My Ideal Lesson Plan

from pixabay.com. Photographer: Pexels

Lesson planning is an unpaid piece of your free time that comes with teaching. And it's not like you can't have a plan when those kids show up. What are you gonna do with them for an hour or more? You can't play games for the whole period. Even young learners will get bored after a while. 

There is nothing more nerve-wracking than thinking from the top of your head for what to do while trying to manage a class of young people. 

You got little Mario out of his seat again. Cindy Lou and Sara are marking each other's paper with scriggly marks. Adrian is insulting Marcos. Little Tina is asking to go to the restroom. Now, you have five other kids who have decided to go to the restroom. Paco keeps pulling on your shirt asking what he should be doing next. It's hell.

from pixabay.com. Artist: Jordan Dreyer

Have a plan. Have a plan. have a plan. If you end up changing it, fine. But always have something to fall back on.

Anyways, having a plan can consume a lot of your time, especially when you first start out teaching. Planning takes experience as well as knowing your students and the material. You need to know: what they can do; what they need support in completing; how long it takes them to do certain activities; and what things they like to do. If you have a plan for teaching a song in class with singing and dancing but your students hate dancing and/ or singing, that's gonna be the longest 3 minutes of your life. 3 minutes when it should have taken 10!

from pixabay.com. Photographer: nastya_gepp

So you have to plan. I've heard horror stories of teachers planning every day from anywhere from 2 -4 hours a day! Why!?! Who has that much time!?! And you're doing it for free. 

I have kids, other interests and a household to run. I don't have 2-3 hours daily for planning. And if I did, I wouldn't want to be planning in the same amount of time to teach it. You probably don't want the same either.

Let me help you change all that in less time. With the plan below, it takes me an hour per week to completely plan my lesson for the next week. I do spend some time gathering material to photocopy. And as an extra measure, every morning I go over the plan for that day's class to make sure it works and I have what I need for it. But this takes about 10 to 20 minutes. So you are looking altogether at about less than 3 hours a week that I spend on lesson planning.

It's effective. Efficient. And less of your free time taken up.

Regardless of the experience you have or don't have, here is a lesson structure for all levels that will make your planning faster.

The Plan:
Time in an hour class	Activity
5 to 15 minutes	Review (This could be simple exercises from the last grammar point you have covered in class. Or vocabulary connected to the lesson that you have seen before. Or drilling. I usually use workbook material not used in previous lessons or I take exercises from webpages that we had not completed. Either way, the key here is revising. So don't show them anything new in content and style.)
16 to 18 minutes	Lead-in to book/ lesson activity (Sign up to my weekly newsletter to get tips on different lead-ins)
17 to 37 minutes	Book content (Don't have a book? Use whatever resources you have to present and teach the learning objective)
38 to 52 minutes	Workbook/Practice worksheets  (This time is used to practice the aim of the lesson.)
*Note: Fun activities can be mixed into the presenting and/or completion of the book content and workbook practice
53 to 54 minutes	Students pack up
55 to 60 minutes	Game Time (Hopefully something connected to what they did today. But if not, have it related to previously taught topics/grammar)

It's that simple. 

Keep in mind that you will incorporate lead-ins for every transition into a new activity. They can be as basic as a pair discussion about the topic, describing the picture in the text, pre-reading using the title or a list race. (A list race is where students have a certain allotment of time to write down as many words as they can which group in the topic you have given them. Example: The topic is food. So they write banana, pear, etc.) More lead-in ideas are available in the weekly newsletter. Click to join.

Keep this as your routine. Modify it by adding exam practice during workbook time for exam students. Or if you have a class longer than an hour, add testing strategies for listening and speaking. Moreover, be sure to place a break in the middle of a long class session for a 5-minute game, instead of at the end. This will help reboot the students so their eyes are not glazing over towards the end of the period.

Try planning this way and see how long it takes you. You'll be surprised at how refreshed you will become when you get your free time back during the workweek.  

Let me know how it goes. Write a comment about your experience with planning and/or what happened when you tried my method.

