who’ll be in your class.
You must plan with the information that you know - their approximate
language ability, age range, etc.
If you’ve been with the school a while, you may know regular students, or
students you’ve taught in previous classes. You can use items from the local
news or events that you hear local friends talking about. If it’s a talking
point for them, it could be interesting to your students.
Students with the same learning and demographic background and
demographic make similar errors (especially noticeable with young
learners). This is something you can consider when planning.
III
Aims
7
Having an aim makes lessons more effective for learning2. I like to choose
two aims - one for my students and a personal aim for myself (see ‘Personal
Aims’).
There are two ways of breaking down an aim; by the linguistic content (in
the next chapter), and logistically (in the chapter ‘How Do You Write an
Aim?’).
Yet for an embarrassingly long time, I didn’t write aims. Yes, I learned all
about them on my initial teacher training course. Yes, they made sense. But
I was busy, and I’d been told to follow the coursebook (‘two pages every
lesson, and one page from the student’s book for homework’). Surely my
aims had just been set for me, for every lesson?
How little I knew.
Your school, syllabus or coursebook will often set you aims, yes, but you
can still relate these to your students. Are they too easy, or too difficult? If
so, can you adapt them? What would be best for the students to practice?
For the sake of spending one minute to set my aims, I could have improved
much faster. Don’t make the same mistake I did.
2 Hattie, John. Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning. London ; New York:
Routledge, 2012.
8
What’s in an Aim?
It should also outline the topic, situation, and the language that you’ll use.
These four levels I’ve adapted for classroom usage from the major levels of
linguistics3.
These give your learners the essential ‘what, where, why and how’ of your
lesson.
Function–the ‘why’ of the language used. Why are they talking? Every
time we communicate, it’s for a reason. The function is that reason.
Language doesn’t exist independently of meaning.
Form–this is what the language looks or sounds like. It’s the phonology,
lexis or grammar you’re using. Are you using modal verbs for giving
advice? A rising or falling tone for question tags?
The last thing to remember (and perhaps the most important) is not to
include too much new material in your aim.
We all want students to learn as much as they can, as fast as they can.
3 Odell, Lee, John E Warriner, and Rinehart Holt and Winston, Inc. Elements of Language. First
Course First Course. Orlando, Fla.: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2007.
4 Sweller, John. ‘Cognitive Load during Problem Solving: Effects on Learning’. Cognitive Science
12, no. 2 (1 April 1988): 257–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/0364-0213(88)90023-7.
9
To choose an aim, think of your students. What do they most need to know?
It may not be what the course book says they should learn next.
Saying that, don’t get in trouble by not teaching what your school requires.
Use your common sense and find a balance. If there’s a real problem, then
speak to your academic manager to see what they can work out.
10
I always start my lesson plan aim with ‘By the end of the lesson, learners
will be better able to…’
This gives every student the chance to achieve the lesson aim. If you write
‘the learners will be able to…’ then one of two things will happen:
Every learner will achieve the goal (hurrah!) but that means it was too
easy for most of them (boo!)
Or;
Weaker learners won’t achieve the goal, and will fall behind. Even the
stronger learners may not achieve it consistently.
Previously, I used the ‘SMART’ goal setting model (Specific, Measurable,
Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound)5. I don’t anymore. As a concept
designed for the business world, some aspects aren’t best suited for
teaching.
1. Required by syllabus/curriculum
Remember to stay within the rules of the curriculum that your school lays
out. You don’t want to get in trouble for ignoring the school rules.
2. Student-Centred
Think of your students! What topic and context will they find engaging?
What level of language will challenge but be achievable?
3. Specific
4. Observable
You’re not a mind reader. Just because you teach it, doesn’t mean that
students learn it. Know what you will see, or hear, that tells you your
learners are improving.
If you know this, you can use this to work backwards from when planning
the rest of your lesson.
Here’s the same aim that we used before, but showing which parts of it are
required, learner-centred, specific and observable:
An example lesson aim, with lesson aim variables circled.
5 O’Neill, Jan. ‘SMART Goals, SMART Schools’. Educational Leadership 57, no. 5 (2000): 46–50.
11
Personal Aims
A personal aim is something that you want to get better at by the end of the
class.
