Creating succesful lessons

Reasons for planning

Lesson plans have a positive impact on both learners and teachers

Components of lesson plansDescriptions of the studentsDescriptions of the studentsAims and objectivesAims and objectivesProcedures Procedures Anticipated problems Anticipated problems Extra activities/ materials ( just in Extra activities/ materials ( just in

case)case)Material to be used in the lessonMaterial to be used in the lesson

Beginning a classEffective opening of a class is very important:Effective opening of a class is very important:

It focuses student’s attention on what they are about to It focuses student’s attention on what they are about to

learn.learn.

It can arouse students’ curiosity and interest in the It can arouse students’ curiosity and interest in the

lesson.lesson.

It helps motivate students to become involved in the It helps motivate students to become involved in the

lesson.lesson.

Remember !!Remember !!

Students of all ages approach any lessonStudents of all ages approach any lesson

““what’s in it for me” what’s in it for me”

If the lesson addresses this questionIf the lesson addresses this question

Motivated learner Motivated learner

•Strategies to engage students in a lesson

Learning begins before the bell rings.Learning begins before the bell rings.

Be sure you have everyone’s attention before Be sure you have everyone’s attention before you begin.you begin.

The opening MUST be connected to the The opening MUST be connected to the main lesson.main lesson.

Avoid beginning a class with routine tasks. Avoid beginning a class with routine tasks.

The opening must be connected to the main lesson.The opening must be connected to the main lesson.

Avoid beginning with routine tasks.Avoid beginning with routine tasks.

Vary your openings in order to maximize their Vary your openings in order to maximize their

impact. impact.

Guidelines for effective lesson planning

OutlineI. Why plan lessons?

II. how to begin planningIII. variety, sequence, pacing and timing

IV. students talk and teacher talk V. learner centured lessons VS curriculum centured

lessons

Why plan lesson?

* Lesson planning is a model of teacher’s effectiveness

* lessons require deep knowledge of a variety of issues

* teachers need to model the way forward others who are weak in need of strengthening and support

how to begin planning:

*Preview of the whole curriculum* outlinging, underlining and highlighting key elements

* planning step by step * choose suitable exercises and activities

variety, sequence, pacing and timing:

* variety of techniques * logical sequence of activities * adequate pacing of exercices &

activities

students talk time and teacher talk time

* (STT) should be around 80%

* (TTT) should be roughly limited to 20% to 30% of the class time

learner centured lessons VS curriculum centured lessons

Format of a lesson planA lesson plan is a framework for a lesson. If you

imagine a lesson is like a journey, then in the lesson plan is the map. It shows where you start, where you finish and the route to take to get there.

The lesson plan sets out what the teacher hopes to achieve over the course of the lesson and how he or she hopes to achieve it.

So, it’s important that all teachers take time to think through their lessons before they enter the classroom.

Remember the 5 Ps: Perfect Planning Prevents Poor Performance.

There are some essential elements that a lesson plan should include.

Goals:The teacher should identify an overall purpose or a

goal that he or she will attempt to accomplish by the end of the end of the class period. He will try to finish the following statement:

By the end of the lesson the learners will be able to………..

Objectives:A teacher may have objectives and aims of various

kinds for the actual running of a lesson, to do with himself. E.g. Personal aims:” I will talk less and involve students more, I will make my instructions clearer”. Or to do with the classroom :” I will make sure the seating is rearranged appropriately when the activity changes”. Or to do with individuals “I will keep an eye on Maria if she needs help”.

But, the most important aim usually concerns intended student achievements: things they will have learned, skills they have improved and points they will have reached by the end of the lesson.

E.g. : By the end of the lesson, students will be better able to learn the names of colours or to practice language for buying clothes.

Materials and equipment:

The teacher should be aware of the materials and equipment that he will use at each stage of the lesson. So, a good planning includes knowing what a teacher need to take with him and use it in the classroom. E.g.: CD, cassette player, posters or handouts that he or she will distribute to students.

Stages of the lesson:Any lesson we teach naturally divides into different

stages and . For example, at one stage of the lesson, the class may be listening to a dialogue; at another stage, the teacher may be explaining new words and writing them on the board, then encouraging them to do some oral practice.

It’s much easier to plan the details of a lesson, if we think in terms of separate stages, rather than trying to think of a lesson as a whole.

Evaluation:The teacher should make sure that the objectives

have been accomplished, and students have understood and comprehend the lesson.

Evaluation should take place in the course of regular classroom activity in order to help students to improve their memory and remember most of things that take place in the class.

