Lesson Planning - what to do with plans!

Jeremy Harmer

In some situations (such as practical examinations or work scheme reviews) teachers either want or are required to provide detailed plans of action for forthcoming classes. It is important, therefore, to think of what should go into such plans in order to describe exactly what the lessons is intended to achieve.

A good formal plan will say what the teacher's aims are, and detail the procedures which will be followed, together with giving some insight into what might go wrong and how the teacher will deal with that.

How, then, should teachers deal with plans once they have taken them into the classroom? Are they to be slavishly followed whatever happens, or are there classroom circumstances which would cause any sensible teacher to deviate from the script they have prepared.

But of course that's just the point, isn't it! Plans are not scripts. It is better to see them as 'proposals for action' which teachers will follow if appropriate, but which they may well modify in the light of actually classroom reality.

The Planning Development Pack also looks at the contents of a formal plan and how such a plan might be used (and/or improved). Join the live online session to discus these and other issues.