Lesson Planning

Structure:

In French 101 and 102 you should divide the class period into modules of about ten minutes each. In 201 and 202 some modules may take a little longer.

• Warm-up:  Always begin with a low-stress warm-up that involves all students. The warm-up provides a transition from other classes into French.  Use familiar material and keep error correction to a minimum.  The warm-up should lead to the next module.

• Review:  Begin the lesson with a review of yesterday's material.  Target any problems you noticed when correcting homework.  Avoid lecturing: if you want to go over a grammar rule, guide students to provide the explanation. Make a smooth transition from the review to the next module:  most often you will find a built-in grammatical or semantic link.  If not, work within the same thematic context.

• New Material:  (NB: you will not necessarily have new vocabulary and new grammar to present every day).
• New Vocabulary:  Present vocabulary in a meaningful context.  This may be accomplished by using one simple sentence, a whole paragraph of written or oral French, a piece of realia.  Work systematically from presentation, to mechanical, meaningful, and communicative practice within the module. (See descriptions below)
• New Grammar:  Involve students in the grammar presentation.  Use examples. SHOW more than you TELL.  Teach grammar in context reinforcing the function of the grammar point.  You may want to begin by presenting the grammatical function, then the form.  However, once students are asked to produce the grammar point, it is best to drill forms mechanically, then move systematically through meaningful and communicative exercises.

• Global activity:  The global activity pulls together the day's/week's work. Global activities include role-plays, information gathering activities, games, reading.

• Provide closure for one activity before moving on to the next.
• Give clear instructions. To vary the routine, give instructions and a model orally before having students open books to the exercise.
• Provide an advance organizer; activate students' knowledge.
• Have students brainstorm vocabulary that will be useful to the task.
• Make smooth transitions to new activities by elaborating on a theme, context, or linguistic function.

• While planning your lesson, think about what you want the students to say/do/practice in class.  Plan what you will say/do accordingly.
• Try to incorporate three of the four skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing) every day.
• Remember to move systematically toward communication within each module after the warm-up.
• Use your textbook as a guide to plan the lesson.  Then decide to what extent students will need the textbook during the lesson.
• Fine-tune your lesson plan.  Determine whether visuals or realia would be useful in certain modules.  Will students need written backup?  Are some planned oral exercises better carried out: in small groups? with written back-up (overheads or board)? with books closed?
• Plan one extra module in case you finish the lesson early.
• Remember learning checks. How will students demonstrate that they have understood the material?