YouTube transcript (HGizjSTHiVc) — Transcript

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1. 0:04Hello and welcome to this session where
2. 0:07we're going to be talking about course
3. 0:09plans. Now, by now you all have heard a
4. 0:12lot of us saying the word lesson plans
5. 0:15and I'm sure you've got a very good idea
6. 0:17already what a lesson plan is, but we're
7. 0:19going to be talking about course plans
8. 0:21this time. And uh there's a little bit
9. 0:24of a difference here. So it's important
10. 0:26that we uh talk about the differences
11. 0:29between those things. Uh so let's crack
12. 0:32on and let me show you the objectives so
13. 0:35that we can start the session.
14. 0:38So by the end of this session you'll
15. 0:40know what a course plan is, the
16. 0:42difference between a course plan and a
17. 0:44lesson plan and the benefits of having a
18. 0:48course plan.
19. 0:50So a course plan is basically a set of
20. 0:54lesson plans put together for a period
21. 0:56of time. So when you start teaching,
22. 1:00you're going to be teaching regular
23. 1:02students in a regular manner um over a
24. 1:06period of time. Now where you get those
25. 1:08students from, where that business comes
26. 1:10from um will depend on many things. uh
27. 1:14there's a likelihood that you will be
28. 1:16working for a language academy where
29. 1:18they will give you classes. They will
30. 1:20send you to businesses maybe to teach
31. 1:22students. They may ask you to teach and
32. 1:25their premises could be a mix of
33. 1:27children. It could be a mix of adults.
34. 1:30Um but mostly you'll be uh teaching um
35. 1:34in a regular format. So for example, if
36. 1:38we talk about an academic year, then
37. 1:40there's a good chance that you will be
38. 1:42teaching the same group of students
39. 1:44during that academic year. Um you may uh
40. 1:47for some reason only teach short period
41. 1:49of times like for one specific uh term
42. 1:53or you may even just you know do a short
43. 1:55period of time for a specific student
44. 1:58for a specific reason where they want to
45. 1:59study for I don't know 10 weeks uh two
46. 2:02months uh 6 months and and that's it.
47. 2:05So, your course plans are a a summary of
48. 2:11a set of lesson plans. So, they're not
49. 2:14set out in full like a lesson plan. They
50. 2:17they really are just summarizing. So, uh
51. 2:19we'll take a look at an example a bit
52. 2:22later, but basically you can imagine
53. 2:24that uh one page, okay, summarizes two
54. 2:28classes. Um, it summarizes a simple
55. 2:31outline of the activities and target
56. 2:34language to be taught.
57. 2:36And really that's a quick guide for you
58. 2:38and your students to know what is coming
59. 2:41up which uh uh which we'll talk about
60. 2:44now in terms of the benefits.
61. 2:46Okay. So the benefits of preparing
62. 2:48course plans are that you can be on top
63. 2:51of your organization. Now, I don't know
64. 2:54about you, um, but organization can be
65. 2:57challenging for for some people and
66. 2:59teaching does require an awful lot of
67. 3:01organization because you can be, um,
68. 3:05teaching a lot of content. You could be
69. 3:07teaching a lot of classes in one
70. 3:09particular day. You could be moving from
71. 3:11one place to another to teach in two
72. 3:14different places um, in one day. So,
73. 3:17organization is going to be key. And
74. 3:19there's nothing better than having a
75. 3:22plan together for your classes for the
76. 3:24coming weeks or the coming months so
77. 3:26that you can um quickly move between
78. 3:29sessions without having to sit there and
79. 3:31think, "Oh no, what am I going to teach
80. 3:33now? I've got 10 minutes before the
81. 3:35class arrives." So this is a great way
82. 3:38to to plan and be ahead.
83. 3:40So also it's about knowing where you're
84. 3:43trying to take your students in terms of
85. 3:46their learning, their language learning.
86. 3:48So rather than just you know having
87. 3:51random classes about something that you
88. 3:54know maybe someone said oh I like uh to
89. 3:56talk about travel or I need to practice
90. 3:59the present perfect. That's all very
91. 4:01well, but instead of just having those
92. 4:03random classes, let's just have a plan
93. 4:05so we know that how we so we know how we
94. 4:07can get our students from A to Zed. Um,
95. 4:10and and help them improve their
96. 4:12language. Um, and maybe even step up a
97. 4:15level to go from a B1 level to a B2
98. 4:18level. So, having some sort of course
99. 4:20plan is a good idea.
