Ideally, lesson planning should be done at two levels: macro planning and micro planning.

The former is planning over time, for instance, the planning for a month, a term, or the whole course. The latter is planning for a specific lesson, which usually lasts 40 or 50 minutes. Of course, there is no clear cut difference between these two types of planning. Micro planning should be based on macro planning, and macro planning is apt to be modified as lessons go on.

In a sense, macro planning is not writing lesson plans for specific lesson but rather familiarizing with the context in which language teaching is taking place. Macro planning involves the following:

The teacher should get to know which language areas and language skills should be taught or practised in a course, what materials and teaching aids are available, and what methods and techniques can be used.

The teacher should get to know the institutions arrangements regarding time, length, frequency of lessons, physical conditions of classrooms, and exam requirements.

The teacher should acquire information about the pupils age range, sex ratio, social background, motivation, attitudes, interests, learning needs and other individual factors.

The teacher should be clear about the purposes, requirements and targets specified in the syllabus.

 Teaching aims Language contents and skills Teaching stages and procedures

The first thing to do in lesson planning is to decide the aims of a lesson, which include what language components to present, what communicative skills to practise, what activities to conduct and what materials and teaching aids to be used.

Ask and answer questions from the table

get up eat breakfast When do you wash your face go to school in the morning

Lesson 15

in the afternoon
in the evening at night

finish school
go to bed

clean your teeth? When do you

meet your friends? learn English?

play games?

Teacher A: Today were going to learn Lesson 15. Its question and answer practice using a substitution table. Teacher B: Today were going to practise present simple questions with when and other time expression. Teacher C: Today were going to practise asking and answering questions using the present simple tense, so that we will learn how to talk about everyday activities.

language contents: structures (grammar), vocabulary, functions, topics and so on. language skills: communicative skills involved in listening, speaking, reading and writing

Teaching stages are the major steps that language teachers go through in the classroom. Procedures are the detailed steps in each teaching stage. The most popular language teaching stages are the three Ps model, which include presentation, practice and production.

a. Presentation

b. Practice
c. Production

At the presentation stage, the teacher introduces new vocabulary and grammatical structures with reference to their contextualized use.

At the practice stage, the lesson moves from controlled practice to guided practice and further to the exploitation of the texts when necessary.

At the production stage, the students are encouraged to use what they have learned and practised to perform communicative tasks. At this last stage, the focus is on meaning rather than formal accuracy.

Pre-, while-and post-. It is frequently advised and adopted in reading lessons, that is, pre-reading while-reading and post- reading stages. This model is also often applied in listening lessons, which have pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening stages.

In this model, the pre- stage involves presentation work, such as setting the scene, warming up, or providing key information (such as key words). The while- stage involves activities or tasks that the pupils must perform while they are reading or listening. The post- stage provides a chance for pupils to obtain feedback on their performance at the while- stage. This last stage may also involves some follow-up activities, in which pupils relate what they have read or heard to their own life and use the language spontaneously.

Format of a lesson

knowledge skills concepts strategies attitudes

What do you want pupils to know and be able to do?

What "big" questions will generate discussion about this topic? What questions will be asked to help students focus on important aspects of this topic?

How will you know your pupils have reached the lesson goal? What assessment tools will you use? How will pupils assess themselves? Quiz/test/exercises/homework/ questions/questionnaires

What pupil needs, interests, and prior learning are a foundation for this lesson? What difficulties might pupils have? What connections will you make in this lesson with other topics you teach?

What engaged and worthwhile will your pupils complete? How will they build knowledge and skills; learn independently and with others; demonstrate knowledge, ability, and creativity? In what ways is this lesson challenging and authentic?

How will your learning environment support these activities? What is your role? What are the pupils' roles in the lesson? How can the use of technology or techniques support your teaching?

How and where will your students work? Classroom, lab, groups, etc.? How will you provide for students with special needs? How will you modify this lesson for individual learning needs? How will you use additional resources? How can the use of technology support classroom management?

What other support services and resources will you need? How can technology extend and enhance the lesson? Will you need additional people to help with this lesson?

 to evaluate the effectiveness

of the lesson plan.