| This page provides four basic steps in planning a lesson as well as useful suggestions and techniques. Other relevant resources can be found in the sidebar on the right.
To plan a lesson, first investigate the goals of your student(s). Take one or two of the objectives from your students' goals, and use these objectives to plan what and how to teach. Find out what the students should be able to understand, say, read, and write in order to successfully master their objectives. This is what you will use for your lesson.
As you start planning your lessons, you may want to use a lesson-planning worksheet (see "In This Section" Sidebar). This is an example of one way to organize your methods and materials into lessons. Use this worksheet or make up your own to organize your ideas about what and how you will teach.
Four basic steps in planning a lesson:
- Assess what your students know about this objective. What do they need to know? You may want to refer back to their student goals.
- Teach the new information, building on what your students know. Working from what your students know, what is the next step? What do they need to learn next? How will you introduce it?
- Reinforce the new information you have introduced using a variety of techniques and exercises. You may want to reinforce the new information while reviewing some of what they already know.
- Evaluate the lesson after you are finished. What went well? What needs work? What other techniques can you use? How else can you reinforce the material?
When you make an individual lesson plan, you need to keep in mind the objectives you have already covered and what you hope to cover in future lessons. A good lesson plan should show how you plan to move your students one step further toward mastering a content area or goal and should include:
- a focus on a goal, content area, and objectives
- sequencing from the known to the unknown
- a connection to yesterday (or last week) and to tomrrow (or next week)
- a variety of techniques and activities
Suggestions and Techniques:
- Begin and end on time. If you cannot attend a lesson, be sure to let your students know. And be sure your students know how to let you know if they cannot attend. (Part of a lesson early in your tutoring might be a role play on how to call to change a meeting time).
- Prepare for each lesson. Use the techniques and strategies outlined in your training to develp lessons that are fairly consistent in format and in expectations. Even though you may alter what you planned as you tutor, it is always best to have thought through and plan. Never wing it.
- Build on what your students already know. Much of what we learn comes through repetition and usage. When we see old information in new contexts, it helps us make sense of the new pieces of information.
- You do not have to solve problems on the spot. If your studnets do not understand a particular portion of a lesson, you may be able to solve the problem in time. Give yourself time to analyze the lesson plan and determine why your students might be confused.
- Don't insist on perfect pronunciation or understanding at any one lesson. Your students need to speak well enough to be understood. Improving pronunciation and understanding vocabulary come only with practice, time, and reinforcement. Your students will need time outside of lessons to assimilate new information.
The pdf files below are also found in direct links on the sidebar to the right. | 
