Unit 3: Structuring your Lesson

1. Introduction

In the previous unit, we explored how to write the first page of a lesson plan bearing in
mind the learners we are teaching and the context of the lesson.

This unit will explain two clear procedures for structuring your lesson plans and will
demonstrate practical ideas and examples to help you develop great activities. It is
designed to give you real materials that you can use as you start your teaching career.

 Structuring your lesson

 Teaching Techniques
 Ideas for warmers and coolers
 The PPP Method

2. Structuring a Lesson Plan

The purpose of a lesson plan is to give you a clear structure for your lesson. It should
provide you with the information that you need to ensure that your lesson can run
smoothly.

Before you read on, spend a few minutes thinking about what you might include in your
lesson plan.

Your lesson plan needs to clearly set out the activities that you will be doing, divided into
logical stages.
For each stage, you must include the following information:
• What the stage is

• How long the stage will last

• The specific activities that you will be delivering

• The interaction pattern for that stage / activity (e.g. a teacher-led presentation, students
working in small groups, the students mingling as a class). Codes are often used in the
plan - S-S (student to student interaction), T-S (teacher-fronted presentation), Ss-
Ss (students working in groups, mingling). You can also use OCFB (open class
feedback) if students are sharing their answers or ideas as a whole class.

• The material that you will need to deliver the activities

Some teachers also like to include additional information in their plans, for example:

• Why you are doing the activity

• Potential problems related to each stage of the lesson

• How the actual lesson went (useful for reflecting on and learning from your lessons)
Layout of your plan
Most lesson plans set out the information in a table, with a separate row dedicated to
each stage of the lesson. You may need to use a lesson plan layout provided by your
school.

Otherwise, as we said in the last unit, the layout that you use is not particularly important
if the information is clear. Here is one option:

Stage Stage Aim Time Interaction Teacher’s Students

Name Pattern procedure will…

Example: Example: Example Example: Example: Example:

:
Warmer To engage T-S (teacher Show pictures of Students will
the learners 10 to students) 3 different sports identify the
in the minutes – football (team), lesson topic
lesson, to tennis (one vs
activate the one), marathon Learners will
learner’s S-S running use their
prior (student to (individual) previous
knowledge student in a knowledge to
of the topic pair)* Ask students to make links to
discuss the the topic
advantages and
disadvantages of
each type of
sport

*it's commonplace to use abbreviations in this column

Setting out the lesson plan in this way will help you to check that:

 You have organised the material into a logical structure that students will be able
to follow easily
 You are using a range of different types of activities, reflecting the different
learner styles of your class and a range of interaction patterns to keep students
motivated (see codes above)
 You know exactly what materials and resources you will need to have prepared

You will find an example lesson plan at the end of this unit.

3. Teaching Techniques

In addition to the teaching methodologies we looked at in unit 1, there are also several
teaching techniques that you can use to introduce your target language to a class. Here
is an overview of the main teaching techniques:

Presentation, Practice and Production (PPP)

PPP is a relatively simple and logical way of structuring your lessons. You can combine
it with other teaching techniques to produce a full lesson adjusted to your specific
students’ needs. We will look at this in more detail later in the unit. PPP is the strategy
used most often in coursebooks and is preferred by teachers with limited experience.

As the name suggests, a PPP lesson has three key stages:

1. Presentation: the teacher presents an item of language in a clear context to

convey its meaning and students learn the meaning, form and pronunciation of
the new language
2. Practice: the lesson moves onto a controlled stage, in which students practise
only the new language
3. Production: during the final stage, students carry out activities designed to
practise the new language using all the English they already know

It does, however, have some limitations and is certainly not the only way to structure a
lesson.

Test, Teach, Test

In a Test, Teach, Test lesson, you first ask your students to complete a task without any
help.

Whilst the students are carrying out this activity, you monitor the class and identify your
students’ language needs. (Test)

You then present the target language, based on the needs you have identified. (Teach)

Finally, the lesson ends with a repeat of the initial activity (or a similar activity), which
students should now be able to complete successfully. (Test)

This is particularly useful for learners of intermediate level or above who might have
learnt the lesson content before. The teacher can see where students are still struggling.

