Lesson Plan Critique
The purpose of this assignment is to analyze the importance of lesson planning in teaching practice, the factors that determine the effectiveness of a lesson plan and criticize an existing lesson plan in relation to a teacher of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program. A lesson plan is a very important tool for supporting teachers. A lesson plan is a concise description of the learning, teaching and assessment activities, which includes an outline of resources that the teacher will use during the course to mediate selected collection of skills, knowledge and values of a particular lesson (Braine, 2013). A lesson benefits both the teacher and the learner by offering a clear guide to the process of learning and teaching. A lesson plan also makes the teacher and the students aware of the objectives of teaching, the content structure and the ways in which the teacher will perform his activities to achieve the objectives (Braine, 2013). There are various issues linked to diverse contexts of English Learning Teaching. Students learning English as a second language face strains such as the loss of friends, culture and identity. They also find it hard to communicate ideas or to meet the expectations of the teachers. They are faced with unfamiliar teaching styles and learning environments.
Context description
This lesson plan has been prepared for a classroom consisting of learners of diverse backgrounds learning English as a second language. These learners may be from communities where English is not used for everyday social and business interactions outside of schools. They have different first languages and they have good oral skills of their first languages. They may, however, be exposed to English in various kinds of interactions. They come to school with existing language skills that are already existing, cognitive abilities, social knowledge and cultural knowledge (Echevarria & Graves, 2007). Learners from diverse backgrounds face daily difficulties in classrooms (daily). Culturally diverse learners are the students who are separated from the mainstream culture through language and social class (Echevarria & Graves, 2007). These students (therefore), are from ethnic minority groups and their primary language is not English. The social cultural context also consists of students who are from poor and low-income households. The cultural norms used in classroom interaction are mainly based on European, American or white values (Echevarria & Graves, 2007). Most teachers have the expectation that all students will use the norms even though they are not taught in the curriculum. The teachers lack the understanding that the culturally diverse students may have distinct values and cultural norms that they may use in the classroom and conflict with the expectations of the teachers.
Every student in such a diverse class is unique and different from the rest. They have different behaviors, feelings and personalities (Echevarria, Vogt & Short, 2004). They also have different learning styles and distinct characteristics. It is therefore important that the teacher meet each student’s needs, which are different for each student. For the teacher to reach out to every child effectively, he or she must adapt to the learners in the classroom and understand them (Farrell, 2002). Human behaviors are sometimes determined by cultural differences. In classrooms with learners from diverse backgrounds, their cultural differences play a big role in their ways of learning. Teachers must therefore acknowledge their learners cultural differences so that they are not isolated from their home life and their communities.
There is a strong relationship between families and school involvement. It is proven that the more families get involved in their children’s school activities, the more they succeed academically. In the context where learners are from diverse cultures, family involvement is very important and must be viewed from an ecological perspective (Harmer, 2007). Some of the aspects that apply in such a relationship are relationships, activities, roles and beliefs, the families must therefore not be forced to function in the European American culture because the students and families from other ethnic backgrounds should not be viewed as the subordinate culture of the school (Farrell, 2002). It is important that the students and their families from diverse cultural backgrounds should be taught the school’s culture of collaboration and communication (Harmer, 2007). This enables the student to participate actively in classroom and school’s activities without the feeling of being unsure. In such a case, when a parent of such a student is needed in the school he or she also knows what is expected of him or her and the form of communication to be used with respect to the school culture (Hatnachek, 2009).
The concepts and language diverse learners learn during their classes may be different form their first languages. It is therefore, important for teachers to have a program where they can explicitly teach the English language and cultural understanding that is needed for the learners to communicate in English fluently (Hatnachek, 2009). The teacher has to come up with a lesson plan that incorporates the four important strands of learning English, which includes listening, speaking, reading and writing.
The lesson plan selected is “On Your Bike” and it fits the social context of diverse learners very well. The lesson plan has well-built background knowledge and activities that are meant to make the diverse learners active. The lesson plan starts with the activity of helping the students to make a decision. The topic of making a decision is common for all learners and it does not create a bias because everyone has to learn how to make decisions despite of their cultures. The lesson plan identifies the objectives that are necessary for meeting the objectives of the lesson. The fact it starts with teaching life skills such as making decisions and looking for main ideas makes it very effective. It also includes other effective activities such as interviews and writing an essay.
Literature review
According to Hatnachek (2009), a lesson plan should focus on both the instructor and the learner with the purpose of the lesson. It should be carefully and planned, constructed and followed for the learner to meet their goals. Marshall and Jane Drummond (2006), states that a lesson plan consists of activities that focuses on meeting one teaching objective at a time. The teaching objectives states and determine what the learner will be able to do after the lesson. According to Harmer (2008), teachers must respect learners as individual and respect the fact that they have unique qualities. Teachers must respect culture uniqueness, communities and languages. Some of the issues facing the diverse contexts of teaching the English language include the fact that most teachers are unprepared for cultural diversity (Harmer, J. (2008). Some teachers lack the skills and understanding that all learners are linguistically, emotionally and cognitively connected, to their home culture and their language. According to Johnson (2000), it is important for teachers to set programs that show their acknowledgements and support of their leaner’s home languages. This strengthens the ties between school and family. Lack of cultural competence is one of the challenges facing teaching English as a second language (Wang, 2007). Though teachers go through some courses related to diversity issues, most of them are not prepared on how to handle the diverse learners they find in their classrooms (Sleeter, 2001).
