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Lesson Planning | Free Lesson Plan Template and Sample

Written by: Mike Turner

July 13, 2021

Time to read 6 min

Why We Write Lesson Plans

Given that there are a variety of reasons for writing a lesson plan, it should be a non-contentious view that there should be different kinds of lesson plan for different contexts. It is very difficult to come up with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ for every situation. With this in mind, let’s start by looking at who lesson plans are for, and why we might want to write one in the first place.

Who is the Lesson Plan for?

Here are a few categories of people for whom you might want to write a lesson plan:

1. For Yourself

If you are a relatively new or inexperienced teacher, writing a lesson plan can help you think through your lesson with greater clarity. It can act as a kind of practical checklist of things to consider. In particular, it can help you to: 

• Organise your preparation (handouts, writing-up instructions, setting up equipment, arranging the space).
• Make explicit and foreground any desired learning outcomes.
• Incorporate a variety of activity types to vary the flow and pace, and to sustain interest.
• Structure and order the phases of your lesson in a logical way.
• Plan the flow and pacing of your lesson so that valuable learning time isn’t wasted.
• Think about practical considerations, such as how you transition between different activities.
• Identify potential problems and opportunities – and have contingency plans in place to deal with these.
• Plan extension work or scaffold learning for your students, depending on how easy or difficult they find a particular task.
• Walkthrough the lesson in your head.

People sometimes think about a lesson plan in terms of a comfort blanket or a set of training wheels , but I find these kinds of metaphors rather patronising. It suggests that the teacher is somehow deficient or lacking in capability. Instead, teachers who plan in this way should be congratulated on being thorough and professional in their approach.  

Of course, as teachers become more experienced, they will find it easier to work from brief notes or to carry a plan in their heads. Over time, all teachers hone their skills, learn to adapt to circumstances and events with confidence and improvise judiciously, sometimes going ‘off plan’ completely, when the occasion calls for it. However, even experienced teachers sometimes find it useful to put together a detailed written plan – particularly if they are finding a particular group of learners challenging or if they want to think through a lesson in more detail.

2. For Your Academic Manager

You may also be asked for a lesson plan by your Academic Manager. This could be because they want to ensure that your content and methods are appropriate – either to the age and level of the students, to the syllabus or the ethos, approach and methodology of the school. But there may be other reasons too. For example, they may encourage you to use it as a tool for self-reflection, or they may want to keep copies on file with the class’s record of work so that they can evidence if required, that a lesson is purposeful and has been well-planned and thought through. This may be partly as a Quality Assurance (QA) measure but may also be a good thing for you as a teacher – for example, in the unlikely event of a complaint from a student or parent.  

3. For Another Teacher

Sometimes you may want to write a lesson plan that can be used by another teacher. For example:

• You may need another teacher to stand in for you in the case of illness. Some institutions (and some teachers) like to have one or two lesson plans on file so that if a class needs to be covered by another teacher, the replacement can walk into the class at short notice and deliver a lesson that is well-planned and organised, and that will fit into the learning scheme for the students, rather than being a ‘one off’ class.
• If you are responsible for the development of in-house materials, or if you share lesson ideas with colleagues, you will want to supply a generic lesson plan and resources that can be picked up by any member of the teaching staff, adapted and delivered in a way that addresses the main learning outcomes.
• If you do peer observations, it can sometimes be interesting to do a ‘lesson swap’ with another teacher. This is where a colleague delivers a lesson you have prepared and vice-versa. This can be a great exercise, as it can highlight any strengths and weaknesses in the planning - and it can be really interesting to see how someone else approaches, delivers and adapts the various elements of the lesson.  

4. For An Observer

Finally, you will at some stage have your teaching observed. This may be done by your TEFL tutor, your Academic Manager, or by an external assessor (for example, a British Council or EAQUALS inspector).

With a TEFL tutor, you may need to evidence your preparation in detail, as it is likely to form part of what you will need to submit in order to pass your course. Also, the additional detail will help them understand and assess the choices that you make when teaching.

Lesson plans for external observers also tend to need more detail. This is simply because someone external is unlikely to know the institution or the class. Also, since it is the role of such observers to assess the quality of the teaching, they will benefit from having a full picture. If they are observing a large number of classes, observers may not be able to stay for a full lesson and may need to understand the portion of the lesson they observe in a wider context.

Observations by an academic manager will usually be for one of three reasons:

• As a Quality Assurance measure
• To provide you with feedback and support
• To provide the focus for CPD

We do all three kinds of observation and, for each, we expect different levels of planning. It is worth noting that the way each type of observation is conducted and the kind of feedback for each is quite different too.

So, What Should I Include?

In short, decisions about how to write a lesson plan and its contents need to be guided by its purpose. As a teacher these decisions are sometimes taken out of your hands – dictated by your tutor, by the institution where you work, by your Academic Manager or by the inspecting body.  

However, where you are in control, you need to think about what information is useful. I have attached a template you can use and that can be adapted to your own context. The template and example provided are relatively detailed. However, because it has been produced in the form of a Word table, it should be relatively easy to delete any rows or sections that are not relevant to you. For example, if you work at a small school and the lesson plan is for your Academic Manager, you will probably not need the contextual notes on the class.  

Any section can be expanded if required. In particular, you may want to extend the ‘phases of teaching’ boxes to include more detail. This is down to personal preference and may depend on how experienced you are as a teacher. 

