PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Lessons in planning –
a Process Approach to
lesson planning
Rose Aylett describes an innovative approach to helping teachers with lesson planning.
H ow well do you plan? Does the
time you spend on your lesson
plans reflect the quality of the lessons
(TSP). Assisting these teachers with
their planning, in addition to interviews
conducted with a wide range of teachers
applied exclusively, doesn’t have the
desired effect. Teachers graduate from
ITT courses brimming full of enthusiasm
you teach? Do you spend seemingly and trainers at the centre, has highlighted and ideas, but without the skills to write
endless evenings staring at a blank sheet some of the most common challenges a good lesson plan within a reasonable
of paper trying to think of an engaging teachers face when lesson planning. time limit. Several of the newly qualified
lead-in? Does your use of the IWB These include (but are not limited to): teachers I spoke to when conducting
warrant the three hours a day you spend a lack of preparation time and ideas, a research for this article sheepishly
making digital materials? tendency to over-plan and a failure to admitted that they regularly spent up to
achieve the main aims of the lesson. five hours preparing for a single lesson.
If the answer to any – or all – of the Other colleagues, such as Monzer,
above is yes, don’t panic – you are not One of the most enlightening things lamented a stifling of creativity: ‘When
alone! For many teachers, new and about these conversations has been I have the time, I’m not just a good
old alike, daily lesson planning can uncovering the enormous diversity planner, I’m creative … if not, I’m an
be a time-consuming and thankless in the way teachers plan. In terms of average planner.’
task, for which we are given little to no process, it is clear to me there is no
training during the course of our careers. ‘right’ way to plan a lesson, except the With this in mind, perhaps it’s time to
Chock-full of other input sessions, like way that works best for the individual radically rethink how we train teachers to
how to write a cover page or a language teacher and results in the best possible lesson plan, and strip planning back to its
analysis sheet, the CELTA and other learning. I agree with Steve Brown fundamentals. In essence, planning is a
initial teacher training (ITT) courses (2013), who writes: ‘How your plan thinking skill that involves visualising the
leave little room for discussing the looks is irrelevant; it may not even exist lesson before it takes place. According
day to day realities of lesson planning. in physical form. But what is important to Jim Scrivener (2005: 109), it involves
Trainers regularly dismiss ‘real’ lesson is that you have put in some careful ‘prediction, anticipation, sequencing,
planning: ‘of course, you won’t plan thought prior to lesson delivery.’ organising and simplifying …’. Though the
like this when you really start teaching’, formal lesson plan is an invaluable tool in
before continuing with a convoluted preparing teachers for observed lessons
introduction to the class profile –
The planning paradox (giving both the teacher a structural
obviously not much use when a few ELT teacher training has long given template and the observer a marking
days later, you do start teaching, and priority to the writing of formal lesson criteria), it seems to me that equal, if
planning takes up twice as much time as plans, complete with main and not more time, should be dedicated to
the actual lesson itself. subsidiary aims, class profiles, timings, training teachers in the art of ‘informal’
stage aims, interaction patterns and lesson planning. Trainers should
the like. The logic behind this model preoccupy themselves less with the final
My research is that if teachers are trained to write product (ie. the formal plan) and instead
Over the last few months, I’ve been such detailed plans, they will be able focus on the planning process, addressing
working with newly qualified teachers to successfully apply these processes to how best to assist teachers in the day-to-
as a mentor on the British Council their everyday planning. Unfortunately, day application of these thinking skills in
Cairo’s Teacher Support Programme evidence suggests this approach, when working lesson plans – the scrappy bits
52 www.modernenglishteacher.com n Volume 24 n Issue 3
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
of paper that teachers take into class with in order to complete the writing task their answer, we often ask them to
them on a daily basis. we have set. Planning is no different: write the question at the top of their
in order to reduce the time we spend paper, and underline or highlight the
on it, working to a deadline is a must. key words. Teachers should do the
Process lesson planning? Generally speaking, a good planning same with their lesson aims, referring
If Scrivener’s processes of ‘prediction, to teaching ratio to go by is 2:1 ie. back to it at later points in the
anticipation, sequencing, organising no more than one hour planning planning process.
and simplifying’ resonate with you, it’s for every two hours taught. The most
probably because you already encourage important thing is to set deadlines
your own students to go through these before you begin, and stick to them.
Ideas generation
processes when they produce a piece One way of self-enforcing this is by nn Irrespective of task type, students
of writing. In ELT, this approach to the arranging an appointment, such as need to activate their schemata on a
teaching of writing is widely known as a coffee date, when your planning given topic before they can formulate
‘Process Writing’, and has been described time is up. Alternatively, beginning a coherent and comprehensive
as one ‘which stresses the creativity of your planning shortly before your response. To encourage this, we
the individual writer, and which pays class has the same result. might give them the opportunity to
attention to the development of good discuss ideas in small groups, draw a
nn Another option is to experiment with
writing practices rather than the imitation mind map, think of a list of pros and
‘pyramid’ time-keeping. On Day 1,
of models’ (Tribble, 1997: 160). Process cons, etc. Generating ideas is equally
allow yourself 60 minutes to plan the
Writing involves students generating ideas, important when lesson planning.
lesson, on Day 2, 50 minutes, and so on.
focusing, structuring, drafting, evaluating How many times have you taught
After you teach each lesson make a
and reviewing their work before it is a lesson, only to think afterwards:
note of how the time limit affected the
published and read by the target audience ‘Why didn’t I think of doing that?’
quality of the lesson you planned. Did
(White and Arndt, 1991). Before you start to ‘write’ the lesson,
the extra minutes make a difference?
think about the contexts in which
What did you do differently in order to
Could these processes be more effectively the language point would naturally
meet the deadline?
