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Lesson Planning

• Consider your students' levels – Your students will come into class with an assessed ESL level. Every ESL level has a variety of target skills in the areas of reading, writing, listening and speaking. Students must successfully complete the competencies in a given level in order to move to the next level. See the documents linked at right for more details.
• Set goals – During the first week of classes, allow time for goal-setting with your students. We have three different goal-setting forms, one for each class level:

  ESL 1
  ESL 2
  ESL 3

  When you administer these, remind your students that classes meet just once a week. Have them set realistic goals for the given amount of class time. Students’ responses on the goal-setting forms will give you an idea of what they want to learn. A copy of the form will be kept in the individual student's files.
• Plan ahead - When you know your students’ assessed levels, what skills they need to complete, and what they want to learn in class, you can develop a lesson plan. This example of a detailed Group Lesson Plan may be helpful.
• Teach in context - Recognize that your adult ESL students are not learning in a vacuum, but rather in the midst of family needs, community obligations, and the demands of work. They must learn practical English skills that apply to real-life situations: letters, bus schedules, interviews, money, food and shopping, etc. Equipped for the Future is a framework for this kind of lesson planning.