Tefl Academy Unit-1 Part-3

Part 3:

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Lesson aims
Starting to plan a lesson - defining lesson aims and objectives
By the end of a lesson it’s important that students should feel they have learned
something. This means you must be clear about what you are trying to teach. So the
first consideration when you are planning a lesson is the overall aim of the lesson –
that is, what you are trying to achieve in your lesson.
The aim of a lesson must be clear and concise. It is sometimes presented as a
question written on the lesson plan, which makes it easy to assess whether the aim
has been achieved. Aims may also presented as infinitives ('to present...,' 'to
introduce....,' 'to practise...' etc.) or sentences starting 'Students will....'
Revision - components of language and language skills
In Part 1 of this unit, we looked at what we mean when we talk about knowing a language.
We divided this into two aspects:
 Language
 Skills
Can you remember what was listed under each of these headings?
When you’re ready reveal our answers on the next slide.
Revision task answer - language and skills
In Part 1 of this unit we said that someone who knows a foreign language well...
Language (components of the Skills (things we can do with the
language) language)
knows the grammar rules. can follow what native speakers are
saying, e.g. listening to the news.
uses grammar rules accurately. can speak quite fluently.
has a wide vocabulary knowledge. can read a range of different types of
text and understand them without
difficulty.
can use vocabulary appropriately. can write different types of text in the
foreign language.
has pronunciation that makes them easy
to understand.
So this gives us:
Language components: Vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation and

Skills: Reading, writing, listening and speaking
Revision
Language components: vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.
Skills: Reading, writing, listening and speaking.
Any language lesson will focus on one or more of these items. Notice that a
language lesson may just involve skills practice; we are not always introducing new
language.
Language learning is a process that occurs mainly through practice. Teachers are
often disappointed because they have taught their students lots of new grammar
and vocabulary, but the students don't seem to be able to remember any of it.
The probable reason for this is that the students have not been given the chance to
practise using the new language receptively and productively.
Research suggests that learners need to see or hear a new word or phrase in context
between 6 and 17 times before they actually 'know' it. For this reason, a lot of the
teaching we do is skills practice – the opportunity to use new language in speaking,
listening, writing or reading activities.

Distinguishing between lesson types, lesson aims and lesson objectives
However, the seven items mentioned (vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, reading,
listening, writing and speaking) are too broad to be very helpful when you are
defining the aims of an individual lesson – they describe the type of lesson, not the
aims.
In most teaching institutions a teaching period is between 45 and 60 minutes long,
and most lessons last for one or two periods. This means most lessons are between
45 minutes and two hours long (a full two hours is unusual).
The teacher needs to be realistic about what can be done in this time and specify
exactly what s/he wants to achieve in a particular lesson. If the aims are too general,
the lesson will feel unfocused and students will not be sure what they are supposed
to be learning or practising.
Try the activity below to see if you can identify which aims and objectives are
sufficiently focused, and which are too general.
Look at these lesson aims and objectives and decide which are sufficiently
focused and which are too general.
==================================================
===============
Too general
Focused

Lesson types, aims and objectives
In the previous activity you identified four focused items, which we've listed below.
1) Can students read through a text quickly to find specific information?
2) Introduce and practise vocabulary related to transport
3) Watching a weather forecast to find out what the weather will be like tonight and
tomorrow
4) Can students use the present simple to talk about personal routines and habits?
1 and 4, are aims, whereas 2 and 3 are objectives.
In Part 3 of this unit (Structuring your lesson) you can download a lesson plan
template. This includes different sections for lesson type, lesson aims, objectives.
The more general description of the language skills you are covering goes into the
'lesson type' section, e.g. 'Grammar', 'Listening and speaking', 'Reading and
vocabulary'.
Don't worry if you are feeling a bit puzzled about the meaning of and reference to
the ‘present simple’. We will talk about understanding grammar and teaching
grammar in Units 4 and 7 respectively.
Refining aims and objectives
We have now selected four aims/objectives which are fairly clearly defined:
1) Can students read through a text quickly to find specific information?
2) Introduce and practise vocabulary related to transport
3) Watching a weather forecast to find out what the weather will be like tonight and
tomorrow
4) Can students use the present simple to talk about personal routines and habits?
However, they could be tightened. For example, the use of the -ing form in 3)
(watching) does not make it clear who will be reading, watching and using. It is
muddled because the teacher will introduce the vocabulary, but the students will
practise it.
It is very helpful when you are planning a lesson to think in terms of what the
students will do (objectives) during your lesson in order to achieve the lesson aims.
So objective 3) could be written as:
Students will watch a weather forecast and say what the weather will be like using the
future simple (will + infinitive).

