Here is a short list of pros and cons of lesson planning. Do you think it is necessary to have a written lesson plan for every single class we teach?
Some
advantages and disadvantages of lesson planning - HIMANSHU MALLICK
Advantages
of Lesson Planning
1. It inspires the teacher to improve the further
lessons.
2. It helps the teacher in evaluating his teaching.
3. It develops self confidence in the teacher.
4. Proper care is taken on take into consideration,
the level and previous knowledge of students.
5. The teaching matter is organized in a time-frame.
6. It inspires the teacher to ask proper and important
questions.
7. It provides guidance to the teacher as to what and
home he should teach.
8. It helps in creating the interest of students
towards the lesson.
9. It stimulates the teacher to think in an organized
manner.
10. It helps the teacher to understand to objectives
properly.
Limitations
of Lesson-Planning
1. In new or odd situations teacher feels himself
helpless.
2. Sometimes simple matters become complicated.
3. More time is required to plan a lesson.
4. Teacher cannot work/teach independently.
5. There is lack of flexibility in lesson-planning.
6. The teaching process becomes more difficult.
Maybe a written lesson plan is vital at the beginning of the process of teaching, it could help us, as teachers, to have everything under control... But when you have been teaching for a long time you have had enough time to memorize and understand many concepts, so you do not need a very detailed lesson plan.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Alberto. I do agree experience plays a very important role in the degree of detail you include in your lesson plan. It might lead you to repetition in some cases but that is up to the teacher and his/her level of professional maturity.
DeleteTonight during class I was thinking to myself as Juan says, that for experienced teachers a detailed lesson plan wouldn't be that necessary, but as we developed the topic I changed my mind and now I think the more expirience you get, the more effort you should put into planning a class so that you don't fall into repetition and become the teacher that everybody knows what activities is going to do, when and how...
DeleteI am agree with Gina.
DeleteDo not forget that there is always a risk when you have too much confidence in your performance of any work or activity you do.That's why I think, it's not important just at the beginning of your teaching process. We should always be open to change and have a lesson plan allows us to be continually updating our way of teaching.
I agree with Gina and Viviana. Change is always good and if you fall into repetition, your classes are going to become boring and students aren't going to feel motivated to learn. No one wants to be known as the boring teacher who never spices up his or her classes.
DeleteI do agree the over the years of teaching you won´t need a lesson plan, as much as when you first started teaching, but you would still need some source of idea on what your going to teach the next day.
DeleteHi everybody,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I want to thank you for your participation and level of interest in tonight's class. I had a great time sharing with you. I have to say that i don't think that it is necessary to have a written lesson plan for each class we teach but I'd say it is advisable. A written lesson plan helps you to be more organized and adss a lot to your teaching practice. It helps you grow as a professional.
Thanks to you, teacher. Your class was really interesting and helpful. It showed a very well organized lesson. I, and I know, all my classmates enjoyed it a lot.
DeleteThanks a lot to you too as we all had fun, it was a great team work and most important of all the level of interest and importance of the course and the topic it self. It was a really good way to show that when we as teachers are well prepared the result will be of a good, interesting and great class to follow.
DeleteThanks a lot
Kind regards
Mariano
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI feel that writting objectives are very essential for us teachers to design and deliver a road map to our students, and it help us to be more organize and profesionals in class to achieve better results.
DeleteI believe that it is necessary to have a lesson plan. The key for a successful class to me is to be organized, we may have great teaching ideas and techniques, but if we don't take the time to organize them we'll have a hard time trying to make ourselves clear. By planning a lesson you leave less room for mistakes to be made, you can have a back up plan in case that something goes wrong, you'll show professionalism and your students will have an awesome learning experience.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more with your view Gina. I guess taking the time to organize your classes and having a plan makes things in a class to run smoothly. Thanks for sharing
DeleteI think having a lesson plan is very important so you don't get off track, that way you have clear the objectives of the class and know how to achieve them.
