Section 2: Planning Classes

Chapter 11: Making Lessons Easily and Quickly

One of the things that many teachers wonder about when they go abroad is how to go about planning their lessons and how they can meet the time requirements or limitations that are required of them. This is something that can and will improve with time only, the more experience you gain the easier it will be to plan classes and make your schedule. Even though it will take time to improve, there are some tips that can really help you out with your class lesson planning. Always think about your goal when you come into the classroom. If you are aiming to teach your students 10 new vocabulary words you need to think about what you are going to do in order to convey the words and how you are going to keep things interesting. At first you should start with a warm up and move into the introduction of what you are teaching your students, you need to show them the 10 vocabulary words and at first tell them what they are. After telling everyone what they are you will then want your students to repeat the words with you. Following by repeating the words you will want to use them in simple sentences (Teacher: “Apple” / Teacher and Student: “Apple” / Student and Teacher: “It’s an apple.” / Teacher: “What is this?” / Student: “It’s an apple!”). Using this method as a chant and for repeating is a good way to give your students a routine when it comes to building vocabulary. In addition, it also makes them use the targeted vocabulary in a real and meaningful way that they can easily remember. This method is good to be used and changed with each level of students, so you can change it depending on how your results are with your classes. Make things simple for yourself and find the right routine that you can easily pick back up on for each class!