Lesson

Planning
A Trainee’s Guide
 Planning support
This document is intended to help you with lesson planning. You are not expected to read it from
beginning to end in one sitting, but to refer to it when necessary. It includes explanations and
models of all parts of the plan. It’s not uncommon for trainee teachers on the CELTA to miss the
link between the plan and the lesson itself, but a good lesson plan with plenty of detail invariably
leads to a better lesson. It helps you prepare prior to the lesson and is a script for you to follow
during it.

Contents

The cover sheet 3

Lesson Aims
Personal Aims
Assumptions
Materials
Anticipated problems and solutions

The language analysis sheet 5

Lexis - analysis sheet
Grammar – analysis sheet
Functional language – analysis sheet

The procedure sheet 15

Stages and stage aims
Timing
Interaction
Procedures

Checking your plan 19

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The Cover Sheet
Lesson Aims
 Main Aim – it is important that you know what the main aim of your lesson is. You will
usually only have one and this will involve either language or skills. You only need to write
one of the following in the box that says ‘Main aim’.
Grammar Lexis Functional Language Reading Listening Writing Speaking
 Sub Aim – You will usually have a secondary aim in your lesson that helps to achieve your
main aim. If your main aim is listening or reading, there may be some lexis that they need
to know in order to understand the text. Or if your main aim is grammar, you may do a
short speaking activity to practise it. Again, you only need to write one of the following in
the box that says ‘Sub aim’.
Grammar Lexis Functional Language Reading Listening Writing Speaking
If you don’t have a sub aim, just write N/A in the box.
You need to know what your priority is when planning and executing your lesson. When planning
your time and if you find things go awry during the lesson, ensure your main aim takes priority.
 Skill(s) aim
For receptive skills make sure you include the skill(s), sub-skills, text type, and the
context:

By the end of this lesson learners will have developed listening (skill) for gist and detail (sub-skills)
with a discursive radio interview (text type) about the environment (context).

For productive skills include the skill(s), sub-skills, the task type, and the context:

By the end of this lesson learners will have developed spoken (skill) fluency and accuracy (sub-
skills) in a discussion (task type) about the environment (context).

 Language aim
Make sure the language aim is clearly labelled lexis, grammar, or functional language.

For lexis you also need to state the topic/context of the lexis:

By the end of this lesson learners will have developed lexis (language area) about the environment
(topic/context).

For grammar you also need to clearly label the structure, and state the context:

By the end of this grammar (language area) lesson learners will have developed their knowledge
and use of the present perfect simple (structure) to talk about past experiences (context).

For functional language you need to clearly label the function and state the context:

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By the end of this lesson learners will have developed their knowledge and use of a set functional
language structures (language area) to make suggestions (function) for organising a party
(context).
Personal Aims
These are aims that relate to you as a teacher, rather than the lesson itself, and will help you
focus on your own personal development.
These could include such things as:
 To sit down more
 To make sure I include all the students
 To stop talking so much
 To give clearer instructions
 To check instructions
 To monitor more effectively
 To maintain a good pace
 To correct more during drilling

Assumptions
These are things relating to your lesson that you feel you can safely assume your students will
know. For example:
o The students will be familiar with past participles of the verbs used in the lesson.
o The students will be familiar with the present simple active (if, for example, you are
teaching the passive).
o The students will be familiar with the meaning, form and pronunciation of the present
perfect simple (if, for example, you are following on from a teacher who is going to present
the language).
o The students will have a basic knowledge of the political systems in their countries.
o The students will know some of the vocabulary included in the lesson (if you are doing a
Test-teach-test type lesson.

Materials
Write what materials you are using and where (what book, internet site, etc.) the information
comes from. You must reference all handouts, and attach a copy of each with your plan. (Example
reference: Headway, Liz and John Soars, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 46.)
You could also list the things you need to do the lesson; e.g. handouts, dictionaries, cue-cards for
substitution drilling, images for lead-in. Listing them on the cover sheet will help you make sure
you’ve got everything ready, and will be useful when you look back at the lesson after the course.

Anticipated problems and solutions

Anticipation of potential problems will come naturally with experience, but on the CELTA it is a good
idea to make a note of practical things that you learn from watching the tutors, your peers or from
your own teaching. Don’t be afraid to state the obvious and don’t confuse this section with
anticipated problems with language. That has its own section. Finally, make sure you include a
solution for each problem.