100. 4:25You won't know this yet, but when you
101. 4:26get here and you start teaching, you'll
102. 4:28recognize that your students will always
103. 4:32have a preference for speaking over any
104. 4:34other skill when it comes to classes.
105. 4:37Um, that's not a bad thing. Uh, it is
106. 4:40true that they don't get to speak
107. 4:42English in many other circumstances um
108. 4:45outside of a class. Um, but for example,
109. 4:49they can read outside of class. They can
110. 4:51watch telly, improve their listening
111. 4:53skills and things like that outside of
112. 4:54class. So when they're in class, they
113. 4:56have a real preference for speaking. Uh,
114. 4:58they like to chat. But as a teacher, we
115. 5:01really do have um the responsibility to
116. 5:04help our students um improve on all four
117. 5:07skills, which by now you already know is
118. 5:10reading, listening, speaking, and
119. 5:12writing.
120. 5:14So having a course plan, making sure you
121. 5:16have something in the course plan, all
122. 5:18those four skills is a good idea.
123. 5:22We just talked about this, but making
124. 5:24life easier in general. So it makes
125. 5:27planning easier. You're not stressed.
126. 5:29You're not wondering what you're going
127. 5:30to do um next week, tomorrow, you
128. 5:34actually have a bit of a plan. It's it's
129. 5:36attainable. It's less stressful. Um, and
130. 5:39it just makes life a little bit easier
131. 5:41and therefore helps you maintain the
132. 5:43free time that you want. Um, you will
133. 5:47spend a lot of time lesson planning um,
134. 5:50when you first start teaching. There's
135. 5:53no denying that because it's not going
136. 5:55to become very natural to you. It's
137. 5:57going to take some effort and some work.
138. 5:59But once you've got that um, in place,
139. 6:02then you'll be able to uh, do things
140. 6:05quicker. you'll be able to reuse
141. 6:06materials um and and in that case you'll
142. 6:09be able to maintain some free time. So a
143. 6:12little bit of planning in the short term
144. 6:15can uh be painful but in the long term
145. 6:18is a big gain. Okay. And as I said there
146. 6:22um you'll be able to reuse your course
147. 6:25plans time and time again. So when
148. 6:27different students come along who have a
149. 6:29similar level to a previous group or
150. 6:31previous student you'll be like ah
151. 6:33brilliant. I've got this course plan now
152. 6:35and I can just reuse it with a few minor
153. 6:38changes uh because of this particular
154. 6:41person's needs. So, a little bit more
155. 6:45effort in the beginning, but definitely
156. 6:46worth it in the end.
157. 6:49And overall, I think personally it makes
158. 6:52you look professional. Not every teacher
159. 6:55takes the time to course plan and I
160. 6:58think it um is good for you. It shows in
161. 7:02any language academy that you want to
162. 7:03work for that you are willing to put the
163. 7:06work in that you take things seriously.
164. 7:08You take your students learning
165. 7:10seriously. Um it looks good and if you
166. 7:14want to present it to the student as
167. 7:16well once you have um talked to them
168. 7:19about their needs and what they are
169. 7:21interested in then it's going to look
170. 7:22really professional with them too. Um,
171. 7:25I'm sure they'll be very impressed uh
172. 7:28and they'll know that they've picked a
173. 7:29good teacher who genuinely interested in
174. 7:32helping them learn.
175. 7:37So, we can have different plans for
176. 7:38different circumstances. Not all plans
177. 7:40are alike and not not all plans have the
178. 7:43same um um time that they cover. So,
179. 7:48let's have a look at some differences.
180. 7:50So, you may have a course plan for 3
181. 7:52months. This will cover um an academic
182. 7:56trimester or quarter um if you are
183. 7:59working with school related students. So
184. 8:01it's very likely that you'll need to put
185. 8:03something together for the three months
186. 8:06in a in a school or a language academy.
187. 8:10If you're only working um generally for
188. 8:12an agency or another academy where
189. 8:14there's a high turnover of students or
190. 8:17you have lots of new groups coming etc.
191. 8:20it's much better to just plan for a
192. 8:22month. um that way you haven't spent a
193. 8:24lot of time planning for something that
194. 8:26you may or may not use. Okay, so
195. 8:29sticking to one month is good and
196. 8:33there's the opportunity to be completely
197. 8:35flexible as well. So when you get your
198. 8:39private students, which we highly
199. 8:41recommend you do, um having private
200. 8:44students is good for um filling hours in
201. 8:47your schedule where perhaps you don't
202. 8:49have uh classes with othermies. It's
203. 8:52also great for onetoone classes. You get
204. 8:55a really good rapport with your
205. 8:56students. Um and also um you tend to get
206. 9:01a lot of variety in terms of what people
207. 9:03want to do. So for example, private
208. 9:06students uh one-to-one classes tend to
209. 9:08be focused on exam preparation or um
210. 9:11looking for job promotion. So they're
211. 9:14often sort of more general English or
212. 9:17business English classes. Uh so they're
213. 9:19great for for your um learning as well.