This can be anything about your teaching that you want to improve.
If you’re a newer teacher, this could be things like controlling the class,
getting the timing right, or giving concise instructions.
Context
12
What is Context?
Every time we use language, it’s in a context - a clearly set situation. The
speakers know who they are, the relationship between them, where they are,
and why the interaction is taking place.
If learners don’t know the situation they’re talking in, they’ll find it harder
to understand, use and remember the language. Students learn by repeatedly
encountering language in context6.
Unfortunately, we often fall into the trap of getting learners to just practice
the language–drilling or repeating sounds, words, patterns or dialogues–
without them knowing why.
This can lead to confusion for our students. Why is it useful? Where can I
use this without sounding like an idiot? Is it too formal/informal for some
scenarios? How do I apply this outside the classroom?
Without context, we steal our learners’ opportunity to have a meaningful
interaction. For example, at the start of class:
No Context
Weak Context
“OK everyone, today we’re going to talk about choosing a holiday. Tell
your partner about your how you choose a holiday. Five minutes. Start.”
Strong Context
“Hi everyone, great to see you all. Today’s the last day before the holiday!
Excited? I was, but my boyfriend and I argued last night about where to go
on holiday…”
Even better is a context you know the learners are interested in (sports,
local events, music, news, etc.), or will be useful (choosing a university,
going to the doctors, booking a flight, etc.).
Context builds up connections that the learner is forming with the language
and shows them how language works in a realistic situation.
Using language in context improves understanding, memory and fluency.
6 Cook, Vivian. Second Language Learning and Language Teaching. 4. ed. London: Routledge,
2013.
13
To make a context engaging, take a topic you know students will find
interesting. Personalise it by asking for an opinion or asking them to share
their experience with a partner. We can set context:
Verbally- tell the students a short anecdote and ask them what you should
have done (opinion) or when something similar has happened to them
(experience sharing)
Visually- show the students a photo, picture, or short video that grabs their
interest. Ask them what they think is happening (opinion) or if they’ve ever
been there / done that and what happened (experience sharing)
Aurally- play a song, an audio clip and ask what they think is going to
happen (opinion) or what they could do (experience-sharing)
Using ‘realia’– use real objects, bring in toys, photos, building bricks,
magazines. Something that the learners can touch. Ask what they like most
about it (opinion) or how it relates to them (experience sharing).
14
Continuing a Context
Imagine- one minute they’re using modal verbs to give advice to a friend
looking for a job, the next they’re giving advice to a colleague at work
who’s ill. Huh?
Sure, they’re both using modal verbs, but stay in the same context unless
you have a good reason to change.
If you want to make students aware of the other situations that they could
use the language in, then do so at the end of the lesson (or recycle the
language in another lesson, with a different context!)
This goes well with recycling materials, as this naturally keeps the context
the same.
15
Context vs Coursebooks
Talking of coursebooks, I’ve not yet come across one that always matches
your students.
Ideally
Realistically
Yes, it’s easier to pick (you just think about a situation from real life), but it
gets boring for you and your students. I have a friend who describes this as
the ‘tyranny of context’, and he’s not wrong.
I would argue that there are four kinds of context. Imaginary, implied,
realistic and real.
Real
Something that actually happens. When someone sets off the fire alarm. Or
you spill coffee in your lap as you sit down. Or a student brings in a trophy
they won yesterday. Something genuine, that can students can discuss.
Realistic
Situations you might encounter in real life, but aren’t happening right now.
Visiting the doctor, going on holiday abroad, etc.
Implied
Regular topics or threads in your classes. Perhaps all your students watch
the same TV series, and you can start talking about the characters.
Or it could be a running joke your class has, a regular activity you all do, or
funny habits you have as a teacher – we can talk about all of these.
Imaginary
Exactly that–imaginary situations. We do this with our friends all the time.
It could be arguing who’d win in a superhero showdown. What you’d do if
a zombie apocalypse happened tomorrow. Things you’d change as the
leader of the country.
Think of it like this: when children play and create imaginary games, they
all know precisely what they’re doing. But if you pull a child aside and ask
them to explain the rules, they can’t. They just know.