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Ensure that the problems refer to classroom management and are relevant to your specific lesson.
Some examples may be:

 Latecomers
 People leaving early
 Audio track may not work
 Odd numbers
 Lower/higher numbers that expected
 Particular students not working well together

The language analysis sheet

In order to clarify language for the students we need to be able to break it down. Meaning needs
to be conveyed, students’ understanding checked, and form and pronunciation need to be visually
highlighted and the latter drilled. There are, however, slight differences in the analysis of language
required, depending on whether it’s lexis, grammar or functional language.

Lexis Analysis Sheet

Once you have selected the items that you are going to teach, you need to include them in example
sentences that provide the context that you are going to use to teach them. You also need to include
a simple definition, one that you will use with the students. Use a dictionary to help you, e.g. http://
dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/learner-english/ or http://www.macmillandictionary.com/
These definitions may well be used to convey meaning in a matching task.
Target lexis (underlined) in example sentences and definitions

1. She would come teetering into the classroom on very high heels – to look as if you are going to
fall
2. It sends shivers down my spine just to hear it. – to make someone afraid or frightened
3. He was a horrible, cantankerous old man. - arguing and complaining a lot
4. All the kids were scared stiff of him – extremely frightened
5. We all looked up to her and enjoyed every one of her lessons. – to respect and admire someone
6. He was always yelling at us and telling us off. – to shout very loudly

The next stage is to show how you will convey and check the meaning of these items. Definitions are not
always enough on their own, which is why you have been introduced to a lot of techniques to convey and
check meaning (using pictures, realia, miming, context building, synonyms, antonyms, etc.). Remember the
least effective and least efficient of these is often verbal explanation. Bear this in mind when you are
considering how you will convey meaning. Remember, exploit the context, because it facilitates teaching
and learning. Describe what techniques you will use to convey the meaning, and check. You can use
questions, often referred to as CCQs (concept checking questions). However, these are not the only way and
often, especially at lower levels, not the best way to check. You can also elicit an example, antonym or
synonym, or get the students to personalise the language – if they can use it contextually correctly, they
probably know what it means. If you do use checking questions, please include the answers you expect the
students to give.

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 Conveying and checking meaning
The students will have read the text for gist and so will have come across the lexis within the context so
I will explore each item within the context and ask the following CCQs:

1. Did Miss Potts wear flat shoes? No. Did the shoes make her walk/stand confidently? No. Did
she look like she was going to fall over? Yes. Did she fall over? No
2. Did he feel frightened when he heard the name? Yes. A little or a lot? A lot. What are some
things that send shivers down your spine? Spiders, heights etc.
3. Was his teacher a nice man? No. Did he complain a lot? Yes. Was he bad-tempered with the
children? Yes. What’s the opposite of cantankerous? Pleasant/agreeable.
4. Did he make the kids feel good or bad? Bad. Were they afraid of him? Yes. A little or a lot? A
lot?
5. Did the children respect her? Yes. Apart from our teachers, who do children typically look up
to? Heroes, footballers? Do they want to be like the people they look up to? Yes
6. Did he speak quietly or loudly? Loudly? When do people usually yell? When they are angry.

I will have these images from google.com to help consolidate the meaning if any doubts are remaining.

Form, in the case of lexis, can be as little as what part of speech a word is, but there are other things to
consider including:
 Is the spelling tricky?
 Is it a regular or irregular verb? If it’s irregular, what are the past forms?
 Is it a transitive or intransitive verb? I.e. does it have to take an object (transitive), e.g. raise, as in
“I want you to raise my salary.” You cannot say, “I want you to raise”. Or can it not take an object
(intransitive), e.g. rise, as in “The sun rises”. You cannot say “I want you to rise my salary.”
 There may be collocation to consider, e.g. what verbs go with golf, swimming, and karate? (Answer;
play, go, and do)
 Is there a dependent preposition/particle, e.g. “I’m interested in lexis”
 If it’s a multi-word lexical item, what is the syntax (word order)?
 Syntax can be considered more generally, e.g. where in a sentence can the word go? Consider the
flexibility of the adverb usually in this sentence; “I run every other day”.

