PlanningPlanning

Sandra Araya AcuñaSandra Araya Acuña

English Regional AdvisorEnglish Regional Advisor

Didactic PlanningDidactic Planning

• It consists of designing a guide that involves a group of structured, well-organize activities, developed to accomplish the objectives which have a special purpose known by both the teacher and the learners.

Types of PlanningTypes of PlanningYearly PlanYearly Plan

• It is to establish in general terms, the topics(content), objectives that you are going to use for the whole school year.

• The information is taken from the syllabus.

• It is related to the aims of the curriculum.

• It is more efficient to think in terms of preparing a series of connected lessons commonly called a “teaching unit”.

• This unit could represent the work covered in the language class over an extended period that usually corresponds to three weeks or a month.

Monthly PlanMonthly Plan

• The unit plan is broken into daily lesson plans, which correspond to individual work sessions that the teacher prepares for the time -forty minutes- it covers.

• It follows similar procedures as the unit plan, but in very specific terms. At the end of the daily plan include the chronicle.

• The chronicle is the personal annotations after class; for example, comments about the activities, if the lesson was developed as it was planned, suggestions for future sessions, etc.

Daily Plan/Lesson PlanDaily Plan/Lesson Plan

Elements of the DidacticElements of the Didactic Plan Plan

• General Information • Target Content/Cognitive Target• Objectives• Functions• Language Examples• Procedures or Mediation Activities• Values/Attitudes and Culture• Strategies of Evaluation.

General InformationGeneral Information

• It constitutes the heading of the page.

• It constitutes the name of the institution, the corrresponding level, the teacher’s name and the period of time the unit is going to last.

Cognitive Target (I and II Cognitive Target (I and II Cycles) /Target Content (III Cycle Cycles) /Target Content (III Cycle

and Diversified Education)and Diversified Education)

• It is “the what” the students are going to do in the class, which means content, the topic(s) included in the plan that the teacher is going to develop.

• In I and II Cycles, it includes the topics or themes to be covered in the four study blocks.

ObjectivesObjectives• They are the learning outcomes that

students should achieve.• They must give response to the current

educational aims and policies.• They may refer to activities, skills,

language type or a combination of all these.

• The syllabus has a list of objectives for each level because there are different stages in the class to achieve skills.

• Objectives from our syllabus are skill-based, not content-based. For that reason, they are neither general nor specific.

• They are established basically in terms of the four basic linguistic skills.

• Objectives are classified to develop receptive or productive skills.

• When planning for the I Cycle the teacher should choose at least two objectives for listening and two for speaking and one for culture and values.

• For the II Cycle the teacher should choose at least one objective for each skill and one for culture and values. It is not necessary to modify the objectives because they are established in terms of operational elements.

For I and II Cycles For I and II Cycles

Language (Examples)Language (Examples)• They are sample structures and vocabulary

that serve as the vehicle to achieve the skill-based objectives.

• The task of the teacher is to choose the language to present to the students.

• The Syllabus provides some sample language. The teacher can add other linguistic patterns according to students’ interests and needs.

FunctionsFunctions

• They are the skills that learners develop by means of the learning situations that are given to them to find solutions or to make decisions.

• They should be a purpose for using the language.

ProceduresProcedures

• Steps to carry out and achieve objectives.• It is a set of stages or steps organized in

sequence. (Rivers 1978) • They deal with the actions that need to be

taken in the classroom in order to help students achieve objectives.

• It is necessary to take into account the learners and the demands of the program.

Lesson StructureLesson Structure• The lessons structure is divided into five steps.

• These are the stages or steps organized in sequence.

Warm upWarm up

• It is usually a brief lively session to welcome the students to their second language class, to their new topic or reinforce a previous one.

• It is varied and motivating way before starting the lesson. It should include games, songs, riddles, jokes, etc.

•Students should be encouraged to participate and have fun.

PresentationPresentation

• Introduction of new language components, structures and vocabulary.• It is carried out by the teacher with a lot of input for students.• Students are allowed time to assimilate the language, to listen actively and to try to understand what the teacher is saying.• The teacher uses simple, but natural language through different techniques.