Make your context as good as that. An absorbing situation that the students
immerse themselves in. If everyone is clear why they’re talking, it’s a good
context.
Use a mix of all these contexts, to keep your lessons fresh.
It also means you’ll get to really know your learners, which helps with so
many other things.
Structure
17
Lesson Methodologies
From your aims, you know what you want students to achieve. You know
the language that you want to hear or see them produce by the end of the
lesson. Choose a task that students can do at the end of the lesson which
demonstrates this language.
At their core, all structures help us do the same things -introduce the
language, think about the language, and use the language (as the diagram on
the previous page flippantly shows). What changes is the order that they do
these in.
In the last couple of decades, academics have moved away from the idea of
set methods and structures in favour of teaching by principles7.
If you know the theory behind each structure, then you’ll be able to adapt it
to suit your students and your lessons.
Lesson methodologies have a lot in common.
7 Richards, Jack C., and Willy A. Renandya, eds. Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology
of Current Practice. 1st publ., 17. print. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2013.
18
Old and getting a lot of criticism over the years, PPP is probably the most
commonly taught structure on initial teacher training courses. It consists of
three stages:
Stage 1: Presentation
Stage 2: Practice
The ‘practice’ stage is when students use the language in a controlled way.
This stage is sometimes divided into two - a controlled practice and a freer
practice. You could get students to:
Error correction is important in this stage, so make sure you monitor the
students closely. You could correct immediately, after the activity, or setup a
peer-correction structure.
Stage 3: Production
This stage is where the language is used in a more open way. Things like
role-plays, communication and collaborative tasks, discussion activities and
debates.
Students should be told the grammar rules and then practice them (a
deductive approach).
Language learning is a skill like any other, and should be practiced as
such.
The teacher should be slowly hand over control to the students as the
lesson progresses.
Language is a series of items that can be learned in sequence.
The target language should be practiced by removing unnecessary
language to help focus.
All of these have been shown that this isn’t how we best learn languages (in
fact, the opposite is largely true!).
However, it isn’t all bad. Here’s my opinion on what the advantages and
disadvantages are of PPP:
Advantages
Disadvantages
Thoughts on PPP
Academics are often far removed from the classroom and the real world,
and study phenomenon in isolation. Teaching over a period of time with
PPP, you do see students improve.
Also, it’s not done in isolation - you should be getting your students to
interact in English and read extensively outside of class, for starters.
These changes turn PPP into something else, a blended approach that
addresses many of its criticisms.
The simplicity of PPP, combined with its renown, has kept it as probably
the most widely used methodology. I doubt it’s going away anytime soon.
The ‘Presentation, Practice, Production’ lesson methodology.
19
While each stage roughly corresponds to PPP, ESA’s stages are like Lego
bricks, fitting together in multiple ways8.
Let’s look at each stage in turn, and then how they can fit together.
Stage 1: Engage
This is the stage where you get the learners’ interest; you ‘engage’ the
students. If it’s at the beginning of the lesson, it’s also where you’ll set the
context.
You can engage learners using things like stories, anecdotes, music,
discussion, photos or videos.
It’s also about personalisation- encouraging learners to relate the material to
themselves, or making predictions about the materials and lesson.
Stage 2. Study
3. Activate
I said the ESA structure is like Lego - you can assemble the stages in
various orders to make different sequences. There are three common
sequences: straight arrow, boomerang, and patchwork9.
Straight Arrow
Boomerang
An example would be E – A – S – A.
Here the students would be engaged, then do a task, focus on form, and then
do another task, with (hopefully) improved accuracy.
Patchwork
An example would be E – A – S – A – S – E
This one looks confusing, but it’s about responding to learners and the tasks
they’re doing.
If you think that students will need some help with accuracy, put in a
‘Study’ stage. Getting bored? Put in an ‘Engage’ stage.
Overall, it’s a flexible model that can be used with any kind of lesson.
The ‘Engage, Study, Activate’ lesson methodology.
8 Harmer, Jeremy. How to Teach English. New ed., 6. impr. How to … Series. Harlow: Pearson
Longman, 2010.
