Lesson Planning with the ELL in Mind: Key points from Unit 5

Synopsis of lesson plan content

A comprehensive lesson plan that has the needs of ESL students in mind contains the following elements:

state or school standards, ESL standards, content learning objectives, language learning objectives, key vocabulary (including content-obligatory, content-compatible, collocations and high-frequency), grammar structures, language functions, learning skills, depth of knowledge addressed (including key questions), materials, a timeline of lesson activities indicating the interaction type (teacher-student, student-student, etc.), and language adaptations such as sentence frames and graphic organizers.

Points to note:

• Detailed lesson planning such as exemplified in this unit is very time-consuming.
• Such lesson planning is useful for novice teachers whose intuitive knowledge of best practices for ESL students is not yet established, and for teachers who know they will reuse the lesson plan with other classes or in other years.
• ESL teachers can advise on the language demands of a given lesson or task, and how teachers can scaffold activities so that both language and content is learned.
• All students benefit from lessons that are carefully planned to allow them to reliably and enjoyably achieve the learning outcomes.