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.