9 Harmer, Jeremy. How to Teach English. New ed., 6. impr. How to … Series. Harlow: Pearson
Longman, 2010.
20
Students to use the language as best they can, then focus on accuracy, and
then do a similar (or the same) task again with better results.
This first ‘test’ stage should introduce a context, and give the students a
chance to do a task or activity.
A bonus tip: if you select the topic and context carefully, it can steer the
learners towards your intended target language. For example, a context
where the learners must ‘give advice’ to each other would hopefully
encourage the use of modal verbs (“You could / should / must” etc), which
you’d then hear how well they could use in this activity
While students do the task, listen for errors in how they use the language,
particularly the target language that you want to focus on. It’s useful to jot
these down, as you can use them in the next stage.
The aim for this stage is to observe errors that students make with the target
language.
Stage 2: Teach
You’ve got two options here. If the learners made errors with the language
you thought they would, you can go ahead and ‘teach’ the target language
to the learners in this stage.
Or, if they made errors you feel are more important (i.e. they impede
fluency even more than the language you anticipated teaching), focus on
those instead.
Don’t forget to ask concept checking questions, and check that the weaker
learners understand.
Finally, the learners should do another task (or the same one as before) that
encourages the use of the target language that they’ve just been focusing on.
Again, monitor the students and you should (hopefully!) see that their
accuracy has improved.
It’s also great to use with unconfident learners, as they can see / hear their
progress in one lesson. Especially if you use the same task for both ‘test’
stages, it’s obvious to the students that they’ve improved.
I’ve also had good success with young learner classes that are boisterous–
the structure lends itself to good classroom management.
The ‘Test, Teach, Test’ lesson methodology.
21
It’s also a great way to get students engaged and using English more
extensively. The collaborative element also builds confidence with language
and social situations.
What is a Task?
Good question. TBLT calls for tasks that fit these requirements11:
It could even be justifying and supporting an opinion, like arguing for your
preference in an election or favourite competitor in a TV show.
This is where you introduce a context and task to the students. Once they’re
engaged, set your expectations for the task. Setting expectations is
important so the ‘less motivated’ students don’t do the bare minimum.
To do this, you could show the students an example of the completed task,
or model it.
The focus of the stage is to engage, set expectations, and give instructions.
Small groups or pairs are good, rather than a bigger group where shyer
students can hide. Ideally you won’t join in, but will be monitoring, and
only giving hints if students get really stuck. As part of the task, students
will have to plan on how to complete it.
A note here on task design - there are several ways to go about designing a
task, but usually it should involve a ‘gap’ of some sort. See chapter 25 on
‘Task Design’
Once the learners have completed the task and have something to show,
then it’s time for a review.
Peer reviews are preferable, or if during your monitoring you see an error
common to many, a teacher-led delayed correction is also very useful.
For weaker groups, we can make peer correction more effective by giving
the students support on how to give feedback - perhaps via a checklist, or a
‘Things to Look For’ list.
Advantages of TBLT
Disadvantages of TBLT
I’ve noticed three fundamental ways that TBLT classes can be unsuccessful.
Here they are, with potential solutions.
Why it happens: there’s no gap in the task (see ‘Task Design’, chapter 25)
What happens: Students do the bare minimum to complete the task. They
use the simplest language they know, even single-word utterances and body
language, to get by.
Why it happens: the topic isn’t interesting, hasn’t been presented clearly,
they don’t understand, or there’s no rapport with the teacher.
Solution: choose an interesting topic / context / material for learners, grade
your language appropriately, check your instructions, and work on building
rapport and engagement.
What happens: students are so excited to complete a task that they revert to
a mixture of English, their first language and body language, shouting
(“That.. Here! No, wrong, it, it - [speaks own language] - ta-da! Teacher,
teacher, done!”)
Why it happens: well, they’re over-excited and just want to complete the
task as soon as possible. The good news is that you chose a topic, context
and materials that really connected with them - congratulations! Bad news
is, it got out of hand.
Solution: If you expect your task will make the students a little excited,
make sure that you set the standards clearly. Show a model, and be clear
about the minimum standard. If appropriate, quantify it; “you have to record
at least 20 lines of speech, everyone must speak at least three times…” and
so on.
