Collaborative Activity

Review the course material Unit 2 and answer the following questions about a lesson planning.

- How important do you think a lesson plan is to a successful lesson? What features do you think a lesson plan should include? 

A lesson plan plays an important role inside the classroom; it helps teachers to guarantee the success of the activities and the topic planned for that day, because teachers can observe in advance which problems or difficulties students will have, also it will bring a structure for the class and a guide for the teacher to follow. (Richards 1998).

Also, a Daily lesson planning can benefit English teachers in the following ways:

•  A plan can help the teacher think about content, materials, sequencing, timing, and activities
•  A plan provides security (in the form of a map) in the sometimes unpredictable atmosphere of a classroom
•  A plan is a log of what has been taught
•  A plan can help a substitute to smoothly take over a class when the teacher cannot teach. (Purgason, 1991)

A lesson plan should include the three stage of Yinger (1980):

The first stage consists of “problem conception” in which planning starts with a discovery cycle of the integration of the teacher’s goals, knowledge, and experience.

The second stage sees the problem formulated and a solution achieved.

The third stage involves implementing the plan along with its evaluation

-Do you think it is a good idea to strictly follow a lesson plan? Why?

A lesson plan is a valuable tool for every teacher, and most for those who are just starting their teaching career, so, I feel that teachers should follow a lesson plan. However, it is pertinent to comprehend that follow strictly the lesson plan is not necessary; a lesson plan is a guide that teachers adopt to know what elements and activities can bring on in the class, but as teachers, we can add or remove them depending on how the students pursue the aims of the lesson plan. In addition, we should see lesson plans as a useful instrument that accepts changes to get better results in our students’ learning process, those variations will appear to suit the needs of the moment.

-Some people think that lesson plans severely restrict teachers’ creativity. Do you agree? Explain your answer.

We do not agree with people who think that way, because we believe the opposite, we also believe that the lesson plan motivates teachers to develop and exploit their creative skills, because every day they want to improve so that their teaching arrives with a great ease of understanding in their students, for that reason teachers create new methodologies that are very supportive in the implementation of their lesson plan.