| When I was teaching in a language center a few | | | | been days when I had walked into a class sans a |
| years ago, one of the first questions second only | | | | lesson plan and totally dashed my students' |
| to the typical Malaysian greeting "Have you had | | | | expectation of grasping relative clauses in one and |
| something to eat?" was "Are you prepared for | | | | reported speech in another. Without my lesson |
| class today?" I have to admit class preparation is | | | | plan, I feel incomplete and unsure. |
| no easy feat, not to mention time consuming. My | | | | I am not saying that I am rendered helpless |
| posse of English teacher friends forever stands | | | | without a lesson plan but having a carefully |
| divided when it comes to planning for class. Some | | | | prepared one helps me to impart and share my |
| think it is vital to ensure the success of the class. | | | | knowledge in a more systematic and |
| Some just brush it aside, saying, "Oh, I have been | | | | easy-to-understand manner as everything is |
| doing this for years. Everything is at the tip of my | | | | structured. I remind myself all the time that what |
| fingers. What is there to prepare for?" I personally | | | | I have in mind might not come out the way I |
| believe being prepared is a must, making a lesson | | | | intend it to, so planning my lesson and penning it |
| plan absolutely necessary. | | | | down makes me walk to class more confidently, |
| A lesson plan is a simple step-by-step plan of how | | | | secure in the fact that whatever that I have in |
| a teacher conducts a class. A basic lesson plan | | | | mind the night before has been carefully written |
| encompasses a warmer that attracts the | | | | down. In case I forget something, I can always |
| students' attention, a review session that checks | | | | refer to it at any time during class. So far, I have |
| the students' understanding of the lesson from | | | | managed to avoid having those |
| the day before, a step-by-step procedure to | | | | "Oh-I-could-have-done-that" moments when I |
| ensure smooth transition from one segment or | | | | finish class. Instead, on most days I walk out of |
| topic to another, a practice session where | | | | class feeling satisfied that I have conducted the |
| students get to practice what is taught via games | | | | class just the way I have envisioned it. |
| or activities, an evaluation session where the | | | | I am still a novice at preparing lesson plans as I |
| teacher evaluates the students' understanding by | | | | have only been doing it for eight years but it has |
| giving them task sheets to do and finally it closes | | | | helped me to conduct effective classes, which in |
| with an application session where students are | | | | turn result in good and appreciative feedback |
| made to use what they have learned via a | | | | from students. One of the best moments in my |
| discussion or conversation practice. | | | | teaching career was when a young Vietnamese |
| For me, a lesson plan is so much more than a | | | | girl came up to me after class and said, "Thank |
| couple of sheets of paper containing the | | | | you teacher for making Conditionals so easy for |
| necessary notes to get me through a two-hour | | | | me to understand." It was worth every single |
| class. It is my coat of armor, my reputation, my | | | | minute I had spent preparing the lesson the night |
| dignity. A tad bit dramatic, I know but that is how | | | | before! |
| important a lesson plan is to me. There have | | | | |