Other than facing the issue of lack of understanding from teachers, the diverse learners have other challenges they face during their learning experience. They are used to using their first languages and associating them with their cultures. This changes when they start learning English. They feel that they have to lose friends, their identity and their culture. They find it hard to communicate with the community speaking English only and they are unable to express their ideas. According to Echevarria, Vogt and Short (2004) another of the main challenges such learners faces is the high familial and teacher expectations for their academic success. They are exposed to new teaching styles and learning environments and some find it hard to adapt to them. It is difficult to generalize the issues facing English learners according to Echevarria, Vogt and Short (2004), although some of the issues are common such as age, native language, literacy of parents and reasons for immigration. The age of the learner determines how fast the learner will learn English as the second language. Villegas and Lucas (2002) claims that the older the student, the more hard it is for them to adopt the second language therefore the younger the learner is, the more successful he or she will be in adopting it. Villegas and Lucas (2002) also claim that students who are fluent in the grammatical structures of their first languages are at a higher advantage of learning English. Their fluency in oral communication in their first languages is important for English proficiency. According to Braine (2013), if the parents of the learner are very fluent in speaking their native language and English, their children are more likely to be fluent, which elaborates the fact that the level of literacy of parents affects how easily the learner will acquire English. It is important for teachers teaching English as the second language to gain knowledge on the reasons why the family of the learner migrated. This will help the teacher to understand the psychological impact of the move to the learner. The issues that led to the family to move might surface in the classroom and the teacher will be at a position to handle any reaction from the student (Echevarria, Vogt & Short, 2004).
Critique of the lesson plan
The chosen plan has been entitled “On Your Bike.” The lesson plan is clear, concise and very easy to follow. It does not have enough background information such as the size of the class determined by the number of learners. Having clear background information such as the size of the class may helps the teacher to assess their achievements after class and note their attendance (Farrell, 2002). This lesson plan however only states that it is to be used in upper-intermediate level. The lesson plan also does not have time specifications for the activities given. It is however, effective for an English Language Teacher (ELT) because it is detailed and offers a systematic guide of what the teacher intends to do in the classroom. The plan is detailed such that even though the specified teacher failed to attend the class, another teacher would walk in and take over effectively.
The objectives of the lesson plan are very clear with the first being how to make a decision. It has a reading activity that will help students learning English how to make decisions. The reading assigned for that objective is very appropriate and encourages the learners to be very open minded and creative in their responses. The first activity acts as the warm up and it gives the idea of what the lesson will be like. The second activity is also very appropriate because the learner is exposed on how to get the main idea out of a text. An article is presented to the learners, which has a visual aid to make it more interesting and clear. The lesson plan also includes a practice session where a table is given and the learners are supposed to complete it making them more involved in the class activities. The lesson plan given is very effective because it has different activities that serve the purpose of exposing the learners to the fours important strands of understanding English language, which include listening, reading, speaking and writing. This is achieved through activities in the lesson plan such as conducting interviews in pairs, discussions, writing essays and reading articles. The lesson plan is comprehensively and well organized and it offers the leaner various opportunities of learning. It is also very suitable for the social cultural context of teaching diverse learners English as their second language.
Conclusion
The lesson has various strengths. It has various activities that offer learners different learning experiences. For example, it has activities such as reading a case study and making decisions out of it, reading an article, getting the main idea out of it and conducting interviews in pairs, which will improve the learners’ oral capabilities. According to Harmer (2007), those are the main objectives of planning and following a lesson plan with purpose of the learners meeting their goals. The lesson has few weaknesses such as it does not give enough background information such as the number of students that should be present in the class during the lesson. It also does not give the ethno linguistic composition of the learners.
References list
Braine, G. (Ed.). (2013). Non-native educators in English language teaching. Routledge.
Echevarria, J., & Graves, A. W. (2007). Sheltered content instruction: Teaching English-language learners with diverse abilities. Pearson Allyn and Bacon.
Echevarria, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. (2004). Making content comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP model. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Echevarria, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. (2004). Making content comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP model. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Farrell, T. S. (2002). Lesson planning. Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice, 30-39.
Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching: DVD. Harlow: Pearson/Longman.
Harmer, J. (2008). How to teach English. ELT journal, 62(3), 313-316.
Hatnachek, D. (2009). Effective teachers: What they do, how they do it, and the importance of self-knowledge. The role of self in teacher development, 189.
Jhnson, A. P. (2000). It’s time for Madeline Hunter to go: A new look at lesson plan design. Action in teacher education, 22(1), 72-78.
Marshall, B., & Jane Drummond, M. (2006). How teachers engage with assessment for learning: Lessons from the classroom. Research papers in education, 21(02), 133-149.
Sleeter, C. E. (2001). Preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools research and the overwhelming presence of whiteness. Journal of teacher education, 52(2), 94-106.
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