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Posted

Hi,

I'll be taking a TEFL course in March till April and hopefully teaching May/June. Naturally I'm a little anxious and one of the main things I'm slightly worried about it lesson planning. I'll get taught about this but I wanted to know how difficult/easy you guys find lesson planning? Any tips?

Thanks

Posted

It's a plan, an outline, about how you will teach the lesson. Like any reasonably well organized plan, you state who you'll teach for how long; what the specific subject matter is; what teaching methods you'll use; how you'll plan the time. It's an outline, not a verbatim speech transcript.

Some schools use specific formats for the LP's. Don't worry if you've never done one; it should be a major point of the TEFL course.

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

Sorry to jump in again Peace Blondie....

Is it expected of a new teacher in LOS to plan his/her lessons etc? I'm looking into doing a TEFL/CELTA course in thailand but have no experience in my own country (UK), so understand I will be lucky to get any job teaching and may well be either a) working illegally or :D earning a very low wage or maybe both. I do not want to work illegally but if its the ONLY option then... :o

I assumed that if your working with say 5 - 6 year olds there'll be some sort of curriculum for you to follow, am I mistaken?

Apologies if these are obvious questions I'm just doing a great deal of homework here before I come

Thanks again

Posted

You can't just walk in cold, or blind, to teach a class (until you've taught the same lesson 181 times already). You have to plan what to teach, make an outline, think of how you'll address problems, assign classwork or homework, whether students will come to the board, work in small groups, write something, etc.

All three schools I worked at expected the farang EFL teacher to do my own LP and leave a copy somewhere to prove I'd planned it. It needn't be extensive (even Billy Graham reportedly preached off a mere outline, semi-extensive at best, but he was really good). It's covered extensively in most of the full-month TEFL courses.

Besides, when Pornchasa has just had her mobile ringtone go off, and Kitikin is talking to Porkachat for the nth time, and you can't remember where you were, it helps to have a lesson plan to check. :o

There is a curriculum, but it might be in Thai or Ugaritic, and there usually is a textbook. The Thai teachers just go straight through from page one to the end, never skipping a page. Once when I had to substitute unexpectedly, a senior teacher told me to just walk in, ask the class leader what page they were on, and teach that page and the next.

Posted (edited)

[Q]I'm just doing a great deal of homework here before I come[/Q]

If you're looking to prepare as much as possible before you come, doing an online TEFL course is good preparation before you do an ACTUAL course. It will set you up so you know what you'll be looking at when you actually do your course.

It's worth the couple of hunderd quid or two to give you some knowledge of what you're gonna doing.

Edited by thomo
Posted

^Agree with most of the above.

Some teachers work better with lesson plans- they feel more comfortable and secure having each and every minute programmed out. For others, it's a waste of time, especially if they have been teaching the same kind of lesson for a long time. I can't even count how many times I've taught introductions or past-tense conversation- a lesson plan would not be of any benefit to me in that kind of class.

However, some schools require them as a means of proving that the teachers do, indeed, have some idea of what they're doing. They collect large stacks of them to put in binders on bookshelves, which no human being will ever disturb.

I say all power to those teachers who utilise lesson plans in a way that helps them- but not everyone needs them. If you need them, you probably should write them.

"Steven"

Posted

Try www.sitesforteachers.com for links to hundreds of sites for teaching tips,lesson plans,resources,forums,advice from other teachers etc

Posted

Thanks very much all, some great answers there, and I'll be sure to check those links out. I personally think I'll need a LP just to keep on track, I would imagine the initial period of teaching is very difficult and a LP would help ease my mind a little.

Thanks again.

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