How to lay out a lesson?
Reflective Diary submitted by Mia, Valencia
For every teacher a lesson does not only include the time we spent delivering certain material to our student. It also includes the time spent on planning the session as a whole, and dividing it into several stages that will help you to successfully lead your students in the right direction.
Masterminding your lesson earlier will not just help your students on their way to achievement, but it will also provide you to better yourself as a mentor each day.
The most important thing in the class is inducing motivation in your students. Motivation is the essential stage where you need to start from, so after identifying the educational outcomes, how the class will be done and what skills they need to improve, motivate them to take in all of the objectives you have been teaching and to return as much as possible to prove their just appointed knowledge. As it was stated by Fernandez and Cañado in one of their studies: “Motivation is an internal state of the individual influenced by certain needs and/or beliefs which generate favourable attitudes and interests towards a goal, as well as a desire which moves him/her to attain it with dedication and continued effort because (s)he likes it and feel satisfied each time (s)he obtains positive results.” (p. 333)
After the warm-up time and presented outcomes of a certain lesson, every session should be split in different kind of activities which will keep your students motivated and alert. Bear in mind that every individual learns differently and dynamical approach will keep them occupied as they pass through each stage of a lesson. Use different kinds of work-sheets, pictures, matching words exercises and check their work during that progress, so you can estimate if they seem to understand what you have already presented. After every exercise try to develop a creative summary of the topic to check students familiarity to it, stimulate their interest and also encourage them to relate the used objectives to their personal experiences and tendencies. During the conversation it is recommended to predict their responses and according to that generate your questions in different ways so that you will be able to verify their comprehension from several perspectives.
All things considered, be prepared to the fact that sometimes your well planned lessons will not be carried out as planned. Unlike the theory, when it comes to practice, you can find yourself in challenging situations, especially when your student’s knowledge is not properly evaluated. In those cases always have a back-up plan so that the class does not go to waste. Finally, it is always a good idea to round up the lesson by suggesting some extracurricular activities related to the target language, because the student should be aware that language learning does not have to happen only in the classroom.
Works cited:
- Madrid Fernandez, Daniel; Cañado Perez, Luisa. Exploring the student’s motivation in the EFL class, Almeria University, 2001, (p. 333)
