Copy of Tessa Woodward-Planning Lessons and Courses_ Designing Sequences of Work for the Language Classroom-100

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7.2 What is ‘planning’?
183
else. They probably won’t be terribly interested but can often restart you
when you’re stuck just by uttering a chance phrase or idea. If you’re
lucky enough to work in a friendly staffroom, you’ll be used to people
calling out things like ‘Anybody know a study skills book that deals with
book surveys?’ There’s usually a pause for a while but then some helpful
soul will come up with a tip. It’s all part of being a good colleague.
When can you plan your courses and lessons?
Most teachers will put some thought into a course before they teach it
and once they have found out a little about the students, what they want
or need and the time available for classes. Beverly Langsch-Brown, likes
to make a course outline (see Langsch-Brown 1998). The course outline
that makes sense in her situation usually covers 10–20 lessons and
culminates at a holiday period or achievement of a learning goal. The
goals can be externally set by, for example, the date of an exam or may
coincide with the completion of a topic or a unit in the coursebook. A
simple example follows. In real life this one was also supplemented by
staff lists stating who was to teach when, materials files and lists of daily
homework assignments.
M Group formation. Information re course. Library tour.
T Sample each of 4 exam papers. Set up systems.
W Working on the oral paper.
T Working on the reading paper.
F Tutorials. Reading laboratory.
M Working on the writing paper.
T Working on the listening paper.
W Studio day.
T Discuss/write up the Studio day. Library.
F Tutorials. Group presentations.
M Reading and writing prep.
T Oral and listening prep.
W Mock exam.
T Studio day.
F Tutorials. Write up Studio day. Library.
M Working on subject specific dictionaries.
T Optional guided study.
W THE EXAM !
T Producing learning portfolios in studio space.
F Present portfolios. Party !
WEEK 1
Sept
4–8th
WEEK 2
Sept
11–15th
WEEK 3
Sept
18–22nd
WEEK 4
Sept
25–29th
COURSEWORK
(See staff list, materials list, homework task lists.)
A FOUR-WEEK PRE-COLLEGE EXAM PREPARATION COURSE OUTLINE
7 Getting down to the preparation
184
A distinction is made by Julia Vogel, between ‘instant’ and ‘constant’
planning and preparation (see Vogel 1998). Instant preparation is the
type you do in a lesson while you are teaching. An idea comes to you and
you note it down quickly for later. Constant preparation is the kind that
happens all the time in life, while you are reading the paper or washing
up, without your necessarily being aware of it. Then of course there’s the
kind we do when we think, ‘OK, I’d better think about that class now!’
This is ‘advance planning’. I won’t deal much with instant or constant
preparation, the more intuitive types of planning. Where I can be of
more use is, I think, with the advance planning.
7.3 Specifying objectives
Perhaps you have been trained to think you must start your planning
from a specified aim or objective such as ‘By the end of the lesson the stu-
dents will be able to make a phone call to a travel agent asking for dates
and times of flights and be able to understand and write down the
replies.’ You may have been taught that only after this should you think
about the material, activities, grouping possibilities and so on. Perhaps
you’ve been taught to write ‘Aim’ at the top of your lesson notes and
headings such as ‘Steps’ or ‘Materials’ below. Perhaps your teaching, in
the past, has been assessed on this type of thing. If so, then we need to
consider the matter of specifying objectives right away. Let’s look at
terms first.
There are a lot of possible terms we can use here, e.g. ‘goal’, ‘aim’ and
‘objective’. Different people use these terms in different ways. Roughly
speaking, most people think ‘goals’ tend to be broader, then come ‘aims’
and finally, the narrowest in focus, ‘objectives’. People do, however, talk
about broad, specific and detailed goals, aims and objectives. Let’s look
at a couple of examples. A very broad goal would be ‘to improve their
English’. Another broad goal might be the name of a course, ‘Improve
your conversation skills’. Try substituting ‘aims’ or ‘objectives’ in those
last two sentences, however, and you will see that they sound just fine
too! Rather than worrying about this, I’ll take the word ‘goal’ from now
on. 
It is of course possible to set goals before you teach. Some people 
I’ve talked to who set goals at some point in the planning and teaching
process are happy with a formula that goes something like ‘By a
particular time, I hope the students will be able to do X, in setting Y, and
to Z degree of competence.’ Most teachers would like to add, ‘I’ll divide
the time thus and use this or that material and activity.’