Task Based Learning

Task Based Learning uses tasks as the basic units for planning and teaching. Instead of
being taught predefined language items, students are given problems to solve.
Language is then provided in response to their needs.

For example, you could give your students a train timetable and ask them to find out the
fastest way from Point A to Point B. To complete the task, they must work with other
students. You, as the teacher, provide individual support with language during the task
plus group feedback at the end. This means that the language the students learn is
determined by what happens during the task.

It is worth noting that, in practice, Task Based Learning is usually applied in a modified
form. For example, the teacher may provide a model of someone doing the task followed
by tasks that help them develop useful language or strategies.

This image taken from a useful blog, explains how a TBL lesson is organised.
Text Based Learning
Text Based Learning is based on learning a language using a single text, usually a book.

However, this doesn’t mean that your students simply read a text. You need to be
creative: bring the text to life with activities, vocabulary and structures linked to the topic.
It is also important to involve your students in the choice of the text, as they need to be
sufficiently interested in it to keep learning.

Advantages and Challenges

Think again about PPP, Task Based Learning, Text Based Learning, Guided Discovery
and Test, Teach, Test. There are advantages and challenges to using each of the above
techniques. Spend a few minutes considering what some of these might be.

Techniqu Advantages Challenges

e

PPP  Simple and logical way of  Lessons are usually

structuring lessons structured around specific
 Enables you to use a range areas of language. This
 of different activities to leaves less opportunity for
meet your students’ needs students to freely explore
 Helps students to know vocabulary
what stage they have  There can be a fair amount
reached in an individual of teacher-led time in a
lesson lesson. However, this can
 Helps build students’ be overcome by
confidence, as learning is incorporating a range of
in controlled stages interactive-type activities
into your lessons

Task  Very interactive /  Lessons need to be

Based engaging for students prepared and managed
Learning  Students gain confidence well, to ensure they stay
from trying to find new on track
language  Students can lose
 Vocabulary is learnt in a motivation if they don’t
more natural way, in have the language that
response to need they need to carry out the
 Language is not limited to task successfully
a predetermined set  Learning is unsystematic.
Students can miss out on
important pieces of
vocabulary / language,
simply because they do not
arise in the task

Text  Consistent and frequent  Students can get bored

Based use of vocabulary with using the same text in
Learning  Real language is being every lesson
used in a real context – it’s  Vocabulary can be limited
not graded or selected and restrictive
 Vocabulary can be limited
and restrictive

Guided  Encourages independence  Students can lose

Discovery  Can increase motivation, motivation if they can’t
as students become identify the language
confident in their abilities points
 Makes learning more  The focus on “discovery”
memorable can lead to students talking
 Can be a good interactive in their native language
task, if the discovery is  Lessons need to be well-
carried out in groups planned to ensure that
students can learn the
 intended points

Test,  Students' immediate  You need to be very

Teach, language needs are flexible to respond to a
Test identified and addressed range of possible needs
 Students can easily see the  Students can become
progress that they have frustrated and/or bored at
made during the lesson, by not completing the initial
comparing the outcomes task
of the first test to the one  Students can lose
they complete at the end motivation when they
of the lesson can’t complete the initial
 Can be particularly useful task
for addressing specific
language problems at
intermediate level or
above
 Can be useful to identify
individual objectives in
mixed level classes

As with the teaching methods, you are likely to draw on several different techniques to
create lessons that are suitable for the class and topic you are teaching. For example, in
a PPP lesson, you might present your target language through Guided Discovery.

As you move forward in your teaching career it is worth spending time experimenting
with different approaches, to build up your understanding of what works for you. You can
then incorporate appropriate methods and techniques into your plan for a specific
lesson.

4. Defining Stages for Your Plan

As we have just seen, there are a wide range of methods and techniques that you can use to
underpin your lesson plan. As you become more confident as a teacher, you will find that you draw
on several approaches to ensure your lesson is as appropriate as possible for the topic and students.