Extra-classwork:Theteacher should always find application or

extensions of classroom activity, that will help students do some learning beyond the class hour.

For example, using puzzle games, crosswords to help students to practice more English vocabulary and tenses.

Or using songs with catchy melodies and chants to teach alphabet or colours to kids.

Differentiating Instruction

Multiple IntelligencesEmotional IntelligencePreferred Learning Modalities

Gardner and his followers have identified specific sections of the brain that control each of the eight intelligences he proposed:

1. Logical-mathematical: verbal skills and sensitivity to the sounds, meanings, and rhythms of words

2. Linguistic: possessing a mastery of language and ability to express oneself rhetorically or poetically

3. Spatial: ability to think in images and pictures, to visualize accurately and abstractly

4. Musical: ability to recognize and compose musical pitches, tones, and rhythms

5. Bodily-kinesthetic: ability to control one’s body movements and to handle objects skillfully

6. Intrapersonal: possessing a high degree of self-knowledge, including awareness of one’s own strengths, weaknesses, and inner feelings

7. Interpersonal: competent in leadership skills, communication, understanding of others’ feelings

8. Naturalist: capacity to detect significant patterns in nature and distinguish and categorize items of various classes (plants, animals, chemicals)

It is crucial not to neglect any student whatever his/her intelligence, as we have to capitalize on their strengths to allow them excel in their scope of interest. The aim is to personalize instruction. One way to figure out students’ inclination is by finding out about their preferred leisure activities, or what they do while misbehaving.

Gardner (1993, p. 178) concludes that “it is extremely desirable to have assessment occur in the context of students working on problems, projects, or products that genuinely engage them, that hold their interest and motivate them to do well. Such exercises may not be as easy to design as the standard multiple-choice entry, but they are far more likely to elicit a student’s full repertoire of skills and to yield information that is useful for subsequent advice and placement.”

Eg: A teacher might encourage the musically inclined student to sing the multiplication tables at home as a memory aid.

What can the teacher do?Design items that have easy and difficult aspects

or itemsDesign techniques that will involve studentsUse judicious selection to assign groups so that

each group has either (i) a deliberately heterogenous range of ability or (ii) a homogenous range to encourage equal participation).

Use small-group and pair work time to circulate and give extra attention to those below or above the norm.

Teachers determined to implement multiple-intelligence strategies in their classroom face real-world obstacles. The time and energy needed to redesign instruction can be significant. Not all administrators encourage deviating from the focus on upping standardized test performance.

THIRTY-EIGHT STRATEGIES FOR NURTURING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (I only chose 4)

1. Encourage students to strive for excellence, not perfection.

2. Teach reframing to help students see events from a more positive perspective.

3. Have students rate their feelings on a scale of 1 to 10 as a way to encourage them to think about the intensity of their emotions. They can draw a feeling thermometer to indicate the intensity of their feelings.

4. Frequently use reflection-of-feeling statements to develop empathy with your students. (For example: “You feel disappointed because you didn’t make the quiz-bowl team.”) En-courage students to develop a rich vocabulary for feelings, beyond mad, glad, and sad.

Preferred Learning Modalities (learning styles)Most individuals learn best through a particular sensory

or perceptual channel—kinesthetic, tactile, auditory, or visual.

Research indicates that visual learners make up 65% of the population. Approximately 30% are auditory learners, leaving about 5% percent as kinesthetic or tactile learners.

Sensory preferences are developmental, with younger children being more kinesthetic and tactile. Typically, during the sixth grade, girls become more perceptually mature in the auditory channel, with boys following shortly. At about the eighth grade, girls usually develop greater visual-perceptual acuity, with boys catching up a year or two later.

Research suggests that matching teaching style with students’ learning styles may increase student motivation and improve performance. The research also indicates that teachers almost always teach in their own preferred learning style.

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Homework that helps

Homework should:

Enhance the students’ learning process.

Account for students’ age, abilities, and habits

Serve your own instructional objectives.