A Final Word

Just before I sign off, there is one other thing I should say: remember that a lesson plan is just a document. Do not fetishise it – what is important is the learning that takes place in the classroom. Don’t let the document become more important than the lesson itself.

By way of warning, I have listed below some things to look out for and avoid when you are planning your lesson:

• Is your plan too detailed and does it contain irrelevant or duplicated information?
• Is it too ‘tight’ and inflexible (ordering, timings)? Remember, a good teacher needs to be able to respond to events in real time, address the needs of the learners and take advantage of learning opportunities as they arise. Never stick to plan ‘A’ if it is not working.
• If there is too much of a focus on you as a teacher (techniques, strategies, management), rather than on the learning? As you teach, watch and respond to your students’ reactions, listen to what they say and check their learning regularly.
• Has writing the plan taken too much time? Try not to use a template that makes your job too admin-heavy and stressful. If in doubt, discuss it with your TEFL tutor or Academic Manager.

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As a English as a foreign language teacher, you will find that planning your TEFL lessons is half of your job. Whether you are teaching a grammar lesson or a skills lessons, it is necessary to think carefully about the best way to present the language and content to your EFL students.

Traditionally, on TEFL courses you are taught to plan and execute your lessons according to the Presentation, Practice and Production – or PPP – methodology. There is nothing wrong with this way of carrying out an EFL lesson, but there are other ways to go about it.

The different ways of constructing a TEFL lesson plan are all similar in some respects, so it actually isn’t necessary to follow any one method, but instead you can create your own path through the lesson, as long as there are clear aims and these are achieved.

Read more: PPP In The EFL Classroom

Writing a lesson plan can seem simple, but it is very easy to become overwhelmed. There are an endless number of ways to carry out an EFL lesson and it can take discipline and careful thought to choose from all the different options.

But first, let’s talk about what makes a good TEFL lesson plan.

What makes a good TEFL lesson plan?

A TEFL lesson plan needs to include a number of different elements:

• Target language (including board plan)
• Interactions – inidividual, pairwork, groupwork, open class
• Materials and resources
• Anticipated problems

Read more: The Importance Of A Lesson Plan

How do you write an EFL lesson plan?

How you write your lesson plan down is totally up to you. After all, it’s your lesson!

Many teachers simply follow the tried-and-trusted PPP lesson plan structure, but there are a number of others you can try:

• ARC – Authentic use, Restricted use, Clarification and Focus
• TTT – Test, Teach, Test
• TBL – Task-Based Learning
• ESA – Engage, Study, Activate

All these methods of writing a TEFL lesson plan work, as long as the plan is logical, straightforward and clear.

But what if we told you there is an easy way to write a TEFL lesson, using just three simple steps.

An easy way to write a TEFL lesson plan

1) pre-task.

Whatever the focus of the lesson may be, there needs to be an opportunity to introduce the context. This allows your students to become involved in the topic while at the same time tuning their brains in to the fact that they are about to learn English. This does not necessarily have to relate to the language in focus, but rather on the topic relating to the language point.

Now’s the time to do the task. If you are doing a grammar lesson, focus on the relevant context and use the time to look at language form and function. If you are doing a skills lesson, bring in the relevant text needed and spend time on clarification and other questions.

3) Post-task

Once the language matters have been dealt with, it’s important for the students to be able to respond to the task in an authentic and genuine way. This brings us full-circle back to the beginning of the lesson where students started thinking about the context, and now the students must respond in a personal way to the topic.

So, to answer the question: How to create the perfect EFL lesson plan? Just follow this very simple three-step process.

Though you may not be focussing on one particular EFL methodology, you are still incorporating the ideas behind them.

At the same time you have given yourself a clear task so that you will be able to plan lessons like this quickly and easily.

You will find that this lesson plan template is flexible and can be used for many different lessons, so it will help cut down on your lesson planning.

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Example Lesson Plan

How To Teach English , Lesson Plans & Activities

Making your way round town…

This is an Example TEFL Lesson Plan which illustrates some of the ideas presented in the article on TEFL Lesson Planning‏‎ .

It will give you a good idea of how to approach the subject and lay out your plan. Obviously what we show here will need to be tweaked and changed for a particular class, but it’s a good start and will give you a good idea of what a lesson plan is all about.

NB make sure you read the article on lesson planning first, this is an adjunct to that.

Lesson Plan for Class X

• Lesson Title: Around Town!
• Class: General English – evening – 17 students
• Level: Beginner
• Length of lesson: 90 minutes
• Lesson Target: Ask for and follow directions to various places around town.
• Materials & Resources:‘Places Around Town’ flashcards including: bakery, bank, bookstore, City Hall, dentist’s, hairdresser’s, hospital, library, post office, restaurant, shoe shop and supermarket.‘Directions’ and ‘Positions’ flashcards including: turn left, turn right, go along, go past, on the left, on the right, next to and on X street.

Worksheet made up of an empty street map of an imaginary town (streets only), place and direction words, and practice conversations.

• Preparation: Copies of the worksheets for each student. Flashcards mentioned above. Transparency for OHP
• Possible Problems: Students don’t know or can’t recognize the places (different from home country). Further explanation will be necessary. There are 17 students, so there will either be one group of three with someone doing the conversation twice, or someone will have to pair up with the teacher – might be useful when giving examples.

Introduction : Ask the students about places they know around town. Try to elicit names of places to get them thinking about the day’s topic.