Thoughts on TBLT
You might have heard of ‘Project Based Learning’ (PBL) - the only actual
difference between that and Task Based Learning is that PBL is usually run
over periods longer than just one lesson, and with more review stages.
The ‘Task-Based Language Teaching’ methodology.
10 Long, Michael H. Second Language Acquisition and Task-Based Language Teaching. First
Edition. Chichester, West Sussex [England] ; Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015.
11 Skehan, Peter. A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning. Oxford Applied Linguistics. Oxford:
Oxford Univ. Press, 2004.
VI
Definitions
Activity
An activity is anything that you want the learners to do that relates to them
achieving the goals of the curriculum. It’s a general term, and can include
things like group discussions, games, debates, role-plays, etc.
Exercise
Task
A task is an activity that has a specific goal for the students. They should
need to use their current language ability to complete it, and the focus
should be on meaning.
23
It’s easy to get stuck using the same activities every lesson, but you don’t
need to condemn your students (and yourself!) to being bored.
You can brainstorm ideas using an activities grid, like the one on the next
page. Along the top of the grid are the language skills. Down the side are
the student interaction patterns. Each square needs an activity that practices
that skill and student interaction pattern. For example, square 1 will involve
the students practicing listening by themselves.
Grab a few colleagues who complain that they never have enough activities.
A workshop is ideal for this. Ask pairs or small groups of teachers to
brainstorm together and fill in the grids. There are only two rules:
Every activity must be adaptable (i.e. it doesn’t just work for a single
grammar point or lexical set).
Every activity must be fun, useful, or both.
Some activities will overlap, and that’s fine. No need to be super strict, or
quibble over categories. If an activity has both speaking and listening in
equal amounts, you can put it in either.
Some examples, using the numbering from the grid, are on the next page.
A quick note: the difference between a whole class activity and individual is
sometimes confusing. For a whole class activity, all students must focus
together (even if it’s listening to one student). For an ‘individual’ activity
every student is working by themselves at the same time.
For more activities, you can visit the resources page on my website:
www.barefootteflteacher.com
24
More Activities
If sharing and brainstorming ideas with your colleagues doesn’t work, then
‘borrowing’ might.
When even looking on the internet becomes too much like hard work,
here are the best ways to liberate some activity ideas from your colleagues.
1. Start a discussion
In the staffroom, in the corridor or leaving work –ask a colleague what their
current favourite activity is (and why!).
If you use a shared computer drive, look in their files (or an old teachers’
files who has left). Underhanded perhaps, but effective.
Ask one of your more relaxed colleagues if you can pop into their class
when you’re not teaching. Don’t ask a new teacher though, they’ll have a
panic attack and jump out the nearest window.
Look for any activity that you haven’t used, or one that’s used in a different
way. Jot down any unusual twists that you haven’t seen before (keep an eye
out for anything else useful too, like novel behaviour management
techniques).
Oh, and don’t fall asleep, it’s impolite. Afterwards, a big thank you and an
offer to return the favour goes a long way.
25
Task Design
One area of planning that often gets forgotten is task design. With
everything else we need to focus on, it’s usually an afterthought. Then we
look for any activity that’s loosely related to the lesson aim, and go with
that. Yet creating effective tasks is essential if you want students to learn.
Here are six principles that you can follow when designing tasks for your
lessons.
Check - what will your task encourage students to think about? What
language will it likely get them to produce?
Students need a reason to communicate. Sure, they’ll talk if you tell them to
(“discuss the topic with your partner!”) but it won’t be as engaging. There
are three types of gaps12:
Information Gaps
Reasoning Gaps
Students must work out how to get from where they are, to where the task
says they should be. An example would be planning a night out with
restrictions on budget, timing, and other variables.
Opinion Gaps
Students need to agree or disagree with others, and give reasons why.
Debates, for example. Any of these will provide a reason for students to
communicate other than ‘the teacher told me to speak, so I guess I’ll have
to’.
You can help students by removing ‘extraneous cognitive load’ from tasks –
removing distractions, making sure instructions are clear, avoid dividing
attention or having competing sources of information.