Lesson objectives
Rewrite this objective:
Introduce and practise vocabulary related to transport.
Begin the sentence with 'Students will… ' and rewrite the objective in your
notebook so that it is more specific.
Once you have done this reveal our answers on the next slide and compare them
with your own.
Lesson objectives
This is one way objective D could be rewritten so that it provides more focus for the teacher.
This is the original objective:
Introduce and practise vocabulary related to transport.
And this is our rewritten version:
Students will be introduced to vocabulary related to transport and practise using it in a
role play.
Don't worry if you haven't used exactly the same language as suggested here.
Obviously these ideas can be expressed in various ways. The important thing is to
think about what you hope the students will be able to do or will have practised by
the end of the lesson.
Once you have decided on the lesson type, aims and objectives, you are ready to
start planning the lesson in detail. This is what we will look at in Part 3 of this unit.
Previous
Next

Teaching materials
Once you have decided what the aims of your lesson are, you need to decide
what materials you will use. As mentioned earlier in this lesson, most institutions will
issue you with a course book, so you will not need to create your own original
materials for every lesson.
However, it is not very interesting for students to just plod through every exercise in
the book, so you should look at the material critically and decide which parts you will
use in class, which you will set for homework and which you will leave out.
Download this lesson plan template. We have already talked about aims and
objectives. This part of the unit looks at the other aspects of a lesson plan.
Authentic materials
If you want to leave something out, think about whether it needs to be replaced with
alternative materials. Students enjoy having a variety of different materials, so it is
good practice to supplement the coursebook with items from other sources.
When you are learning a foreign language it is very pleasing to be able to
understand a piece of authentic material – that is, something that was written or
recorded for native speakers, not designed as a language teaching exercise.
Authentic materials do pose some problems, though; often the language is too
advanced or too colloquial and often the texts are too long to be effectively
exploited in a lesson.

Authentic materials
Make a list in your notebook of authentic listening (including video, TV, etc.) and
reading materials that you might be able to use in your lessons. E.g. film clips,
newspaper articles.
When you have completed your list, compare our answers with your own.
Authentic materials
Our answers:
Listening (including video, TV, Reading
etc.)
film clips newspaper headlines
film trailers newspaper/magazine
articles
children's TV extracts from novels
adverts short stories
weather forecasts poems
songs adverts
interviews graffiti
clips from TV or radio shows or recipes
plays
news (TV or radio) emails
poetry readings postcards
YouTube videos blogs
sports reports timetables
tickets
instructions
signs
tourist brochures
horoscopes
problem pages
timetables
Selecting suitable material for different classes

Below are (what we consider) the best ways of matching the materials and classes
listed in the previous activity
CLASS SUITABLE MATERIAL

A class of 10-year-old beginners learning · Song - 'Heads, shoulders, knees and
English in Spain toes'
A class of pre-intermediate Japanese 13- · Song - 'Heads, shoulders, knees and
year-olds on a short holiday course in toes'
London · Short video of an exchange between a
shop assistant and customer
· London Underground (metro) map and
tickets
A mixed nationality group of new · Short video of an exchange between
immigrants with very little English living in shop assistant and customer
Southampton (in the UK) · Application form to register with a GP
(General Practice doctor)
· London Underground (metro) map and
tickets
A class of upper-intermediate adult male · An article about the economic impact of
professionals in Saudi Arabia who need climate change
English for business purposes · London Underground (metro) map and
tickets (if they are likely to travel to the
UK)
An advanced class of teenagers (male and · An article about the economic impact of
female) in Italy climate change
· An article about the rise of populist
politicians (providing you felt this topic
would not cause difficulties with your
class)
· An extract from a TV documentary about
clubbing in the UK
· An extract from a Harry Potter book