214. 9:23But here you can be flexible.
215. 9:25Personally, when I teach a uh private
216. 9:28class to a student, I set out a 10 class
217. 9:33plan. Uh that's just the number that I
218. 9:36chose. Um it could be six, it could be
219. 9:38eight, it could be 10 weeks, but I find
220. 9:41that um 10 classes does really cross a a
221. 9:46long period of time because with private
222. 9:48classes, you tend to have more
223. 9:50flexibility as well between when a class
224. 9:52happens and when it doesn't. So you
225. 9:54might find that you don't have a class
226. 9:55every week. Um you might have two
227. 9:58classes one week and none for two weeks.
228. 10:00So there's a bit more flexibility there.
229. 10:02So I think that 10 weeks or sorry 10
230. 10:04classes is more than sufficient to get
231. 10:07you through um probably uh a half a year
232. 10:12um or maybe a bit less with with a
233. 10:14private student. Um so I set out 10
234. 10:18classes and I set that out based on the
235. 10:21needs of the student and things that
236. 10:23we've decided that that that uh student
237. 10:25needs.
238. 10:28So, what are the types of things that we
239. 10:30can expect to see in a course plan?
240. 10:34Description of a warmer activity. Okay.
241. 10:37A topic for the gist questions or the
242. 10:39activity that you'll be using to get to
243. 10:41the presentation stage. If you're using
244. 10:44a listening or reading, then you must
245. 10:45have a brief description of the
246. 10:47activities. So for example, it might say
247. 10:50times one um read the title and guess
248. 10:53the content times two answer six
249. 10:56comprehension questions or answer true
250. 10:58or false questions. Okay. Um ideally you
251. 11:02will have a note of the reading or
252. 11:04listening activity here because planning
253. 11:05a class requires that. So we'll talk
254. 11:07about that in a bit. You want to note
255. 11:10the target language and how you would
256. 11:12introduce it. So, an example of
257. 11:14elicitation and CCQ, but do list the
258. 11:17target language in the course plan. Um,
259. 11:20it can be vocabulary or grammar, of
260. 11:22course.
261. 11:24A description of your practice activity.
262. 11:27So, is it a worksheet with a gap fill?
263. 11:30Is it a structured role play? Um, do
264. 11:34they have to read something? Do they
265. 11:36have to do a matching activity? You have
266. 11:38to mention that there. Then, a
267. 11:40description of the production activity.
268. 11:42again what is it that you want them to
269. 11:44do
270. 11:46and a description of your backup
271. 11:48activity. We always have that uh as you
272. 11:50know by now um to ensure that classes
273. 11:53are filled if we arrive to the end uh
274. 11:57with some time to spare.
275. 12:01Okay. It's always ideal to have a set
276. 12:03objective for each course um sorry each
277. 12:05class and this will be set out in your
278. 12:08plan as well. And um remember it's good
279. 12:11to teach all the skills in the period of
280. 12:13time. So remember we're not just speak
281. 12:16talking about speaking, we're talking
282. 12:18about reading, writing, listening, and
283. 12:20speaking. So you'll have a set objective
284. 12:23for each of those four skills in your
285. 12:26plan.
286. 12:28Do make sure you've got something
287. 12:30related to grammar and a phonetics.
288. 12:34Okay? Now, we're going to be touching on
289. 12:35phonetics when you get here, so don't
290. 12:37worry about that. That's all to come.
291. 12:39Um, and obviously you guys are now
292. 12:42revising your grammar and we'll do some
293. 12:44revision on your grammar here. You'll
294. 12:46get to teach a little bit of grammar
295. 12:47while you're with us in Madrid as well.
296. 12:50Um, so you'll be thinking about teaching
297. 12:53at least uh a specific grammar point
298. 12:56during your course plan and specific
299. 12:58phonetics. Now remember um that all of
300. 13:02your ideas for your course content in
301. 13:05terms of what you're going to teach over
302. 13:07the course plan will come from your
303. 13:09needs analysis. You've already seen the
304. 13:11needs analysis. Now you know that it's a
305. 13:14document that we give to the student to
306. 13:16find out a little bit about their
307. 13:18interests, what their needs are in
308. 13:19learning English, etc. And then we're
309. 13:21going to take that information and we're
310. 13:22going to build a plan around it. Okay.