As a new teacher however, it is useful to have a clear structure to get you started. One good option
is to use the PPP model as the basis of your plan. To recap:

1. Presentation: the teacher presents an item of language in a clear context to convey its
meaning and students learn the meaning, form and pronunciation of the new language

2. Practice: the lesson moves onto a controlled stage, in which students practise only the new
language

3. Production: during the final stage, students carry out activities designed to practise the new
language using all of the English they already know
These elements form the heart of a PPP lesson, with introductory and ending activities added in to
give the lesson a clear shape. A PPP lesson could therefore have the following stages. Note: don't
mess with the order of the stages or the lesson won't work!

Stage What does this involve?

Optional introduction to Welcome the class; set out the aims and briefly outline the content of
the lesson the lesson.

Warmer One or two activities to get the class engaged and in the right frame of
mind for the lesson. This is usually a quick review of previously-learnt
vocabulary and a lead-in to the topic of the lesson.

Presentation Explanation of the new language / topic being covered in the lesson. The
teacher introduces the meaning and form of the language and models
pronunciation.

Practice (sometimes Activities giving the students a chance to practise the topic in a
called controlled practice) controlled way e.g. worksheet tasks, conversation questions using the
new language.

Production (sometimes Activities giving the students a chance to explore the topic in a freer way,
called freer practice) e.g. roleplays, discussions, writing tasks.

Summary & review Bring the class back together to review the outcomes of the activities
and summarise the learning points.

Cooler & next steps A quick activity to end the class on a positive note, plus any reminders
about the next class / homework.

Remember that for each stage, your plan should show:

 What the stage is

 The reason for doing the stage

 How long the stage will last

 The interaction for that stage / activity

 What the teachers and students will be doing during that stage

 The resources that you will need to deliver the activities

5. Warmers and Coolers

Introduction

Warmers and coolers are short activities that are used at the beginning and end of a lesson. They
should be:

 Relevant to the lesson

 Quick (no more than five-ten minutes, maximum)

 Topical

 Fun

Ideas for your warmers or coolers include games, conversation questions or pictures as a discussion
prompt. However, do make sure that your activity is quick and has a clear focus and structure.

Your lesson plan should set out the specific warmer / cooler that you have chosen.

Warmers

Warmers set the scene at the start of a lesson and should be relevant. They “warm up” the class.
This means that a warmer will generally either focus on language learnt in the previous lesson
and/or introduce the topic of the current lesson. A good warmer will:

 Engage students’ interest

 Raise the energy levels in the room

 Involve all the students

 Get students thinking in English

Warmers can also be a productive use of time whilst you are waiting for latecomers to arrive – and
also can be a good ice-breaker if you have new students in the class.

In addition, some teachers like to use warmers as an unobtrusive way of assessing individual
student’s weaknesses and strengths.

Coolers

Coolers are activities used at the end of a lesson to recap on learning and help draw the lesson to an
end. They “cool down” the class at the end of the lesson.

A good cooler will:

 Sum up your lesson

 Provide a final reminder of the new language that students have learnt

 Calm down over-excited students, if a lesson has become over-heated

 Ensure students leave on a positive note

Warmer and Cooler Ideas

Here are some ideas of warm up activities for lower levels.

Rate your day

Ask students to rate their day on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 = bad and 10 = fabulous.

Next find out the class average, and then ask students to work in pairs / small groups to discuss what
makes for a “10” day (or a “1”, “2”, “3” … day).

Bizarre photos

Ask your students to bring in some strange pictures of animals or people to the class.

Cut each picture in half, mix them up and then put them face down on the desk. Next, ask each
student to pick up a piece and then find a partner with the matching half. Once they have done this,
ask each pair to make up a brief story about their picture.

Telling a story

Put a picture up on the board.

Divide the class into pairs or small groups and tell each group they have three minutes to make up a
short story about the picture.

Once the time is up, ask each group to tell the story to the rest of the class (or to another group,
depending on numbers).

Pictionary

Before the class, create a set of cards with different words or phrases on each.

During the lesson, divide the class into groups. Students should take it in turns to pick a card, and
then draw or describe the word to the rest of their group. The other students need to guess what
the word is.

