Department  of  English  
2023  
 

Module: Planning
Definition:

The planning process (1) identifies the goals

or objectives to be achieved, (2) formulates
strategies to achieve them, (3) arranges or
creates the means required, and (4)
implements, directs, and monitors all steps
in their proper sequence.

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Department  of  English  
2023  
 
The three levels of planning:
1. Strategic planning:
Pearce, Freeman and Robinson (1987) define strategic planning
as a process that determine - mission, goals, strategies, and the
policy for acquiring and allocating the resources for achieving the
organization goals.
The broader strategic concerns are:
– Who are we?
– Where are we?
– Where do we want to go (or not go) and why?
– How do we get there?
_ How do we know when we get there?

2. Curricular planning:
• A curriculum is the result of human agency. It is underpinned by
a set of values and beliefs about what students should know
and how they come to know it. … The curriculum must be
responsive to changing values and expectations in education if
it is to remain useful.
• A curriculum is typically a guideline set out for educators that
prescribes what they need to teach their students. It tends to
outline the subjects that need to be taught, as well as methods for
ensuring that each student has indeed learned the necessary
materials.

However, once a curriculum is in place, a number of important

questions still need to be answered. These include:
• Is the curriculum achieving its goals?
• What is happening in classrooms and schools where it is
being implemented?
• Are those affected by the curriculum (e.g., teachers,
administrators, students, parents, employers) satisfied with the
curriculum?
• Have those involved in developing and teaching a language
course
done a satisfactory job?
• Does the curriculum compare favorably with others of its kind?

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Department  of  English  
2023  
3. The pedagogical planning:
• Effective learning and teaching doesn't just happen. Programs and lessons are
planned through thinking about the learners' needs and the teacher’s desired
outcomes, prioritizing what is to be taught and considering how this may be
achieved in the classroom through a range of strategies and resources.
• Good planning also involves some critical reflection and evaluation by the
teacher as to what and how the students have learned, the effectiveness of the
selected pedagogies, and how meaningful learning could be extended.

What is a curriculum?
“Curriculum is a very general concept which involves consideration of the whole
complex of philosophical, social and administrative factors which contribute to the
planning of an educational program.” (Allen quoted in Nunan, 2000: 6)

What is a syllabus?
“syllabus is a more detailed and operational statement of teaching and learning
elements which translates the philosophy of the curriculum into a series of planned
steps leading towards more narrowly defined objectives at each level” Dubin &
Olshtain, (1997: 28).

Types of syllabi:
1. Structural: Grammatical and phonological structures are the organizing principles-
sequenced from easy to difficult or frequent to less
frequent.
2. Situational: Situations (such as at the bank, at the supermarket, at a restaurant,
and so forth)
3. Topical: Topics or themes (such as health, food, clothing, and so forth)
4. Functional: Functions (such as identifying, reporting, correcting, describing, and so forth)
5. Notional: Conceptual categories called notions (such as duration, quantity, location, and
so forth)
6. Skills: Skills (such as listening for gist, listening for main ideas, listening for inferences,
scanning a reading passage for specific information, and so forth)
7. Task: Task or activity-based categories (such as drawing maps, following directions,
following instruction, and so forth)
(Brown, 1995: 7)

All these types rarely occur independently of each other. Almost all actual language-teaching
syllabi are combinations of two or more of the types defined here. For a given course, one
type of syllabus usually dominates, while other types of content may be combined with it.

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Department  of  English  
2023  
What are the important sections that a syllabus should list?
The following are the sections that a syllabus should list:
• Course Name, Course Number, Place, and Time
• Instructor contact information
• Textbook and readings
• Course Learning Outcomes
• Course Calendar
• Assessment Measures (exams, projects, quizzes, homework, etc.)
• Grading Criteria used for the course
• Course Policies and other rules

What are the documents that you need for a yearly planning?

• Curriculum or syllabus
• The target competencies
• The learning objectives
• The school manuals
• The organization of the school year
• The results of diagnostic tests
• Pedagogical Guidelines
• The different ministerial circulars

Planning a sequence of lessons:

What is a sequence of lessons?

• Lesson sequencing is the process of organizing several lesson plans that will be
taught consecutively. The purpose of lesson sequencing is to create smooth
transitions between lessons in order to meet the objectives of the unit plans and to
achieve optimal learning outcomes.
• An ideal multi-lesson sequence, according to Tessa Woodward, has threads
running through it. These might be topic threads, language threads (grammar,
vocabulary, etc) or skill threads (reading, listening, etc)
• Over a period of lessons students should be able to see some interconnectivity
rather than a random collection of activities.
A scheme of work helps teachers:
• plan a sequence of lessons in the best way to cover the school syllabus
or the units of a course book in the time available.
• to think about what they want to achieve and what materials they might
need.
• to include enough variety across their lessons.
• to see how lessons are linked to each other.

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Department  of  English  
2023  

What are the pros and cons of planning a sequence of lessons over a
week or a month?

