Grammar lesson-planning template

This is the result of some recent reflections on lesson-planning, rule-based teaching (again) inspired by this discussion, and this challenge (I had no time to participate, unfortunately), plus the #ELTchat of  of 02.02. 2011 (summary here) on fossilized errors. So,

>lesson-planning made easier, plus

>fossilized errors (and errors as such) prevention, plus

>some up-to-date views on rules in teaching

= this grammar presentation plan template

+ a grammar_presentation_sample_plan_comparatives.

The fully editable version of the template can be found below (at the bottom of the post).

It is a grammar teaching plan – NOT a lesson plan, as it can be broken into several parts to be taught over a series of lessons, and needs to be  intervowen into the general communicative or task-based framework. I hope it’ll be useful 🙂

The following principles underlie the template:

• when planning a lesson (a grammar lesson in particular), the teacher should not rely on the coursebook or a grammar book alone, as there will always be some important gaps.
• what we teach SS about this or that grammar point is usually the bare essentials – too bare, I’m afraid, which results in a lot of errors as by-products.
• Each grammar point can be presented either through direct teaching (showing the situation and/or eliciting and/or simply telling the SS the rule (as short as possible – one-word perhaps) – OR through guided discovery (EG, reading a text, noticing the instances of usage, attempting to formulate the rule…). I believe that the teacher should be able to juggle BOTH approaches as each one can be beneficial. Eg, start by direct teaching (main point), then do a reading + noticing activity (more grammar input) etc – vary to avoid fatigue and boost efficiency.
• all rules will be bent and broken in everyday English, so Ss should be aware of the possible deviations and know what is “bad English”, and what is more or less acceptable. Less fear to make a mistake, more awareness of the English language beyond the classroom walls…
• there are other – “non-grammar” – ways to express the idea of the grammar pattern in question (although that is now often incorporated into a lesson in modern coursebooks)
• there should be (ideally) a few keywords to avoid any lengthy rules, or mnemonics to remember the tough points.

Here – grammar presentation plan template#1 – docx – I’m sharing the editable word version of the template.

The doc-docx converter can be downloaded from the link posted here, along with several other nice – and free! – gadgets.

Enjoy your teaching!