Job Discussion Forums

dagi · Joined: 01 Jan 2004 Posts: 425

I do make lessons plans in detail. IMHO it depends where you teach, maybe at a language school I would not bother too much.
Working in a school I do think lesson plans are important, unless you are the naturally gifted teacher and a master of classroom managment. A lot of problems in the class room are just a result of a badly planned e.g. non-planned lesson.

Wild Bill · Joined: 29 Aug 2006 Posts: 37

Lesson plans are nothing more than a crutch that adminstrators can lean on. I once got into hot water with one such imbecile who completely freaked out when I changed plans in mid class due to a situation out in the hall (a large fight between five students- after this I went into class control mode). Only an idiot relies totally on a plan. Another director once announced at a meeting that there could be no great teaching without a well written lesson plan- then again he wasn't a teacher. A real teacher doesn't need a lesson plan to teach effectively.

thelmadatter · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 8:05 pm Post subject: spectrum

The last two posts are kind of the two ends of the spectrum. Im somewhere in the middle. I plan my courses and my periods in fair detail but day-to-day... just a few notes as to where Im at in the course. But then I tend to teach project-oriented courses to advanced students which is a different ball game, I realize.

I was doing the British Council ICELT course but dropped out, mostly because of the teacher (a real, well, female dog) but I found the lesson planning section of the course to be an exercise in fiction, much like another poster mentioned.

gaijinalways · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279

wild bill posted

saint57 · Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 2:05 am Post subject:

NathanRahl · Joined: 31 Aug 2006 Posts: 509

Well, anyone who does not make a detailed lesson plan is a tard, offense intended.

Of course only those who are not professional teachers who have never had strict quality control of their teaching would do without this. These same people would never be good teachers in the United States, but they get away with teaching in China.

For the person who posted this, you are an arrogant fool, who routinely looks down on others, and takes any chance you can get to make yourself feel bigger at the expense of others.

To make a post asking why would someone make up lessons plans, while at the same time trying to blow yourself up by bragging about how you can get by without them is a joke. That also makes you, and likely your classes a joke.

I do not doubt you can wing it, who can't, it is not hard to do bad work, to do good work takes treal planning, I question whether or not you know the difference.

Get a life, get a clue, and get another career, you look like a pompous windbag. This fellow is what a windbag is folks, so now you have something to use as a comparison in the future.

saint57 · Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 7:55 am Post subject:

laura1d · Joined: 13 Jan 2005 Posts: 108 Location: Spain

Why oh why do so many of these interesting threads get taken down into the gutter.

Why can't we just stay on topic and refrain from personal comments? This is an important resource and think tank tool. Why can't we just treat it as such?

I don't agree with things many people say on this forum, but respect their opinions as I wish others to respect mine.

Lets get back on topic - lesson plans!

saint57 · Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 8:22 am Post subject:

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

I think it depends on your situation.
I've been down the road of DELTA where minute by minute lessons were the norm. But that is part of a learning curve- making you aware of the whys and whats in the classroom. As an observor I have requested something written down, if anything to show the observor you know what you are doing. I've been in situations in the Gulf where there was no point doing a lesson plan.
Now I am only doing 1-1 1-2 in house company stuff. Now I tend to do a dogme sort of thing and do most of my prep after the lesson- it's still no more than 10-15 minutes per class. (yes, sometimes I do zero prep. But if you can't do that after almost 15 years and still give an effective lesson then your doing something wrong.)

SueH · Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Posts: 1022 Location: Northern Italy

A number of points occur to me on this subject. Firstly there is the difference between lesson planning and documentation. Those of us who have worked in bureaucratic situations � ESOL in the UK in my case � will appreciate the difference, as does anybody who is being observed! It�s not the planning, it�s being seen to do it.

Secondly, the idea that you can re-use lesson plans � particularly for longer slots -doesn�t accord with my experience. I taught the students and not a fixed course, and given the drastic differences in student composition, levels, L1s etc. re-use of a complete discrete lesson plan was rarely appropriate although I found I did use �chunks� of material and general outlines.

Now I teach 1 to 1 and again I plan but often end up responding to the wishes and needs of my students, using the material (university essays, discussion topics) they bring as a source of developing language. I document using an idea from my days in IT, by writing everything, including observations, comments and ideas for the future, in a hardcover A4 notebook. The plan (or the documented side of it) is often bullet points with occasional notes on grammar rules that continue to elude both my long and short-term memory! In terms of schemes of work, that is also largely out the window. As private students I really don�t know how long they are going to keep coming to lessons.

What puts me off doing something like the DELTA I think more than anything (apart from lazyness and age) is the need to plan to the minute during the course. I appreciate it�s to make you think about what you�re doing, but after the agonising and drawn-out ruminations of lesson planning for the CELTA I�m not sure I could face even more restrictions on a time-keeping process with which the students never seem to co-operate. Smile

I think even my CELTA tutors recognised the issue of lesson planning is a worry for trainees and that we needed perspective, as one lesson we observed the permanent teacher was working from a few scribbles on scrap of paper.

There doesn�t seem to be any recognition in NathanRahl�s post of the differing conditions under which people work. I hope he doesn�t take his irascible attitudes into the classroom � or perhaps he�s just an administrator..

TravellingAround · Joined: 12 Nov 2006 Posts: 423

saint57 · Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 4:26 pm Post subject:

Wild Bill · Joined: 29 Aug 2006 Posts: 37

I just finished a stint as a cooperating teacher. My student teacher started to use his lesson plans as a crutch ( along with his notes). About five weeks into the term, I took both and threw them out the window. He was forced to think on his feet. He did just fine. Excessive reliance on lesson plans is a sign of somebody who shouldn't be in teaching or of a piss poor administrator who has been out of the classroom far too long. Then again, some folks are just anal about such things. If you know what you are doing, and you know where you want to go with the lesson, you don't need written plans.

Jizzo T. Clown · Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:10 pm Post subject:

At the risk of condemnation, here's a lesson plan from this past term:

9:00 INT 3

Join The Club Unit 01, Parts I, II, and IV

10:00 and 11:00 INT 1 and INT 2

Requesting Clarification and Shopping Activity

1. Interaction Activities in ESL pp. 31-34
2. Shopping Activity Cards and Lists

1:00 MED

In Company Misleading Adverts (Photocopy)

Advert HOs (Photocopy)

Conversation Gambits pp. 20-21 (No Photocopies)

Then afterwards I make a note of where we stopped and the homework (if any) so I know where to begin next class. So in this case a lesson plan is mainly used to keep me on track and as a memory aid.