'Designing and Using Lesson Plans for English 10, 11 & 12'

Introduction
The title of this workshop was chosen by teachers and trainers from all the VTTN teams across Vietnam, and reflected a real need in teachers for useful and practical help with designing lesson plans. All the workshops were run by Vietnamese cotrainers and supported by a British Council trainer. Many thanks to these co-trainers and the participants for their hard work and valuable contributions, some of which are published in this newsletter.

Content

• Exchange of experiences and group discussion of difficulties related to designing and using lesson plans
• Analysis of old lesson plans, identification of good and bad plans and what a good lesson plan should contain, leading to the design of a model outline for a lesson plan
• Identification of stages in lessons for different skills
• Production of new lesson plans for upper secondary text books
• Peer-teaching/demonstration and evaluation of the lesson plans
• Techniques for follow-on training

At this workshop, our teachers exchanged experiences in designing lesson plans. All the teachers find it very difficult to use the new methods and techniques in teaching English in upper secondary schools using the set text books. To teach an English lesson effectively, first of all we have to design a clear and well-staged lesson plan.
During the workshop, we got together in groups and discussed and analysed our present lesson plans in terms of good and bad points and whether the activities were adapted well or not. Then teachers together designed common guidelines for each specific part of the lesson. Finally, teachers exchanged their ideas in groups before practising their plan by peer-teaching them to their colleagues.
Now, we are able to design a better lesson plan with adapted activities that are more interesting, practical and effective.

Ms Bui Thuy Van
Teacher and co-trainer Nguyen Van Troi Upper Secondary School, Nha Trang

Before the workshop I had a lot o1 problems and didn't feel confident in my teaching. This was the first time I attended a workshop and it was a golden chance for me to improve my teaching. It gave me new experiences, especially in designing and using lesson plans. All the teachers agreed that designing a lesson plan carefully is a key to the success of a period, so I am trying to speak about the experience and knowledge I gained to my colleagues at school.

Nguyen Thanh Binh Teacher, NamDinh

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What was produced during the workshop

In VTTN workshops, teachers talk openly to each other about their teaching; problems are aired and good ideas shared, and in this way, teachers can help themselves and others become more effective in their jobs. As a starting point for this workshop on designing lesson plans, teachers discussed two fundamental questions: "Why write lesson plans?" and "What should a good lesson plan contain?" The first morning's work produced a stimulating debate among teachers and two checklists. You can read their ideas and suggestions below.

Why write lesson plans?

In all the workshops, experienced and new teachers discussed this question and together produced this list:
-Careful preparation: makes better teaching – you think about what to teach and how to teach it. This also improves your teaching skills
• You become clear about the content of the lesson
• You feel more confident
• You can answer questions correctly and give clear explanations
• You know in advance the meaning and pronunciation of new vocabulary
• You can plan to make the lesson more interesting: plan a head to give students more variety of skills and plan more communicative activities
• The students’ learning is more structured and in the correct order you can link previous knowledge with new knowledge more easily
• IT helps you organise the time better for each unit/lesson ( better time allocation )
• It makes you think about how long is needed for each activity ( better timing )
• Activities are more successful when planned carefully in advance
• It makes you think about the balance between “teacher talking time” (TTT) and “student talking time” (STT)
• You can anticipate more easily the difficulties students may have
• It helps improve your English writing skills
• It gives you experience for next time
• The plan is a record of what has been covered/omitted

Exchanging ideas Sharing experiences Finding solutions

'It was a 100% practical workshop for teachers of English. No matter how old and how experienced in teaching, we were in the same boat discussing problems and solutions together. We spent hours designing lesson plans (with new ideas to help us) and presented them before our colleagues. It was really challenging, but interesting.'

Nguyen Van Dich
Teacher
Tran Cao Van Upper Secondary School

'Coming back to my school, my colleagues were filled with eagerness and happiness when they received a set of photocopied lesson plans prepared during the workshop.'