What are your students going to be thinking about while they’re completing
the task?
Students need to understand the lesson, your instructions and the materials
before even getting to the task.
So instead of then giving them new materials, could you re-use ones you’ve
already used in the lesson?
This sounds taxing, but it’s quick, and helps to anticipate problems. Close
your eyes and imagine the class you’re going to teach. Imagine all the
personalities that make up the class. Now run through the task. Imagine:
From there, make any adjustments that you think will improve it.
Six variables of task design.
12 Prabhu, N. S. Second Language Pedagogy. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
13 Sweller, John. ‘Cognitive Load during Problem Solving: Effects on Learning’. Cognitive Science
12, no. 2 (1 April 1988): 257–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/0364-0213(88)90023-7.
14 Willingham, Daniel T. Why Don’t Students like School? A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions
about How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom. 1st ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-
Bass, 2009.
26
Using Materials
Using materials effectively is harder than it seems. From the teacher that
staggers into class with a mountain of handouts, to the teacher that wanders
in with nothing at all, I’ve seen (and done!) it all. What I mostly see is
teachers using materials reactively, rather than proactively.
What do I mean? I mean teachers who see an activity in the coursebook and
think, ‘Ah, I should really practice this. Quick, get a handout / worksheet /
TV clip / whatever that has the same target language so learners can use it’.
They respond to the requirements of the course, rather than plan ahead. And
that’s OK. But it could be so much better.
1. Engaging.
2. A language model.
3. Well designed (including cognitive load).
4. Exploitable.
5. Differentiated.
6. Authentic or Natural.
Let’s run through this list and talk about what each one really means.
1. Engaging
Materials have got to be interesting! Yes, I know it’s easier to use the
coursebook, but if it sends students to sleep, what’s the point?
You need to know what your learners love to talk about. You can use it as
leverage to personalise materials and ramp up engagement, which increases
their performance and gives you a much more enjoyable time as a teacher.
Unless your learners only like talking about the Kardashians. Then you’re
on your own.
2. A Language Model
It should go without saying that materials need accurate English. They
serve as a model for your students, so mistakes in materials are ones you’ll
hear your students make.
3. Well-Designed
You don’t need a degree in graphic design, but it helps if materials look
good and elicit the desired response.
You should also consider the ‘cognitive load’ of the material. As we’ve said
before in our aims and tasks, too much information can distract. Materials
are a key part of this. Can they be simplified? Can you remove unnecessary
information? Materials with more than a couple of instructional sentences
are liable to confuse instead of help. Can you let the structure, design,
layout or graphics do the heavy lifting instead of explaining?
The gold standard of design is to have your learners intuitively ‘get’ what
they need to do, so they can focus on the task rather than understanding the
materials.
4. Exploitable
Talk about using materials effectively. My mind was blown. Using material
multiple times as a model for any ‘final activity’ you may have planned is
incredibly helpful for weaker students in the class15.
5. Differentiated or Scaffolded
You might have a handout with two versions, one of which offers more
support for weaker learners. You need to pre-plan which version to give to
which students, but this can pay dividends. You’ll have fewer ‘fast-
finishers’ as stronger learners are stretched by the more challenging version.
6. Authentic or Natural
It’s the eternal tug-o-war between authentic materials (that learners struggle
with) vs inauthentic materials (that learners can understand).
The key is to be natural.
15 Tomlinson, Brian, ed. Materials Development in Language Teaching. 2nd ed. Cambridge
Language Teaching Library. Cambridge, N.Y: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
VII
Student Support
27
Interaction Patterns
‘B’ is the reverse and encourages students to think for themselves before
sharing and discussing with others.
Decide which sequence is best for the tasks that you want to do in the
lesson.
When focusing on form, you might want to elicit from the whole class first,
rather than pick on individuals (and putting them under a lot of pressure
with a possibility of losing face if they get the answer wrong).
For a challenging activity that students might struggle with if you gave it to
them as an individual activity immediately.
The sequence gives them a chance to practice in a ‘safe’ group setting first,
then ups the involvement during small group / pair work, which should give
them the confidence of doing the activity by themselves.