ReplyDeleteHi Fabian,
DeleteThanks for mentioning the importance of objectives. Sometimes teachers do not realize how important it is to have clear measurable objectives. There is no doubt lesson planning helps to achieve learning goals for both teachers and students.
Fabian, I can't agree with you more. I believe that the whole point of having a lesson plan helps you become more organized, it's something that helps you keep track of your classes, and most importantly what Fabian mentioned that it helps create much more clear objectives and it is easier to know how you can achieve them.
DeletePlanning the class is part of the logbook navigation of a teacher, is the guide that will not only allow you to optimize teaching and learning processes in the classroom but a successful learning in our learners. Organizing the class previously will enable you to exploit efficiently your school’s resources, identify your learners’ needs and contextualize your instructional practices, focus your academic activities on real situations according to learner’s social-cultural context, take into account previous knowledge, promote knowledge transfer to everyday students’ situations, and promote student participation in the learning process, among others.
ReplyDeleteNot really much to say about your comment. You are totally right and it is great we can learn things like the ones you mentioned from experienced teachers like you. Thanks!!
DeleteHi Yaneth, right there, you have a fantastic comment, I like when you say that we can optimize and promote the learning in our students, that's the reason I became a teacher, 'cause I love when my students make an effort to reply and they finally make it.
DeleteMy opinion is that lesson planning is very important because it serves a motivational tool for both the teacher and the student because when the teacher is correctly prepared to give a lesson, they will be ready for any question on the topic, on the other hand when the students see that the teacher knows what he is talking about they will fell confident not only on what the teacher is telling them but themselves.
ReplyDeleteHi Andres, I think is so true what you say, sometimes teachers have their mental plan, but you need to have a few seconds to organize the ideas and in that specific moment your students are looking at you, depends on the time you take, the students know if you have your class prepared or not, so is up to you, if you want to create that special bond with your students, a bond of confidence and trust.
DeleteThere is nothing like the feeling of security you experience when you are by the side of somebody you trust. I think teachers who are able to gain that confidence from their students will eventually be more successful in helping them to reach their goals. Well said, Huberto.
DeleteAt the beginning of your career it is very important to make a lesson plan and to be attach to it But when you have some time teaching you will know that it is important to be flexible with your planning because in class there are many situations that could change in developing of your lesson plan. So it is important, but you have to let your mind looks for other resources for doing in class when things are not going on the way of what you think.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteHi Dorian, I think so too, if you have some time teaching you can use your memory to have a succesful class, but would be better if you have it written 'cause that way you know which activities you didn't use, those which you had to change and the ones you really used.
DeleteI am a person who values experience highly. There are many things the academy can teach us but some of the most important learning experiences I have had are based on things that I have faced. If we as teachers get to the point we can combine experience and theory, we will be able to do our job better.
DeleteThe thing is that having a lesson plan will definitely help you deliver a much better class, that it has its advantages and disadvantages is true but when you have it I think you'll feel more ready and sure about what you are going to do plus your students will notice that you think about the class and how to make their learning process alot more easy and in a way they can enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteIf you are an experienced teacher you can be more flexible about it because you will probably know how to deal with an unexpected situation, but still if you have it your class might be better.
I agree with Fabian and Dorian because experience or no experience as a teacher you should always implement a lesson plan just because of the simple fact that your going to have a plan about what your going to teach. I also believe that flexibility with your lesson plan is vital in situations when things are not going as planned because not everyone learns the same way and your going to have to switch things up to paint a better picture.
ReplyDeleteI think that planning each lesson helps your students understand the activities and objectives properly, you don't worry about students won't be busy during the class. As teachers, we can assess our teaching and students' learning.
ReplyDeleteLesson Planning is a method that we should follow to do things right having a thematic order.
ReplyDeleteIt´s a guide for teachers and students.
Helps to distribute class time.
Relates topics of a period or unit.
Seeks for applicability of a topic in a student social context.