Activities/Exercises

• Activity/Exercise 1 (20 – 25 mins)

Material Required: Place flashcards; Worksheet – Map Section

Hand out the worksheet. Show the students the flashcards of places around town. Ask the students to name the places if they know them. If not tell them the answers. Have them write the names of the places under the pictures on the worksheet. Where would these places be on the map? Using the OHP show transparency with an empty map similar to the one on the worksheet. As an example, mark and write the name of one place somewhere on the map (basically write the name in the squares provided). Randomly pass out the flashcards to the students. Ask each student with a card to come to the OHP and mark (and possibly) write the name of the place they have on the map where they think it would be. Other students copy (mark and write) the map from the projection onto their own worksheet, so eventually everyone has the same map.

• Activity/Exercise 2 (10 – 15 mins)

Material Required: Position Flashcards; Worksheet – Where Is It? Section

Introduce and teach “on X street” and “next to”. Use examples sentences referring to the map.

The bank is on Main Street, next to the book store. The Post Office is on Main Street, next to the supermarket.

Explain that street names don’t need “the” but other places usually do. Students fill in their examples on the worksheet Where is it? section and read their examples to the class.

• Activity/Exercise 3 (10 – 15 mins)

Material required: Position flashcards; Direction flashcards; Worksheet – Direction & Location Section Use the flash cards and the map to introduce and teach the remaining direction and position vocabulary. Students fill in the vocabulary on the worksheet Directions & Location section.

• Activity/Exercise 4 (15 – 20 mins)

Material required: Worksheet – Conversation Section

Introduce Conversation (Conversation One) Break up the class into pairs and practice. Teacher might need to practice with a student if someone is left alone. Teacher monitors pronunciation and accuracy by moving around the class. Next, each pair stands up in front of the class and acts out the conversation.

• Activity/Exercise 5 (20 – 25 mins)

Fill in the blanks conversation (Conversation Two) Point out the starting point on the map (the star in the lower right hand corner). Explain that they will be having this conversation at this spot and that they will make original conversations based on conversation one to various places in the map. Using the map made in class, fill in the dialogue in pairs with original ideas. Again, practice and then say in front of class.

Ask the students directions to places on the map. Let them all answer together as a group or individuals. Set them the homework assignment.

_______________ (Picture of Restaurant)

_______________ (Picture of Dentist’s)

_______________ (Picture of Shoe Shop)

_______________ (Picture of Bakery)

_______________ (Picture of Supermarket)

_______________ (Picture of Post Office)

_______________ (Picture of Bank)

_______________ (Picture of Hairdresser’s)

_______________ (Picture of Bookstore)

_______________ (Picture of Library)

_______________ (Picture of Hospital)

_______________ (Picture of City Hall)

Where is it?

1. The … is on … Street, next to the … 2. The … is on … Street, next to the … 3. The … is on … Street, next to the …

• Directions Worksheet page 2

Fill in the direction words in the spaces provided.

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The ICAL TEFL site has thousands of pages of free TEFL resources for teachers and students. These include: The TEFL ICAL Grammar Guide. Country Guides for teaching around the world. How to find TEFL jobs. How to teach English. TEFL Lesson Plans....

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Samantha is a previous student of ICAL TEFL on the 120-hour course. Based in USA at the moment, Samantha is looking forward to the future and where she could be using her certificate next ... Before completing your course, what were your...

Quite interesting. This lesson plan is ideal as it adequately involves the students. They have abilities that teachers need to stimulate for them to be expressed. Teachers of English should adopt stategies that will help students love, use and excel in the language even if it is a second language to then

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How to plan a tefl lesson.

What is a TEFL lesson plan and what should it include? A step by step guide to planning lessons for English language teaching.

Why plan lessons?

Every TEFL lesson needs a plan. The level of detail it contains, and whether it is mainly in your head or mainly on paper, will vary depending on your training and experience, the type of class (one-to-one classes often have a much more fluid plan, for example) and the time that you have available to plan.

The main reason to have a plan for a TEFL lesson is to know, firstly, the aim of your lesson and, secondly, what you’re going to do during the lesson in order to achieve that aim. If you don’t know what you want your students to be able to do by the end of the lesson, you risk them going away feeling that they haven’t achieved anything.

What should a TEFL lesson plan include?

Everything that you might want to include in your plan derives from the main aim and how you’re going to achieve it. What materials do you need for the activities that you’ve planned in order to achieve your aim? How long will each of these activities take? What problems might your students have in dealing with a particular activity or language point? And so on.

As we said, for most teachers it is impractical to plan every lesson with this amount of detail. But these kinds of detail should at the very least be in your head, even if the paper version is just a few scribbled lines – and writing a few plans in this way is the best way to get yourself into the habit of thinking about these kinds of detail when you’re planning, even if you don’t have the time to actually write them.

Although there are other possibilities, here’s a list of the main things to include in a detailed lesson plan:

Main aim Subsidiary aims Personal aims Materials Anticipated problems and solutions

And for each stage of the lesson itself:

Timing Stage aims Activities Focus

We’ll have a look at each one more closely. At the end is an example plan for this Used to lesson .

What should the main aim be? Ideally it should come from a course plan which outlines a logical progression of aims for every lesson in a course. How does this lesson that you’re teaching today fit into the bigger picture of what your students want or need to achieve on the course? The aim might be based on a language point (grammatical, lexical or phonological), or it might be based on a skill (reading, writing, listening or speaking).