Students can be creative and give their own input, have it multiplied by
working in pairs or small groups, and then take part in a whole class
activity, for example, a debate, or any complex task-based activity. Don’t
feel that you must use every stage of the sequence–some classes need less
support or preparation time than others.
Two ways to sequence interaction patterns.
28
A lot of schools have a policy about how much of the coursebook you need
to cover. A lot of teachers really don’t like their coursebook.
So, the question is, how flexible are you allowed to be?
Whatever your answer, you should adapt the content as much as you feel is
needed to make it relevant and engaging. You can do this by ‘personalising’
or ‘performing’ the coursebook.
Personalising Coursebooks
Remember the ‘four levels of language’ we saw earlier? A lot of the time
coursebooks don’t give you one of those levels (i.e. a topic, context,
function, or form) for every class. That’s a good opportunity to choose the
missing one with your students in mind.
You can also show your students how the topic relates to them. Find an
interesting connection.
If you can’t change the material you have to work with, at least you can
make it more interesting. Performing the coursebook works because you
inject some life into what looks like boring material.
Scaffolding
The term itself is a metaphor for support - just as scaffolding is put around a
building that’s being constructed, we provide support to learners while they
work on understanding and using language.
By providing support, then gradually handing over more and more of the
task to them, students will move from dependency to independence.
Examples of Scaffolding
How do you know if it’s too much? If your learners can’t answer a question
without referring to support material at the end of the class, it’s too much.
16 Bransford, John, National Research Council (U.S.), and National Research Council (U.S.), eds.
How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Expanded ed. Washington, D.C: National
Academy Press, 2000.
17 Vygotskij, Lev Semenovič, and Michael Cole. Mind in Society: The Development of Higher
Psychological Processes. Nachdr. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1981.
18 Berk, Laura E., and Adam Winsler. Scaffolding Children’s Learning: Vygotsky and Early
Childhood Education. NAEYC Research into Practice Series, v. 7. Washington: National Association
for the Education of Young Children, 1995.
30
Differentiation
1. Time
2. Task
Set groups different tasks, based on their linguistic ability. I normally have
two or three groups (e.g. low, medium, high-level groups).
3. Topic/Context
Edit your materials so that they provide more (or less) support as needed.
Think of your worksheets, handouts, PPTs, even your listening and reading
source material–all can be differentiated.
5. Groupings
Are you going to put students of a similar level together, or match stronger
and weaker students together? Both have their advantages and
disadvantages, so be sure to vary.
6. Role
Thoughts on Differentiation
It is, however, a great tool to help support weaker students and push
stronger learners even further. Instead of ‘teaching to the middle’ as we
often do, we don’t let students fall behind, and we don’t have to hold others
back. Which is a win-win, if you ask me.
No. The goal for both is to provide customised support, so it’s easy to see
why these concepts can get confused. Scaffolding involves breaking up a
task, skill or language point into parts, and then give support to learners to
master each part, and then the whole.
Differentiation techniques are wider ranging, as we’ve seen, and cater for
different tasks, interests and roles as well. Do they both work? Definitely20.
19 Tomlinson, Carol A. The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners. 2nd
edition. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2014.
20 Hattie, John. Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning. London ; New York:
Routledge, 2012.
21 Riener, Cedar, and Daniel Willingham. ‘The Myth of Learning Styles’. Change: The Magazine of
Higher Learning 42, no. 5 (30 August 2010): 32–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2010.503139.
VIII
Assessment
31
Checking Understanding
If any of your students might not understand a new concept, check they
understand before you move on.
‘Do you understand?’ doesn’t cut it. Students will say yes, for an easy life.
You need proof that they understand, and the best way to get it is if they
answer a question correctly. ‘Concept Checking Questions’ (or CCQs for
short) are designed for this. Rather than try to think of CCQs on the spot,
it’s easier to prepare them when you’re planning.
You can create CCQs by breaking down the item you want to check into its
concepts, then turning those concepts into questions.