Good morning everyone!
ReplyDeleteAs teachers, we have a big responsibility. Having a lesson plan helps us to structure our class that flows coherently and covers the direct tasks to the target. This gives confidence to students who have thought about the lesson and you're doing. Of course, it is impossible to plan everything, but for example, when circumstances change for any reason, if you have a lesson plan, can quickly follow a new path keeping the initial goal of the class.
Good Morning Viviana,
DeleteI think you´re right we have a big responsability as teachers, but I´m also sure that a teacher who plans classes correctly, follows a process and knows where she/he is going.
Viviana,
DeleteI agree with you in the first part of your comment in the second part you are right, when you said "it's impossible to plan everything", but I add that sometimes you have to change moreover a part of objective for example the quantitative part of your activities because of the proeficiency of your students or the time that you have to accomplish in a course.
From my point of view, having a lesson plan is very advisable specially if you are just starting to teach. It gives a clear idea of what to do in the classroom at any moment, it gives you the chance of thinking the best way to introduce a topic, what resources you are going to need to make the lesson more interesting for students, it also gives you the chance to define your long- and short-term goals given that our students need to develop linguistic skills. But for me the most desirable thing that we as teachers can do is to respond to our student´s needs and interests so that we teach a meaningful topic rather than just sticking to a lesson plan that might as well not respond at all to our student´s needs because we know that sometimes our teaching believes could not be the best path to follow... That is why we do Action Research in the first place. To get ride of the things that do not work neither for our students nor for us. But who plans in the lesson plan an activity that is not suitable for the students? No-one. So I think that having a lesson plan is useful (I would say VERY useful) but it is not what makes you a professional. Instead, we should read more about how to teach a language in order to be more sensitive to those little bits of information that are in a classroom´s atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteHello, Juan,
DeleteYou express some very important aspects we should consider when planning our classes, focusing on meaningful activities and learners’ needs and interests, however, I don’t agree when you say just sticking to a lesson plan because it sounds confusing, the lesson plan is precisely to take into account all this aspects that are essential to get our learners move in their learning, and we, as a teachers, are the ones who organize the lesson plan, for example at school they give me plan de área and plan de aula, but I’m the one who prepare my lesson plan including what the school asks me and my learners’ needs and interest, taking into account the different factors will affect the class such as learner’s level, noises around the classroom, and so on.
I believe a lesson plan is one of the most important tools a teacher has. It shows the level of organization and it keeps record of everything that you have taught. Do I believe it is necessary to have a written lesson plan for every single class we teach? No, I don't. Sometimes you memorize what you're going to teach without having to write a lesson plan. I think it all really depends on what you're going to be teaching that day and it also depends on the teacher. For example, if you take your students to the multimedia room and have them do some activities on the computer, well I don't think it's totally necessary to have a written lesson plan. What you can do so you can keep track of what you did that day, is having some type of log book in which you can write down what you did that day. But a lesson plan is always highly recommended.
ReplyDeleteYou hit the nail on the head! I agree with you that a lesson plan can be memorized and doesnt have to be written and also that a record or log should be kept.
DeleteI agree with you and Camila that sometimes you don't need a written lesson plan for those extra activities like going to the lab or multimedia rooms. However, if you are to keep a teacher's log to record what you did that day, wouldn't it be the same as having your lesson plan written and including that activity in it? It would still imply time and effort from the teacher as well.
DeleteThe life of a great teacher is not a simple one. I can say that having a log or a book with lesson plans requires time and effort from the teacher but as we discussed yesterday, if you really like it you will find the time and you are going to feel really happy with the results.
DeleteLaura, I don't think it's the same to have a log book and to make a lesson plan. A log book is just something to let you know what you have taught that day without having to write down the objectives and all the activities as oppose to a lesson plan in which you have to describe all the activies, write the objectives and jot down every step that you are going to teach. That's the way I think of what a log book means.