Hoang Kim Anh
Teacher
Dien Hong High School, Danang

Before the participants went ahead and planned lessons together in the workshops, they talked about what needs to be considered in order to write good lesson plans, and what notes they needed while they were in the class teaching. This useful list was produced by the teachers in Nam Dinh:

What should a good lesson plan contain ?
Main areas:
• Book/lesson/class/date
• Aim ( main teaching/learning point – what students will be able to do )
• Objectives ( details of aim – vocabulary and structures )
• Time allocation
• Stages/steps
• Teacher’s activities ( including aids)
• Pupils’ activities ( including skills practised )
• Interaction patterns ( individual, pair, group, whole class work )
• Evaluation of lesson ( after it has been taught )
Details:
• Warm-up activities
• Checking on previous knowledge
• New lesson: new vocabulary and structures presentation of new material, pratice and consolidation activities and homework
• Clear instructions for each stage/ activity
• Clear explanations
• Link between each stage or step
• Integration of skills
• Anticipated problems

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Problems…
…solution

Teachers in Thanh Hoa and NamDinh discussed problems they had in designing lesson plans and then suggested some effective solutions. Do you face these difficulties in your teaching? Perhaps these ideas will help you, too.

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Good ideas for lessons

During the workshops, teachers produced lesson plans for the text book they use in upper secondary school - English 10,11 & 12 and Tieng Anh 10,11 & 12. You can read some of their good ideas in this newsletter on the following pages. They are not complete lessons, but parts of them: pre-reading tasks, while-reading tasks, post-reading tasks, word study and speaking practice activities. While you're reading, it would be a good idea to have the textbook open beside you so that you can refer to the lesson directly. All the ideas can be easily adapted for different topics-try them out in on e of your classes. (For even more ideas, look back at Issue 1)

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Pre-reading activities

Lesson: English 11 (7 year system), Unit 7, pp 77-79 "Women's Liberation", stage: Introduction and pre-reading, time: 10 mins.
Ideas from Mr Nguyen Van Dinh (Tran Cao Van School) and Mr Le Toan (Chu Van An School) in Khanh Hoa Province.

1. First of all, the teacher writes the word "housework" on the board and gives one example: cooking. Then s/he asks the students to call out other examples and builds up a "spider diagram" on the board. This activity gets the students interested in the topic and reviews old vocabulary. You can ask students to do this in pairs instead, or to make a race to write down 5 different types as quickly as they can.

2. Next, write the following questions on the board and ask students to discuss them in pairs.
a) Who often does the housework in your family? (expected answers: mother/grandmother/sister)
b) Does housework take a long time? (Yes, it does)
c) Is housework hard work? (Yes, it is)
Get two pairs to give their answers as feedback. This pairwork activity gives all students a chance to practice their speaking and starts them thinking about the issues involved in the reading.

3. The teacher then introduces the text: "Women usually do the housework, and they do lots of other work, too. We are going'to read about the Women's Liberation Movement today."

4. As a pre-reading activity, the teacher asks the students to look at the pictures on pages 78
and 79, then asks the class:
- Are there any men in the pictures? Why not? - What are the women doing?
- What's this? (point to the picture)
(Note that these introductory questions are simple and require short answers.
The lesson continues with a gist reading task and comprehension questions...)

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Spider diagrams

T hese are very useful for pre-reading and introduction activities. They are easy for the teacher to plan, and they are great for recycling old vocabulary and getting the students interested in the new topic. They also allow all students to take part if they do it in pairs which makes the activity more 'student-centred'. Here are some other examples you can use:

TiengAnh 10, Reviewlesson 1, p.62
The teacher can use this to review vocabulary from the previous lesson, then go on to review the grammatical structures using the words produced.

English 11, Unit 9, p.106 "Steamboat Coming", and Tieng . Anh 12, lesson 6, p.47 "Mark Twain".
This is used by a teacher in Nha Trang as a pre-reading task for prediction. The teacher asks the students what information about Mark Twain they think they will read in the text. After eliciting their ideas to the board, the students then read the text to find out if the answer to their questions can be found

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While reading

English 12, Unit 9, p. 128 "To Build a Fire", Stage: while-reading
Idea from Nguyen Thi My Phuong and Nguyen Trai, teachers in Danang

This activity can be adapted for any text and is done after introducing the subject and presentation of vocabulary in the previous period. In this period, the teacher first reviews and re-introduces the topic, then continues as follows:
1. Ordering: the teacher writes the following table on the board and asks students to skim the text to put the activities in the correct order. Give the students a set time in which to complete it. This activity helps students familiarise themselves with the text and some of the things they will read about later.

