Week 13: Lesson Planning and Curriculum

One necessary aspect of teaching is writing lesson plans because it helps organize what one is planning on teaching. Before writing it, it is necessary to plan and prepare ahead so we can appropriately apply it to the student's unique learning styles and needs. I have written a few lesson plans for classes, but I think I still need more practice on it. Preparing for a lesson and figuring out what and how to teach is helpful to me, especially because I'm more of a visual person. Having every step of my expected lesson, and a clear set of goals and objectives, can benefit me, even though I know it will most likely change during the actual lesson. It is also necessary to expect a variety of answers and give open-ended questions, as well as challenging the student with high-order questions. Being able to adapt and being flexible is key to every lesson planning and teaching. Brown discusses the need to focus on variety, more student talk, good pacing, good timing when writing lesson plans. Also, it is key to take into account the variation of ability in the students, and monitoring the difficulty of the lesson, we want to challenge the advanced ones without making it too hard for the below and average students.The different techniques and materials the book offers, such as role-playing, problem solving, dictation, technological aids, realia, etc., can help make a lesson more engaging and meaningful, and help support learning, especially for L2 learners. Also, another aspect involving teaching and lesson planning is the importance of monitoring our own teaching acts discussed by Kumar. He mentions the M&M scheme and the importance of self-evaluating, self-analyzing, and self-observing one's teaching acts to explore one's classroom processes and practices. It is necessary to plan ahead, write out in detail the steps, and expect the unexpected when teaching all sorts of students.