Making your way round town…

This is an Example TEFL Lesson Plan which illustrates some of the ideas presented in the article on TEFL Lesson Planning‏‎.

It will give you a good idea of how to approach the subject and lay out your plan. Obviously what we show here will need to be tweaked and changed for a particular class, but it’s a good start and will give you a good idea of what a lesson plan is all about.

NB make sure you read the article on lesson planning first, this is an adjunct to that.

Example Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan for Class X

• Lesson Title: Around Town!
• Class: General English – evening – 17 students
• Level: Beginner
• Length of lesson: 90 minutes
• Lesson Target: Ask for and follow directions to various places around town.
• Materials & Resources:‘Places Around Town’ flashcards including: bakery, bank, bookstore, City Hall, dentist’s, hairdresser’s, hospital, library, post office, restaurant, shoe shop and supermarket.‘Directions’ and ‘Positions’ flashcards including: turn left, turn right, go along, go past, on the left, on the right, next to and on X street.

Worksheet made up of an empty street map of an imaginary town (streets only), place and direction words, and practice conversations.

• Preparation: Copies of the worksheets for each student. Flashcards mentioned above. Transparency for OHP
• Possible Problems: Students don’t know or can’t recognize the places (different from home country). Further explanation will be necessary. There are 17 students, so there will either be one group of three with someone doing the conversation twice, or someone will have to pair up with the teacher – might be useful when giving examples.

Introduction: Ask the students about places they know around town. Try to elicit names of places to get them thinking about the day’s topic.

Activities/Exercises

• Activity/Exercise 1 (20 – 25 mins)

Material Required: Place flashcards; Worksheet – Map Section

Hand out the worksheet. Show the students the flashcards of places around town. Ask the students to name the places if they know them. If not tell them the answers. Have them write the names of the places under the pictures on the worksheet. Where would these places be on the map? Using the OHP show transparency with an empty map similar to the one on the worksheet. As an example, mark and write the name of one place somewhere on the map (basically write the name in the squares provided). Randomly pass out the flashcards to the students. Ask each student with a card to come to the OHP and mark (and possibly) write the name of the place they have on the map where they think it would be. Other students copy (mark and write) the map from the projection onto their own worksheet, so eventually everyone has the same map.

• Activity/Exercise 2 (10 – 15 mins)

Material Required: Position Flashcards; Worksheet – Where Is It? Section

Introduce and teach “on X street” and “next to”. Use examples sentences referring to the map.

The bank is on Main Street, next to the book store.
The Post Office is on Main Street, next to the supermarket.

Explain that street names don’t need “the” but other places usually do. Students fill in their examples on the worksheet Where is it? section and read their examples to the class.

• Activity/Exercise 3 (10 – 15 mins)

Material required: Position flashcards; Direction flashcards; Worksheet – Direction & Location Section Use the flash cards and the map to introduce and teach the remaining direction and position vocabulary. Students fill in the vocabulary on the worksheet Directions & Location section.

• Activity/Exercise 4 (15 – 20 mins)

Material required: Worksheet – Conversation Section

Introduce Conversation (Conversation One) Break up the class into pairs and practice. Teacher might need to practice with a student if someone is left alone. Teacher monitors pronunciation and accuracy by moving around the class. Next, each pair stands up in front of the class and acts out the conversation.

• Activity/Exercise 5 (20 – 25 mins)

Material required: Worksheet – Conversation Section

Fill in the blanks conversation (Conversation Two) Point out the starting point on the map (the star in the lower right hand corner). Explain that they will be having this conversation at this spot and that they will make original conversations based on conversation one to various places in the map. Using the map made in class, fill in the dialogue in pairs with original ideas. Again, practice and then say in front of class.

Closure

Ask the students directions to places on the map. Let them all answer together as a group or individuals. Set them the homework assignment.

Materials

• Flashcards

_______________ (Picture of Restaurant)

_______________ (Picture of Dentist’s)

_______________ (Picture of Shoe Shop)

_______________ (Picture of Bakery)

_______________ (Picture of Supermarket)

_______________ (Picture of Post Office)

_______________ (Picture of Bank)

_______________ (Picture of Hairdresser’s)

_______________ (Picture of Bookstore)

_______________ (Picture of Library)

_______________ (Picture of Hospital)

_______________ (Picture of City Hall)

• Street Map

Where is it?

1. The … is on … Street, next to the … 2. The … is on … Street, next to the … 3. The … is on … Street, next to the …

• Directions Worksheet page 2

Fill in the direction words in the spaces provided.

etc.

Useful Links

TEFL Lesson Planning – a quick guide to lesson planning

Learn to Teach English – a course to teach you how to teach others English