Pros cons

1. Learner It gives learners a sense of direction and It could make lessons predictable.
motivation reassures them.
2. Learner’s It allows teachers to make sure different Teachers are so focused on long-and-
needs needs are catered for and they can factor mid-term needs that they do not respond
in time for revision to needs as they arise during a lesson.

3. Variety It allows teachers to consider issues such Teachers become too focused on
as the balance of language input to skills variety and forget language items or
practice and development. skills that meet learners’ needs.

4. Teaching It gives an opportunity for teachers to Teachers may use too much
and learning consider alternative materials, especially supplementary material and learners
resources authentic materials. may feel that bringing the course book
to class is a waste of time.

5. Teacher’s It makes day-to-day planning more efficient Teachers will need to take time once a
time and less time-consuming. week or once a month to plan the
management sequence of lessons.

How detailed should a scheme of work be?

Schemes of work are not as detailed as lesson plans. Like any individual lesson, a sequence
of lessons should have a logical and learning-friendly progression (where one stage leads to
another in a clear order) and a good balance of approaches and activities. Like a lesson plan,
a scheme of work helps us to identify our aims and make sure we choose materials and
procedures that match those aims.

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Department  of  English  
2023  

Planning lessons:
What is a lesson plan?
A lesson plan is a teacher’s detailed description of the course of instruction for an individual
lesson. It dictates the structure of teaching. Although the components of a lesson plan are
agreed upon by all the professionals, there is no standard format of a lesson plan. Usually
the choice of a particular sample or model is up to the teacher and depends on the type of the
lesson.

A lesson plan is beneficial because :

ü For students, evidence of a plan shows that the teacher has devoted time to thinking
about the class.
ü It helps the teacher think logically through the stages of the lesson as the objectives,
the activities and the time span are written in the plan.
ü It gives the teacher (especially a novice one) a feeling of security as there is always a
document to fall back on.
ü It ensures a systematic and balanced learning process.
ü It helps teachers develop their teaching skills by reflecting on their
teaching practices and trying to improve them to meet students’ needs
and achieve learning purposes.
ü It gives the observer a clear idea of what the teacher intends in order to judge how well
that intention is carried through.

Here are some problems as a result of not using lesson plans:

ü Aimless wandering.
ü Failure to achieve objectives.
ü Needed teaching materials or equipment not available
ü Poor connection with preceding or subsequent lessons. What you teach may not relate
to what you taught earlier and it may not lead to what you will teach later.
ü Poor or reduced learning,
ü Frustration (for both the teacher and the students)

Coherence and variety in a lesson plan.

A good lesson plan needs to contain a judicious blend of coherence and variety. Coherence
means that students can see a logical pattern to the lesson. Even if there are three activities,
for example, there has to be some Connection between them. Variety is also important. The
ideal compromise, then, is to plan a lesson that has an internal coherence but which
nevertheless allows students to do different things as it progresses.

(Harmer, J. 2007)
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Department  of  English  
2023  

Planning questions:
1. Who exactly are the students for this activity ?
2. What do we want to do and why ?
3. How long will it take ?
4. How does it work ?
5. What will be needed ?
6. What might go wrong ?
7. How will it fit with what comes before and after it ?

Components of a lesson plan:

Class profile:
Before you can prepare a lesson you need to know something
about the background of the students you will teach.
Ø How many students are in the class?
Ø How old are they?
Ø What country (ies)/region(s) are they from? (if you teach a mixed
group.)
Ø What language(s) do they speak?
Ø What is their ability level? (Diagnostic test)è If you want your
students to move forward, you need to identify where they have
started.

Goals /Objectives?

Goals Objectives

• Broad • Specific
statements • Precise
• General • Tangible
intentions • Concrete
• Intangible • Measurable
• Abstract
• Generally hard to
measure

Goal:
The goal of the lesson may be quite generalized, but it serves as a unifying theme for the teacher.
e.g. Students will increase their familiarity with telephone conversations.
Objectives:
Objectives specify the new skills that the students will gain as a result of the lesson. They focus on
student (not teacher) behaviors.

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Department  of  English  
2023  

The components of an Educational objective:

è ABCD Model
Audience è Who is your audience? Who is performing the action? Who is this activity intended
for? Be specific (The learners, participants … not the instructor)
Behavior è What will the learner be able to do? Behaviors always use action verb. (what the
participants will do)
Conditionè How will the student accomplish the task? What information is given/ is not given?
Give the conditions in which performance will occur. (Imposed by the instructor)
Degree è The standard or criterion for judging the behavioral performance.
How often?/ How well? /How many? / how much?
Define expectations regarding accuracy, quality, and speed. (What is “Good Enough”?

Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time-bound

Who is the Is the Can the Does the Does the

target objective objective be objective objective
population? quantifiable? accomplished address propose a
What will be Can it be in the the goal? timeline when
accomplished? measured? proposed Will the the objective
How much time frame objective will be met?
change is with the have an
expected? available impact on
resources the goal?
and support?

