Teacher Training Course

5. Lesson Plan Section Five

7.2 Form A (The most important form in CELTA)

Lesson Types / Shapes / Stages /Aims

For creating a standard lesson plan, you must first determine and anticipate
the appropriate lesson shape of your presentation. The following flow chart
could be claimed to be the most important form in this handout. When you start out
planning a lesson, try and think about each lesson you teach in the following way;
use the flow chart to help you determine which suggested lesson type and staging to
follow:

Is the main focus of your

lesson language (i.e.
grammar/lexis or
functional language)?

YES NO
Is the main aim of Is the main focus of
your lesson to the lesson either
practice the language listening or reading?
OR clarify if for the
first time?

YES
CLARIFY PRACTICE NO
See Lesson Shape D
Are Ss tested on their See Lesson Shape B Is the main focus
knowledge of that either speaking or
(Receptive Skills)
language before they (Language Practice) writing?
have clarification of
it?

YES YES
See Lesson Shape C See Lesson Shape E
(Test-Teach-Test
Clarification of (Productive Skills)
Language)

NO
See Lesson Shape A NO
Text-Based Ckeck again!
Clarification of Ask your tutor!!
Language)

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Teacher Training Course
5. Lesson Plan Section Five

5.2.1 Lesson shape (A) – Text based Presentation of Language

The language is introduced using a reading or listening briefly first (but this is
not the main aim!) and then language from the text is clarified (checking
meaning, form and pronunciation) before doing further practice. The main
aim here will usually be: To clarify and provide controlled practice of-------- .

Here are the normal stages and the standard lesson shape:

Lead in / Building context To generate interest in the topic / theme / context of

the text or listening
Reading or Listening task To practice reading or listening for--------/ To
introduce the target language via a text or listening
Highlighting target To highlight the target language by use of eliciting/ a
language guiding task/ an underlining activity
Clarify target language To:
 Clarify meaning of target language
 Model and provide controlled practice of
pronunciation
 Highlight form
Language practice To provide controlled /less controlled/freer
oral/written practice of---------------
Feedback To establish correct answers/ to deal with results of
the task

You may need to pre-teach some vocab before the reading task.

5.2.2 Lesson shape (B) – Language Practice

This is connected to/follows on form lesson shape A or C. If the main aim of

lesson is “To provide controlled/ freer practice of ---------“ i.e. language that
another teacher has taught, then your lesson will follow on from the previous
teacher who would have clarified the language. It will involve different
practice stages, e.g. controlled written practice, controlled oral practice, less
controlled written/ speaking practice, freer written/ oral practice.

You may not need a lead-in, but if you do, remember that this lesson is the
second part of the previous lesson and if possible, keep the same context.
This type of lesson may need some student preparation, e.g. pre-teaching,
controlled practice, group discussion, role preparation. Feedback stages also
are important.

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Teacher Training Course
5. Lesson Plan Section Five

Lesson shape (B)

Lead in (optional) (see notes above)

Set up To introduce / set up the practice activity
To highlight the (target) language to be used in the activity
Practice activity To provide controlled/ less controlled written/oral practice
of ----------.
To provide less controlled/ freer oral/ written practice of----
-----------.

Teacher monitors as Ss do the activity

Feedback To establish correct answers and / or to deal with results of
the task.
To provide feedback on use of target language – dealing
with errors and problems.

The above is repeated with each practice activity. You may need to pre-teach
some items.

5.2.3. Lesson shape (C) – Test – Teach –Test Presentation of

Language

The Ss do an exercise at the start using the target language with no help
from the teacher (diagnostic test). The teacher monitors the task very
carefully to see what problems the Ss have then clarifies (checking the
meaning, form and pronunciation) as necessary – i.e. any new language or
items the students had problems with. For example, if there are 15 pieces of
vocabulary in the test, the teacher would not clarify every item. This followed
by further practice (test). The main aim here will usually be: To clarify and
provide controlled practice of -------------.

Lead in To generate interest in the topic/Theme of the lesson

First Test (diagnostic) To test Ss’ current understanding and identify gaps in
language related to --------------.
Teach (clarifying) To deal with the meaning, pronunciation and form of the
related language with emphasis on items Ss did not know or
were confused about.
Second Test To provide controlled/less controlled written/oral practice
(controlled practice) of……………. .
(freer ptactice) To provide less controlled/freer oral/written practice of
________.

Feedback To establish correct answers and/or deal with results of the

task.
To provide feedback on use of target language – dealing
with errors and problems.

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Teacher Training Course
5. Lesson Plan Section Five

5.2.4. Lesson shape (D) Receptive Skills – listening or reading lesson

The lesson can be devided into pre, while and post reading/listening stages.
The main aim here will usually be………..for Ss to practice reading/listening for
gist and detail comprehension (for example).

Pre-reading/listening tasks
Lead in To activate Ss’ existing knowledge of the
topic; to encourage Ss to think about content
of the text; To develop oral fluency
Prediction task To encourage Ss to predict/think about
content of the text
While reading/listening tasks
Reading/listening for gist To encourage Ss to listen/skim for
gist/general understanding and get an
overview of the text
Reading/listening for detail To practice reading for detailed
comprehension and understanding the text in
depth
Reading/listening for specific To practice scanning specific information
info
Post reading/listening tasks
To develop oral/written fluency by providing an opportunity to react to the
text; to (further) personalize the topic.

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Teacher Training Course
5. Lesson Plan Section Five

5.2.5. Lesson Shape (E) – productive Speaking or Writing

The following stages can be used to plan a complete class right after a
receptive skill class (reading/listening).

The main aim here will usually be to practice oral/written fluency in relation
to……………….. (topic).

Lead in To activate Ss existing knowledge of the topic; to generate

interest in the topic/theme of the lesson.
Preparing to To generate/provide ideas; to provide an opportunity for Ss
write/speak to brainstorm ideas/prepare notes/think about what they will
say in the subsequent task. (this may involve Ss reading or
listening to something similar to what they themselves will
be producing – i.e. To provide Ss with a model of the task)
(Useful language??) To provide and clarify language which Ss may find useful for
completing the writing/speaking task.
NB: This is NOT target language!! It’s there to help them
perform the speaking/writing task, that’s all (i.e. Ss don’t
HAVE TO use it)
Speaking/Writing task To develop oral fluency through a _______ task; to develop
writing/ speaking skills in relation to writing/speaking -------
-----.
Feedback/error To provide quick feedback on contents/results/outcomes and
correction on oral/ then to deal with generic errors
written task

It might be necessary to have a pre-teaching stage during this lesson.

5.2.6. Other Notes on Lesson Planning;

Notes on clarifying language:

“Clarifying” means checking meaning, pronunciation and form (M,P,F). We

focus on these things when the main aim of the lesson is language but also
at other stages e.g. pre-teaching vocabulary, teaching useful language for
speaking/writing tasks. This means you need to submit a full analysis of the
language you are teaching on paper as part if your plan. (After identifying
your lesson type/shape, this should be the next thing that you do as part of
the planning process.)
Think especially about how to convey and check meaning – avoid explaining.
After you have introduced/shown the meaning of a language item in some
way, try and ask questions to check the students understanding – we call
these concept checking questions (CCQ).

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