Students:
 A class of 10-year-old beginners learning English in Spain
 A class of pre-intermediate Japanese 13-year-olds on a short holiday course in
London
Material:
Harry Potter extract.
You might think that Harry Potter would be a good choice for these two groups –
certainly they are very likely to be interested, as the Harry Potter films and books are
very popular worldwide. However, just because the Harry Potter books were written
for children does not automatically mean that the language is easy. Look at this
extract:
The portrait swung forward to reveal a hole in the wall through which they all
climbed. A crackling fire was warming the circular common room, which was
full of squashy armchairs and tables, Hermione cast the merrily dancing flames
a dark look, and Harry distinctly heard her mutter 'slave labour' before bidding
them all goodnight, and disappearing through the doorway to the girls'
dormitories.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Ch. 12
While this should not be too challenging for a native-speaker child who is a
reasonably competent reader, it contains a wide range of rather difficult vocabulary,
so would not be suitable for students below upper-intermediate or advanced level
(there will be more explanation of the different language learning levels in other
modules, especially Unit 10). A short clip from a Harry Potter film would be more
suitable for these two groups.

Students:
 A class of pre-intermediate Japanese 13-year-olds on a short holiday course in
London
Material:
 Short video of an exchange between a shop assistant and customer
 London Underground (metro) map and tickets
As this group is in the UK, it would be useful to teach them language they can use
while they are there. How to buy things in a shop would clearly be useful. If the
children are allowed to travel round independently, then a lesson on how to use the
underground is also relevant.

Students:
 A mixed nationality group of new immigrants with very little English living in
Southampton (in the UK)
Material:
 Short video of an exchange between shop assistant and customer
 Application form to register with a GP (General Practice doctor)
 London Underground (metro) map and tickets
Your lessons need to give this class language and skills to help them get about in
their new country as easily as possible. Lessons on how to buy things in shops and
how to register with a GP would be very useful, so the video and the application form
would make ideal materials. How to use the London Underground would only be
useful if a lot of your students needed to travel to London. A similar lesson on public
transport in Southampton would probably be more appropriate.

Students:
 A class of upper-intermediate adult male professionals in Saudi Arabia who
need English for business purposes
Materials:
An article about the economic impact of climate change
London Underground (metro) map and tickets

If you are teaching in a country such as Saudi Arabia, you need to be very aware of
the religious and political sensitivities in that country. So of the more advanced
materials listed here, the one about the economy is probably the only suitable one.
A group of this type would probably not want to read children's literature. The
underground map would only be relevant if students were likely to go to the UK in
the near future.

Students:
 An advanced class of teenagers (male and female) in Italy
Materials:
An article about the economic impact of climate change
An article about the rise of populist politicians

An extract from a TV documentary about clubbing in the UK
An extract from a Harry Potter book
Advanced Italian teenagers would be able to cope with any of these items
linguistically and they are also the group you would probably need to be least
worried about in terms of cultural sensitivities.
Your choice would depend on their exact ages and what their interests were. If they
were older teenagers and interested in current affairs, the articles about the effects of
climate change on the economy and politics could be appropriate. However, you
would need to know the group well and feel sure that the political one would not
lead to serious arguments among your students.
For younger or less serious-minded teenagers, the clubbing documentary would
probably be of greater interest, though if there were a lot of references to sex and
drugs you would need to think carefully about whether the material was suitable.
As we have said, Harry Potter is very popular with most cultures so this could be a
good choice, but you would need to check whether the class considered this sort of
material too childish.

In the activity at the start of this section on selecting appropriate resources, we

included the problem page from a teenage girls' magazine as an option .
In our list of suggestions we left this one out completely.
Although some problem pages can make a good vehicle for looking at the language
used for asking for and giving advice, in English-speaking countries the content of
teen magazines is often sexually explicit, or discusses highly personal matters such as
menstruation. There are very few groups this sort of material would be suitable for,
and most teachers would find it embarrassing to deal with!
So when selecting materials, you should consider the students' level, age, interests,
cultural sensitivities and language needs (reasons for learning and the language they
need for the situations when they will use English).

