Job Discussion Forums

[NorthofAmerica]

So I had a pretty decent interview with Wall Street English and now they have asked me to prepare a lesson plan, submit it to them, and then talk about it over the phone (I am in a different city) It is for a 45 minute lesson of pre-intermediate adults.

Seems reasonable enough but I am curious if anyone has done this before and could make any suggestions about what they will be looking for or the optimal way to arrange things?

They were quite heavy on the CELTA/TESOL questions when I spoke with them and though I did a TESOL course 4 years ago I consider my teaching experience much more useful. They nonetheless are very interested in me preparing a "communicative" lesson based on CELTA.

So this is why I am curious if anyone has any "secrets" that they could share with me?

[askiptochina]

One red flag I see is that the school is expecting you to prepare something without actually being at the school.

In my experiences, I have found schools with material and teaching tools offer better working conditions. Schools that just supply an empty room will not help you much.

If you have lessons already then this is a doable task, but you are asking for help on this. So, I wonder how much you will enjoy the job 4-6 months into it. Just something to think about.

[askiptochina]

[caleypatrick]

[caleypatrick]

To the previous poster. I don't mean to offend, but you are on record saying that in the end the teacher should come with lessons on their own. To me, this approach is known as the "smiling monkey talks is a good enough lesson plan." If you have ever had the opportunity to teach in well-structured and professional environments, you would realize that teachers in such environments are obligated to follow fairly strict lesson plans. My apologies if you are teaching in a sweatshop environment where anything goes and I can understand your rudimentary understandings on proper teaching metholdology. However, I teach curricula courses for universities both here and in the US and will leave the lesson plans, texts, workbooks, video case studies, testing criteria, etc., to the experts. Hopefully, you, too, will one day have the opportunity to teach in such a structured environment. As I said at the outset, no offense intended.

[Lobster]

I think it's pretty standard for many place to ask you to develop a lesson plan. It shows that you have this basic ability. However, most well-run places already have lesson plans in place for less-experienced instructors to use. That an outfit like WS would ask for this is a bit unusual, as they generally want their people to follow their own in-house program quite closely using their software packages etc.

What I've often encountered are the "brain picking" interviews/applications. The outfit asks me not to develop a lesson plan, but rather an entire curriculum outline for a training program. Or, they ask me for a solution to some thorny problem they're having or my recommendations for texts or approaches. Of course, once I've done all the work the job opening evaporates. It's an easy way for them to get some professional development assistance without having to shell out.

Another tactic is to have a steady stream of applicants come in to teach unpaid "demo classes" which are in fact regular fee-paid classes for the students. This is another example of industry freeloading.

Seeing as how you will probably need to submit a demo lesson plan several times over the course of your career, you may as well develop a standardized plan that can be submitted with a few minor changes to suit the target group.

RED

[caleypatrick]

Lobster, glad we think alike. I agree with your opinion that we all should have a well-prepared lesson plan in our back pocket to submit when required as part of any application process. Cheers.

[powerrose]

I have several lesson plans saved from my CELTA course. Did you have to do any for your TESOL? Just send them that.

[Mister Al]

OP

As the 'interview' will be on the phone you obviously can't actually do the lesson.
A decent approach would be for you to explain the following, as articulately as possible

1. The objective of the lesson/target language eg:

What part(s) of the language the students should be able to use effectively after the lesson

2. What you are going to do to help them learn the language, eg:

introduction to it
give handouts to students,
explain and give exercises
guide and monitor activities
re-enforcement activity at end of class.


3. What the students are going to do to help themselves learn, (related to the above), eg:

listening to the teacher
individual work
pairwork
groups

I don't think it's a bad idea to ask a teacher to describe an example of a lesson plan, whether they supply them to teachers or not. If a teacher can clearly explain the objective of the lesson and how the students are going to achieve that objective, with his/her guidance, it at least indicates that the teacher can 'talk' a good lesson. That is 50% of the information the school needs. Whether the teacher can actually deliver it and engage/motivate the students (the other 50%) is another matter. But it does give the school better odds of employing the right person.

Good luck.

[The Ever-changing Cleric]

[Mr. Kalgukshi]

Posting profanity = Thread locked after postings deleted and several members permanently banned.