Attributes Signifying Modality Preferences

Helpful Instructional Strategies for Learning Modalities

Auditory

Likes music Enjoys talking Long, repetitive descriptionsDistracted by noise Sings Talks to self

•Discussions /Debates •Oral presentations •Listening to lectures/music•Reciting content aloud •Studying with peers •Reading aloud •Verbal directions

Visual

•Doodles •Notices details •Verbal directions often difficult•Enjoys drawing•Vivid imagination•Solves problems deliberately•Tends to be quiet•Distracted by movements

•drawing•Note taking •Watching videos •Demonstrations •Computer instruction •Visual mnemonics •Use written directions•Use pictures, diagrams, maps, and charts•Flash cards •Independent learning •Transparencies

Attributes Signifying Modality Preferences

Helpful Instructional Strategies for Learning Modalities

Kinesthetic or Tactile

•Likes handling objects •Gestures while talking • Often in motion •Tapping feet or hands •Likes to try things out •Jumping, pushing •Often seems impulsive •May be a poor speller

Manipulatives Building models Hands-on activities Field trips Drama, role playing Allowing to stretch or standMaking flash cards Labs Walk-and-talk activities Action games Sculpture

Homework advantagespreserves class time for activities that students

cannot do independently.

Provides students with an opportunity to practice and reinforce new skills.

serves an assessment function for the teacher.

provides remedial instruction to students who lag in skill development.

Interesting Homework: ideas for worthwhile homework assignments.

Write new endings to old stories.Keep a journal. Develop a creative solution to a problem.Take sides on an issue.Plan and produce a film or skit.Construct a Web page.Attend a public meeting.Do volunteer work.

some practical suggestions for effectively making homework assignments:

The procedures for assigning homework must be taught as part of the classroom routine

clarify your expectations regarding homework from the very beginning.

Do not compete with student noise when giving oral directions.

homework assignments should be highly structured and have very specific directions to be completed by students.

It may be helpful to reserve specific days for regular assignments.

Try to be creative in designing some homework tasks.

Collecting and Grading Homework

Not every homework assignment must be collected and graded

If you assign homework – comment on it!

Vary the approaches to providing feedback

Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Lesson

According to you, why is it necessary for teachers to evaluate a lesson after it is closed?

Teachers should ask these questions at the end of a lesson to see if it worked or not.

1 –Was the lesson successful?2- Did students learn what you had hoped?3- Did the students enjoy it?4- Did they learn anything from it? How do you know? 5 -Did any new learning goals emerge during instruction? 6-What exactly did they get from the activity?7 -What instructional strategies were the most effective? 8 -What one thing might you have done differently which

would have made the lesson more effective? 9 - What else would you like to change, next time you use

this lesson?

What’s wrong if the instructors do not ask themselves these questions?

Unless we ( teachers) ask ourselves such questions, we

are in danger of continuing with activities and

techniques that either do not work, or, at the very least,

are not as successful as they might be with appropriate

modification.

Feedback helps teachers evaluate lessons and activities

One way to judge the quality of a lesson is to get

feedback from students .

For example, we can ask simple questions like: « Did

you like the lesson? Did you find it useful? ». Based on

what they say, we judge the lesson, or we can ask

them to write their answers down and hand them to

us.

Another way to get feedback from students is to ask them once every week to write down two things they want more and two things they want less. The answers we get may prove a fuitful place to start a discussion, and we will then be able to modify what happens in class.

Give Ss special evaluation forms where they have to rate different activities with a score and add comments about what they tought.

Invite colleagues to observe your class and make suggestions afterwards. ( Peer observation)

N.B. it would be great if the teacher who comes into your class does so in order to offer constructive advice rather than to focus on the teacher’s apparent failings.

Get your lesson videoed.

Some teachers keep journals in which they record

their thoughts about what happened as soon as

possible after the lesson has finished.

Good teachers also need to assess how well their

Ss are progressing ( a variety of measures

including homework assignments, speaking

activities, frequent small progress tests.

Humor in class

The incorporation of humor in the class

Is humor valued in the classroom? Humor can be a valued tool in the classroom

when it is used to motivate students, help students retain information, and create a comfortable, supportive environment.

The benefits of using humor as an educational tool may be obvious when the class is full of elementary or middle-school aged students.

Humor can reduce stress and anxiety, create a comfortable learning environment, and increase motivation, comprehension, and retention of information.

It may be beneficial for the teacher to incorporate humor at the beginning of class to set the tone.

The teacher can use humor during the class time to provide a breather. (a short pause for rest or to relax )

Effective teaching and learning is built upon the relationship between the teacher and students, and this interactive relationship can be enhanced with a good sense of humor.

The use of humor can help set a tone in the classroom that invites participation and increases learning.

to keep students' attention

Teachers who incorporate appropriate humor in the classroom are often rated higher and considered to be more credible than teachers who do not make use of humor.

Types of humor studied include funny stories or anecdotes, funny comments, jokes, professional humor, puns, cartoons, riddles, sarcasm …etc