Other materials
It is useful to list all the materials you need to take to the class in the materials
section of the lesson plan, e.g. imagine you had decided to teach a class of children
the names of rooms and furniture in a house. You might use the following activity:
Stick two big copies of this picture to the classroom wall.
The class is divided into two teams. Each team gathers round one of the pictures.
Each child is given a card on which is written a room or a piece of furniture e.g.:
They have to stick their label onto the right part of the picture.
The two teams race to see who can complete the task first.

Teaching materials
You can see how this fairly simple activity could be ruined if you got to class and
found that you had forgotten to bring the word cards or some Blu-Tack.
For this reason, it is helpful to use the materials section of the lesson plan as a
checklist. For this activity you'd write:
2 kitchen pictures, 2 sets of word cards, Blu-Tack.
Obviously some items are in the classroom all the time – you don't need to write
'whiteboard' or 'desk'! Some things, such as board pens, pencil, coursebook, you
would take to every class, so you might feel there is no need to write them down (it
depends how absent-minded you are).
It is useful, however, to list anything you need to remember that is specific to the
particular lesson you are planning.
Materials - activity
Think back to classes you have attended and imagine the sort of lesson you'd like to
give. Think about what materials you might need to bring to your lessons.
In your notebook, write down all the possibilities you can think of.
When you have completed this, compare our answers with your own.

Materials activity - feedback
Here are our thoughts on materials you might need to bring to your lessons. You
may have others on your list that are equally important for the lesson you have in
mind.
Obvious things for every lesson:
 pen and paper for yourself
 coursebook (your personal copy)
 board pens
 spare paper, pens and pencils for students who have come without
Other possibilities:
 visual aids - pictures, 'realia' (real objects to explain new vocabulary)
 handouts
 materials needed for games and activities
 class sets of books that you are using for just one lesson (schools often have
sets of books teachers can use in this way), e.g. dictionaries, grammar
reference books
 marked homework to return to students
 paper and coloured pens for making posters/presentations
 pins or Blu-Tack to display work on noticeboards or walls
 CD or DVD and the means to play it
 Laptop or USB stick to show PowerPoint presentation or other visuals
Structuring your lesson/lesson plan template
Having identified your aims and objectives and chosen your teaching material (the
order in which you do this will vary), you need to think about how you will actually
organise the lesson.
You can do this using a lesson plan template like the one we provided at the start of
this part of the unit.
If you think about classes you have attended (not lectures), you will probably
remember them as 'first we did X and then we did Y and after that we did Z'. These
different steps of the lesson, which all contribute to achieving the overall lesson aims,
are known as stages.
As we have said, any lesson can be conceptualised as having three main parts:
1. Warmer
2. Body
3. Plenary
It may seem like a statement of the obvious, but all lessons should have definite
beginning and end stages (Warmer and Plenary).

Warmer/Lead-in
The opening stage is usually referred to as a 'warmer', 'lead-in' or 'starter'. This
may consist of reviewing work done in an earlier lesson, but it is usually an
introduction to the topic and/or target language of the lesson you are about to
give. As the name 'warmer' suggests, this should be a lively activity which gets
students working together and engages their interest. The warmer stage should last
about 5-10 minutes.
Previous


Body
The 'body' of the lesson is the main content and activity of the lesson and itself will
be divided into a number of different stages.
Plenary/Final stage
The final stage is often called a 'plenary'. Its purpose is to bring together and
summarise what has been done in that day's lesson. This does not have to be a
formal listing of what has been learned – more often it is an engaging activity which
requires students to apply what they have learned that day. The final stage usually
lasts about 5-10 minutes.

Length of stages
Remember that the attention span of an adult is only about 20 minutes and that
concentrating in a foreign language is particularly difficult.
This means 20 minutes is the maximum time you should spend on a single stage, and
for most learners (lower levels and children) this would be too long.
Typically, a 60-minute lesson would have five or six stages – a warmer of 5 -10
minutes, a plenary of about 10 minutes, with the body of the lesson divided into
three or four further stages of 10 to 15 minutes each.
It is also worth remembering that students arriving, settling down and preparing to
leave at the end of the lesson all take time, so in reality you have at least five minutes
less teaching time than the length of the lesson suggests.
Planning a lesson - an example
We will now consider what stages might be included in the lesson with the objectives
we looked at at the end of Unit 1, Part 2:
Students will watch a weather forecast and say what the weather will be like using the
future simple (will + infinitive).
You may assume that this lesson would be for low-level students because weather
words such as sunny, windy, raining, etc. are usually introduced at an early stage.
However, listening to an authentic weather forecast is much more demanding. Look
at this text – this is about the first 45 seconds of a weather forecast lasting 2 minutes
and 48 seconds.