Noughts and crosses

Draw a noughts and crosses grid on the board and write a vocabulary word in each box.

Divide the students into two teams. In turn, each student must pick a word and either use it
correctly in a sentence or define it. If the team is correct, they can put their team’s name in the
appropriate box. The first team to connect three squares in a row (or get the most squares) is the
winning team.

Higher Level Activities

Proverbs

Write a well-known English proverb on the board.

Ask students to think of circumstances or stories which might illustrate the truth of the proverb.

Some examples you could use:

 It’s no use crying over spilt milk

 Absence makes the heart grow fonder

 The more you have, the more you want

  Let sleeping dogs lie

 Don’t put the cart before the horse

Liar game

Tell your students four things about yourself. Of these statements, three should be true and one a
lie.

Your students then can ask you questions about the statements in order to guess which the lie is.

Dice activity

Write on the board, “Tell me a _____ story”

1. Funny

2. Happy

3. Love

4. Frightening

5. Sad

6. Recent

Ask students to take it in turns to roll the dice and tell an appropriate story. The number of the dice
dictates what type of story they should tell (e.g. if a student rolls a three, then they should tell a love
story).

Encourage students to use their imagination and remember that the story does not have to be true!

Question mixer

Ask students to write down questions on individual pieces of paper. These can either be about
themselves or related to a chosen topic.

Gather up the pieces of paper, mix them up and then redistribute them to the students.

Students should walk around the classroom and ask each other the questions that they have been
given.

Chain story

Write five to eight words on the board.

Divide students into pairs or small groups. Tell each group to make up a story using as many of the
words as possible within a time limit.

Once the time is up, ask students to read out their stories.

More Ideas

There are literally hundreds of great ideas for warmers and coolers. One of the joys of teaching is
coming up with your own activities and building on those of others.

Here are a few more ideas to get you started.

Remember, you do need to consider the age and language level of your class before selecting a
warmer / cooler. Most activities can be amended to match a range of ages and skill levels.

Find someone who …

This activity takes a little preparation but it’s worth it. Choose the language point you want to
practise. Here, let’s use present perfect. On a worksheet, prepare a list of activities, e.g. go to the
USA, eat fish and chips, ride a horse.

Ask students to mingle and ask each other questions formed from the activities – Have you been to
the USA? Have you eaten fish and chips? etc. They should always ask for extra information.

Whilst the activity is going on, try to monitor the use of English and note any areas to focus on in the
review section – for example, correcting past participles.

There are a huge range of uses. For example, you could also use this activity to practise present
simple (Find someone who has a pet – Do you have a pet?) or future forms (Find someone who is
going to go to the cinema this weekend – Are you going to go to the cinema this weekend?).

Charades / mime

Ask a student / group of students to mime an action to the group (e.g. what they did last night, their
favourite movie). The rest of the class must then try to guess what it is.

This is very easy to adapt for a range of levels and age groups. It can be a fun way to get your class
enjoying language and interested in the lesson.

Try to ensure that the topics you choose will elicit vocabulary / language relevant to the lesson you
are about to teach (or taught in the last lesson).

Picture dictations

Put your students into pairs. Tell student A to describe a picture / scene and student B to draw the
picture being described. Students should then compare the original picture with the final drawing.

This is a simple activity that can be easily adapted to a range of language levels – but remember, it’s
not an art class so don’t expect any artistic masterpieces!

Word association games

There are a huge number of word games that can be used effectively and quickly in the classroom.

For example, you can ask students to find related words, or words starting with the final letter of the
word before, or even lexical sets such as furniture or animals.

Activities can be done in small groups or around the class as a whole – the world really is your oyster
with activities like this.

20 Questions

Nominate one person in the class to think of a person, place or animal. The rest of the group then
has 20 questions to work out who or what they are.

You can use multiple variations of this. The most common is to allow only yes / no questions (where
only yes / no answers are possible) – but you can vary this to meet the needs of your students and
the lesson.
Odd word out

Give the students groups of words, such as an orange, a tomato, a strawberry, then ask them to
identify the odd one out. If their language level is appropriate, also ask them to explain why. You can
then ask students to make up their own sets.