The key is to think not in terms of what you want to teach, but in terms of what you want your students to be able to do . By thinking from your students’ perspective you are more likely to choose activities which will help them achieve this aim, rather than activities which are easy for you to teach. If your aim is grammar or vocabulary based, you also avoid the risk of “teaching” the form and then thinking “okay, they’ve got it, job done”.

So, instead of “to teach will and going to” or “to practice listing for gist” try “to enable students to discuss future plans using will and going to” or “to develop students’ ability to identify the main ideas in a reading text”. Think along the lines of “ to help / to enable / to develop/ to improve… ” rather than “to teach / to practice”.

It’s also a good idea to make a note of how you will recognise when your students have achieved the main aim. This can help you afterwards to critically analyse your lesson, think about ways to improve it if they didn’t achieve the aim, and decide what further work is needed on a particular language point or skill.

Subsidiary aims

You may also have some secondary aims that you would like to work on. In the “Used to” lesson below the main aim is based on a language point, but we do some listening work to provide the context for presenting this language, so we take the opportunity to develop the students’ listening skills. We also introduce some vocabulary, not just because we need it to understand the text, but because we would like our students to be able to use this vocabulary outside the lesson.

Personal aims

You might also have something that you want to achieve on a more personal level. Maybe in your last lesson you weren’t happy with your board work and you want to improve on this. If there are several aspects of your teaching that you want to improve or develop, try focusing on one at a time here – work on it for a few lessons until you’re happy with it, then move on to the next one.

What materials will you need for each of your activities? Make sure you won’t need to run back to the photocopier during the class by going through all the stages of your lesson one by one – have you forgotten anything?

Anticipated problems and solutions

Take a little time to go through the stages of your lesson and anticipate the problems your students may have and what you will do if these problems crop up. Anticipating the unexpected allows you to, as far as is possible, avoid the danger of being left stranded without an answer. This can help you feel more confident and deliver a more effective lesson.

Think in terms of vocabulary in a text that you may have to pre-teach in some way, potential issues with pronunciation and how you’re going to deal with them, possible lack of student imagination in creative tasks, possible confusion of tenses and how you’re going to resolve this, and so on. It’s important to be precise here. If you say “students may be unfamiliar with some words in the text” it doesn’t really help you to prepare a solution. If you say “students may be unfamiliar with the words “to give up, to quit…”, you can think about the best way to present or elicit the meaning of each.

Stages of the lesson

Now we come to the lesson itself. There are four things to consider here:

Your lesson has a fixed length and so you’ll need to think about the timing of each activity. This helps you to know that you have planned a long enough lesson, and during the lesson itself will serve as a self-check to make sure you achieve what you want to achieve. If you find that you haven’t planned enough material, make sure any new activities you add contribute to your lesson aim – avoid the temptation to crow-bar in activities that don’t really fit. You could also go back and think about the activities you already have – could you expand on them or change them in any way?

These are the aims of the individual stages of your lesson, as opposed to the main aim of the lesson as a whole. There should be a logical progression here towards achieving the main aim. Stage aims should answer the question “Why am I doing this?” rather than “What am I doing?” – the answer to this second question comes in the next column.

The stages that you include in your lesson will depend, of course, on the type of lesson. The “Used to” lesson follows a traditional PPP (presentation, practice, production) model. We therefore expect to see a stage where the language is presented in some way. This could be a situational presentation, a presentation from a text, or one of a number of different techniques to present new language. We also expect to see some practice stages, probably some restricted followed by some freer practice. These stages could be either oral or written. Finally, we expect to see a production stage or, as we have called it in this lesson, authentic practice.

This is what you actually do at each stage of the lesson. Be specific here. Instead of “Look at and discuss pictures”, break it down and say exactly how you’re going to do this: “Students look at photos of children doing things; Students discuss in pairs whether or not they did these things in the past and whether or not they do them now”. Being this specific will help keep you on track and ensure that you don’t forget a crucial part of an activity.

This tells you whether the activity is pair-work (S-S), group work (S-S-S), a teacher-led activity (during the presentation stage, for example – T-Ss) and so on. This can show you whether or not you have a range of different activity types – is your lesson too teacher-centred? Is every activity pairwork? Have you mixed up the groups for different activities? Here’s the used to lesson plan:

This lesson follows a typical PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production) model. With this model we first present or elicit the language in some way. The students then practise it in more or less controlled situations and finally produce it in a more authentic situation. Have a look below for more about these practice and production stages.

PPP is just one of several possible lesson models – as such we have not covered all of the possible lesson stage types and have only touched on some of the terminology that you might include in these stages. But we’ll expand on some of the terminology and stages that we have mentioned in more detail here:

A lead in activity is designed to “warm the students up” – to generate interest and get them thinking about the topic. When you introduce a topic, for example with pictures, a video or some questions, you activate in your students’ minds a mental image or expectation based on their existing knowledge of the topic. This mental image is often called a schema , and so we can say that the aim of a lead-in stage is to “activate your students’ schemata”. Your students’ existing knowledge and experience can then be used to personalise the lesson.

Target language

The aim of the presentation stage is to present or elicit the target language – the language that we want the students to be able to use correctly in order to achieve the aim of our lesson. There are different ways to do this – in this case the teacher elicits the meaning of the target language with a series of concept questions before giving the target sentence itself.

Manipulating form

By this we mean that the teacher presents (or elicits) the question and negative forms of the target language, as well as, perhaps, other examples in the first, second or third person.

