I must say that I really like lesson planning. I love to put together ideas of how I can help my students to learn. I start with a unit plan looking at all the main ideas or outcomes that I need to teach. Then I consider the students I am working with and from there it is like putting a puzzle together. Lesson planning is integral in teaching for a number of reasons. It provides direction and purpose but even helps with classroom management. A well-prepared teacher shows students that she is organized and ready to help them learn, it provides structure and instills confidence in the teacher. From a practical stand point it is also essential for when a teacher is away from class to ensure that there is continuity in the program delivery. I enjoyed reading about the three different approaches: skill based, task based and PPP. I definitely lean towards the task based approach as I believe that it helps students apply the skills that they've learned and is more engaging than the other methods. That being said there is always a place for the other two approaches. As a teacher becomes more experienced I think that they weave in and out of the three methods, as long as they don't lose sight of their lesson objectives I don't see a problem with using all three at some point in a unit. As always when we teach, regardless of the approach, we must always keep the needs of the student in mind.
I found this article very useful when reflecting on creating lesson plans.
Snow, D. (2012). Lesson plannng and classroom survival. In More than a native speaker. (pp.
66-73). Annapolis Junction, MD: Tesol Press. Retrieved from: https://www.tesol.org