Keep the pace high and choose words or topics that are relevant to your class and their level.

Word prediction

Tell students the topic and title of a film or article and ask them to guess what words might appear.
Note down their responses on the board.

Next, watch or read the material and tell students to shout out when they find words that they have
guessed correctly.

Lists

Divide students into small groups and tell them to choose one person to be the scribe. With a time-
limit of two minutes, ask students to come up with as many words as they can relating to a given
topic. Once the time is up, ask all groups to count their words. The group with the longest list of
correct words wins. This can become a speaking activity by then asking students to rank the words.
For example, if students write a list of different jobs, they can then rank them by importance in
society.

Buzz in

Write some vocabulary on the board.

Divide the class into small groups. Tell the students that you will read out words from the board and
they need to buzz in if they can give you the definition.

You can also do this activity in reverse by providing the definitions and students giving you the word.

Show and tell

Ask one student a week to bring in something and talk about it for three - five minutes. The other
students can ask questions about the object.

6. The PPP Method

Presentation

When presenting any language, both lexis (vocabulary) or grammar, we use the acronym MFP.

First, we present the Meaning of the new vocabulary or grammar point, e.g. bewildered means
confused or puzzled – we might show a confused face.

Then we introduce the Form. With vocabulary, this is how a word is set out or spelt, but with
grammar, this is how the language is structured, e.g. the second conditional – If I won the lottery, I’d
buy a car. The form is if + past simple, ...would + infinitive.

The final part is Pronunciation. The teacher models the correct pronunciation of the word or phrase,
highlighting any particular language points, and asks the students to repeat the language so the
teacher can check everyone is pronouncing it correctly.

Presenting Meaning
Imagine you are teaching a lesson on different illnesses (e.g. headache, cough, nosebleed). Before
you read on, spend a few minutes thinking about different ways in which you could present the
meaning of the illnesses you want to teach.

Click to reveal

Keep explanations simple

Whatever approach you decide to take, do remember to keep your explanations simple.

Most new teachers tend to talk too much and use colloquial phrases. However, short and simple
explanations are likely to be far more effective.

 Think about the level of your students and grade your language appropriately; try to avoid
using words that are out of their vocabulary range.

 Be conscious of the slang and colloquial expressions that you use in everyday speech. Don’t
use them if the students are unfamiliar with them.

 If you can’t avoid using a complex word, due to the context of the lesson, be aware that it
may cause confusion, so have a clear and simple explanation ready.

Presenting Form

In general, when introducing the form of the language, this means giving the written form of the
word on the whiteboard or on worksheets. This should be presented clearly. Bear in mind who your
learners are; spend more time on this with those who are learning to use the English alphabet
correctly.

When you are introducing a grammatical structure, give an example and the structure written as a
formula. Write this clearly on the whiteboard and ensure your learners write it down.

Presenting Pronunciation

When presenting new pronunciation, give a good model to your students and allow them plenty of
opportunity to listen and repeat. Below are some ways of practising pronunciation with your
learners.

Chorusing

Chorusing is simply the repetition of words and expressions. You, as the teacher, first say a new
word or phrase. Your students then repeat it back to you.

It is important at two levels:

1. It gives students a clear model of how a word is pronounced or stressed

2. It helps students memorise new vocabulary

You can use chorusing with the whole class or ask individual students to repeat a word back to you
in turn.

CIC

When we speak English, we do not say each word in a sentence in isolation. Instead, words get run
together. CIC stands for Chorus, Isolate and Confirm. It is a method of chorusing entire sentence
structures to help students produce sentences more fluently.
 1. Chorus the entire sentence once

2. Go back through the sentencing chorusing individual sounds, rather than individual words,
until you have built it back up into a complete sentence

3. Chorus the entire sentence again

You should notice a marked improvement the second time the sentence is chorused.