Use a dictionary to help you, e.g. http://www.macmillandictionary.com/.What you put here should be what
appears on the board in class.

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 Form
1. To teeter – a regular intransitive verb.
2. (It) sends shivers down my spine – a phrase with variable subjects: it/they/she or a proper noun
e.g. his voice. Also the personal pronoun can change to any possessive adjective: his/her
3. (To be) Cantankerous – an adjective
4. (To be) Scared stiff – a phrase composed of an adjective and an adverb. It normally collocates
with of + noun or verb-ing and functions like an adjective.
5. To look up to someone – a transitive 3-part phrasal verb which can’t be separated
6. To yell – a regular verb which can be transitive or intransitive as you can yell at someone or just
yell.

Pronunciation, as you can see in the example below, is presented on the board using the International
Phonemic Alphabet (IPA). Stress is indicated with apostrophes in IPA and/or dots otherwise. You should also
show any linking. However, entire words do not need to be transcribed in IPA, just troublesome areas. You
can get IPA transcription from a good online dictionary, e.g. http://www.macmillandictionary.com/. If you
use another dictionary, make sure it uses IPA and not another type of phonemic transcription. If you want
to have a go at transcribing words yourself, or you need to transcribe how you think students might say it
use http://www.e-lang.co.uk/mackichan/call/pron/type.html and follow the instructions. Alternatively you
can write them in by hand. So, think of this box as a plan of your board work for when you deal with
pronunciation.

Pronunciation
●
1. teeter /ˈtiːtə(r)/
● ●
2. sends shivers down my spine

/ˈʃɪvəz/ / spaɪn/

●
3. Cantankerous
/kænˈtæŋk(ə)rəs/

●
4. Scared stiff
/skeəd stɪf/
●

5. To look up to someone

/lʊkʌp tə/
6. Yell
/jel/

Lexis – anticipated problems and their solutions

This section is designed to help you think about problems that students may have with the lexical items you
plan to teach. Typical areas you should consider for meaning are:
 Appropriacy, e.g. formal or informal, gender specific, slang, archaic
 Connotation, e.g. slender vs. thin
 false cognates, e.g. constipado vs. constipated

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You will notice from the examples problems are not anticipated for every item. You should mention genuine
problems you predict and not try to come up with them for each lexical item you plan to teach.

Meaning
P: 2 & 4 – Students could have difficulty differentiating between send shivers down my spine and
scared stiff as both are related to fear.
S: I could mime the physical shudder that we associate with send shivers down my spine and mime
being petrified and unable to move for scared stiff. Also ask CCQ: Which one is more intense? Scared
stiff.
P: 5 – students may interpret the phrasal verb literally.
S: Use CCQs to establish its non-literal meaning. Explore who they look up to.

Typical problems with form include:

 collocation (e.g. interested + in)
 grammar pattern (e.g. interested + in + noun / verb-ing)
 word class (e.g. interest vs. interesting vs. interested)
 syntax
 spelling

Form
P: 2. The students may forget to conjugate/conjugate incorrectly the irregular verb send
P: 2. The students may forget to change the possessive pronoun or omit part of the phrase
S: 2 Ensure I board the phrase and elicit which slots are fixed and which are variable.
P: 3 The students may misspell the word as kantankerous due to the different pronunciation of the 2
‘Cs’ .
S: 3 Make sure to highlight the spelling and pronunciation oddities.
P: 4 Students may neglect to use with the verb ‘to be’ as the ‘ed’ adjective form already looks like a
verb in the past
S: 4 Remind students that it is an adjectival phrase and therefore needs to collocate with the verb’ to
be’.
P: 5 Students may try to separate the 3 parts of the phrasal verb and say I look him up to or look up
him to.
S: 5 Board and highlight that it is inseparable as all 3 part phrasal verbs.

