Tricks of the Trade-- Lesson Plans

Here is the general format of how I run my classes. Hopefully it will be helpful to others and/or others will be helpful to me and give me advice. My school requires me to give them 8 of my lesson plans per monthly pay period to make sure that I am preparing for class. To save time, I save a document onto my computer that is a lesson plan template. So when I create a new lesson plan, I open the document, save it under a new name, and then fill it out. If my lesson is going to be only slightly different than another day's lesson, I'll open the other day's lesson, save it under a new name, and then change that one.

Topic: (E.g. School Objects: Unit 2 Lesson 3)

Objective: The basics of what you want to accomplish today (e.g. School Objects Vocabulary and asking/ answering the question, “What is this?”)

Important Points: The difficult aspects of what you want to teach (e.g. Pronunciation of the “R” & “L” of “ruler”, recognizing the difference between “what”, “who”, & other question words, etc.)

Teaching Aids: These are the materials needed to teach your lesson. I usually either draw or cut out a picture of the various vocabulary words I'm teaching that day. I also have “cue cards” (cards with various vocabulary words, letters, and numbers written on them) so they can get used to the spelling of the words and recognize the letters. I also always have some candy or stickers to reward students for good behavior or correct answers.

Schedule:

1. Warm up

   1. teacher: Good morning/afternoon class class: Good morning/afternoon Teacher

   2. Show them various cue cards of letters/numbers/easy words to get them thinking in English

   3. For more advance classes a few tongue twisters may help

2. Review old material

   1. Review songs that they have been learning

   2. Pick out the lessons from the song to ask the kids

   3. Positively reward the kids who answer correctly (sometimes just a high-5 works)

3. New material

   1. Teach a song or game that correlates with the new material

   2. Pick out words from the song or game to have the kids repeat

   3. Demonstrate the meaning behind the words with pictures or actions

4. Review new material taught today

   1. Sometimes I have a really good student pretend to be the teacher and lead the class in a song or game we have been learning or hold up the cue cards. That way I can go around behind the students and listen to their pronunciation.

   2. Test the kids on the material learned in class today by holding up new cue cards

   3. Mix the new material with the old and then test the class