For example:

 He says he’s got a headache

 Headache

 got a headache

 He’s got a headache

 He says he’s got a headache

Drilling

In drilling activities, the teacher and students repeatedly go through a process, until the students can
use the taught language perfectly.

For example, you might teach the question, “What’s your favourite …?” and use a variety of pre-
taught vocabulary for the noun, such as “fruit”, “animal”, “country”, or “TV show”. In drilling you
repeatedly ask the question, and elicit responses from the students, until they have fully got the
structure.

Have a look at the following videos. They both show the teacher drilling different new language,
either chorally or individually. The first is with adult learners, the second with young learners.

When we analyse language, we use the phonemic script to help us understand how to say the word.
There's a lot more information on this (and pronunciation teaching in general) in unit 6. However,
it's useful to know how to find the phonemic script.

The fastest way to find the phonemic script for a word is by using an online learner’s dictionary, e.g.
www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com

You can then copy and paste the phonemic script from the definition. Look at the example below of
the word stereotype: /ˈsteriətaɪp/

. Controlled Practice

The next stage of your plan should set out how your students will practise the language that you
have presented to them.

As the name suggests, controlled practice is an activity that is controlled in some way by the teacher.
It usually involves the teacher setting a task for students that uses clearly defined language and
targets.

In controlled practice activities, students:

 Have clear, easy to follow instructions

  Do not need to produce new or unknown language or worry about new / different
vocabulary

 Have a safe environment in which to practise the language, where students aren’t worried
about making mistakes

This means that students focus on achieving the goals of the exercise without struggling to find
exactly the right word or structure.

Before you read on, spend a few minutes thinking about activities that you could use for controlled
practice

Worksheets

Controlled practice does not need to be oral. When you are planning a lesson, it is useful to bring in
different approaches, to reflect the range of learning styles in your class.

Worksheets can be a good alternative for controlled practice, allowing you to focus on specific
pieces of language. For example, you could develop a worksheet with a gap fill exercise. This could
set out a paragraph, sentence or set of phrases with gaps in the text relating to the language that
you have taught. Students need to correctly fill in the gaps. If you want to make the task easier, you
can provide a set of options and ask the students to pick the correct word.

Checking Games

Ensure your learners understand the meaning, form and pronunciation through checking games. For
example, write all the new language randomly across the whiteboard. Put students into 2 teams and
nominate a person from each team to come to the board. Give each a fly swatter. Read out a
definition. The first to slap the correct word wins a point for their team.

Reordering tasks

Write a sentence using the target language on large paper and chop it up word-by-word. Ask
learners to rearrange the words to create a good sentence. For example, if you have presented the
second conditional, ask students to rearrange:

classic / would / I / million / If / I / a / a / buy / car / won / pounds

You can make worksheets with reordering tasks quickly, using an online ‘sentence scramble
generator’.

8. Production

The next stage you should set out in your plan is the production stage. This is also known as freer
practice. This is where the stabilisers come off. Of course, you will still be there, but the aim of this
stage is to let your students explore their language skills and to practise a more natural form of
communication.

This is the most important part of the lesson, which will usually take up about 20-30% of the time.
Once you have started your students off on an activity, you need to take a backseat. It can be easy to
talk too much, but your role at this stage is to facilitate and monitor: students should be talking for
about 90%. After all, they need the practice, not you!

Before you read on, spend a few minutes thinking of production activities that you might use in a
lesson.
Here are some techniques that you can use.

Roleplays

Roleplays are a great way to get students talking freely. Briefly describe a situation, allocate
characters to students, and then get them to act it out. For example, students might become
patients and doctors, who discuss their symptoms and possible treatments.

Debates

Debates are an excellent productive activity for higher levels.

For example, write a provocative statement up on the board (e.g. women are better drivers than
men) and then divide the class into groups to debate it. Alternatively, you can base a debate around
a scenario. For example, tell students that they are Prime Minister of the UK and need to create four
new laws. The group can debate which laws they would bring in.

Quizzes / games

Games are always a good way to get students interacting more freely.