Typical issue for pronunciation to consider include:

 consonant/vowel clusters (e.g. crisps, plateau)
 silent letters/syllables (e.g. listen, chocolate, comfortable)
 word/sentence stress
 irregular spelling (e.g. women)
 words that link/run together (e.g. get off, sing along)
It is important to consider whether problems of pronunciation occur when the student is listening to and
trying to decipher the lexical item, or trying to say it, i.e. is the problem with receptive or productive skills?
Notice also that with pronunciation, more than with meaning and form, the solutions tend to be very similar.
So here we see the teacher has just one solution for all the problems.
Pronunciation
P: 2 & 4 Spanish speakers tend to add /ə/ before the /s/ sound in both expressions as there are few
words in Spanish that start with s followed by a consonant.
P: 3 Students may misplace the stress due to L1 interference and stress the final syllable instead of
the second one.
P: 5 Students may be confused by the linked consonant and vowel sounds and hear ‘cup’ instead of
look up. This may cause difficulty in listening and thus in production.
Solutions: if the above errors occur after clarification I will refer to highlighted phonology features on the
board and model and drill correctively.

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Remember to source the dictionaries or grammar books you have consulted for your definitions or phonemic
script.

Reference
www.macmillandictionary.com
dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/learner-english/
http://lingorado.com/ipa/

Grammar Analysis Sheet

It is important to show the structures embedded in the sentences they will be presented in, as it
contextualises them. This is vital because grammatical structures can often have two
meanings/functions/uses, e.g. “I’m reading about lesson planning” vs. “I’m visiting my mum this weekend”.
These utterances both use the present continuous but the first expresses something happening now while
the second expresses a future plan.

So, provide an example of the structure in the sentence it will be presented in (usually from a text the
students have read/listened to). Do not create your own examples (unless you are using a situational
presentation). After all, the students have the context very firmly established from the reading or listening
section of the lesson.

Example sentences

He had worked as an interrogator in the army, and that was just how he taught.

Here you need to name the structure and provide a definition of its meaning/function/use in this particular
context. Do not give every possible use, as this is overwhelming for students. You will notice (below) that
the teacher has included a reference for the research they did. These definitions came from the Grammar
for English Teachers by Martin Parrot. It is good practice, on the CELTA, to check the meaning/function/use
in a grammar book or in the ‘grammar reference’ section of a course book even when you think you know it
already.

Name of structure and meaning/function/use

This is an example of the past perfect simple. We use the past perfect when we want to draw attention
to something that took place and finished before something else in the past. We use the past perfect to
avoid confusion or ambiguity. In this context his life in the army happened and was completed before he
became a teacher.

In this box you need to consider how you will convey and check the meaning/function/use of the target
structure (e.g. timelines, categorization tables, clines, guided discovery tasks, checking questions, eliciting
personalised examples, etc.).

Note: you need to actually include the following, not just state you will use one or more of them:
 timelines (they can be drawn in by hand)
 clines
 concept checking questions (CCQs)
 answers to CCQs

Remember to exploit the context when designing ways to convey, and/or check meaning/function/use; it
facilitates teaching and learning.

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 Conveying and checking meaning/function/use

The key point in the past is him teaching. The X represents when he was
an interrogator in the army.

CCQs: Are we talking about the past? Yes

How many actions are there in the past? (Two)
Did both actions happen at the same time? (No)
So did one action happen before the other? (Yes)
Which action happened first? (He worked in the army)

Show the form you will use for the students on the WB/handout, plus any other information useful for
students. Focus only on the structure you’re teaching, not the whole sentence it is presented in.

Form
We form the past perfect simple with had followed by the main verb in the past participle form.
Question Past
had subject had not or n’t
word participle
Affirmative He had worked.

Question (Why) had he worked?

Negative He hadn’t worked.

Show how you will display the pronunciation for the students on the board. Your key focus should be on the
structure itself. Include any relevant word/sentence stress, contractions, intonation, weak forms, etc. with
phonemic transcript of key words. Remember you can just write in phonemes by hand or use http://www.e-
lang.co.uk/mackichan/call/pron/type.html

Pronunciation
●
He had worked
/hi həd wɜːkt/
●
He’d worked
/hiːd wɜːkt/

Grammar – anticipated problems and their solutions

This section is designed to help you think about problems (and their solutions) that students may have with
the grammatical structures you plan to teach. A very useful book for this is Parrott, “Grammar for English
Language Teachers”, CUP, (UK), 2000, which contains a section at the end of each structure that details
typical difficulties learners may have. If you use this book, make sure you cite Parrott.

Meaning/Function/Use
P: The greatest potential for confusion with the use of the past perfect is understanding the sequence
of events. For example, the difference between He left when I got there and He’d left when I got there
(Parrot page 227)
P: Students may over-use the past perfect e.g. I had graduated from university and then I had joined
the army.