PracticePractice

• It is divided into controlled practice and creative practice. (For the purpose of the I and II Cycle Syllabus, both “controlled practice” and “creative practice”, are integrated into one single step called “practice”)

Controlled PracticeControlled Practice

• Students use the new linguistic components in a setting by playing with the structures of the languages.

• The teacher should prepare exercises that go from purely mechanical, repetitive drills, to transformation exercises demanding a lot, on the part of the learners.

Creative PracticeCreative Practice

• In this step, students are rewarded for their efforts.

• It is a “skill using” stage in which students should be able to take risks, to try to incorporate their language adquisitions to their background knowledge to produce new situations, appropriate to their needs and interests.

• The activities planned should take the form of “tasks” which allow group work and problem solving. There must be tolerance from the teacher to the students’ mistakes.

• The role of the teacher is to manage and facilitate the different learning activities.

ConsolidationConsolidation

• In this final step, the teacher points out what has been accomplished successfully and what remains to be improved through certain review exercises, which were introduced and practiced before.

• This is also the moment to comment on the students’ performance.

• Also the students are encouraged to find original situations where their new linguistic acquisitions can be applied, for example dramatizations, original role plays, simulations, etc.

Values/Attitudes and CultureValues/Attitudes and Culture• Promote positive attitudes and values

during the teaching and learning process.

• Teachers should provide the students with the opportunities to compare culture with that of countries where English is spoken and to reinforce Costa Rican values.

• Attitudes during the teaching- learning process.

Evaluation StrategiesEvaluation Strategies

• The teacher chooses different tasks, which match both the objectives and the procedures from the plan that will be considered suitable for evaluating the students’ language skills.

Ministerio de Educación Pública

Programa de Lenguas Extranjeras

Sample Unit Plan ( I and II Cycles)Sample Unit Plan ( I and II Cycles)

School: ___________________ Teacher: __________________

Level: _____________________ Time From: ____________to _____________

Cognitive Target: Take it from the syllabus

Linguistic Objectives

Functions

and

Language

Procedures

Values

and Attitudes

Evaluation of Learning

Outcomes

Listening:Listening:Choose at least two

objectives from the

Syllabus

Speaking:Speaking:Choose at least two

objectives from the

Syllabus

Reading:Reading: Choose at least one

objective from the

Syllabus.

Writing:Writing: Choose at least one

objective from the

Syllabus.

Functions:Functions:Take this information from the Syllabus.

Language Language (Examples)(Examples) Take this information from the Syllabus

Warm upWarm upPresent activities to motivate the student.

PresentationPresentationIntroduce the topic, language and functions.This step is teacher-centered.

PracticePracticeThis step is student-centered and teacher-monitoring. Ask the student to perform tasks.

Consolidation Consolidation

or or

ProductionProductionPrepare tasks in which the student integrates the skills it is student-centered

Values Values

and and

AttitudesAttitudesTake this information from the Syllabus.

Choose at least one criterion for each step

Only I Cycle (2)

II Cycles or more

(1 per skill)

Ministerio de Educación Pública

Programa de Lenguas Extranjeras

Sample Unit PlanSample Unit Plan

School: ___________________ Teacher: __________________

Level: _____________________ Time From: ____________to ____________

Cognitive Target: Take it from the syllabus

Linguistic Objectives

Language

Examples Procedures

Values

and Attitudes

Evaluation of Learning

Outcomes

Listening:Listening:Choose the

objectives from the

Syllabus

Speaking:Speaking:Choose the

objectives from the

Syllabus

Reading:Reading: Choose the

objectives from the

Syllabus.

Writing:Writing: Choose the

objectives from the

Syllabus.

FunctionsFunctionsTake this information from the Syllabus.

Language:

(Examples)(Examples) Take this information from the Syllabus

Warm upWarm upPresent activities to motivate the student.

PresentationPresentationIntroduce the topic, language and functions. This step is teacher-centered.

PracticePracticeThis step is student-centered and teacher-monitoring. Ask the student to perform tasks.

Consolidation Consolidation

or or

ProductionProductionPrepare tasks in which the student integrates the skills it is student-centered

Values and Values and Attitudes:Attitudes:Take this information from the Syllabus.

Choose at least one criterion for each step