2. The teacher asks the students to check their answers in pairs, then elicits the answers to the board.
(The teacher then continues with detailed T/F comprehension questions)

English 12, Unit 4, pp. 54 & 55 "Conservation", stage: While- reading Idea from Nguyen Viet Tuan, teacher in Danang

Here is another example of a skimming activity: matching main ideas to pharagraphs. This is done as a gist reading to practise skimming for general ideas - it helps the students find their way around the text more easily, especially important if it is a long text. It also
familiarises them with the main ideas before they answer more detailed questions, and makes the text seem less daunting.
In the following example, the teacher starts with paragraph matching, then goes on to do a more detailed activity using a table.
1.The teacher writes the following main headings on the board and asks the students to match a paragraph number to each heading. Give the students a set time in which to complete it.
Paragraph
Ways of conserving minerals
Air protection
Wildlife protection
2. Ask the students to compare their answers in pairs, then elicit the correct answers to the board.
3. The students then do a second reading task: filling in a table. The teacher draws the table on the board and asks the students to complete it in note form by reading the information in the text.

4. The students compare their answers in pairs, then three are chosen to write their answers on the board, which are then checked.
The teacher then uses this completed table for the homework task, which is to write a short summary of the paragraphs using their notes.

Vocabulary/word study

English 10, Unit 13, p.143 Word study: negative prefixes Idea from Nguyen Nhung (Dak Lak) and Dao Lam Tra My (Khanh Hoa)

Here is a good example of a vocabulary presentation in which the teachers have tried to keep the context simple and interesting for their students. Notice the clear and easy language used for presentation.
1. The teacher greets the class and asks "Are you happy?" The expected answer is "yes"! The teacher then draws a happy face on the board, then continues: "but Mary is not happy. She has lost her cat." The teacher draws a sad face on the board, then presents the word "unhappy" and the synonym "sad".
2. The teacher then tells the st4ents: "I want to go to the moon by bike. Can I do that?" Of course, the expected answer from the students is "no", and the teacher elicits "I can't do that", then "It is not possible". The teacher tries to elicit "impossible", but if the students don't know, s/he tells them the word, then writes it on the board.
3. The teacher introduces the structures on the board: in - im -un - it + adjective
4. The teacher refers back to a text they have covered in the previous lesson and asks students to identify words with this structure.
5. The lesson continues with a vocabulary matching activity, then gap-filling sentences.

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Speaking practice activities

In the workshops, teachers discussed the problem of planning speaking and practice activities in their classes. They agreed that all students should have the
opportunity to try out their English in class, and in order to do this, the use of pair
work was essential. Here are some ideas of activities from participants:

Cued interview
English 10, Unit 4, p. 45 & 46
"Faraday", stage: freer practice
Idea (adapted) from a teacher in Khanh Hoa

In the first part of the period, the teacher introduces Faraday and the students do
activities relating to the text about his life. In the last 7 minutes, the teacher asks students to conduct an interview with a different famous person as follows.
1. The teacher writes the cued dialogue on the board:

A __________________(nationality?)
B __________________
A: __________________(when/born?)
B __________________
A __________________(where/born?)
B __________________
A __________________(why/famous?)
B __________________
A __________________(?)
B __________________

2. The teacher thinks of the name of a dead famous person (not Faraday), but doesn't tell the student. The teacher elicits (orally) the questions on the board from the students. The teacher answers the question and the students try to guess who the . person is (e.g. Ho Chi Minh).
3. The questions are drilled with the whole class once or twice.
4. The students work in pairs. Each one thinks of a dead famous person. They take it in turns to ask questions about their partner's person and try to guess who it is. They may also ask any other questions they like (but not the name!). Note: the students do not write out the dialogue - this is speaking practice, not writing practice.
5. The teacher asks one or two pairs to demonstrate their dialogue to the class and the class try to guess the famous person.

Flowcharts
English 12, Unit 7, pp 109 & 110
"Being a Welcome Guest", stage: further practice.Idea (adapted) from Ho Vi Nu Dieu Minh, a teacher in Danang (Cao Ba Quat High School)

In the earlier part of the period, the students completed activities based on a dialogue. For speaking practice, the teacher used a flowchart, as follows:
1. The teacher gives the students a situation and draws the flowchart on the board. (The situation should be relevant and interesting for the students.)

2. The teacher elicits the dialogue from students in the class. After going through it once, the teacher chooses two students to do it again for the class to hear. (Note: the students shouldn't write it down.)
3. The students work in pairs and practise the dialogue, using the flowchart to help them remember.4. As feedback, one or two pairs demonstrate their dialogue for the class

Teaching tip:
When you do speaking practice activities,make sure that the students don't spend all their time writing instead of speaking. Take care to give clear instructions and a clear mode.

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