Diary 6

Session 6

This session we were supposed to read some materials about lesson planning and the factors affecting it.
Lesson planning can be described as organizing classroom activities towards the chosen objectives.The plans do not ensure a good lesson,however can assit it to a great degree.

As much as I remember from the T.T.C class the following points should be taken into consideration while lesson planning in a CLT method:

1-who are your sts ? needs analysis

2-what do you want to achieve?

3-what will be needed ? AVA…

4-how does it work?

5-why do you want to do that? Function…

6-how long will it take?

7-what might you go wrong? unanticipated things…

8-how will it fit in with what comes before & after? Logical sequence…

Among the mentioned stages, I myself (unfortunately) do not consider all while lesson planning, but I try to do consider the major ones. I continually hear from my colleagues that every class is different from the others and it means that they must need different lesson plans , but I really doubt if all the teachers do write a unique and different lesson plan for the same level during one term.Maybe it’s because of the fact that planning a lesson is genuinely a time-consuming process.Considering the factors mentioned above and some others I’m going to discuss later, it’s clear that to some extent it’s also a hard and delicate one.

However I believe the more experienced a teacher is and the more familiar she be with the text book(the strong and weak points) and the sts she can handle the lesson planning more successfully .

For lesson planning we must first know that for what kind of teaching and learning process we are basing our lesson planning .The interactive one would be preferable. Interaction is the collaborative exchange of thoughts,feelings or ideas between, two or more people ,here between teacher and sts.Both the teacher and students are involved in the process of learning and teaching.

According to Brown there are 7 interactive principles of:

1-automaticity:focus on meaning not form

2-intrinsic motivation: relating what sts are studying to what they need now

3-strategic investment: use strategic language competence to help them learn better

4-risk taking: provide a situation they can freely guess

5-lang culture connection: without culture it’s naked

6-interlanguage:welcome the system and process of learning, not expect accuracy from beginning

7-communcative competence: socio-linguistic/linguistic/discourse/strategy

In an interactive learning-teaching process the first thng we need to consider before lesson planning is the learners variables: who are the learners and what do they need which ends in needs analysis.

Objective needs: analysis of personal data,along with information about language proficiency

Subjective needs: wants, desires, expecting psychological manifestation of a lack.

Content needs:selection of topic,grammar,function,vocabularies,syllabus design:the lacks,needs, wants

Process needs:selection and sequence of learning tasks(methodology)

A teacher must consider her learners’ age, level of proficiency , personality, cognitive styles, strategies, and affective factors while lesson planning. Considering the level of proficiency the teaching process would be different in each level we must consider 10 factors:

1-sts cognitive learning process a)focal and control 2)interpretation and negotiation

2-the role of the teacher :in esl t-controled-in efl some L1 negotiation – directive still, but sts center

3-teachers talking in beginners more and in advanced more

4-authenticity of language: necessary in both

5-fluency and accuracy: in lower levels fluency and in higher ones both are important

6-sts creativity :in both is useful

7-tecniques: repetition-limited language capacity in lower levels/project-debates-essays in advanced ones

8-listening speaking goals: authentic, communicative task in lower levels/pragmatics and contextual use

9-reading and writing goals: brief but real life ones in lower levels and close to native like competence in more advanced levels

10-grammar:use charts and tables in lower levels and build strategic competence in more advanced ones



Also considering sts age lesson planning will be different for a child,teenager and an adult according to the categories below:

1-intelectual development:

In children classes Concrete and tangible concepts rather than abstract ones,centered on the functional purposes of a language.But adults can handle abstract concepts and rules.

2-Attention span :having veracity of activities in children’s classes to keep attention of sts.So they don’t get board.but adults have longer attention span.

3-Sensory input:all the children’s senses must be stimulated but for adults it’s not as necessary.

4-Affective factor:children are sensitive esp to peer pressure. there must exist no stress or fear in both cases and help them overcome the barriers to learning.

5—Authentic meaningful language:children like a lang which gives an immediate reward for them,be authentic and meaningful.The same is true in aduls case while they can examine isolated linguistic prospects as long as they are returned to the original context.

Also contextual variable can affect the lesson planning process

1-physical:a)time b)place

2-Socio-political: scene :a)decision makers b)role relationship and expectation

There are two engagements in a classroom:

1-interactional:sts must be socialized. it establishes social relations and promotes accepted values

2-transactional:the source is an authority which transfers info directly to achieve specified goals

In an authotorian teaching you impose your knowledge to sts but in authorotitive you have the knowledge but do not impose it.

Autonomy of the learner:

Transactional: not much independent

Interactional: a bit independent

Overt: interaction between teacher and sts

Covert: interaction between sts

In an efl situation you want to get native like accuracy and fluency

In esl situation you want to communicate

Implementing the lesson plan which must include:

Variety-Techniques-Activities-Material –Pace-Age -Level -Evaluating

There are two models of lesson planning:

1-linear

a-objectives

b-select learning activities

c-organize learning activities

d-evaluating

2-alternative

a-identify a problem

b-come up with a solution

c-implement: variety and pace

d-evaluate