applied to lesson planning? Teachers are occur, the topics that complement
already doing this in one form or another nn Covering classes at short notice this and appropriate related tasks and
(whether mentally or on paper), because are a sure-fire way to improve activities. This can be simply done
essentially, that’s what planning is. Just your confidence in planning to a mentally, but is probably best done on
as Process Writing aims to focus and give deadline (Baguley and Wynne-Jones, paper for maximum effect.
structure to the author’s ideas before they 2015). A lot of teachers said that
nn The most pro-active teachers
begin to write, adjusting planning practices doing standbys helped them with
don’t restrict their planning to
to incorporate these processes may help their planning because it forced
an hour with their head in the
teachers address the aforementioned them to focus and do it quickly.
teachers’ book, but seek inspiration
problems. I call this form of lesson If your teaching centre does not
everywhere around them. After all,
planning ‘Process Planning’. What follows already have a standby rota in place,
some of the best ideas for lessons
are some concrete suggestions of how to why not put your name forward?
can come to us at the strangest
apply Process Planning in practice.
times and places. Jeremy Harmer
Answering the question (2007) refers to this formative
nn At times, we may fall into the trap of stage as ‘Pre-planning’. It comprises
Time limits planning activities we perceive to be material you’ve seen somewhere, a
nn Before they even put pen to paper, we ‘fun’, rather than those that achieve language item you want to teach, or
tell our students how long they have the aims. To remind learners to focus vague idea of unit from coursebook.
n Volume 24 n Issue 3 www.modernenglishteacher.com 53
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
If you are one of those people who could be adapted retrospectively. to address this, teachers need to be
has sudden flashes of inspiration, After each lesson, editing and trained in a way that ensures these
keeping a small, pocket-sized annotating plans in a different colour processes are ‘taking place in the
jotter is a good idea to record your (in the same way a student edits mind even if not committed to paper’
thoughts. Then, when you finally their first draft) is an invaluable part (Cattlin, 2014: Introduction). Though
teach the lesson itself, emergent of this process. Plans can then be formal planning has an important
language can be recorded referred back to the next time the place in both pre-service and in-
alongside the plan, and easily lesson is taught. In this way, the lesson service teacher training, the teaching
revised in future classes. Mobile constantly improves and the teacher of planning needs to be realigned
phone note apps perform the same doesn’t get stale from teaching with the everyday realities of teaching,
function for the digitally-minded. exactly the same thing again and if planning is to properly prepare
again and again. teachers for life beyond the
training room.
Structure and sequence
nn Once you have a good selection References and bibliography
of ideas, it’s time to organise them
into a coherent and cohesive whole. “In terms of Baguleu N and Wynne-Jones D (January
2015) Surviving Standby. Modern English
Most, but by no means all, teachers Teacher 24 (1).
plan in a linear fashion. Some process, it is clear Brown S (2013) Preflection: A (not) new
start the lesson plan with the final approach to planning. [online] Available
freer practice activity and work to me there is no at: https://stevebrown70.wordpress.
com/2013/06/09/preflection-a-not-new-
‘backwards’ towards the lead-in.
Doing this helps focus the lesson ‘right’ way to plan approach-to-planning/ (accessed April 2015)
Cattlin M (2014) The Art of Lesson Planning.
on the main aim, and highlight
extraneous stages which do not a lesson, except Matador.
Harmer J (2007) The Practice of English
fully underwrite it. This technique
the way that
Language Teaching (4th Edition). Harlow:
works particularly well with Task Pearson Longman.
Based Learning. Scrivener J (2005) Learning Teaching (2nd
nn Another point to consider is the layout
works best for the Edition). Oxford: Macmillan ELT.
Tribble C (1997) Writing. Oxford: Oxford
of your plan, and how this best reflects
the way you think. One colleague, Peter,
individual teacher University Press.
White R and Arndt V (1991) Process Writing.
always draws his plans in the form of
an elaborate mind-map, starting at one
and results in Harlow: Longman.
o’clock and working clockwise towards
the conclusion of the lesson. He says
the best possible This article is a summary of a
presentation of the same name given at
that representing the lesson in this way
helps him to ‘see’ the lesson on the
learning.” TESOL Arabia in March 2015.
paper, and supports his visual learning
style. Margot, on the other hand, draws
her plans as two-column tables, writing
what she will do with the coursebook
Conclusion
software on the left, and on the right a Jim Scrivener (2005) maintains that
reminder of her board-work.Why not planning should set teachers free in
experiment with layout and see what the classroom, although few teachers
works best for you? The most important in training would describe themselves
factor to consider here is how easy the as liberated by the traditional format
plan is to refer to during the course of of the formal lesson plan. In reality, Rose Aylett has been working in
the lesson itself. this kind of plan can become a ELT as a teacher and trainer for
straitjacket, and as Ahmed, a CELTA over 10 years, predominantly in the
Middle East and North Africa. She
trainee, described it, ‘very tedious and
Redrafting meticulous’ to both plan and write.
holds a Cambridge DELTA and an
MA in Islamic Studies. Her main
nn As teachers, we are often encouraged Initial teacher training courses have interests include teacher training and
to reflect upon how the lesson we formalised the process of planning to development, materials-light teaching,
and the integration of global issues and
taught differed from our original plan the extent that the lesson plan is now
philosophy into the EFL classroom. She
and what we would do differently in regarded as a final product, rather currently works at the British Council
the classroom, were we to teach the than a process – or series of sub- Cairo (Agouza) where she is the Senior
lesson again. Rarely, however, is much processes – to be taught and practised Teacher Adults and a mentor on the
Teacher Support Programme (TSP).
thought given to how the plan itself during training and beyond. In order
54 www.modernenglishteacher.com n Volume 24 n Issue 3