Restricted/controlled practice

The first practice stage, where the teacher drills the pronunciation of the target language, is very restricted, in the sense that students focus entirely on the sentence containing the target language. There is no opportunity at this stage to incorporate other language. The practice stage of PPP lessons tends to start with restricted practice in this way, and then gradually move on to less restricted and eventually much more authentic practice.

In the less restricted practice stage of this lesson, students are given the chance to circulate and ask each other questions (using the material that was gathered during the lead in). The focus is still very much on the target language, but much less restricted or controlled than the previous exercise.

Authentic/Free/Fluency practice

Finally, the students are given the opportunity to produce the target language in a much freer context. The activity in this lesson encourages them to talk about the past, and they may naturally use the target language during their conversations, but they are also free to use other language. There shouldn’t be any pressure on the students at this stage to use the target language, and you may find that they don’t use it very much at all. This is why we can call this stage authentic practice – in an authentic situation we wouldn’t use “used to” in every sentence when communicating with someone – we would maybe use it once or twice in addition to other forms.

Keith Taylor

Keith is the co-founder of Eslbase and School of TEFL . He's been a teacher and teacher trainer for over 20 years, in Indonesia, Australia, Morocco, Spain, Italy, Poland, France and now in the UK.

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43 comments.

Gordon Ross

Thank you for this. I am currently studying to be a TEFL teacher, and I’m glad I have found your website. The information you are sharing is very clear and well explained.

Yasmine Almokhtar

It’s well organized and so helpful, thank you so much for this clarification

Maisaa Dahdal

Very useful. Many thanks.

That was clear and well explained. Thank you

Patrick Serge MONGBO

So happy to have these cues on lesson planning. Very simple understandable and useful for teachers especially beginners. Pat Serge tefl Inspector

Spastic-Tactician

I love the emphasis on thematic connection between lesson stages. I train public school teachers in Japan and the most important thing I do for them is to help them begin to plan the connections in their lessons, their units, and their terms. Student motivation is a fragile thing. Creating and maintaining engaging thematic connections that carry through every stage, every activity, each one informing the next and building on the previous is absolutely crucial to supporting that motivation. Textbooks don’t provide this kind of goal-focused thematic connection. It can only come from the dedicated preparation of the teacher. Your section about the importance of putting the work in before lessons is, as such, a super important part of this article. One suggestion: I am not a fan of calling the final stage “production”. Production is a word that carries a machine-like, robotic connotation and… alarmingly, that is exactly what I often see in the final stages of lessons I observe. Students robotically spitting out what they think they should say. I prefer calling the final stage “Use” (My preferred acronym is SPU, Show, Practice, Use). When we think in terms of having students actually USE language or communicative strategies, rather than simply producing them, we sharpen our aim when choosing or designing activities. This subtle change in thinking can help us think about language as a communicative device rather than as a barrier to overcome for students, and THAT is key.

How can we check the effectiveness of the presentation stage, how can we take student feedback?

Checking understanding of the language as you present it is very important. In this lesson it is done with concept checking questions, in this part of the plan:

“Did he smoke in the past? Yes- Once or many times? Many times- Does he smoke now? No “He used to smoke T repeats with other examples”

You can see some more detail about this in this post about the lesson: https://www.eslbase.com/teaching/used-to-lesson-plan

…and in this post about concept checking questions: https://www.eslbase.com/tefl-a-z/concept-questions

Hope that helps.

James Tringle

I am just got through teaching in several public schools in Vietnam over the past year. I basically used the lesson plans from “Family and friends” to teach the classes. Oh by the way I had an average of 55+ kids in each class.

Hi Eslbase, good morning. I am doing my TEFL Training Course and I have come across your website and I find it very useful for my assignments. Thanks a bunch for this.

I am also a tefl student and and doing a lesson plan on comprehension Finding it a bit difficult. Please help. Thanks

Hi Eve, thanks for your comment, and we’re glad you find the site useful!

Good Day I am struggling with the TEFL lesson plan that i must draw up. It should have the following stages. 1. Warmer, Pre teach vocab,and reading.

Hi Cherell – can you give us some more info about the plan?

i plan to do celta and found this lesson plan extremely well planned and organised.just great….

I am a TESOL student and getting ready for my practicum lessons. I was very nervous and felt like i have all the information jumbled up in my head. But this detailed lesson plan, step by step scaffolding and checklist is perfect! Thank you!

An excellent grammar lesson plan! I’m a TEFL student, and in fact, my field is not teaching, am a translator, so please I need your help for a detailed plan: Main aim: lexis, sub aim: speaking. Thank u in advanced!

The situation: Mature student who has studied very informally over 15 years. She understands simple one to one conversations. But I doubt knows anything detailed about grammar elements/structure. And certainly makes many simple errors – i.e. she has accumulated a lot but perfected little I would say sums it up.

However now she is looking to progress further.

I have put together a one hour lesson plan which I hope will allow me to do an initial assessment of her read/write/listen/conversation abilities while at the same time her getting a learning and/or revision benefit.

The learning part of the hour (after intros/facilities/plan/her expectations/relax) consists of:

Revise (hopefully) the verb ‘to be’. Look at grammar in terms of ‘When and Action’ structure/rules relating to Present simple, Present progressive, Past simple, Past progressive, Future simple, Future progressive. Various quiz/activity progressing through read/write/listen/conversation (I have three levels of each quiz/activity so I can adjust in-flight as it were to meet the level I find.

Ends with lesson review and what the student would like to do next.

