Hello ExamSeekers,

If you are taking the CELTA course, this post is for you. Actually, this text is for everyone who wants to prepare a proper lesson plan, especially teachers taking the CELTA course and need to prepare a lesson plan according to the CELTA course standards.

The past few Fridays, I’ve been posting about “How to Prepare a CELTA Lesson Plan” based on my own Authentic Material lesson plan. I’m using it as a sample to guide you and help you prepare yours.

There are basically 5 steps to prepare a proper Lesson Plan:

• Part 1: Describe the lesson (add information about the type of lesson, number of students, time, etc.);
• Part 2: Language Analysis (write about the language you will use in class – vocab/grammar);
• Part 3: Procedures / Steps (write how you will develop the lesson dividing it into stages, grouping, and timing);
• Part 4: Board Plan (preplan your board to keep it organized);
• Part 5: Handouts (prepare the materials you will use in class).

Today, I’m talking about the fifth step: Handouts.

The first thing we need to understand is the concept o “handouts”. According to the Cambridge Dictionary,

That means that I will offer students some material to follow the lesson while I am teaching it. It is usually unnecessary since they have the coursebook to guide them and write on during the lesson, but sometimes, if I want to give them extra practice or extra input, I will provide them with a handout.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that in a CELTA lesson, students usually don’t have a coursebook to follow, so you need to prepare all the material you will use in a class, including the “coursebook”. In this case, the coursebook would be the handouts. As I mentioned in the previous CELTA Lesson Plan posts, I was teaching a Listening Lesson based on authentic material. Students were supposed to watch a video called Travel Tips: Real Discounts on Airfare Found by Sonia Gil and grasp information from it. So, what kind of material should I give the students related to this video and to my listening lesson?

Let’s review the procedures/steps of this lesson plan:

1. Warm-up;
2. Listening for Gist;
3. Listening for Detail;
4. Follow-up.

So I need some kind of material with questions for steps 2, 3, and 4.

If you remember them, I had a question for the Listening for Gist step, ten T/F questions for the Listening for Detail step, and three open questions for the Follow-up step. And here is the result:

I won’t be going too much into the details here because I’ve already written a “How to Prepare Handouts” text, where I explain the importance of each aspect in my handouts – or what handouts should include. So make sure you read it after going over this post, okay?

But, as you can see, my handout includes:

• type of lesson;
• reference (who wrote/where these questions come from);
• class date;
• information about the lesson;
• listening for gist question;
• listening for detail questions;
• follow-up questions.

These pieces of information are essential for the student to perform well in the tasks. Moreover, when the lesson is over, students will be able to keep it and study from it. It keeps things organized, and it won’t be seen as a piece of paper lost in the students’ school materials.

Some teachers carry out the lesson procedures using a PowerPoint presentation. However, I would advise you to give students something from the lesson for them to carry with them and remember the lesson. Also, your handouts are assessed in the CELTA course.

Besides the handouts, I also prepare all the extra material I will use in class in this stage of my lesson plan. As I mentioned, some teachers use PowerPoint presentations to teach lessons, others use the board and extra paper. Be it a digital or a paper-based lesson, this is the time which you prepare your lesson and attach it to the file you will send your tutor. This lesson was paper-based, here follows the extra material I prepared:

If you remember my Board Plan, I had these items on it, but I didn’t plan on writing it myself. I would have these pieces cut to save some time during my lesson, and I would just fix them on the board while teaching. Moreover, after the class is up, these pieces of paper wouldn’t go to waste. I could attach them to the walls, and have students review the vocabulary frequently, or use it as a warm-up in any other lesson. Therefore, I prepared these extra materials for my lesson and attached them to the file I would send my tutor.

As I mentioned last post, teachers who use PowerPoint presentations have to attach the presentation to the lesson plan, too. Besides that, if you are going to use other resources like flashcards, board games, etc. take pictures and attach them as well.

I hope this was a clear explanation of preparing handouts and extra materials for the lessons and the reasons why you should preplan them. Write in the comment section your questions and general comments about this lesson plan, okay?

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Have a great week,
Patricia Moura