Timing Lesson Plans in CELTA/TEFL Vs. Reality

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A TEFL candidate asked me today on Facebook about how they could adjust their lesson plans to be appropriate for real life teaching. She said that during TEFL courses her classes lasted for maximum 45 minutes. However, in reality, she would be required to run a two or three-hour lessons. The answer is actually simple. Think of your real lesson in your future English language organisation as a double CELTA or TEFL lesson. In other words, instead of having one main aim and one sub-aim, now you will have two main aims and two sub-aims, which means that you might be following two lesson shapes in one class. So you might start off your lesson with the TTT framework, then move to the receptive skills framework for instance. In a nutshell, you do not need to worry at all; just double your planning to cover the time and make sure you achieve your main aims in that time.

2 thoughts on “Timing Lesson Plans in CELTA/TEFL Vs. Reality

  1. But if we’re teaching the four skills in one lesson, how should the lesson plan look like?
    what are the stages for teaching vocabulary, reading, listening and writing in one lesson?!

  2. You cannot be teaching everything in one lesson, Heba. There are always aims, so your main aim is reading but students are speaking during the lead-in and context setting and they might be writing after reading the text. These are three different skills but under one main aim, which is reading.

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