Any thoughts on that approach and/or how others handle the assessment stage would be very much appreciated. My 120 hour TEFL doesn’t offer much on assessment sadly. Quite a bit on punch ups in the classroom but not sure that will prove useful in this case!

This might be too late for this particular student, but may help for the future…

Here’s how I normally approach a first session with a one-to-one student at pre-intermediate level or above. This is assuming I have no or little prior information about her needs and expectations.

The first hour should achieve three things:

1. Establish a good rapport and put the student at ease 2. Needs analysis 3. Obtain samples of language based on her needs

Establishing a rapport Establishing a rapport is not something that is easily taught, but can be helped by showing that you are listening to and understanding her needs, issues and expectations, boosting her confidence by not bombarding her with a whole load of grammar or activities that are way beyond her level, talking to her as an equal, and so on.

Needs analysis Needs analysis is all about finding out why she is learning English, what she needs it for and what she expects from the lessons. You can normally achieve this by just having a chat. Start with a natural conversation about herself, her job, her family, etc, (and share some information about yourself too if she seems interested).

This conversation can then naturally lead on to questions about why, when and how she uses English. At this point you can start to get quite specific with your questions, depending on what she says. If she uses it for work, how exactly? Does she need to write in English or just speak? What does she write and in which contexts does she have to speak? Are her conversations usually with one other person or with a group? Formal chats or coffee machine conversations?

What you’re doing is building up a picture of the specific situations in which she uses English and, importantly, the problems that these situations present her. Perhaps she needs to write emails but these are easy for her, and the real problem is answering the telephone call to American clients. The more information you can get here, the easier it will be for you to plan her course.

What sometimes happens is that the student will just say “I just want to improve generally”. But you can still get her to be a little more specific here – what does she want to be able to do with the language? Watch TV shows? Travel?

All the time that you’re having this conversation about her needs, it’s also a chance for you to get an idea of her strengths and weaknesses, any particular language or skills areas you can identify that need some work.

Obtain language samples You can then, depending on the needs and expectations you’ve just established, get some samples of her language. As I just said, you’ve already been getting a good speaking sample from your conversation, but it can sometimes be useful to get a recording of her speaking (if she’s comfortable with this) for more detailed analysis by you later. If she needs to write in English, get a sample of her writing – have her write something that is motivating for her and preferably related to her writing needs. if she doesn’t need to write in English and has no interest in doing so (which you will have established during your conversation), there’s no need to get a writing sample.

Finally… In doing all this, she’s been telling you what she needs and expects from the course. So it’s time for you now to summarise this for her and give her an idea of what you plan to do in the coming lessons. Reinforce what she’s been telling you. If she’s stressed several times that she gets all mixed up with tenses, or that she can’t understand during a telephone conversation, tell her that you’ll be focusing on these things in the coming lessons and, if you can, give her a very brief idea of how you’ll be doing this. This will ensure she leaves feeling reassured that she’s going to get what she needs and that you have listened to her and aren’t just going to press on with your own agenda!

That, for me, would often be it for the first hour and will be fine for the student. But if you sense as the hour goes on that they need something concrete to take away with them, by all means have a few generic listening / reading / grammar activities to work on.

I would also give them a “language record” – this is a piece of paper that you will hopefully have been creating as you go through the lesson (and should be done in every one-to-one lesson), where you’ve made a note of new vocabulary, examples of good use of language that you heard, and some errors. Examples of good language use are vital so that when you go through this with her in the last 5 or 10 minutes of the lesson, it’s not all about the errors. So, go through it with her – if there are major grammatical errors, you can say that you’ll be dealing with them in future lessons if that’s appropriate to her needs (and make sure you do!). Minor errors can be dealt with on the spot. Give her the piece of paper to take away (and keep a copy for yourself if you can).

Hi, am doing am assignment on a lesson and not lesson plan. The question is what are the four stages of a lesson and their activites. Please help.

Thank you so much well explained.

Many thanks for this clear presentation of the lesson plan. Just preparing for my first TP!

Holona Chetty

Well I like to say I paid money for a TEFL course which has everything that you mentioned (for free) .Thanks for sharing!

Well explained. What about demos and language analysis, when or on what stage must it be engaged?

Abdul Rahim Chaudhary

Awesome! But it is not here to select the final stages I.e. Controlled practice and production stage. Edit it please so we could copy and past for print. Thanks

This is very helpful – good to get it from a different perspective rather than just passing the course basis – thank you

I’d say an important stage was missing – final feedback! Students want to know what they did well/badly on in the final task as well as checking that they have the ‘right’ answers in more controlled practice. Other than that, a sound lesson plan for CELTA candidates. I did CELTA over 7 years ago and would have appreciated this then :)

Thanks for pointing this out zbd – we missed off the bullet point for “Feedback” for the last two activities. I’ve added these now.

Hi , I am writing my graduation paper on ESL lesson stages and lesson time management, and , I’d point out that you did a fine job and didn’t miss anything. The PPP lesson planning paradigm doesn’t require evaluation, which is by all means required by 5E Instructional Model: engage, explore, explain, elaborate and evaluate. So, probably, that is the reason you omitted feedback, which is optional in PPP.

I am a teacher trainer and I found this guide to be a very clear resource. THANK YOU!

Thanks Kimberly for your feedback.

Hi, this is a great example of lesson plan. Would it be ok if we used in our training sessions at our school?

Hi Eduardo – please feel free to use this for your training sessions.