Planning a lesson
Below is a transcript from a weather report in March 2015.
Hello there, so we've got some rain that's making its way eastwards across the UK this
afternoon and there's also some strong winds around, particularly up towards the
North, but that's going to ease as we head into the evening and then overnight, with
largely clear skies over many northern parts. We are going to see some frost around by
the time you wake up tomorrow morning, so here's the pressure pattern for midday
today and you can see we've got this frontal system out towards the west, and it's that
that's going to bring this wet weather that we're going to see making its way eastwards
through the rest of today. Notice down in the eastern part of the country - here - we're
holding on to the drier weather for longer, so it's not going to be too bad an afternoon
for you, and with highs of 13, maybe 14°C, it should feel pretty pleasant out and about
in the sunshine, but under the cloud and rain, temperatures struggling, with some
places not getting above single figures.
Met Office: Cambridge. [accessed 11 March 15]
Remember, the students would be listening to this, not reading it. As we mentioned
in Part 2, listening in a foreign language is more difficult for most learners than
reading, we'll examine the reasons for this in more detail later in this course.
The fact that it is a video means students can see weather maps and the forecaster's
gestures, which will help with understanding.
Nevertheless, there is a lot of difficult vocabulary and the forecaster is speaking quite
quickly, so this material would be used with upper-intermediate or advanced
students.
Planning a lesson
We will start planning a 45-minute lesson for an upper-intermediate class (this is about
AS-/A-level standard – we will examine in more detail what the different language learning
levels are in Unit 10).

Vocabulary
It is very discouraging – and extremely difficult – to listen to (or read) a text full of
vocabulary you don't know. For this reason, teachers normally look at some of the
vocabulary with students before asking them to listen to or read a text.
They will then recognise it when they hear (or see) it.
On the other hand, learners often feel that the lesson is too easy if the teacher tells
them the meaning of words they already know. Make sure you give your students an
opportunity to show what they already know.
Planning a lesson
This gives us two stages to begin the lesson with:
1. Brainstorm weather vocabulary and directions (north, east, etc.). You could use
visuals such as these to prompt their ideas:
2. Introduce other useful vocabulary items from the text that students don't already
know.
We could then get the students to watch and listen to the text, but we need to give
them a task before they listen, so they know what they are trying to find out. The first
time they listen this should be a fairly simple task, such as 'What places does the
weather forecaster mention?'. This is to help students get a general understanding of
the text.
So the third step of this lesson would be:
3. Listen to and watch forecast (for the first time)
So the start of the first column of our lesson plan now looks like this:
STAGE
Warmer Brainstorm vocabulary
Introduce new vocabulary
First listening/viewing
This is not the complete lesson; the students need to listen to the text again to get a more
detailed understanding and have at least one follow-up activity (usually speaking) to practise
the new language introduced in stage 2. (In Unit 5 we will look at how to plan listening and
reading lessons in more detail.)
However, this is enough to show you how the teacher translates his/her initial ideas
of 'First we'll do this and then we'll do that… ' into lesson stages.

Planning a lesson - Stage aims
As well as deciding what the aims for the whole lesson are, we need to define the aims for
each stage.
WHY have you decided to include each stage?

Does it contribute to achieving your overall lesson aims?
You may quite often find that your reason for including a certain stage is just
something like:
'because that exercise is in the book', 'because it'll fill in five minutes',
'because I think students will enjoy this activity'.
These reasons are not good enough! Each stage must make a definite contribution to
the overall lesson aims.

