Importance of Lesson Planning

Lesson planning is an important part of the teacher's life. But, what's a lesson plan? A lesson plan is a detailed description of a teacher's lesson, which helps that teacher to achieve the objectives of the class. Lesson plans helps teachers to organize: time, materials, contents, procedures, strategies, and so on. That's why a lesson plan is such a protagonist at the time of teaching a class.

Although some teachers are good at improvising, and it is possible to teach without using a lesson plan, it is never recommendable because by doing so, teachers are limiting themselves. A lesson plan optimizes the use of time and resources. The best way to success is to be prepared; once the teacher has prepared his lesson plan, the class comes to live. What a helpful tool!

The WIPPEAR Model for Lesson Planning

The WIPPEAR model is a lesson plan model based on a cycle  in which each learning concept builds on the previous one, serving as a map. "WIPPEAR" is an acronym that stands for Warm-up, Introduction, Presentation, Practice, Evaluation, Application, and Reflection. Let's see those stages:

• Warm-up: it is a ludicrous activity whose purpose is reviewing prior knowledge.

• Introduction: this part is intended to be a lure for students attention. Here, the teacher gives a broad overview of the contents to teach during the lesson.

• Presentation: this is the time for further explanation. Here, the teacher the whole lesson content and concepts. To do so, the teacher has a variety of resources, from lectures to realia.

• Practice: this part has as its objective to model the skills of the students. The types of practices that can be used are: Controlled practice, Semi-controlled practice, and Free practice. Those activities can be carried out in groups or individually by the students.

• Evaluation: it assesses each student learning of the contents taught in the class.

• Application: this stage helps students to apply the knowledge taught in class in real context. Here, activities as role-plays and conversations are used to pretend real activities of the students lives.

• Reflection: by using some different activities, the teacher asks the pupils what have they learned in the class, what they enjoyed, or what they found easy or difficult to learn or understand.

WIPPEAR is just one lesson planning model, among many others. It is to the teacher what kind of lesson plan he or she will use. The point is using a plan for every class the teacher imparts. Using a plan will always help to achieve educational goals.

Focus in Meaning

Learning cannot take place in isolation from what the students already know about a topic, and meaning provides a purpose for that learning because it enables students to develop deeper thinking.  Researchers has shown that human brain is constantly seeking for meaning.  Philosophers like Nietzsche and Frankl have said that human being  needs reasons for what he does; "[A man] who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How", Nietzsche said.

Talking about language teaching, it was traditionally emphasized the use of memorization rather than the understanding of the language taught. That can be useful at some point, especially when we are teaching such things as grammar or collocations, but, in general, it is better to make an emphasis on the meaning that the language taught has.

When we focus on meaning, we are promoting long-term learning, and that is the basis of learning a new language. In this case, “meaning” refers to the meaning of individual words and whole texts, as well as the meaning of particular topics and events in students’ lives. Meaningful learning is the only type of learning that remains in the whole life of the student.

"The relationship between learning and language is at the core of constructivist approaches to education; the belief that learners construct their own meaning from interaction with texts, problems, materials, students, teachers, and other features of the learning environment." (Powell and Caseau, 2004).

So, as it can be seen, Constructivism is a good option to apply in our classroom if we are teaching a second language because it helps the students focus on meaning. As students intact with their environment, they find meaning on the language they are learning.

Classroom applications

In the Focus on meaning approach to second language teaching, we have some classroom applications that help students emphasize meaning. They are:

• Task-based language teaching. It compels students to use the language in real contexts, making them able to communicate with speakers of the language taught.

• Building meaningful vocabulary.  Through this application, students learn vocabulary by activities like games or presentations, avoiding the simple use of memorization. It makes this vocabulary meaningful.

• Inquiry. Here, students use the language to discuss about topics that are meaningful for them. This is a problem-solving task that stimulates critical thinking.

• Tell/Rephrase. This application exercises the students' capacity to sintetize, paraphrase, and refuse information, making them able to communicate their ideas using the second language taught in class.

Multiple Intelligences

The theory of Multiple intelligences,  proposed by Howard Gardner in his book ''Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences" in 1983 says that human intelligence is composed by specific modalities, rather than a general ability.

