Lesson planning – Is it worth it?

If you are employed at a private language academy in Spain, you will normally be asked to prepare lesson plans in advance and upload them to a common server. That’s not always a reality but this is what I had to do last year.

The beginning is usually difficult. I hate planning introduction classes! I feel nervous and awkward, as I know that I’m being judged by everyone in the room. Depending on the level I try to do something creative, a fun ice breaker or maybe a set of rules (that’s for teenagers). Whether you like it or not, the first two weeks are quite free and you can actually use this time to check some of the lesson plans you’ve been meaning to do for some time, develop some of your strategies or just experiment with different teaching styles.

Once the period of two weeks is over you get to use the book. That is a true blessing! I taught 15 hours a week and coming up with class ideas, challenging tasks and on top of that staying organized is not a piece of cake. The truth is…I kind of like using textbooks. I started teaching ESL without any prior experience so using a teacher’s book seemed unnatural. After last year I can’t imagine having it any other way. Some of the teacher’s books are so detailed that they cut your planning time to a minimum while still keeping your classes interesting and fun (I’m looking at you Oxford University Press! English File books are a game changer!). There are times that I don’t like some of activities and change them around, or remove them completely, but normally they are helpful.

So here are some things that I learnt this year when I planned EVERY SINGLE LESSON (normally with the help of teacher’s books but also some extra theme classes).

You look professional

I got good student evaluation at the end of the year. I was always 30 minutes earlier to organize my desk and print out everything that needed to be printed out. I planned my lessons down to a minute. However, it isn’t always easy to predict how will the lesson go, so just in case I had some fillers and online links ready to be clicked on. I did all the tasks myself and I knew exactly the questions that were going to pop out in class. I had all the CCQs, definitions, Spanish translations…Of course, some unexpected things happened here or there, but overall my image and reputation were solid throughout the year.

Limited spontaneity

The bad side of planning every single class was that I think I lost the ability to enter the class empty-handed. You see, when I first started teaching I did NOT plan anything. I was going with the flow, blindly following the book and now after gaining some perspective, at times looking like a moron. I didn’t even think about most common problems that may come up during the class and had to end up saying the good old I’ll get back to you on that one next time. Spoilers alert: I didn’t.

So naturally, there are good things that come with being organized (you predict problems and solve them immediately) but you also start sweating once you realize that this class is underplanned or things are taking an unexpected turn. There were moments that I made a quick call and abandoned the rest of my plan, just because I felt like my students needed something else at the moment and they wouldn’t have benefited from other tasks.

The three r’s

Even though they are used to talk about waste management, I think the analogy is appropriate. Once you have a set of nice lesson plans for a certain level or book, in the future you reduce the preparation time by recylcing your lesson plans and reusing some of the activities.

This year I completed three text books for YL. I organized my activities, planned extra worksheets and crafts. If I stay at the same academy, I’m good to go with those levels as all I need to do is read my lesson plans, reflect on some of the activities and either keep them as they are or use my extra time on improvment! I also did half of some general English and Cambridge exam preparation books that are popular and used in every academy. So I know for a fact that I’ll be using them anywhere I go.

Say goodbye to your free time

Most of the academies in Spain will not pay for your lesson preparation time. I spent a lot of my time on planning lessons for free! I can tell you that this led to frustration and to be completely honest with you, some of my plans suffered because of it. I think it is quite natural that we start a new academic year with hope and excitement which normally gradually decreases over time. This feeling drops even faster when you are expected to give a top-notch performance every single time and your students shouldn’t see how upset you are about your lost time. I developed a system that I planned some of my classes in the morning (I worked evenings only), so I would have more free time at the weekend. Those people who say that you only work part time as a teacher should put themselves in teacher’s shoes and see how this part time job is actually full time.

It gets better with time

Let’s end on a positive note. Even though it is quite challenging at first, once you develop your style, you discover some good resource websites and you get used to teacher’s books, you will realize that your planning time gets shorter. You’ll also see how repetitive some tasks are and since you did everything yourself, you will know where to find what you need.

Overall, I do like planning. I know that next year my planning time will get reduced as I will get to teach same levels as last year! That gives me some hope for sure. I also learnt a lot this year: I revised grammar, vocab and pronunciation for all levels. I know how and where to find interesting resources. Most importantly, I know how to plan an interesting and creative lesson plan from scratch!

So tell me, how do you feel about detailed lesson planning? What’s your style and how do you prepare yourself before classes?