A lesson plan is a description of the instruction of a class or a lesson.

It is developed
by a teacher to guide a class excellently. The lesson plan is a detailed plan based on
learning objectives and teaching methods.

The importance of preparing lesson plan

The role of the teacher is to plan suitable lessons for students so learning can happen.
The result of good teaching is good learning and good learning can only happen if
the teacher takes the time to properly plan how that learning will happen. Lesson
plan helps teacher deliver the materials by knowing what the students are doing and
why and teachers know what resources are needed. Also, good lesson-planning
organizes the time of the classroom and helps teachers to achieve their lessons
efficiently with the given time .Students respond to a well-organized lesson where
no time is wasted. Thus ,the teacher’s job is made less difficult. Bin-Hady (
2018)stated the importance of planning English lessons as it follows:

1. Helping teachers to think through what learners will achieve in the lesson.

2. Providing a framework for organizing ideas, methodology, materials etc.

3. Helping teachers to know where they are going and how they are going to get
there.

4. Helping make the lesson coherent.

5. Avoiding over-domination of course books.

6. Demonstrating to learners that teacher knows what s/he is doing.

7. Being prepared boosts teacher confidence.

8. Helping to identify any problems or difficulties which may arise during the
lesson.
9. Helping teachers to adapt to different classes.

10. Developmental – a learning document for teachers to reflect on after the lesson.

11. Helping to identify the kinds of activities and materials to include to achieve
aims.

12. A lesson plan can link the lesson explicitly to syllabus objectives. (British
Council , 2008).

A lesson plan provides the teacher with a general outline of the teaching goals,
learning objectives, and means to accomplish them. A productive lesson is not one
in which everything goes exactly as planned, but one in which both students and
instructor learn from each other. Lesson plan should contain the following parts :

1-Generalities

2-Materials

3-Warm up

4-Presentation (the way you introduce the topic)

5-Language notes

6-Practices (controlled practice, semi – controlled practice, and free practice)

7-Wrap up (assessment of students).

8-Homework

To develop a lesson, teachers must follow some steps: Think out the lesson, write
down the lesson and teach the lesson. For planning an English language lesson ,
teachers can think about what they will do before the class ,during class and after the
class .The following diagram shows the steps teachers follows in planning a lesson
before, during and after the class.
Steps for preparing lesson plan before , during and after the class.

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 Educasia ,(2013 ), V. 1. (Second edition) .

Instructional methods
Instructional methods are those things used by the teacher to help the students
achieve the learning objectives. They spell out the nature of the learning activity and
different instructional methods have to be included in your lessons.

Instructional strategies

Within each model several strategies can be used. Strategies determine the
approach a teacher may take to achieve learning objectives. Strategies can be classed
as direct, indirect, interactive, experiential, or independent.

1. Direct instruction
2. Indirect instruction
3. Interactive instruction
4. Experiential instruction
5. Independent instruction.

The following diagram shows a group of instructional strategies that EFL teachers
can use in planning their lessons:
 Direct instruction strategy is highly teacher-directed and is among the most
commonly used. This strategy includes methods such as lecture, didactic
questioning, explicit teaching, practice and drill, and demonstrations. The direct
instruction strategy is effective for providing information or developing step-by-step
skills. This strategy also works well for introducing other teaching methods, or
actively involving students in knowledge construction.

Indirect instruction includes inquiry, induction, problem solving, decision

making, and discovery are terms that are sometimes used to describe . In contrast to
the direct instruction strategy, indirect instruction is mainly student-centred,
although the two strategies can complement each other. Examples of indirect
instruction methods include reflective discussion, concept formation, concept
attainment, cloze procedure, problem solving, and guided inquiry.

Interactive instruction relies heavily on discussion and sharing among participants.

The interactive instruction strategy allows for a range of groupings and interactive
methods. These may include total class discussions, small group discussions or
projects, or student pairs or triads working on assignments together.

Experiential learning is inductive, learner centred, and activity oriented. The

emphasis in experiential learning is on the process of learning and not on the product.
Personalized reflection about an experience and the formulation of plans to apply
learnings to other contexts are critical factors in effective experiential learning.
Experiential learning greatly increases understanding and retention in comparison to
methods that solely involve listening, reading, or even viewing (McNeil & Wiles,
1990). Students are usually more motivated when they actively participate and teach
one another by describing what they are doing.

Independent study refers to the range of instructional methods which are

purposefully provided to foster the development of individual student initiative, self-
reliance, and self-improvement. Independent study can also include learning in
partnership with another individual or as part of a small group. It is important that
the instructor make sure that learners have the necessary skills in order to accomplish
the task. Independent study is very flexible. It can be used as the major instructional
strategy with the whole class, in combination with other strategies, or it can be used
with one or more individuals while another strategy is used with the rest of the class.
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Approaches

Instructional methods and the cognitive domain:

Instructional methods also need to be considered in terms of the cognitive domain.
The following figure shows a group of instructional methods according to the
cognitive domain .

Effective Ways to Plan a Lesson

1. Lesson planning outline - Plan out lessons using existing templates made
available on Microsoft Word or PowerPoint to get started on ideas for creating lesson
plans. Take what others have done and add details to make them your own to make
sure you are on the right track. Everything is available online and so you just need
to make sure all effective components such as warm-up, introduction, lesson
delivery, guided practice, assignments and closing statements are included in your
plan.

2. Using folders to save lessons - Create a structured document in your computer or

use a portable external drive. Save all your lessons one by one so you can save time
every year when you are covering content with minor improvements and changes.
This way you can use old content with minor tweaks to make it more improved and
effective.
3. Time each lesson component - Timing helps organise the lesson but it can always
be adjusted as per the needs of learners. Sometimes no matter how much teachers
plan, lessons do not go as planned and parts need to be repeated as per learners’
understanding. Keeping it old school, with a small timer helps. You can also
download one from the internet and keep a log of activities. A typical time for each
component of a lesson varies, but can go something like this for a 1-hour lesson:

• Warm-ups: 5 minutes
• Introduction: 2 minutes
• Presentation: 18 minutes
• Checking for Understanding: 7 minutes
• Guided practice: 23 minutes
• Closing & assigning homework: 5 minutes

4. Check understanding - You can get a clear picture of what the class understood
from your lesson by checking for understanding. During this phase, you can be sure
of how much each student has understood. It is better to catch mistakes at the initial
level before any assignments or quizzes are circulated. For a virtual classroom,
strategies such as misconception check, collaborating and learning, creating a word
cloud, rating understanding and opinion charts are used to identify the need for
support for student learning.

5. Incorporating activities - To make learning fun and engaging, activities are used
to make lessons interactive. Using learning approaches such as small projects, games
using technology, role-play, group presentations and hands-on work to help learners
learn more and share plenty of ideas.

A lesson plan does not necessarily have to be a detailed script that contains the
plan of every interaction with students in the classroom. It should preferably have a
general overview of the aims and objectives of the course, the plan of teaching and
learning activities of the course and the activities planned to check the students’
understanding. It is like producing a show for each day and utilising each minute
teachers have with their learners to get the most out of it in a limited time period
( Alice,2018).
The following are examples of lesson plan templates :
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