Stage aims
Previously, we said:
'It is very discouraging – and extremely difficult – to listen to a text full of vocabulary
you don't know, so it is good idea to look at some of the vocabulary before you get the
students to listen – they will then recognise it when they hear it. On the other hand,
learners often feel that the lesson is too easy if the teacher tells them the meaning of
words they already know. Make sure you give your students an opportunity to show
what they already know.'
This explains the reasons for deciding to do the first two stages of this lesson.
1. Brainstorm weather vocabulary and directions (north, east, etc.).
2. Introduce other useful vocabulary items from the text that students don't
already know.
Stage aims - activity
Re-read the previous 4 slides and then, in your notebook write in aims for
stages 1 and 2.
We've already entered the aims for the third stage for you..
STAGE AIM
1. Warmer- brainstorm To…
vocabulary
2. Introduce new To…
vocabulary
3. First listening To help students get a
general understanding of
the text.
When you have completed your aims, reveal our answers to compare them with your
own.
Stage aims activity - answers
STAGE AIM
1. Warmer- brainstorm vocabulary To introduce the topic and revise weather
vocabulary. Find out what students already
know.
2. Introduce new vocabulary To familiarise students with new vocabulary
before they listen to the text so that they will
recognise it when they hear it.
3. First listening To help students get a general understanding
of the text.

Planning a lesson - Procedure
The procedure part of the lesson plan is where the detail of the lesson is described. Here the
teacher writes exactly what will happen in the lesson.
We have divided this into two sections: Teacher activity and Student activity – this
helps to clarify exactly what you want to happen in your lesson.
It is easy for new teachers to feel so worried about what they are going to do in the
lesson that they forget about the most important aspect of the lesson: what students
will be doing.
Let's look at stage 1, the warmer, in which students will produce a list of vocabulary
relevant to weather forecasts. We want the warmer to be a fun activity that gets
students working together, so this could be organised as a kind of team competition
(like the house vocabulary activity we looked at earlier).
Planning team size - activity
If you had 20 students, how many teams would you divide the class into?
You want the teams to be small enough for all the students to talk to each other.
When you have decided your answer, look at ours on the next page.
Previous
Top of Form
Reveal our answers

Team size activity - feedback
Teams of 4 or 5 students. This is small enough for students to be able to talk to each
other and ensure that everyone can make a contribution. It would also mean that
there are few enough groups for the teacher to be able to monitor the students i.e.
quickly go round the class and see how well each group is doing.
Interactions and sample stage plan
Click on the link to view an example of how the procedure for stage 1 could be
described.
Sample plan Stage 1 only
Interactions
The Interaction column indicates who is talking to whom during the lesson.
More traditional lessons (and lectures) consist almost entirely of the teacher talking
to the whole class. This interaction is presented as T-class. In a language lesson we
want the students to practise using the language as much as possible.
If they are just listening to the teacher they are getting listening practice, but they are
not producing any language. This is why T-class interactions should be kept to a
minimum.
T usually stands for teacher, C for class, S for student, Ss for students. You might also
use 'pairs' and 'grps' (for 'groups'). Make sure there is a variety of interactions in your
lesson.

Timing
Describing the lesson in this sort of detail helps you make an accurate estimate of
how long each stage will take.
One of the most common problems new teachers have is that they get the timing
wrong – most often they underestimate how long the lesson will take and do not
manage to get to the plenary stage of their lesson.
This is always disappointing – teachers have usually planned a nice interactive activity
for this stage. The purpose of the plenary stage is to summarise and consolidate the
whole lesson, so the lesson will feel unfinished if it ends before you have reached
the final stage.
To avoid this happening it is useful to have in mind parts of the lesson that you could
shorten or cut altogether if you find that your timing is going wrong (for example,
you have planned to do two grammar practice exercises, if short of time, you could
just do one and set the other for homework). Always keep your eye on the time.
Ensure that you do not get to the end of your lesson without doing
the plenary stage.
When you are planning, think through carefully exactly what is going to happen - the
'teacher activity' and 'student activity' sections of the lesson plan will help you with
this. Don't forget that writing on the whiteboard, getting students into groups, giving
and checking instructions, handing out worksheets and going over answers, all take
time in addition to doing the activity. Often these 'operational matters' mean a short
stage will take twice as long as you expect.
Running out of teaching material
The opposite problem is getting to the end of your teaching material before the end
of the lesson. It can be extremely embarrassing to find there are 5 or 10 minutes left,
but you have run out of teaching material.
So, as well as having in mind an activity you could leave out if you haven't got
enough time, it is also helpful to have something you could add to your lesson if you
get through your plan more quickly than you expected. Obviously, most teachers
don't have time to prepare special teaching material that they probably won't use, so
the extra activity needs to be something that does not require preparation. Quite
often there will be an extra exercise in the course book that you could use.
If you do run out of activities in your lesson, there are many word and language
games that you can use, which don't require any special materials or preparation, for
example, I-spy with my little eye.
I-spy gives students vocabulary practice and practice saying and recognising the
letters of the alphabet.
In your notebook, write down some other activities that you could use in this
situation.
When you have completed your notes, look at our ideas for useful language practice
games to fill in time at the end of the lesson.

