How to Write a Lesson Plan when Teaching English Abroad

For most schools, when teaching English abroad, you will need to write weekly, and sometimes daily, lesson plans. To make sure you write a strong lesson plan, read the following guidelines:

TEFL Lesson Plan Guideline #1: You need to know who you are teaching and how much classroom time you have. The first two pieces of information in your lesson plan should be the number of students involved, what level they are (beginner, intermediate, advanced, high beginner, low intermediate, etc.), and how long your lesson will take (usually 50 minutes to one hour).

TEFL Lesson Plan Guideline #2: Write the objective. This is the most important element of your lesson plan, and it needs to written in one sentence. It should state the focus of the lesson plan and use words such as "practice." Try to avoid using words such as "learn" and "understand."

TEFL Lesson Plan Guideline #3: List the materials you will use for the whole lesson. This can include photos, paper, CDs, and other items you will need to bring with you to the classroom.

TEFL Lesson Plan Guideline #4: Describe anything you need to do to set-up the classroom. Will you need to move chairs or desks around? Or maybe you do not need to do anything at all?

TEFL Lesson Plan Guideline #5: Explain the warm-up activity. Every lesson plan should include a warm-up, an activity, a follow-up, and an evaluation plan. But first, just detail the first activity.

TEFL Lesson Plan Guideline #6: Describe the main activity. This should be the bulk of your lesson plan and it should explain how your activity incorporates your objective. Remember that the best activities encourage students to practice speaking English as often as possible.

TEFL Lesson Plan Guideline #7: Write about your follow-up activity. This should be a simple activity that wraps up the lesson.

TEFL Lesson Plan Guideline #8: Describe how you will evaluate how well your students grasped the objective of the lesson plan. The evaluation can be a game at the end of class, or it can be homework you assign for the night so you can test how much they learned the next day.

Here are more articles I have written about teaching English abroad:

How to Become Certified to Teach English Abroad

How to Find a Job Teaching English Abroad

How to Teach English

How to Write a TEFL/TESOL Resume

Reference:

Oxford Seminars