Writing Lesson Plans

I recently finished an article for my new website on how to write the best ESL lesson plans. I went into some detail.

As I was preparing lesson plans for my three private ESL lessons today, I noticed that while I generally followed the guidelines I laid out on my site, as a private tutor, I was able to take certain liberties in my lesson plan preparation. I don’t have to be quite as structured.

Although, with private ESL lessons, more flexibility is essential for more effective lessons. When you’re in a classroom full of students, it’s really essential to prepare as much as you can before the lesson.

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Steps for an ESL Reading Lesson Plan

As I mentioned yesterday, most of my ESL students are advanced English speakers and prefer to work on their English speaking skills. However, I occasionally teach English reading skills. The following is the format I use for an ESL reading lesson plan when teaching classes with more than one student. I use a modified version of this lesson plan approach when tutoring one-on-one.

Step 1: Engage the student. The purpose of engaging the ESL student is to introduce the theme or topic of the reading passage. The student can be engaged, for example, by using visuals or a “warm-up” conversation. If you use visuals, the ESL tutor can ask question like, “who do you think lives here?” The teacher should elicit responses from the students, but the majority of the talking should be done by the student(s).

Step 2: Pre-teach new vocabulary. Decide beforehand the vocabulary that is critical for the ESL learner to understand the story. Spend a little time teaching the new words or key words.

Step 3: Ask a focus question. Write a question about the reading passage. For beginning level ESL students, pick a detail about three-quarters of the way through the text. For advanced level ESL students, ask a “gist” question. This will be something that the student has to deduce from the reading.

Step 4: The student reads. Allow enough time for the ESL student to read the passage.

Step 5: Ask the student the focus question. In addition to asking the focus question, ask the student a few other questions about the reading. If the student is unable to answer the questions (and if the ESL teacher has asked appropriate questions), allow the student to reread the passage.

Step 6: Follow up with a task. The task can be oral or written. This allows the student to bring in his or her knowledge on the topic.

Step 7 (optional): Follow up with an activity. The ESL activity could be additional writing practice or speaking practice.

The ESL tutor could also use this English reading lesson plan guide to teach grammar embedded in the reading passage.

Making a Lesson Plan

ESL lessons, EFL lessons, English grammar lessons and even lessons on how to ride a bike all need one very important thing: one or more objectives. Assuming the grammar lesson topic is the Past Perfect, examples of lesson plan objectives looks like this:

1. By the end of the lesson, student will be able to distinguish Past Perfect sentences from Simple Past sentences.

2. By the end of the lesson, student will be able to demonstrate knowledge of the proper form of the Past Perfect by writing five sentences in the Past Perfect.

3. By the end of the lesson, student will be able to demonstrate correct usage of the Past Perfect by speaking (or writing) three sentences correctly using this tense.

There are three important things to notice about these objectives:

1. They are all related to the lesson topic (Past Perfect tense).

2. They are all measurable. At the end of the lesson, the teacher should not have to guess whether the ESL learner understands the Past Perfect. An objective that states, “By the end of the lesson, student will understand the Past Perfect,” cannot be measured. How do I know if the student understands it or not if he or she does not somehow demonstrate the knowledge?

3. They are all student-focused: “student will be able to…” The objective should not state something like, “Teacher will teach the Past Perfect.” This is not a learning objective.

How the teacher or tutor goes about trying to meet the student-focused objectives is the stuff that is included in the rest of the lesson plan (i.e., the steps the teacher carries out during the lesson to help the learner meet the objectives. These steps can include exercises from a grammar book, a conversation focusing on the grammar point, a presentation by the teacher (although this should take only a short amount of time), ESL games, etc.

This approach can (and I think, should) be used for all lesson plans, not just ESL or EFL or English lessons. They can be used for history lessons, math lessons, etc.