S: Listen out for contextualised examples from the students and if errors occur, ask CCQs to prompt
them to self-correct and refer them back to the timeline.

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Parrott’s book is useful for problems with form too. Considerations often include:
 Omitting parts of a structure
 Syntax (getting the order of the words in a structure wrong)

Form
P1: Students may make mistakes with irregular past participles
P2: Students may leave out the auxiliary had
P3: Students may fail to invert the order for question forms
P4: Having learnt the use of did and didn’t to ask questions and make negatives in the past simple,
learners may inappropriately extend this to the past perfect.
P5: Learners may avoid using the past perfect and instead us ethe past simple with adverbs of time e.g
then, after
(Parrot page 228)
S: Listen carefully while monitoring and refer students back to the form on the board

Typical problems for pronunciation often include:

 contractions
 where the stress goes in the structure
 words that link/run together (e.g. get off, sing along)

Pronunciation
P1: Learners may over pronounce the regular –ed endings, adding an entire syllable to the base verb
rather than adding a final consonant e.g. /wɜːked/ instead of /wɜːkt/
P2: Learners may stress the auxiliary instead of the participle.
P3: Learners may have receptive and productive problems with the contracted ‘d’
Solutions: if the above errors occur after clarification I will refer to highlighted phonology features on the
board and model and drill correctively.

Make sure you cite any research you have done. It’s evidence of all your hard work.

Grammar Reference(s)
Grammar for English Language Teachers”, Parrot, CUP, (UK), 2000
Concept Questions and Timelines, Workman, Gem Publishing, 2008

Functional Language
Functional language is ‘chunks’ of language (often phrases or particular grammatical structures) for a
particular situation or context, e.g. a group of people brainstorming ideas for what to do at the weekend
would use language of suggestion, or language of recommendation. Advertisements often use language of
persuasion. Below we see language of polite requests (in this case), used in restaurants.

Functional language Analysis Sheet

Provide an example of the functional language embedded in the sentences it will be presented in (usually
from a text the students have read/listened to). Do not create your own examples. After all, the students
have the context very firmly established from the reading or listening section of the lesson. Below you will
notice that the teacher has categorised the structures into requesting to do something yourself, and
requesting someone else to do something for you.

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 Example sentences

1. Could I have the bill, please?

2. Excuse me, can I get past, please?
3. Is it ok/all right if I take this chair?
4. Do you mind if I borrow your mobile phone?

5. Could you pass me the water, please?

6. Excuse me, can you tell me the time, please?
7. Would/Do you mind watching my bag?

Many trainees forget or overlook the need to establish or clarify the function of the language, thus neglecting
meaning. This box is designed to ensure you don’t do this. So, here you have to name and underline the
function of these structures and the context.

The Function
These are all used to make polite requests in this case in restaurants.
1-4 the speakers ask to do things
5-6 the speakers ask other people to do things for them

Now that you have established the function you need to consider how you will check/clarify/convey it. As
with all language it’s typical to use guided discovery tasks (often matching the example sentences to a
definition or categorising them). Just remember, verbal explanation is often the least effective/efficient way.
Finally exploit the context, it facilitates teaching and learning.

Conveying and checking the function

I will board and model impolite requests (by overacting rude requests), e.g. “I want your pen!”
and ask students what is wrong.
I will use a guided discovery task in which students categorise the example sentences (above)
into:
 ask to do things
 ask other people to do things
Questions I can ask at various stages of the class refer back to these functions, e.g.
 Is this polite? (Yes/No)
 Is this asking to do something?
 Is this asking someone to do something for you?

