1. Further thoughts and notes
Many experienced teachers, once they have methodology set in their mind, write only minimally structured lesson plans as they will have developed a set routine for how they approach each lesson. New teachers should develop the habit of rigidly following a detailed lesson plan they have written for at least the first six months to a year. This will require some real discipline, but it will pay off in terms of your skill development over time.
Sit down after each class and take a few notes about what went great, what went wrong and how you might have done a better job. This will help to refine your skills. Even very experienced teachers put some serious thought into problems that occurred during class and how they might best be corrected in the next class.
Save every lesson plan you write. If you teach a certain book or certain topics repeatedly to students of similar levels, you’ll find you need only a little polish on the lesson drawing from the notes that you wrote.
2. Expanded Concepts
You can find literally thousands of EFL/ESL lesson plans on the Internet. Take a look at few and you will rarely see the same format used. But they will generally have most of the information indicated above.
Try the website below and see what they have and note the similarities and differences between the lesson formats. Don't get stuck in a rigid idea of what a lesson plan should look like. You'll notice many lessons that are called "lesson plans" really aren't!
The Internet TESL Journal: EFL and ESL Lessons and Lesson Plans
Following is a "Lesson Plan Format" based on the lesson plan in the Basic Concepts section above. It will open in a new window in Word.
A recommended resource is over at www.Teach-nology.com. They have a Lesson Plan Tool that will help you better grasp the idea. Read their section on What to Consider when Writing a Lesson Plan. Teach-nology is not an EFL/ESL website but their ideas dovetail nicely into helping you get the big idea about what a lesson plan is and why. The lesson plan tool can help you play around a bit with the basic ideas.
Note: If you are taking any of our certification courses, please review this Ten Point Lesson Plan Checklist to make sure you have covered everything that is important BEFORE you submit your lesson plan project(s).