Jose fermin

This is a very detailed PPP lesson plan. I’m a CELTA trainee and thought it was awesome!

Thanks Jose, we’re glad you found it helpful.

Hi, this Grammar Lesson Plan is excellent. Is it possible for me to obtain a copy by email? This is the best plan I have seen for a long time.

Hi Cara, thanks for your comment! Unfortunately we’re unable to send this by email – you’re welcome to copy and paste from this page though!

Hi! Thanks for letting us copy and paste it

I am a CELTA student and I have to say that this LP is excellent and inspirational! a great reference to come back for ideas! thank you so much!

Jeremias Rui Albino

Great. This is one of the clearest PPP Lesson Plans I’ve ever seen.

Thanks Gordon, and good luck with your studies. Keith

I’m glad you found it useful!

Hi Yasmine, I’m glad you found it helpful!

Leave your comment (Cancel Reply)

How to Write a TEFL Lesson Plan: 6 Steps to Follow

13 November 2020 News

If you want to work online or abroad as an English teacher, a TEFL certification is one of the most important things you can have. After you have successfully acquired it, you need to start preparing for class. While this might seem like a stressful task at first, it can transform into something you will be looking forward to.

The way each teacher prepares for an upcoming class is completely different and there are many right ways to do it. Your plans should follow a basic structure and can consist of many different elements. In order to help you better prepare for this, here are some essential steps to follow when writing a TEFL lesson plan.

`Find the right lesson plan template

The very first thing you need to do is find the right lesson plan template. While there are many options to choose from online, these should serve as an inspiration. The best thing you can do is do some research and see what is available online. Then, you can create your own lesson plan template in a program such as Microsoft Excel.

This does not need to be anything fancy in order to work. It can be as simple as you need to make it and it will still be effective in helping you prepare. A great template you can follow in order to get started is the Celta lesson plan.

This template is put together by professionals and can help you understand which elements you need to include in your final template. You can even use this in the beginning stages of your career in order to develop your own planning. All in all, it will help you understand how a class is supposed to be put together from its early stages.

1. Begin your class in the right way

When you first enter a class, whether that is in person or online, your students will know nothing about you. In return, you will know nothing about their personalities, learning abilities, interests, and backgrounds. In the beginning stages of your classes, you need to start building a relationship with your students.

You can do so by starting every class with a bonding exercise where everyone has to share how their day was. In addition to that, they can also talk about one thing they enjoyed that day. This method will get even the shy ones to start talking and open up. The more you bond with your students, the better the cooperation between you will be.

This will make it a lot easier for them to come to you with questions when necessary. In addition, if they trust you and like the way you approach them, they will pay more attention in class. These are very important things in order for a class to be successful and for your students to learn from you with ease.

2. Include student activities during your presentations

One of the things that many teachers do wrong is just present the lesson content without stopping. Most students, especially those that are much younger, will grow tired of listening to the same person speaking for an hour. As much as you want to provide them with all the necessary information, you need to do so in a way that is effective.

Whether you are using a presentation or not, you need to make sure that it is not monotonous. Student activitie s are the best way to make learning fun and interactive. These can be different and include different elements of the class. For example, when teaching vocabulary, you can play a word game. Each student has to come up with a word starting from the last letter of the word the previous student mentioned.

Another great idea is to have your students research a topic in English and have each of them present their project in every class. This can be a very fun activity, especially if you let them choose the topic themselves. As a result, the classes will be much more fun and organized, and everyone will pay attention.

3. Let your students practice

After your presentations have come to an end, it is the time for your students to start practicing everything they learned. This is a very important part of learning and can help them make the knowledge more permanent in their brains. This is also a great time for them to ask questions and solve any problems they might be encountering.

Depending on the books you will be teaching them through, there will be plenty of exercises for them to practice through. You can also create your own exercises if you need them to work on something in particular. Thanks to the internet, you have access to countless sources of information. Through these, you can find plenty of materials for your classes.

In addition, it is also important to discuss the exercises in class after the students have completed them. You need to always remind them that making mistakes is a big part of the learning process. Talking about their answers in class will help everyone avoid certain mistakes and resolve their questions.

4. Don’t forget to review your class

At the end of every class, you need to take a few minutes to review what you did. You can ask your students what they thought about the class. You can take suggestions on what they would like to do during the next class and what they enjoyed during the one that just ended.

This is also the perfect time for them to ask for last minute questions. Some of the shyer students might wait until the end of the class to ask a question. This can be a great chance to help get them out of their shell. Along with that, you can also let your students know what you will be presenting to them during the next class.

Lacey Jones, a professional writer for online writing services such as SupremeDissertations ,f said that: “Going through everything you learned in a class is the best way to remember it. This is the perfect opportunity to share ideas and problems and solve questions”.

5. Proofread your presentations before your class

Lastly, something you must never forget to do is proofread the materials you have created for a class. No matter how well-prepared you might be, spelling and grammar errors can always slip. Not only will these make you look less professional, but they can also confuse your students.

The good news is that there are plenty of tools to choose from in order to make this problem go away for good. Online tools and services such as Grammarly , Subjecto , and Hemmingway App will be your best friends.

These simple to use tools can help you fix grammar and spelling errors and fully polish every piece of written content you create. This way, you will never have to worry about simple mistakes slipping into your class.

