Teaching without a traditional lesson plan can offer greater flexibility and responsiveness to students’ needs. This approach allows teachers to create a specific atmosphere and build rapport with learners, adapting to the dynamic flow of the classroom.
The main pre-planning for a lesson of this kind would involve you using your knowledge of the learners and of the available resources to choose some activities and materials.
You´re working more with the people in the room than with your material or your plan.
Create the lesson moment by moment in class, with you and learners working with whatever is happening in the room, responding to questions, problems and options as they come up.
Reasons for not using a standard ´aims-plus-procedure´ plan.
Subtopic
You want to experiment or work on specific aspects of your teaching.
Your priority is to create a specific atmosphere, a certain type of rapport, etc;
The lesson content and/or aim will emerge during the class rather than being pre-decided;
It might restict your freedom to respond to learners in class;
It doesn´t seem an economic or helpful way of describing a lesson´s way of working;
The lesson methodology you wish to use cannot easily be chracterised using this format;
You haven´t got the time;
DIFFERENT ALTERNATIVES
LESSON IMAGES
Draw sketch pictures of the class at several key moments in the lesson.
PLAN THE ´CRITICAL TEACHING MOMENTS´
Which may need to be prepared in detail in advance?
Which instructions, explanations, feedback stages, etc will be ´critical moments´ for you.
WHERE´S THE MEAT?
Focus 95% of your planning on paying attention to this ´challenge´.
List the inherent ´challenges´ in each of these for the students you´re working with.
List the main ´teaching points´ for your lesson.
HALF-PLAN
In class, spontaneously work on language issues as they come up if they are ueful, interesting and appropriate for students.
Don´t plan any languages systems work.
Put your energy into planning how your class will do skills work.
FOCUS ON THE ´CRITICAL LEARNING
MOMENTS´
Decide what the ´critical learning moment´ will probably be. Think through each of these moments very carefully.
Before class decide on the a number of specific key things you hope learners will gain from the class.
DREAM THROUGH THE LESSON
See where each leads.
Think up possible different routes that you might initiate -or that learners might.
Repeatedly imagine your way through the lesson.
Don´t write anything.
FLOW CHART
Show a variety of different possible running orders and routes through the stages by drawing lines between different boxes.
Write your procedure notes in sketch boxes.
A BRIEF ´RUNNING ORDER´
This plan has the advantage of being something you can do on the bus in to work or in the staff room five minutes before going into class.
This type of lesson is basic. You can make a note of specific language points or materials that will be used.
Scrivener describes a situation where the teacher has no real idea what he/she is going to do before a lesson starts and where, as a result, the lesson is created moment by moment with the teacher and the learners working with whatever is happening in the room.