For example, the word ‘motorbike’. A motorbike has two wheels, can go as
fast as a car, and isn’t a bicycle. So, after you’ve introduced the concept,
you could ask:
Don’t be like the teacher trying to concept check ‘cat’. The teacher asked,
“what’s the opposite of a dog?” to which the student answered… “Um… no
dog?”
Smart student, but not the answer the teacher was hoping for. Be sure to
think through your CCQs.
32
Checking Progress
If your plan goes perfectly, it’s still possible that they don’t learn a thing.
Student activity, engagement and confidence–these don’t guarantee students
are learning22
When you’re planning, think about what evidence you must see or hear to
be certain learning is taking place. Here are some ways you can do just that.
Monitoring
During exercises and tasks, walk around the classroom. Get close enough so
you can hear or see, not so close that students stop and give you funny
looks.
Look and listen what language the students are producing. You’ll be able to
tell whether they’re on track, doing better or worse than you were
expecting. You’ll also be able to notice any errors or mistakes that they’re
making. Combine this with error correction and you have a winning
formula.
Peer Assessment
A quick five-minute review at the end of class can tell you if your lesson
has been a success. However you decide to review, remember that you want
evidence of them using the target language. Some review formats I’ve
found successful:
3-2-1
Ask students to tell a partner (or write) three things they thought were
interesting, two things they learnt and one question they have about
anything from the class.
A similar format, where students say one thing they liked, one they didn’t
(great for getting feedback on your teaching!) and one thing they learnt.
Another Context
Students work in pairs and have two minutes to use the target language in a
different context.
Exit Ticket
With this strategy, students must answer a question before they can leave
the classroom. This can be formal, where students have a slip of paper to
write on that they give you. I prefer an informal approach, where you ask
the students out loud. This way you can differentiate the questions, making
them as challenging as necessary. The spoken approach is great for young
learners, and you can give them a high five on the way out.
The different between lesson plans and teaching lessons.
Self-Assessment
Class is over, you’ve high-fived your students and bounced into the
staffroom. What next?
Tempting as it is to grab a coffee and start prepping for the next class, take a
minute and scribble some notes on your lesson plan.
What do you want to remember when you teach this lesson next time? (how
did the context work? Would the lesson work better with a different
structure? Etc.)
What do you want to know when you teach this group of students again?
(Did you learn anything new about their motivations? Should you never,
ever sit Sally next to Simon again? Etc)
Think in terms of everything you’ve learned about planning, and what will
help you deliver a better lesson the next time around.
IX
Review
34
I get it. I’ve been there, many times. The working conditions a lot of us face
mean planning time is sometimes short, or non-existent.
Many times, I’ve been told something like, “Jeff’s called in sick. You’re
teaching in two minutes in classroom 5. Level 2A.”
What do you do? In an emergency like this, there’s nothing else you can do
but plan as you walk to the classroom.
Of course, this isn’t ideal, but reality throws us into situations like this.
Having a planning process can make the difference between chaos and
some semblance of a decent lesson.
The basic planning process in this book can be scaled from zero planning
time to full and detailed lesson plans for when you’re being observed.
At the other end, if you have a planned observation coming up and want to
make sure you haven’t missed anything, use the checklist in the next
chapter. It’ll also help you justify your planning process, if asked.
35
Students
Aims
Context
Structure
Exercises
Which exercises will help them practice this language (can you break it
down to help them?)
Tasks
Which task (or tasks) will get students to demonstrate that they’ve reached
the lesson aims?
Materials
Supporting Students
Assessment
Final Thoughts
Lesson planning seems simple, but has layers of complexity that take a long
time to master. The key to improving is to keep putting into action ideas
you get. Learn what works for you and your teaching style.
If you’d like to read more about any of the topics here, the bibliography is a
good place to start.
If you’ve found this book useful, please consider leaving me a quick review
on Amazon.
37
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About the Author
I’m David Weller - a TEFL teacher, trainer, manager and insatiable coffee
drinker.
I started teaching in 2003, and since then I’ve been a teacher, trainer,
examiner, manager, regional manager and just about everything else. Along
the way, I’ve also completed the Trinity DipTESOL and a Master’s in
TESOL. I think it’s fair to say that I’m going to be in education for life.
Thanks for reading, and the best of luck with your teaching journey.
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