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Adult Lesson Plan Lesson 8 Summary

First Lesson Planning Steps

We’re going to construct a lesson plan for an adult student class, and the topic is going to be Driving, part of a larger unit on Transportation. Let's take a look at what we've done so far.

We’ve looked at the objectives - both overall and specific - for doing this mini-unit. They include things like learning language related to the rules of the road, but also more detailed objectives related to speaking, listening, reading and writing.

We’ve come up with some essential questions about the topic, driving, but the students may have even more pressing questions that they’d like to ask. Our “hook” is the fact that many of the class members drive cars, or have experience with cars.

We now have a good idea about the content that we have to teach and the students have to learn. We’ve also thought about a culminating assessment, and we’ll need a rubric for that soon.

It’s a little too early to answer the Big Four questions because we have to sort this content into three class periods. Next, we can get on with planning what instructional strategies we’ll use.

Instructional Strategies and Planning for Three Classes

Now we’ve reviewed all of the facets of the lesson plan. We’ve decided where we want to go, why we’re going there, how we’re going to get there, and how we’ll know it when we arrive. We’ve identified the objectives and the essential questions, looked at the content that has to be delivered, and thought about several instructional strategies that we can use. We’ve considered the pacing, and anticipated things that might go wrong. We’ve also outlined a culminating assessment project for students to complete.

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The Lesson Outline

As you’ll realize by now, this is just the first of three lessons that are part of this mini-unit. In 90 minutes, we weren’t able to get to many of the objectives for the unit, and so they will be the work of the next two days. We also weren’t able to deliver and discuss the culminating assessment. This item should begin, or be part of the early minutes, of the second lesson. Students need time to think about what they will choose to demonstrate, and with a topic in mind, the remaining part of the unit will take on a new purpose for them. The combination of mini-lessons and cooperative learning activities meant that students were actively engaged for almost all of the class period. Their active participation in the learning activities will ensure that the objectives of the lesson will be internalized and learned. Planning Days 2 and 3 of the unit will follow naturally from what happened on Day 1. There will be more mini-lessons on specific topics, paired activities, and cooperative learning and role-playing opportunities. As well, students will time to begin working on their culminating assessments. Time will need to be allocated in class to brainstorm and begin formulating ideas for the culminating assessment. Planning lessons begins with the curriculum objectives and builds out from there. Best wishes for your planning.

References

James, Cassandra. “Teaching EFL/ESL Business Students How to Write a Good Business E-mail.”