This concept is related to the concept of learning styles, as it classifies people into different categories or modalities. This point of view, that sees intelligence as a varied and plural characteristic of human being, has become popular in Didactics in the recent years.

Gardner theory claims that every person has a distinctive set of capabilities and inclinations that defines his or her type of intelligence. According to this classification, there are eight different Intelligences:

• Logical/Mathematical: People who think in numbers and patterns. They learn better by problem solving, symbols, and analyses.

• Visual/Spatial: They think by pictures and images.  These people learn by visualizing, drawing and creating mind maps or tables.

• Musical/Rhythmic: These people think in rhythm, lyrics and melody. To learn, they can use songs, chants, rhymes and poetry.

• Bodily/Kinesthetic: They think by doing things, using their whole body or parts of it. To learn, they are good to perform role plays or hands-on activities.

• Naturalist: They are aware and interested in nature, and learn by observing, classifying and analyzing natural phenomena.

• Interpersonal: They have a developed capacity to understand and respect the other people. These people learn by discussing, explaining and debating information with the others.

• Intrapersonal: People who feel comfortable with themselves and understand themselves. They learn through analyzing ideas and reflecting on them.

Every teacher must prepare his lessons taking into account those intelligences, using strategies to stimulate the brain of all the students in the class, no matter what their type of intelligence is.

Andragogy

Etymologically, the term 'andragogy' means "leading men" in Greek, as 'pedagogy' means "leading children" in the same language. So, andragogy is the equivalent of pedagogy; it refers to the principles and methods used to teach adults. The term was first used by the German educator Alexander Kapp in 1833; however, it became popular until the 20th century, due to the works of Malcolm Shepherd Knowles.

Knowles stated six assumptions related to the motivation of adult learners:

 1. Need to know. Adults need to know the reason or utility to learn something.

 2. Foundation. Experience lays the bases for new learning.

 3. Self-concept. Adults need to know and understand the role they play in the educational process, and to be responsible for their development.

 4. Readiness. Adults learn better when they find the contents taught useful for their professional lives.

 5. Orientation. Adult learning is problem-centered, rather than content oriented. Adults need practical knowledge.

 6. Motivation. Adults generally respond better to internal motivation rather than external. Their goals are already set.

Andragogy has also seven principles:



• Adults must want to learn. They only learn something when feel a strong inner motivation.

• Adults will learn only what they believe they need to learn. They chose what they want to learn according to their professional lives and interest. They are more selective and practical than children.

• Adults learn by doing. They need active practice and participation in class to get involved.

• Adult learning focuses on problem solving. The need to learn things that will surely help them in real life. They need to answer more realistic questions; therefoy, they need deeper and more practical knowledge.

• Prior experience affects adult learning. Prior knowledge can be positive or negative for adult learners, as it is inaccurate or complete.

• Adults learn best in an informal situation. Being in an inviting and collaborative environment encourages adults to learn better than a formal  and systematic class.

• Adults want guidance and consideration as an equal part in the educational process. They are already adults; they don't want to be told what is 'good' or 'bad' for them. They are mature enough for that.

Constructivism vs. Behaviorism

In our current days, there are two educational theories that predominate: Constructivism and Behaviorism. Let's define them and see what's the role of teachers according to these theories.


Constructivism is an educational theory that is based on how people learn. The theory establishes that every person constructs their own learning, using their own understanding of the information given by the teacher or tutor. In this theory, the teacher plays the role of a helper or facilitator, and the student is the star of the class.

Experience is very important in this approach. The student experiences new things and reflects on those things; then, the student compares and contrasts the new knowledge he has just gotten with the old previous knowledge. In this process, the learner would have to change some concepts and beliefs, but at the end, that learner is creating his own knowledge. Constructivist teachers encourage students to constantly assess how the activities developed in the class help them understand the target contents.

Behaviorism, on the other hand, establishes that only observable and measurable learning is worthy; thus, learning is effective only if it changes the behavior of the learner. The theorists of Behaviorism say that every student can learn if the correct environment is given to them; it strongly opposes to the constructivist theory, that focuses more on meaning than the environment. The main role of teachers in the behaviorist approach is prompting the correct response of the students, and providing them material. The role of the learner in this theory is passive, they are most of the time receivers of information.

