| "Teacher-learning contexts change and teachers' | | | | * Selection and ordering of activities: This is important in |
| behavior must change accordingly. The basic problem | | | | preventing teacher dominated discourse. Variation is |
| for teachers is, therefore, to acknowledge that there is | | | | the key word. Relate to the four skills, grouping styles, |
| no one best way to behave, and then to learn to | | | | length of activities - short vs. long(er) activities, based |
| make decisions in such ways that their behaviors are | | | | on book, word cards, work pages, etc. |
| continually appropriate to the dynamic, moment to | | | | * Level of difficulty, how much each activity stirs them. |
| moment complexity of the classroom" [Parker, 1984]. | | | | It is a good idea to have an active/stirring activity |
| Once the school year gets started, many teachers are | | | | sandwiched between two settling activities, topic of |
| already absorbed by interactive decisions or, what is | | | | different ideas, mood (heavy and light and in-between |
| known as quick on the spot decisions based on the | | | | moods such as humor and being serious) and finally, |
| lesson plan for the day. This usually takes much of the | | | | teaching presence - voice - acting ability. |
| teacher's time. Yet there are so many other kinds of | | | | * Closing: Leave enough (but not too much) time. Try |
| decisions that go into planning that quickly become | | | | to be aware of it. Try to avoid having to end a lesson |
| overlooked. Here's a refresher list for you to get | | | | after the bell rings. |
| started: | | | | * Summing up: some lessons need a summing up. For |
| Planning Decisions for Lessons | | | | example: what did we do today? What can we call |
| 1. Long term - plan in the summer for a whole course, | | | | this lesson? |
| year, semester | | | | * The issue of giving homework. |
| 2. Short term - for a particular lesson. | | | | * Linking lessons with previous and following lessons. |
| Long Term Lesson Planning Decisions: Lesson Plans | | | | Where are the students in the framework of things? |
| and Textbooks | | | | And finally, what do all these lesson plan decisions |
| What book to use? | | | | depend on? |
| * What supplementary material to add? | | | | * time of lesson (time of day, and day of week) |
| * If there is no book, what material should you teach? | | | | * age and level of pupils |
| (4th grade, special education) | | | | * potential discipline problems |
| * How should you divide material between semesters? | | | | * when does the best learning take place? |
| * How to deal with extensive reading. A school should | | | | * presentation - practice - testing sequence |
| have an extensive reading library for example. | | | | * homework given previously and to be given |
| Short Term Decisions in Lesson Planning | | | | * cost effectiveness |
| * Aim or objective of the lesson: what will be the main | | | | Good decision planning takes a variety of teacher |
| teaching point of this lesson? Types of aims for the | | | | smarts and skills. Overplanning is natural in the |
| reading lesson typically include: a particular reading skill, | | | | beginning, too much of it after a while can demotivate |
| a function, a grammatical structure. | | | | your students. |
| * An opening | | | | |