311. 13:26Um, but we want our students to improve
312. 13:29in all of the areas, in all of the
313. 13:31skills based on what their needs are.
314. 13:36Okay. In your course plan, you will list
315. 13:38your resources. Um, this is not just for
316. 13:41the benefit of doing the actual um
317. 13:44activity, but for you as a teacher to
318. 13:46find those resources in the future when
319. 13:48you're looking back at your plans.
320. 13:49Obviously, you need to um use this plan
321. 13:54as a quick reference to what's coming
322. 13:56up. So, having your links in there,
323. 13:58having your list of resources, the book,
324. 14:00you need to get the the PDF you need to
325. 14:03find the unit number, the page number,
326. 14:06uh activity number, audio recording,
327. 14:09where is it? All of these things should
328. 14:11be listed so that you can grab them nice
329. 14:13and easily when you come to do the
330. 14:16class. Okay?
331. 14:18And there you go. So, just make sure
332. 14:20everything's in there that you need. Uh
333. 14:22will save you searching all over again
334. 14:24when you come to deliver the class.
335. 14:29Okay. Now, we're talking about course
336. 14:31plans that range anything from 10
337. 14:33classes to 1 month to 3 months, for
338. 14:35example. Um and it's fun to give your
339. 14:38students a bit of a break from the usual
340. 14:41format of your classes somewhere in your
341. 14:43course plan. Okay. So, we suggest we
342. 14:47have what we call blank days. Um,
343. 14:50although if you're using them with your
344. 14:53students, I wouldn't necessarily call
345. 14:54them blank days with them. You want to
346. 14:56look like you got some ideas of what
347. 14:58you're actually going to do. So, we can
348. 14:59use them as catchup days for any content
349. 15:02that might have been missed. Um, any
350. 15:04revision days, anything that has already
351. 15:07come up, but maybe they need a bit more
352. 15:09time um studying it. Maybe you um feel
353. 15:14that they need to practice a bit more.
354. 15:16Or we can have some games days um which
355. 15:18are ideal if you just want to have
356. 15:21something uh you know away from the
357. 15:22usual format um and structure of a
358. 15:25class.
359. 15:27So if you do have a games day, don't
360. 15:29just call it a games day and then leave
361. 15:30it to chance. You still need to think
362. 15:32that through. Okay, what are your games
363. 15:37days going to be? Um, make sure you got
364. 15:40your games um, decided. You already have
365. 15:44uh, seen a section on games in this uh,
366. 15:47online course and so you'll already have
367. 15:50some ideas there of what you can do, but
368. 15:52do plan them. Um, it could be anything
369. 15:54from watching an um, an episode of their
370. 15:58favorite series or one that you want to
371. 16:00introduce to them, TV clips, etc. But
372. 16:03you just need some sort of plan around
373. 16:05it as well so that it's just not a blank
374. 16:08day in that way.
375. 16:11So what is the ideal ratio in terms of
376. 16:14having these blank days, catch up days,
377. 16:16games days? I would say after every
378. 16:19eight classes planned, you can have a
379. 16:21flexible slot. I think that that's a
380. 16:23good way to um review, relax, um and
381. 16:29enjoy the the things that you've already
382. 16:31been teaching.
383. 16:35So, what does your course plan look like
384. 16:37when it comes to the actual format of
385. 16:39it? Um, more or less, this will be the
386. 16:41front page of your course plan. You will
387. 16:44have your students names, the days that
388. 16:46you're teaching them, and the times that
389. 16:48you're teaching them as a quick summary.
390. 16:50And then you're going to have your
391. 16:51objectives. Now, you will have seen
392. 16:54objectives written in the model classes
393. 16:56that you've been watching in the lesson
394. 16:58planning session uh where we talked
395. 17:00about what a lesson plan looks like. And
396. 17:02so, you'll use exactly the same format
397. 17:05here and you're going to uh write your
398. 17:08objectives at the beginning of the plan.