Apparently, those theories are opposed; however, they both can be applied in the classroom, resulting in a good combination in which the student is quite benefitted.

Classroom Management

'Classroom management' is the term that defines the process of carrying out class lessons successfully. With a good classroom management, the students rarely misbehave, and, on the contrary, get engaged with the class. So, the term implies any technique that helps to keep the students engaged and prevents misbehave before and after it happens.

Without good classroom management techniques, it is difficult to achieve the curriculum goals in the class, period or semester. Some good classroom management strategies are:

• Anticipate problems and be creative. When the semester begins, it is time for anticipating problems and establishing rules, but the teacher can do it creatively by asking dumb or funny questions, and the students who don't follow the protocol must be 'punished'.

• Avoid punishing the entire class. Even if it seems that the whole class is misbehaving, there are always some students who follow the rules; punishing the entire class is unfair for them, and it can encourage them to misbehave as their classmates do.

• Give students choices. By asking the students things like "Do you want it to be solved in class or as an on-line quiz at home?", the students get more engaged in the class and feel that they are an important part of it.

•  Establish routines. To avoid a chaotic class, establish a schedule and keep things predictable is a good option.

Time

Other important part of classroom management is time management. To optimize the use of time during the lesson, it is divided into four parts or categories:

 1. Academic learning time.  It occurs when students participate actively in the class and learn the topics successfully. Effective classroom management maximizes this part of the class as it is possible.

 2. Allocated time. It is the total of time assigned for teaching, learning, routines and procedures, checking the attendance, delivering homework assignment, and so on.

 3. Engaged time. Also called 'time on task', engaged time involves any activity in which students are interacting actively with the knowledge, such as asking or responding questions, working on worksheets, making presentations or role plays, etc...

 4. Instructional time. It is the time that remains after classroom routines, such as attendance checking, are completed. In other words,  it is the time in which teaching and learning actually takes place.

Critical Thinking

The ability to think critically is one of the most helpful skills human being is capable to develop. The term "critical thinking" was developed in the middle of the 20th century. The concept is broad, but it can be said that critical thinking is the capacity of analyzing the information we get with accuracy, clarity, precision, good reasoning, and fairness. In our current world, children must be able to process the facts they get, rather than just repeat those facts without analyzing them.

There is no one "correct" way to promote critical thinking in our students; there are many ways to do it. Sometimes, the teacher would have to ask open questions to guide the thinking process in the class. In other cases, the teacher must allow the students to experiment and formulate their theories about something that is taught.

There are some tips or ideas to help students to develop critical thinking. Here they are:

• Provide opportunities for playing: With very young learners, time for playing is crucial.  In this process, children learn how things work, and explore cause and effect while having fun.

• Pause and wait: It is necessary to provide time enough for children to think by themselves before they give a response. This gives the children the time to reflect and refine their responses.

• Ask open-ended questions: Rather than asking closed question, which can be answered with a simple "yes/no", the teacher must ask questions like "what do you think is happening in this process?", "how can we solve it?", or "what ideas do you have about this?". Then, respect their answers.

• Help students develop hypotheses:  Take a moment to ask the students questions like "what would happen if we do this?" or "what will happen next?". These simple questions help students a lot to develop their critical thinking skills.

• Encourage thinking in new and different ways:  Allow the students to find any possible solution for the problems proposed in class. The teacher may ask "what other ideas do we have?" or say "think about all the possible solutions".

By applying these simple tips, the teacher, the teacher lays the foundations of critical thinking in his students; that is one of the most important and useful things a teacher can do for students and society in general.

Learning Styles

The term 'learning styles' refers to the different ways in which the students absorb, understand, and retain knowledge in a better way. It is said that we all are made equal but different at the same time, and this is particularly true when it comes to the process of acquisition of a determined knowledge. The notion of differentiate learning styles has became popular among educational theorists in recent years. Nowadays, classes are planned in a way that attempts to stimulate all the different styles in which the students learn, this is one of the reasons why it is very common that, for example, one foreign language lesson usually includes speaking, reading or listening activities, so that all the students in the classroom can get the knowledge in their own way. Individual learning styles depend on cognitive, emotional, and environmental factors, and on prior experiences.