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A Change of Plan: From Worksheets to Exciting Learning

In teaching, you learn quickly that no plan goes accordingly. You could have an airtight lesson plan filled with objectives and clever transitional steps leading you to the next activity. Of course, you've planned brilliantly! It's what we had to spend a month to a year training to do. Yet, life always finds a way to wreak havoc on your plans. Especially, when dealing with human nature (specifically young children and teenagers. They have their own agenda.)

When you plan is failing.

For you, maybe, students have a very weak awareness of the past participle verbs during your present perfect lesson. Or a good chunk of students have missed lessons and you have to update the others to carry on to the next unit. 

Or worse, the internet shuts off. The computer decides to have a rest day and you are unable to use the tips and materials I have for you here. Ultimately, a complete nightmare with 13 to 25 students staring at you for instructions into what to do next.

Either way, disaster is known to strike. So prepare for the worst and pray for the best.

If you can't get anything to work out the way you've planned, its time to channel your creative flexibility.

As such, teachers must learn two things: when to divert from the plan and how to create an effective learning activity. Thus, welcome to my segment: A Change of Plan.

This week, during my movers' class, I had planned to finish the grammar point for the infinitive of purpose. 

I had been using the book exercises to lead students into an alternative way of giving a reason to do something. Example: I went to the bookshop to buy a book. 

The energy in the room was dropping and there was a clear division in who understood it, who got the grammar yet came up with unclear content (I had one student say: "I look in the dictionary to play football". The grammar is right even though it made no sense.🤷🏾‍♀️) and I had students who were completely lost. So instead of my original plan to have a mountain of more worksheets. I changed it up.

First, I wrote on the board: "I go to school to..." Then, I elicit phrases to complete the sentence. We stayed with "I go to school to learn more things." Next, I took the last phrase to create a new sentence. "I learn new things to..." I pointed to a student to complete the sentence. Then I used her last phrase to create a new sentence for the student next to her to complete.

A chain was developing and I went around the class following that chain format. Some sentences were crazy ideas but it didn't matter I was trying to get the structure down. In this way, I could fix the mistakes certain students kept making and they were getting models of corrected phrases from their peers.

At this point, the students had verbally practiced it with a good amount of success. They were getting it but they needed more exposure to the grammar and making the content connect. 

The next step was writing relays. Writing relays work with students sitting in rows of 4 or 5. The first person in each row copies and completes the sentence I provide for them. Once done they pass their notebook back and the second person writes a new sentence with the last phrase of the previous sentence. What we had done in our chain format. 

When the last person in the row completes it, I check for grammar and reasoning. If any of those mistakes are there, I underlined them. Then I'd hand it back and tell the group to get together and fix it. 

This does three things: trains students how to self- correct, peer teaching is established (classmates explain the process in their young folk language) and this process also gives others a chance to finish, in hopes I will see theirs before the other group fixes their mistakes.

The point goes to the team that has completed all their sentences correctly before the other teams. Once that round is done, I point out the mistakes the other groups were unable to fix. I do three rounds of this. And the team with the most points win.

Now, the class needs to settle and I have to access if any of these activities have worked by doing independent practice. So, I give them a couple of exercises. 

I monitor and support the weaker ones. Through my encouragement guidance, I remind them of some example phrases. And with patience, they complete the task. Their ideas are unconventional but the structure is there. 

Plus, I feel confident to move to the next unit for the following class but I've noted that this grammar will need to be revised in warm-up exercises in the future. this way the students don't forget it and it will improve their concept of how the relationship of purpose should be between the two clauses.

This particular class ended on a good note. And, with creative learning tools from my teacher's toolbox, the aim of my lesson objective was met, regardless that the plan had changed.

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Hell Yes, I Use Bribery! (And I'm not ashamed.)

Some people may throw shade on what I have to say. That's fine. You may be the child/ teen whisper of our generation where you don't have to buy your students loyalty and obedience. I AM NOT THAT TEACHER.

