How to Write ESL/EFL Lesson Plans
31 May 2019 | Veronica
As a new EFL teacher, one of the hardest parts of lesson planning is knowing where to start.
Read on for some suggested guidelines to help you know how to write a lesson plan that is engaging, active, and educational!
1. What is the objective of the lesson?
Use active verbs to complete the sentence: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to…
E.g: Summarize a short paragraph using skimming
TIP: Use Bloom’s Taxonomy active verb lists to help!
2. What do students know already?
What vocabulary, sentence structures, and prior knowledge base do they have of the topic?
E.g.: 80-90% of vocabulary in the text, text types and their functions
3. How will students demonstrate their learning?
What summative or formative task will students be assigned that can indicate that the lesson objectives have been reached?
E.g.: Students will be given a short text and 2 minutes to look at it. Then, they will participate in a partner game of Pass-the-Sentence where they take turns to each write one sentence of what happened next in the text.
4. What do they need to know?
Beyond the lesson objectives, what are the new ideas/vocabulary words your students need to know in order to complete the lesson?
E.g.: Vocabulary: protagonist (from text), how to identify key words/ideas
5. How will they learn it?
This is the bulk of the lesson. How will students be given a chance to learn and practice the skills in a structured context?
E.g.: Short teacher presentation about skimming, Explain-To-Your-Partner, then Kahoot to practice summarizing one sentence at a time.
E.g.: The warmer will be a memory game to practise the skill of quickly taking in new information.
Check out these warmer ideas for inspiration!