Beyond Basics: ESOL Lesson Planning

This course requires you to have taken ESOL Basics (online or face-to-face) or have at least one year of adult ESOL teaching experience prior to taking this course since the material learned in this course builds upon what is learned in that course. Please go to: http://www.valrc.org/trainings/courses/esol.html to learn more about that course and sign up.

This course is an in-depth follow up to our popular ESOL Basics course. Effective lesson plans are essential to providing instruction that meets the needs of ESOL learners. A good lesson plan is an important tool that focuses both instructor and learners on the purpose of the lesson and, when carefully constructed and followed, enables learners to efficiently meet their goals and instructors to maximize the use of their time, resources, and skills.

There are many ways to plan an effective lesson, but the most important point is that you make a plan. A lesson plan is like a road map. It identifies the destination (objective of the lesson) and marks out the route (activities along the way at each stage of the plan).

Effective lessons emerge from what the learners want to learn combined with existing state standards and program curricula. There are several things to consider in the design of effective lessons, including matching lesson objectives to students’ needs and abilities, identifying the types of activities and grouping strategies that will support the objective, and sequencing and pacing lessons. Teachers should also consider other information about the learners such as their level of English language proficiency, educational background, and native language.

In this course, we will learn about basic components of lesson design and examine five stages of an effective lesson plan.

Course Objectives

The participant will be able to:

• Identify and describe the stages of a lesson plan
• Develop activities for each stage of the lesson plan
• Create complete lesson plans using the lesson plan format

Each week's lesson addresses a different aspect of lesson planning. Course activities include readings, assignments, and discussions. The lessons are developmental and sequential.

Lessons and resources included in the course:

• The Basics of Lesson Design
• Warm Up and Review
• Introduction and Presentation
• Guided Practice and Communicative Practice
• Application and Extension
• Evaluation and Assessment

Completion of the course is designed to require a minimum of 24 hours of your time, approximately four hours for each of the six topic lessons. Also, please note that you will be required to complete an observation in an adult education classroom as part of your course requirements. However, you may find that you want to spend longer with some topics.

Because the course is designed for busy professionals, it is scheduled over several weeks to allow time to work through the materials and complete the course according to your schedule. Please keep in mind, however, that there are several mid-week deadlines throughout the course.

In order to receive the certificate for participating in the Beyond Basics: ESOL Lesson Planning training, you must complete all assignments, respond to all discussion questions, and complete each assignment.

Remember that, although you will gain from doing the activities, you will learn most from discussions with your online colleagues and facilitator. To keep our discussions as productive as possible, you must stay within the timeframe outlined for this course.

You and your colleagues across the state will be working with an instructor via the Internet who will help answer questions, provide resources, and help you evaluate your progress throughout the workshop.

We begin each lesson with an overview of what you will learn. Each week’s lesson includes

• information to review;
• important resources including websites to visit, explore, and/or bookmark;
• online discussions for you and your webmates to reflect upon and participate in; and,
• assignments to complete for review by the online course facilitator and your fellow participants.

As part of the registration process, we ask that you go through a short tutorial on online learning in order to better prepare yourself for success.

Register Now!