Since functional language is often a group of structures or ‘chunks’ of language you need to look for any
common patterns that emerge (see below). Grammatical patterns are often what follows the ‘chunk’,
structure or stem. The ‘chunk’, or stem often doesn’t change, as in the examples below. When boarding the
form for students it’s helpful to group common patterns together and present them neatly and as simply as
possible (see below). So, think of this box as a board plan for the part of your lesson that deals with form.
Form/Grammar Pattern
Could I/you
Can I/you + verb
Is it ok/all right if I
Do you mind if I

Would/Do you mind + verb-ing

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Show how you will display the pronunciation for the students on the board. Your key focus should be on the
structure/stem itself. Include any relevant word/sentence stress, contractions, intonation, weak forms, or
linking, etc. with phonemic transcript of key words. Remember you can write phonemes by hand or use
http://www.e-lang.co.uk/mackichan/call/pron/type.html or http://lingorado.com/ipa/

Pronunciation

/kʊdaɪ/ • • •
1. Could I have the bill, please? Could I and Can I run together
/kænaɪ/• • •
2. Can I get past, please?
Is it ok if I runs together to
/zɪdəʊkeɪfaɪ/• •
form just 4 syllables
3. Is it ok if I take this chair?

/ʤəmaɪndɪfaɪ/ • • •
4. Do you mind if I borrow your mobile phone? Do you/Would you/Could you
/kʊʤə/ • • • all create a /ʤə/ /ʤu/ sound
Could you pass me the water, please? when they run together
/wʊʤə/ • • •
5. Would you mind watching my bag?

Anticipated problems and their solutions

It is not unusual, as we see here, for there to be no real issues for students with the meaning or use of a
functional set of language. However, if this is the case, you can state why you think this is so.
The function
 I do not anticipate any problems with the meaning or function of any of this set.
 The idea of polite requests is universal in all languages and easily conveyed via acting.
 The issue of requesting to do something yourself or requesting somebody to do
something for you is clear from the pronouns, i.e. Can I vs. Can you

Typical problems with form to consider often include:

 omitting parts of the stem or structure
 syntax, (getting the order of the words in a stem or structure wrong)
 getting the grammar pattern wrong
You need to state explicitly what errors you think the students may make.
Form/grammar pattern
P: SS may try to use Is it OK if… or Do you mind if… to ask someone to do something for you;
“Is it ok if you…” or “Do you mind if you…”

P: SS may try to use the wrong verb form with Would you mind…;
“Would you mind pass the salt”

S: Refer students back to the form set out on the board, or on their handouts

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Typical problems for pronunciation often include:
 contractions
 where the stress goes in the structure
 words that link/run together (e.g. get off, sing along)

Pronunciation

I don’t anticipate any problems with the Can or Could structures as these should be well known
to Intermediate learners.

P: SS may struggle to run the string Is it ok if I and Do you mind if I together in a natural way.
S: I will board the phonemics and slow the models right down, breaking into mini chunks like
/zɪd/ - /zɪdəʊ/ - /zɪdəʊkeɪ/ - /zɪdəʊkeɪfaɪ/. Once they’ve got that I can start to build the speed
up. However if they are really struggling and saying the words very separately I can reassure
them that this is fine, they only need to know what it sounds like for when they are listening to
native speakers.

P: SS may also struggle with the /ʤə/ or /ʤu/ sound in Could you.., Would you…, Do you…
when listening.
S: Board the phonemics, highlight the words running together and do lots of modelling and
drilling.

Make sure you cite any research you’ve done. It’s evidence of all your hard work.
Source or Grammar Reference used to prepare for this lesson:
Cunningham and Moor “Cutting Edge – Intermediate”, Pearson Longman, UK, (2005), pp 18-19

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The Procedure Sheet
The procedure sheet helps you think through your lesson when planning so you can visualise what will
happen from moment to moment. During the class it is your script, so have it with you when you teach.

Stages and stage aims

The lesson needs to be broken down into different stages. The number of stages that you have will depend
on your type of lesson and the lesson shape you are following.
Each stage must have an aim; a reason why you’re doing this in the lesson. What’s more, this aim must in
some way help the students achieve the main aim on the cover sheet. If it doesn’t, you might need to
reconsider – perhaps you’re getting side-tracked. Below is a section of the beginning of a listening lesson.
Inter-
Stages and Stage Aims Mins. Procedure
action

Lead-in to set the

context and engage
students’ interest

Prediction Task- to
encourage students to
predict/think about the
content of the text

Pre-teach vocabulary
– to unblock key
vocabulary needed to
help students complete
the gist task and detailed
tasks.

Listening for gist – to

encourage students to
listen for the general
idea.