Deleteas you said is necessary because as a human you can forget something and if you can't remember it, you will be hesitating. you always need some kind of information to keep on track no matter if is not detailed
DeleteXavier Lucumi
ReplyDeleteI believe in order to be a successful teacher you must have a lesson plan. Lesson plans show professionalism and dedication of the teacher. When creating a lesson plan one must take into account that there are many variables in a real life classroom setting and that one shouldnt over plan, the teacher should be prepared to improvise at any moment. It is a good idea to have a written lesson plan but just because it isnt on paper doesnt mean there isnt one present
Hi Xavier, as I replied to Dorian, I think it would be better if you have it written 'cause that way you know which activities you didn't use, those which you had to change and the ones you really used.
DeleteAlthough it does require an investment of time and energy and there might be a lack of flexibility implied in the process, lesson planning produces many valuable benefits such as: lessons that are well planned are more likely to help students and teachers stay on track and achieve their objectives. It also allows teachers to visualize and, therefore, better prepare for every step of the teaching process in advance and increase their success. Lesson plans also provide a record that allows us to go back and analyze what went well, what didn't and then improve on it in the future. Finally, this record can save us time. If we are to teach similar lessons, we can always refer back to our lesson plan kept on file and recycle all of the successful elements instead of starting from scratch.
ReplyDeleteHi to every one, hope you are all having a great day
ReplyDeleteThe way I see and I have experienced it, is that we as teachers must always have a written work of our activities, topics, strategies, tools we will used and most important of all our observations towards the class and towards the students. As we are all human we tend to forget few things when we are working and most of the time in teaching as it changes so often the way we have and need to approach students as well as the different ways to introduce, practice and production of the topics.
One thing I always have in mind is that monotony is not the best way to live life as well as in the teaching field that we need to be creators, images to follow, leaders and imitators we must evolved and better our selves always.
Having a lesson plan lead us to professionalism as to employers now days want from us a record of our progress and to keep on track the topics to be given, it is a way to know what the students are and will be learning through out the academic process of learning.
Thanks to all the trainees support and motivation it is becoming a great course and a fun place to be in.
Kind regards
Mariano Ospina
Thank YOU Mariano. Having more experienced teachers agree with the fact that lesson planning is crucial helps everybody understands the craft of teaching is a very serious one. Keep it up!
DeleteI believe that having a lesson plan would help you as a teacher to have a better understanding of what are you gonna be teaching and how. it is vital to have it in order to "control" the process of the class otherwise you could fall into monotony. even if we are gonna improvise a class, you would need at least some kind of steps to follow no matter if is not a detailed plan.
ReplyDeleteHey John I support your comment it is vital to have a lesson plan as to keep track of our progress and students as well. I believe that it is important in order for us to have a guidance and control the stages of the teaching process.
DeleteLesson planning,i think is very important so you can keep a secuence in your class, and also because it make the class go smoother..
ReplyDeleteI think prepare a lesson plan, it allows to your students focus more quickly on what they are going to learn that class, but some times students can give great ideas for activities for your prepare lesson time when they know what is the topic that you will be teaching at class. If you prepare your classes, then you keep in track what students had goaled in your lesson. After your classes, you can see what can do to improve students skills and to specify in which topics they have some problems according to your objective.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to improvise and to spend time fixing the materials for your class when you have a good lesson plan.
I believe a lesson plan is necessary.It provides confidence and guidance to teachers and to keep record on our students level.
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DeleteHi Sidney I disagree with you because a lesson plan doesn´t help you to keep record on your students level. Maybe it helps you to make activities according to level of your students.
ReplyDeleteI think having a lesson plan written, it’s a great tool for the teacher, because it gives him confidence about the topics that he’s supposed to teach, besides it gives you a more organized sequence.
ReplyDeleteIt helps you to save time, because you have everything organized and ready for your students. A lesson plan takes a lot of time because it requires you to think about different elements that you have to include in your plan, for instance extra activities if you have plenty of time.