399. 17:10Now, what you'll see here is we've got
400. 17:13eight objectives because you're going to
401. 17:16um you follow the format of a course
402. 17:20plan for eight classes over the space of
403. 17:24four weeks. Okay? So, this is just to
404. 17:26get you started. You're going to be
405. 17:28following um this particular plan. Um
406. 17:31and you're going to get to do a plan
407. 17:34with a real student when you're here in
408. 17:36the course with us um at TT Madrid. So
409. 17:40don't worry for the moment about doing
410. 17:42anything. You just need to know what
411. 17:44this is going to look like and we'll
412. 17:46tell you um about it when you get here
413. 17:48and remind you um about it. So this is
414. 17:51just information only at this point. But
415. 17:54you're going to create a course plan
416. 17:55initially just to get the idea of how it
417. 17:58works for four weeks, eight classes.
418. 18:01That's two classes a week. Okay. So you
419. 18:04can see down on the left you've got uh
420. 18:06the four skills and when it comes to
421. 18:08writing we've got include at least one
422. 18:10grammar and when it comes to speaking
423. 18:11we've got include at least one fanatics
424. 18:13objective. So you'll finish the
425. 18:16objective um it starts by the end of the
426. 18:19course students be able to and then you
427. 18:21tell them what they'll be able to do.
428. 18:24Under that you've got your resources and
429. 18:26where you'll list the books and websites
430. 18:29etc. and any notes that you want to. It
431. 18:31might be uh don't forget it's Maria's
432. 18:33birthday on uh the third class. Um not
433. 18:38sure if Maria can make class 4 because
434. 18:41of holidays, so we might need to
435. 18:42reschedu or
436. 18:45I chose these topics particularly
437. 18:48because uh Joseph is really really
438. 18:51interested in business topics and wants
439. 18:54to improve his um business English.
440. 18:59And then you'll have uh your course days
441. 19:04um sorry your class days and your course
442. 19:07weeks um in the next page. So here's
443. 19:10just an overview. You'd have week the
444. 19:12weeks going down the side weeks one two
445. 19:14three and four and then the two classes
446. 19:17in front of you there. But if you're
447. 19:20actually putting the content in that
448. 19:21you're not going to get that all on one
449. 19:23page obviously. So as a view, this is
450. 19:26what one page would look like with two
451. 19:28classes side by side. And here you can
452. 19:31see a summary of a class that will be
453. 19:34delivered on Monday of week one. Okay,
454. 19:37we don't need to repeat the objective
455. 19:39here because we've got the objectives on
456. 19:41the front page of the course plan. But
457. 19:43here we've got a summary of the warmer,
458. 19:45summary of the presentation, the target
459. 19:47language, how we're planning on
460. 19:49eliciting and CCQing.
461. 19:52We've got the practice activity
462. 19:53description, production activity
463. 19:56description, and a backup activity
464. 19:58description.
465. 20:01Now, obviously, they'll take some
466. 20:02planning in these. You can't just write
467. 20:04it out without planning it. You still
468. 20:06need to research your activities, find
469. 20:08the listening, find the reading, decide
470. 20:10what your target language is. So, it's
471. 20:13not a quick activity when it comes to
472. 20:16actually planning. And you will have to
473. 20:18write out your lesson plans as well for
474. 20:20your actual classes. But this is a
475. 20:24summary. This is your course plan
476. 20:27summary which will just allow you to
477. 20:29pick up this piece of paper, this course
478. 20:31plan, uh every week and just have a
479. 20:33quick look. Oh yeah, what am I doing
480. 20:35this week with this particular class?
481. 20:37Okay. Yeah, talking about uh holiday
482. 20:39bookings. Yeah, must get that um reading
483. 20:42activity printed,
484. 20:44etc.
485. 20:45Okay.
486. 20:48So, in summary, uh a course plan is a
487. 20:53summarized version of a suite of lesson
488. 20:57plans that you've got um scheduled to
489. 20:59teach your students. They can be
490. 21:01anything from 1 month to 3 months or
491. 21:05maybe a set of classes as for example I
492. 21:07gave you uh I do 10. And the idea is
493. 21:12that it just shows you um a brief uh
494. 21:15guide of what's coming up, but it does
495. 21:17not replace your lesson plans. Your
496. 21:19lesson plans will still need to be made
497. 21:21uh individually for each class. Now, I
498. 21:25briefly mentioned earlier um that you
499. 21:27are going to participate in creating a
500. 21:31course plan for a real student when you
501. 21:33are here. it will form part of a project
502. 21:35that you will be doing and um we'll tell
503. 21:39you all about that when you get here so
504. 21:40don't worry. So in this case there's no
505. 21:42set task that you need to do now. Um but
506. 21:45please remember that you can come back
507. 21:47to watch this video and review the
508. 21:50information once you're here in Madrid
509. 21:52and you need to get started.
510. 21:54Oh, we'll see you soon. Bye-bye.