Games for using up time at the end of the lesson
Here are just a few ideas. You will be able to think of many more. (Any game that
involves asking questions or practising the alphabet is very useful as students often
don't get enough practice with these.)
Hangman - a game in which one player writes a number of blanks to represent a
word or phrase they have thought of. E.g. if the word was 'hospital' they would put _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ on the board. The class tries to guess the letters of a word, the other
player recording failed attempts by drawing a gallows and someone hanging on it,
line by line. See this wikiHow for a fuller description.
Yes/no game - one student sits at the front of the class. The other students ask them
questions. The student being questioned must NOT say yes or no, nor nod or shake
their head.
20 questions - one student thinks of an object and the others can ask up to 20
questions to find out what it is. In this game, the student who is being questioned
can only answer yes or no.
Famous people - can be played in pairs, small groups or by the whole class. One
person thinks of a famous person; the others ask questions to find out who it is.
Again, the student who is being questioned should only answer yes or no.
The alphabet game - give students a category such as animals or food. Going round
the class, students have to try to think of an animal or type of food, etc. that begins
with each letter of the alphabet (e.g. antelope, bear, cat/apple, bread, carrot).
Telling a story/building a sentence word by word - small groups or whole class.
The first student says a word, the next one gives the next word in the sentence and
so on, e.g. Student 1: A, Student 2: man, Student 3: was,
Student 4: in, Student 5: a….
Producing lesson plans appropriate to the language ability of your class -
CEFR Levels
Language learners are placed in a class based on their level of English. There are 3 very
broad levels of progress: Elementary (A), Intermediate (B) and Advanced (C). Each of these is
subdivided, making 6 levels:
1. Beginner
2. Pre-intermediate
3. Early Intermediate
4. Upper-Intermediate
5. Early advanced
6. Advanced
It’s extremely important to plan your lessons based on the level of your class. The
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) is an
internationally recognised framework that describes these six levels of language
proficiency from A1 for beginners up to C2 for those who have mastered a language.
The CEFR is used by organisations all over the world as a reliable benchmark of
language ability.
Please see the note on the next page about the terms used for the different levels.

The CEFR levels
Whilst you may teach from course books during your EFL career, it is important to be
aware of what is expected of a learner at each level. This will assist you in becoming a
better teacher, and enable you to make better judgements about what material is
suitable for each level. In turn, this will stand you in good stead for those occasions
when you need or want to plan your lesson using authentic materials.
There is more information on how to plan for different levels in later units of this
course.
You should always carefully consider the CEFR level of the class for which you are
preparing lesson plans. When you are addressing a class it is important that
you grade your language appropriately. This means using language that is at their
level. We will look at language grading more closely in Unit 2.
If you want more information on the levels now, visit this site.
We will look more closely at what the different levels mean in later units.
NB The way the terms are applied to the levels varies a lot, e.g. A1: While when they
first begin learning a foreign language, learners are obviously complete beginners, as
they learn more they will often be referred to as 'elementary' or 'early elementary,'
rather than beginners.
A2 - Pre-intermediate is also called 'late elementary' or 'upper elementary.'

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Part 3:

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Language components: Vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation and

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Selecting suitable material for different classes

CLASS SUITABLE MATERIAL

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Part 3: Planning a lesson

London Underground (metro) map and tickets

Part 3: Planning a lesson

An article about the rise of populist politicians

Part 3: Planning a lesson

In the activity at the start of this section on selecting appropriate resources, we

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Part 3: Planning a lesson

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Part 3: Planning a lesson

WHY have you decided to include each stage?

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Part 3: Planning a lesson

Part 3: Planning a lesson

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