Why Should You Lesson Plan?
How it improves your teaching before, during and after class.
There’s a theory in the stock market that says everything known about a stock is reflected in its current price.
I believe it’s the same for your teaching knowledge — everything you know is reflected in your lesson plans (and the thinking that goes into them).
Over the years, I’ve seen all kinds of lesson plans and lesson planning styles. They are as individual as the teachers creating them. I’ve seen great teachers walk into a class with just a post-it note (or nothing). I’ve seen not-so-great teachers walk in with meticulously detailed 6-page lesson plans.
Lesson plans express your current beliefs about best practices whilst letting you express your own style. Is it any wonder that they’re all so different?
But really, why lesson plan?
Before class
To prepare an ideal learning experience, by;
Preparing to teach a specific set of students a particular language point.
Preparing ourselves mentally for the lesson.
So you don’t have to overthink in class, you can respond to the students instead.
Oh, and because if you don’t, your manager may fire you.
During class
To give you confidence.
As a quick reference.
After class
To help you reflect on what went well and what you could do better.
To keep as a reference for the next time you teach a similar class.
You can write notes on it for ideas you want to remember.
As most good TEFL jobs require you to lesson plan for every lesson, you’ll be doing it a lot — and something you do daily is worth doing well. So let’s start learning how to write the perfect lesson plan!
If you liked this article, you’ll love my books:
📝 Lesson Planning for Language Teachers - Plan better, faster, and stress-free (4.5⭐, 175 ratings).
👩🎓 Essential Classroom Management - Develop calm students and a classroom full of learning (4.5⭐, 33 ratings).
🏰 Storytelling for Language Teachers - Use the power of storytelling to transform your lessons (4.5⭐, 11 ratings).
🤖 ChatGPT for Language Teachers - AI prompts and techniques for language teachers (4.5⭐, 10 ratings).
💭 Reflective Teaching Practice Journal - Improve your teaching in five minutes daily (4.5⭐, 16 ratings).