Chapter 4: Starting from the Beginning: Planning the Lesson 59
- Be able to compare their travel experiences with other people by
saying ‘Have you ever... ?’ - Write a questionnaire using verbs associated with travel in the
present perfect, and try it out on at least three other students. - Learn the vocabulary for their hobbies and interests, including
pronunciation. - Know when to use the gerund and when to use the noun.
- Know how to write sentences requiring the gerund.
- Discuss their likes and interests together in groups
Even in a conversation class you ought to have a clear idea of what you
intend the lesson to accomplish.Both you and your students benefit when you write down your aims and
objectives:✓ You consider the lesson from the students’ perspective as well as your own.
✓ There’s less likelihood that you’ll go off on a tangent during the lesson.
✓ You can assess the relevance and effectiveness of activities you intend
to use more easily by seeing whether they’re closely linked to the aims
and objectives of the lesson.
Getting Your Timing Down and Planning for Interaction
A very important factor to consider when putting your lesson together is
the amount of time available to you and how you want to spend it. English
lessons can vary from 45 minutes to 3 hours but there is a basic format
for dividing the time: an initial stage in which you teach new information;
another in which you practise what you’ve just presented in a controlled way
and a final stage that involves students expressing themselves with less guid-
ance from you. These stages are called Presentation, Practice and Production
respectively. Each stage is longer than the one before it so that the students
end up doing most of the talking.So if the triangle in Figure 4-2 represents a one-hour lesson, P1 (Presentation)
would be about 15 minutes, then P2 (Practice) about 20 minutes and finally
P3 (Production) about 25 minutes.