The first time I got my roots into paying off kids in exchange for classroom management really started when I was an English Literature teacher in the Bay Area. It was a time where threats of extra work, detention or being sent to the principal office was a tap on cheek compared to the mental and/or verbal abuse these low economic students were getting in the streets or at home. Plus have an average of 36 to 42 kids in a class didn't help keep them focused or make sure they got what they need within an hour lesson. As a result of this, there was a big push for an inactive called "Positive Reinforcement".

What is Positive Reinforcement?💗

At first, I had no idea what they meant. Basically, it's a method where you pay more attention to the good than the bad.

Example: You have little Malik or small Sally acting a fool in your classroom. Normally, you would strictly warn them about their behavior and possibly get into a pointless argument about it. This leads the bad student to take up all the attention from the more deserving individuals. You know the kids that actually give a crap about school.

Let's take that scenario back before confronting the badass child. When Malik or Sally startup, look to a student who is doing the behavior you desire everyone to be doing. Maybe, it's little Cayden or Tori who have their head down doing their assignment quietly. Or he/she could be reading a book as one of the fast finishers assignments while waiting for the class to be ready to transition into the next activity. You raise your voice in a cheerful way and praise that student's good behavior. You can even give them a sweet or put their name on the board for a promise to get something nice from you later that week. Whatever! Give attention to the deserving student and watch how other students will want to receive that attention. (Or maybe just want a piece of candy.)

Don't be caught out to look the fool.

This does two things: (1) It shows the bad student. You aren't interested in giving them the time of day if they're gonna waste your time with their nonsense, AND (2) You avoid getting pulled into a confrontation with a youngin. (There is nothing more draining and time-consuming.)

My Bribery Tricks👀👏

I like to bring in this positive reinforcement with bribes. Here is how I do it:

The Rainbow Chart

I learned this trick at one of the ACEIA conferences I went to last year. The thing about conferences is that I learn one thing for every hour I spend there while trying not to think about the rest of the 259 minutes that was drained from my life.

I post this on the board near the area I usually hover in when I address the class as a whole without blocking the area where we write on the board. (Yes, I said we. Kids love writing on the board. I allow that opportunity two or three times a week by simply having them write the answers on the board or do a grammar board run. I'll explain in a later blog.)

It takes some time to get used to it. But once you get the hang of it, they will be behavioring how you want them to. I give special treatment to students who use English without being prompt which makes others trying to do the same. I also reward them when a student says an almost perfect, if not perfect phrase in English.

Speaking Spanish Tally

This is something I have recently started last week. I only have the strength to do it with a few classes. Plus, it's only effective with young learners. Teenagers could give a two craps about candy. (Unless they didn't have to do much for it and it becomes a nice surprise for them.)

Anyways, I print out a spreadsheet with all the students' names on it for a particular class. I post it near the rainbow chart. I also have an index card on me with their names so I can move around the room and tick names without running back and forth to the board.

Here are the rules: (1) You must speak English in my English class! If a student speaks their mother tongue, not including helping with an asked translation, they receive a tick on the spreadsheet. (2) For every 5 ticks, the student's name is pulled from the raffle. Get 10 ticks in a period, two of your name entries get taken out the raffle jar. (3) Students without any ticks get a lollipop.

I do this every class period and it is quieter and more productive. I don't mind noise as long as it is not too loud and it is in English. Kids in Spain like to talk so they work hard to say what they can in English. Sure, 5 cent lollipops put a dent in my pocket. But I think after a month, I can ease off and they will be speaking more English in class out of habit.

Click here to see the stickers I use.

Disclaimer: I'm usually not big on giving kids candy. I try to encourage them to take the awesome stickers I have. Many of them have a collection on their English notebook and take pride in having more stickers than others in the class.

Bottom line: Kids only do something because they want something. Yeah, they don't want to brush their teeth or wash their hands after using the restroom, but they'll do it most of the time because they don't want to get in trouble. It is no different in the classroom except we don't have the fear of their parents on our side. We have the power of high praise and sweets.

Rocio wants an eraser or to go to the toilet. She better ask for it in English. Or, she can figure it out. And students do, even the little ones. They ask a fellow student, or remember the core language I have drilled into them all first term.

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