Identifying and selecting aims
Aims describe what we want learners to learn or be able to do at the end of lesson, a sequence of lessons or a whole course. Aims may focus, for a example, on grammatical structure or a function, on the vocabulary of a particular topic, or on developing a language skill. To identify and select the most appropriate aims, we need to ask ourselves these key questions: What do my learners already know? or What can they already do? What do they need to know? or What do they need to do?
In order to identify and select the most appropriate aims for a particular group of learners, we need to consider what will help them to take the next step in their learning. This may be new language, further practice of language they already know, skills development or practice, or revisionof language they have met in the past but are not using confidently or accurately. A main aim describes the most important thing we want the learners to achieve in the lesson. For example, we may want learners to understand and practice using new language; to reinforce or consolidate the use of language they already know by giving them further practice; or to revise the language they have recently learnt. If the main aim is to teach new language , the lesson plan should also include an example of the target language we are planning to teach.
As well as a main aim, a lesson may also have subsidiary aims. Subsidiary aims show the language or skills learners must be able to use well in order to achieve the main aim of the lesson. Subsidiary aims usually contain language that already known to the learners. Stating both main and subsidiary aims is a good way of making sure that our lesson plan focuses on what we want our learners to learn, or to be able to do. It enables us to see how the lesson should develop, from one stage or part to the next, building up our learners’ knowledge or skills in the best possible order.
In addition to the main and subsidiary aims, a lesson plan will also include a number of stage aims, describing the particular purpose of each stage or short section of the lesson. By identifying a separate aim for each stage of the lesson we can be sure that there is a clear purpose for each activity that we plan, which contributes to the main aim of the whole lesson. Individual stage aims also help us to check that the activities in the lesson are relevant to our main aim and that they are arranged in the best possible sequence. Looking through a sequence of stage aims is a very good way to understand the learning progression of a lesson.
In addition to learning aims, we may also want to think about our personal aims as teachers. Personal aims show what we would like to improve or focus on in our teaching, they might be about improving the way we handle the materials and teaching aids (things we can use to support our teaching in the classroom) or particular teaching techniques, or they might be about our relationship with the learners, for example, to make more use of the phonemic chart, to get learners to work with different partners, to get quieter learners to answer questions.
The syllabus (i.e. the course programme) and the coursebook will give us a general direction for planning our teaching. To specify main aims for a particular lesson we think about our learners’ needs and the stage they have reached in their learning. Aims are not the same as procedures. Aims describe what learners will learn or what they will be able to do with the language, while procedures are what the teacher and learners do at each stage of the lesson, for example, listening to a recording and answering question.
The main aim should not be too general. Aims such as ‘to learn the past simple’ or ‘ to develop learners’ reading skills’ do not say enough about the purpose of the lesson. More specific aims might be ‘ to introduce and practice the past simple for talking about personal experiences’ or ‘ to give learners practice in predicting content, scanning for specific information and deducing meaning from context.
How do we identify the different components of a lesson plan?
A lesson plan is a set of notes that helps us to think through what we are going to teach and how we are going to teach it. It also guides us during and after the lesson. We can identify the most important components (or parts) of a lesson plan by thinking carefully about our learners, what we want our learners to do and how we want them to do it. So a lesson plan is probably most like a road map or a series of road signs, i.e. something that shows us where we are going and how we are going to get there- although we may sometimes find that during the journey we have to take a different route.
The main components of a lesson plan show us what the lesson is for(the aims), what the teacher and the learners will do during the lesson and how they will do it(the procedures). Other components f the plan, for example, the timing of different stages or the profile of the group, help us to think about possible problems and remind us of things we need to remember about the learners.
When we make a lesson plan, we need to be sure about the learning rationale(or reasons) for the plan, to ask ourselves how the procedures will help to achieve our main aims to make sure there are strong connections between the different stages. We also need to build in variety , i.e. how we can use different activity types, language skills and interaction patterns. Learners of all ages need variety, but this is especially important for younger learners, who need frequent changes of activity. A lesson plan can include stages which we can leave out if necessary. We can also include some different possibilities in a lesson plan, e.g. activities for differentiation or an extra activity to use if learners take less time than expected to complete the task, or if we are not sure how well parts of the plan will work. It is a good idea to keep lesson plans as simple as possible, so notes are better than full sentences, and there’s no need to describe every step in great detail. However, we may want to write down some important things in a complete form – for example, prompts for drilling, questions to check learners’ understanding, instructions. A lesson plan should be clear and easy to read during the lesson. Different colours, boxes, underlining , etc. are useful. It is often helpful to include drawings of the way the board will look at different stages.
