Instructional design varies from discipline to discipline, and there are many models that might evoke a similar look to lesson planning. Nonetheless, this lesson plan design includes some of the most basic elements of instruction that might be of use for the English language instructor. The terms used here are somewhat universal, but other terms exist and, once again, vary from context to context. For example, the term “warm up” is referred to by other instructional designers as a “theme introduction,” “attention getter,” or as a process of “activating/engaging learners.”

Step 1: Warm up or Prepare Students

In this portion of a lesson, a teacher “warms up” the students by activating the students’ background knowledge and introducing new knowledge. A teacher may do this by presenting some key vocabulary, eliciting students’ knowledge of the subject, using prediction exercises, etc.

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Step 2: Discuss the Objectives

In this portion of a lesson, a teacher attempts to give learners a metacognitive understanding of the lesson itself. In simpler terms, the teacher is, either explicitly or implicitly, trying to help students learn WHY they are doing what they are doing, and HOW these objectives, if obtained, might help them. Teachers who engage in these kinds of metacognitive strategies tend to have much more highly motivated students. Teachers themselves also attain better clarity and focus by having the objectives clearly stated and understood.

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Step 3: Present Instruction/Model

In this portion of the lesson, teachers give students new information they must know or new skills that they must acquire. Teachers here attempt to scaffold, explain, or otherwise break down information for students to grasp the new concepts. In addition to presenting or instructing, teachers are encouraged to provide models (examples) for students to follow. For example, a teacher might give a sample dialogue, a model essay, or put the necessary vocabulary to be acquired in sentences.

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Step 4: Guided or Controlled Practice (Practice #1)

In this portion of a lesson, students are invited to practice their new skills and become familiar and comfortable with it. For difficult language concepts, this practice is often very controlled, meaning that it is done with a lot of guidance from either the teacher or other experts.

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Step 5: Less-guided Practice (Practice #2)

Following a controlled practice, students are often given practice that has less constraints and higher difficulty. For example, rather than doing an activity with a teacher, students might be required to do an activity in pairs or groups. In addition, the activity itself might be put modified to provide additional support. A teacher still facilitates learning by answering questions and providing support to the groups or pairs, and the activity itself should help students to gain more comfort with the language required.

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Step 6: Independent Practice (Practice #3)

After a sufficient amount of pair or group work, the students are given an independent activity. This often means that the student will work alone to demonstrate the knowledge or skill that they have acquired. This can be done through a quiz or testing scenario, or some sort of performance such as a presentation or written representation of their newly acquired language skills.

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Step 7: Assessment

Evaluating student work can happen at any stage of a lesson. Formative assessment generally refers to the kind of assessment that is done during instruction, and could include asking questions, giving informal quizzes, and eliciting student participation. Summative assessment often follows an independent practice, and is meant to measure a student’s ability to attain the objectives set out in the lesson plan. It is meant not only as a measure of the students, but can also provide feedback to a teacher as to how well the instruction was received, and what parts of the instruction need continued support.

This lesson plan template represents a theoretical construct only, and should not be used in a lockstep manner. In other words, novice teachers might be tempted to provide three practices (controlled, less-controlled, and independent) for every lesson plan, but this would be a mistake. Some language concepts require much MORE than three practices to attain fluency, and some language concepts might be acquired without any practice at all. Thus, a wise teacher will gauge the amount of instruction and practice needed, and modify accordingly.

Since this template is subject to a kind of reductionist abuse, it is highly recommended that teachers use it with the recognition that any and all of these “steps” can be skipped or put in a different order. A one-week template (provided in this book) can guide you to consider not only these 7 steps, but using a variety of listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities as you construct a unit.

[This activity has a downloadable .pdf worksheet available at http://wayzgoosepress.com/Activitie%20Templates.pdf. An example is provided in the third section of this book, Templates/Activity Resources.]