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Timing
The second column is for the time you think each stage will take. It is better to write the time for a whole
stage, rather than every micro-step. When trying to calculate the timing of your lesson it is better to forget
about how long you have and simply look at each stage and guesstimate how long you think the students
will need. Then add all the minutes up and see if it fits into the time you have for the lesson. More often
than not it won’t. What this tells you is you have too much material. So it needs to be reduced, and/or
activities trimmed. This is a much more effective way of working on timing. The alternative is to try to rush
the students through activities simply because you only have a limited amount of time, which is clearly not
desirable.

Mins Inter-
Stages and Stage Aims Procedure
. action

Lead-in to set the context 5

and engage students’
interest

Prediction Task- to 5
encourage students to
predict/think about the
content of the text

Pre-teach vocabulary – 5
to unblock key vocabulary
needed to help students
complete the gist task and
detailed tasks.

Listening for gist – to 5

encourage students to
listen for the general idea.

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Interaction
The third column is interaction and this is to encourage you to be aware of how much of your class is student-
centred. Abbreviations are:
 S-S = students talking to each other
 T-SS = teacher talking to students
 SS-T = students talking to teacher
Student-centred lessons are good because busy students are engaged and engaged students are learning.
Inter-
Stages and Stage Aims Mins. Procedure
action

Lead-in to set the 5 T – SS

context and engage
students’ interest S–S

SS - T

Prediction Task- to 5 T – SS
encourage students to
predict/think about the S–S
content of the text

SS - T

Pre-teach vocabulary 5 T – SS
– to unblock key
vocabulary needed to SS - T
help students complete
the gist task and detailed
tasks.

Listening for gist – to 5 T - SS

encourage students to
listen for the general S–S
idea.
SS - T

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Procedure
For each stage, you need to decide how you are going to achieve this aim; this is your procedure. Your
procedure says exactly what you are going to do in the lesson to achieve that particular stage aim. You
don’t need to write every single word you are going to say, although you might like to script your
instructions, particularly at low levels.

Inter-
Stages and Stage Aims Mins Procedure
action

5 T – SS Tell ss I’m planning a winter holiday

Lead-in to set the and I’d like some information about
context and engage your countries to help me decide where
students’ interest to go.

S–S Ask ss to discuss questions in ex 1 in

pairs

SS - T Feedback

Prediction Task- to 5 T - SS Tell ss we are going to listen to 3 people

encourage students to talking about where to visit in winter in
predict/think about the their countries.
content of the text
Ask ss to look at pictures and guess
which countries they are.

S–S Pairs discuss

SS - T Feedback
Pre-teach vocabulary 5 T – SS Pre-teach words: elicit, CCQ, drill, board
– to unblock key SS - T with phonemes and word stress
vocabulary needed to
help students complete Chilly: elicit by miming and asking what
the gist task and detailed do we call it when the weather is just a
tasks. little cold?

Mild: what do we call it when the

weather isn’t cold and isn’t hot?

Pyramids: elicit using the picture

Take a cruise: elicit using the picture

Mint: show picture of chewing gum and

ask what does it taste of usually?
Listening for gist – to 5 T – SS Ask ss to listen and say which country
encourage students to each person is talking about & which
listen for the general pictures go with each person
idea.
S Ss listen once

S–S Ss check answers in pairs

SS - T Whole class feedback

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The fifth column (not shown here) is for the tutors to write in, please leave it blank.

Checking your plan

When you’ve finished your plan, check the following:

1. Is there a variety of interaction in the lesson? If there are too many T – S stages, the lesson is
probably going to be too teacher-centred.
2. Is your plan logical and does each stage follow on from the previous one?
3. Look at your plan backwards. Do the students have the necessary language or information to be
able to do your final activity? For example, if the students are asking each other questions at the
end, have they been taught the questions and the answers?

A few words of advice

I know how daunting all of this might look, particularly early on in the course. However, this is intended
to help you think more clearly about what you are doing in the classroom (the stage), why you are
doing it (the aim), and how you’re going to do it (the procedure). Once you start doing this more
effectively, your lessons are much more likely to be successful.

Plan first, and make your materials second.

Don’t make two plans! This is a working document, not an essay to hand into us to be corrected.
Try to write the plan so that you can refer to it in the lesson (and do refer to it in the lesson; it’s not
cheating!)

If you find the layout of the sheets I’ve emailed you too restricting, make your own version. However,
you must include all the same things and leave space for the tutor’s comments.

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