It is a must for teachers to understand the differences and characteristics of learning styles. There is a well known understanding of learning styles, the VARK (it stands for Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing, and Kinesthetic learners). The VARK model establishes that students have different approaches to how they process information, referred to as “preferred learning modes.”

The categories of learning styles, according to the VARK, are:

• Visual learners: They prefer the use of images, pictures, diagrams, maps and graphics to organize and understand new information.

• Auditory learners: They get new information through listening and speaking in situations such as discussions, lectures or debates.

• Reading and Writing learners: They learn best through words. They are good note takers and readers, and have an ability to sintetize complex or abstract ideas in short phrases, sentences or schemes.

• Kinesthetic learners: They understand best through touching or tactile representation of how an object works or a process is carried out. They learn by doing.

The teacher that understand and identify those styles in his classroom has a better perspective of his students as a group, and can plan his lessons taking the particular needs of his group into account.

The Ideal Teacher

Although it is true that perfection does not exist, and idealization is often mere theory, the concept of 'ideal teacher' is persecuted by millions of teachers around the world. Being an ideal teacher, or at least integral, is the goal of every aspiring teacher. But, why does the world need integral teachers? An ideal and integral teacher makes his classes easy to assimilate, encourages his students to reach their goals, and, above all, helps improve society.

Here are some characteristics of an ideal teacher:

• An ideal teacher is a problem solver. Every teacher is responsible for solving the problems of his students, not only the academic ones, but also the personal problems sometimes. A good teacher is aware of that, and helps his students without expecting anything in return, and, at the same time, respecting the differences among his pupils.

• An ideal teacher has always a good influence in his students. Students usually tend to 'idolize' their teachers, seeing them as a model. A good teacher knows that; thus, he or she teaches the students good manners, values, and a correct attitude towards life in general. An ideal teacher knows the impact he will have in the lives of his students.

• An ideal teacher never lets the limitations of his students stop their growing. Students must be aware of the strengths they have, and focus on them, rather than on their weaknesses. A good teacher will always motivate his students to reach their goals and broaden their horizons, and, at the same time, shape their characters through loving discipline in order that they reach their goals.

• An ideal teacher knows and loves what he/she teaches. Teachers who are excellent know fully the contents they provide to their pupils, and are able to explain those contents clearly and concisely. When someone loves what he does, his attitude is perceived by the people around him, and it has a quite positive influence. It is especially true when it comes to teaching.

These are just three major fields in which a teacher shows if he or she is a good, or, why not, an ideal teacher.

What's Didactics?

Didactics is the pedagogical discipline (considered as an art and a science at the same time) that has as object of study the processes and elements of teaching and learning. This discipline is responsible for articulating a pedagogical project, with social objectives and developments in teaching techniques and methods (which are based on a general theory of learning).

Didactics articulates theory with practice, talking about the educational process. John Amos Comenius was the one who coined the term "didactics" in his work 'Didactica Magna', developed in 1657. It is akin to other pedagogical disciplines such as, for example, school organization and educational orientation, Didactics aims to inform and guide the teaching and learning processes.

Comenius established a set of principles, which now are the bases of Didactics; some of them are:

• Respect to the learner's natural needs and interest.

• Reject physical punishment.

• Emphasize general principles before details.

• Present lessons in sequence.

• Avoid hurrying and pressuring students.

• Create pleasant classrooms.

Classification
According to some experts, it should be distinguished between:

General didactics: it focuses on defining systematic forms of teaching, between the social objectives of the school and the abilities of the students.

Specific didactics: it focuses on the methods for teaching and learning a specific subject.

Differential didactics: it takes into account the evolution and characteristics of the individual, so that the teaching is customized accordingly.

Components
The didactic act is made up by six components:

• The teacher: Person who promotes and guides learning,
• The student: Person to whom the teaching is directed.
• The learning objectives: Educational goals that reflect the learning achievements that are expected in the students.
• Matter: Contents that have to be taught and learned.
• The teaching methods: Procedures followed to promote learning. They answer the question of how to teach.
• The context of learning: Environment in which the teaching-learning process is carried out; It includes the social, cultural and geographical environments.