SMART objectives:

Bloom’s taxonomy:
Bloom’s taxonomy was created in 1956 under the leadership of educational psychologist Dr.
Benjamin Bloom in order to promote higher forms of thinking in education, such as analyzing
and evaluating concepts, processes, procedures, and principles, rather than just remembering
facts (rote learning)
The epitome of Bloom’s work was intentionally focused on organizing educational objectives
according to their cognitive complexity.

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Department  of  English  
2023  

Having an organized set of objectives helps teachers to:

Ø “plan and deliver appropriate instruction”;
Ø “design valid assessment tasks and strategies”;
Ø “ensure that instruction and assessment are aligned with the objectives.”

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Department  of  English  
2023  

Materials needed:
• The materials needed section functions as a "checklist" that will remind you about
things you need to take along with you to class.
• You create this list by writing down needed items as you go through the process of
planning or "envisioning" your lesson. Then, when your lesson is planned, the list is
complete.
CONTINGENCY PLAN :
What is a contingency plan?
As the teacher plans his/her lesson, s/he ought to think of things that could possibly
happen as they teach it that would require some sort of adjustment. They should write
their ideas for those adjustments in the contingency plan section of their lesson plan.
Then, if they have to make changes, they will be ready.
Why do we need a contingency plan?
• The students learning is not interrupted.
• The problem is minimized as much as possible.
• To save the teacher the embarrassment of not knowing what to do next.

WARM-UP & REVIEW:

• Some lessons begin with a warm-up. Others start with a review. It is even possible to start
with both a warm-up and a review. It all depends on your class situation.
• A review connects the current lesson with previous lessons by going over points that were
taught or learned previously. For example, "Last time we learned about hobbies..."
• Good reviews are not teacher dominated. Rather, they allow the students to demonstrate
what they learned and what they remember.
• The purpose of a warm-up is to help students get in the mood for class. A warm-up may be
necessary to "wake them up," make them happy to be there, or to set the tone for what will
follow.
• A warm-up may take many forms. It can be a question, or a story. It might involve showing
the class a picture and drawing them into a discussion.

APPLICATION:

The application part of a lesson is also essential to effective language teaching.

After a new language skill has been introduced and presented by the teacher, and practiced by the
students, the lesson is far from over. The teacher must evaluate the students to make sure that
they are performing the new skill correctly and then provide activities that require students to take
what they have practiced in class and try to apply it correctly in "real life" situations.
These "real life" situations may be in class, out of class, or both.

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Department  of  English  
2023  

Evaluation:
"Evaluation" doesn't always correspond to "testing." Evaluation can and should be carried out
both during and after instruction. It may be both formal and informal.
Formal evaluation done after instruction -testing- confirms whether the teacher and students
have successfully accomplished the objectives, but its results often come too late to do the
students much good. Formal evaluation … typically involves either creating or selecting an
appropriate language test and then administering, scoring, and interpreting it.

Informal evaluation done during instruction is often the most useful and
influential type. Here are some ways to carry out informal evaluation during the
presentation and practice phases of instruction:
Ø Set up an in-class situation where students will need to use English that is related to the
objectives of your lesson, and then simply observe them.
Ø After students read a short passage, ask them to tell you what the main idea was. You
may also ask about important supporting points or details.
Ø Assign students to write a few English sentences (or paragraphs) on a topic that is familiar
to them. You will learn a lot about their English ability by reading what they have written.
Ø Tell them a brief story in English. Then ask them questions about it, or ask them to tell the
story back to you.
Ø As you talk with your students, make mental notes of words they misuse or pronounce
incorrectly. Those observations will tell you how well your students have learned what you
have taught them. These informal evaluations may also give you ideas for future lesson
objectives.
Ø Almost any in-class or homework assignment can serve an informal evaluation purpose,
as long as you look at it with the purpose of learning where your students are having trouble
with English.
Evaluation should be related to your lesson objectives. It doesn't make much sense to aim at one
thing and evaluate another. Evaluation is an essential part of every lesson and should be included in
the teacher’s planning.

SELF-EVALUATION :
Self-evaluation is a very important part of every lesson even though it typically takes place after the
lesson is over. It requires you to think back on the lesson and consider the answers to questions like
these:
q What went well in this lesson? Why?
q What problems did I experience? Why?
q What could I have done differently?
q What did I learn from this experience that will help me in the future?
Your self-evaluation comments may be written in a space on your lesson plan, or in a separate
teaching log.

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Department  of  English  
2023  

References:
• Nunan, D. 1988 Syllabus Design
• Yalden, J. 1987 principles of Course Design for Language Teaching
• Harmer, J. 2007 How to Teach English
• Graves,K. 2000 designing Language Courses
• Gower,R., Philips,D. and Walters, S. 1995 Teaching Practice (Macmillan)
• Brown,D. 1994 Teaching by Principles (Prentice Hall Regents)
• Thaine,C. 2010 Teacher Training Essentials
• https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/

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