For example, create a simple board game with dice. Tell students to roll the dice in turn and move
around the board. Students then answer a question or talk about a topic related to the square that
they land on. If you do not have time to produce a board game a simpler version is to just use the
dice. In this scenario, each number relates to a topic / question. Another alternative is to use playing
cards, with questions relating to each card (perhaps also with a joker in the pack, that requires
students to carry out a short task).

Ranking

Another option for the production stage is to give students a ranking activity.

For example, divide students into small groups and ask them to discuss a question such as “what
would you buy if you won the lottery?” You can then ask them to give reasons for their choices and
rank the order of their hypothetical purchases. Another option is they choose ten items that they
would take to a desert island and rank them in order of importance.

Planning a task

Asking students to plan a task is a useful way of relating the lesson to activities that they may carry
out in real life.

For example, tell your students that their goal is to “plan a picnic together for next weekend”.
Students will need to use their language skills to create meaningful discussions about where they
could go and what they should eat.

Writing

Not all activities have to be oral – writing is also a productive activity. Whilst it is usually good to
keep writing activities in class short, you could ask the class to compose an email to find out about a
holiday or apply for a job. You could even ask them to email it to you, so that you can review their
work.

As you can see, there are a lot of possible activities. However, whichever you choose, do remember
to give students the time they need to prepare and effectively produce the language – and
remember that some may be daunted by the prospect of playing an active role whilst thinking in
another language.

Finally, always bear in mind that the point of this stage is to encourage students to use the English
you know they have, so resist the temptation to interrupt students and complete their sentences.

. Ending the Lesson

Once you have completed the production stage, your lesson will almost be complete.

However, it is important to set out, on your plan, how you will end the class. This should include:

 A brief review of any points that have come out of the practice stage. For example, if you
noted any common errors then this is a great time to go through them as a group

 A recap of the language that you have covered to ensure it is correctly embedded in
students’ memories

 A clear summary of any actions you want students to take – for example homework that
they need to complete

You can then use a suitable cooler to round off the lesson and send students away on a positive
note.

Now that you've looked at each stage of a PPP lesson, take a look at this quiz.

0. Writing a Rationale

When you write lesson plans for observations in your school, a key part is providing a rationale for
your lesson. You need to explain your choices for your structure (e.g. why PPP or TTT?) and your
choices for the tasks in the context of your students - their level, ages and needs.

Think of it like this: the lesson plan provides the procedure - it explains who is
doing what, when they are doing it, and how they should do it. Your rationale is why. Why did you
make that choice? Why did you include drilling or a worksheet or a roleplay?

As part of your assessment in this course, you need to provide a rationale for your lesson plan
procedure. There are 4 main things to consider:

1. Why was the lesson structured this way?

 Why did you choose a PPP structure? What’s the benefit of this lesson plan structure? (e.g.
it gives students more freedom as the lesson progresses)

2. How does each activity contribute towards the aims and how it will be achieved?

 Look at each stage of the lesson in turn and discuss why you included it.

E.g. In the presentation stage, students will look at pictures to establish the meanings of the words
quickly and efficiently before learning its pronunciation. Then, through drilling the word chorally and
individually, I can ensure each learner is able to pronounce the word correctly before moving on.
This will also help them to memorise the word.

3. What will happen if one or more of your activities do not go to plan?

  You can put this in its own section or include an alternative for some of the stages in point 2
above. For example, if students struggle to think of anything to say in the group discussion,
we will brainstorm some ideas on the board first, in order to give them some inspiration.

4. Other activities that I considered using… Maybe you wanted to include a game, but you thought
it might not be age-appropriate. Or maybe you wanted to include 2 worksheets but thought this
might be too much independent work, so you will set one for homework instead.

A reminder of these points is included on the template lesson plan when you get to the first
assessment in unit 5.

https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/p-is-for-ppp/
http://www.onestopenglish.com/methodology/methodology/teaching-approaches/teaching-
approaches-task-based-learning/146502.article

https://www.professorjackrichards.com/limitations-of-the-text-based-approach/

https://eltplanning.com/2015/04/16/guided-discovery/

http://eltnotebook.blogspot.com/2016/04/an-elt-glossary-test-teach-test.html