6. Preparing for Your First English Classes Easily

Creating a lesson plan for your first English classes might seem challenging. This is something you will learn how to do effortlessly in no time. All you need is a positive attitude and the right means to start putting it together. The template you will be using is one of the most important things in this situation, so choose wisely.

It is perfectly okay to experiment with teaching methods and activities as long as you always teach the right things to your students. You will see what works for you and your class and be the best teacher you can be.

Bridgette Hernandez is a professional writer and editor working with platforms such as ClassyEssay and GrabMyEssay . She has a strong passion for helping her audience learn the value of writing. This is why she writes guest content for platforms such as TopEssayWriting . In her spare time, she loves to read books and spend time outdoors.

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Outstanding Lesson Plans

50 plans to help you teach, lesson plans, choose lesson plans that get you prepared to teach.

Welcome to our range of 50 lesson plans: 25 Beginner Lesson Plans and 25 Intermediate Lesson Plans.

You asked for these due to the shortage of good, quality lesson plans elsewhere, particularly at the Beginner level. Most of what are called ‘lesson plans’ elsewhere in the marketplace are simply worksheets and not a full lesson plan from start to finish.

Our lesson plans are true lesson plans, covering what you should do from start to finish in your lesson.

BEGINNER PLANS

25 beginner level lesson plans.

These Professional Beginner Level Lesson plans are suitable for any lesson of 45 minutes to 60 minutes. You can adapt the content according to the time available and the competency of your learners.

INTERMEDIATE Plans

25 intermediate level lesson plans.

These Professional Intermediate Level Lesson plans are suitable for any lesson of 45 minutes to 60 minutes. You can adapt the content according to the time available and the competency of your learners.

FULL LESSON PLANS

50 beginner and intermediate level lesson plans.

These Professional Beginner and Intermediate Level Lesson plans are suitable for any lesson of 45 minutes to 60 minutes. You can adapt the content according to the time available and the competency of your learners.

Welcome to Enjoy TEFL Lesson Plans

There are 50 lesson plans: 25 Beginner lesson plans and 25 Intermediate lesson plans, structured as follows:

Beginner Level

Section 1: Lesson Plan Construction Guides for Beginners

These are the 5 Lesson Plan Construction Guides for Beginners as described above.

1. Lesson Plan Construction Guide for Beginners: Teaching Grammar to Beginners

2. Lesson Plan Construction Guide for Beginners: Teaching Vocabulary to Beginners

3. Lesson Plan Construction Guide for Beginners: Teaching Reading to Beginners

4. Lesson Plan Construction Guide for Beginners: Teaching Writing to Beginners

5. Lesson Plan Construction Guide for Beginners: Teaching Phonological and Phonemic Awareness to Beginners

Section 2: A Variety of Lesson Plans for Beginners

6. Beginner Lesson Plan: Order of Adjectives

7. Beginner Lesson Plan: Warnings

8. Beginner Lesson Plan: Adjectives: The Comparative

9. Beginner Lesson Plan: Directions

10. Beginner Lesson Plan: Capital Letters 1

11. Beginner Lesson Plan: Capital Letters 2

12. Beginner Lesson Plan: Being Polite

13. Beginner Lesson Plan: Likes and Dislikes

14. Beginner Lesson Plan: Zero Conditional

15. Beginner Lesson Plan: First Conditional

Section 3: Project Lesson Plans for Beginners

Here we have chosen two meaningful projects which can provide a base for teaching Beginners over a longer period; for example, a whole term.

Not only will you be able to cover a set language syllabus within these projects, but you will also be able to introduce your learners to important life skills and the world around them.

Learners love projects so you should aim to involve your learners in these.

Project 1: From Butterfly to Caterpillar

16. Project Area 1: Language Enhancement

17. Project Area 2: Learning the Life Cycle of a Butterfly

18. Project Area 3: Food

19. Project Area 4: Arts and Crafts

20. Project Area 5: Music and Drama + Finishing Off the Project

Project 2: Food

21. Project Area 1: Language Enhancement

22. Project Area 1: Food from Around the World

23. Project Area 1: Cooking

24. Project Area 1: Superfoods

25. Project Area 1: Very Different Food that Some People Eat + Finishing Off the Project

Intermediate Level

A Wide Range of Lesson Plans for Intermediate Level

1. Intermediate Lesson Plan 1: Order of adjectives

2. Intermediate Lesson Plan 2: Introduction to Debates

3. Intermediate Lesson Plan 3: Happy/Joyful Feelings

4. Intermediate Lesson Plan 4: Not So Happy/Joyful Feelings

5. Intermediate Lesson Plan 5: Debate: Should Mobile/Cell Phones Be Allowed in Class?

6. Intermediate Lesson Plan 6: Debate: Should junk food be banned in school?

7. Intermediate Lesson Plan 7: Debate: Should school uniform be compulsory?

8. Intermediate Lesson Plan 8: Colour idioms

9. Intermediate Lesson Plan 9: Body Part Idioms

10. Intermediate Lesson Plan 10: Apostrophes

11. Intermediate Lesson Plan 11: Apostrophes: Very Common Problems

12. Intermediate Lesson Plan 12: Generating Ideas: Brainstorming

13. Intermediate Lesson Plan 13: Generating Ideas: Mind Maps

14. Intermediate Lesson Plan 14: Learners’ Class Presentations

15. Intermediate Lesson Plan 15: Phrasal Verbs: Making a Snack

16. Intermediate Lesson Plan 16: Phrasal Verbs: Making a Call

17. Intermediate Lesson Plan 17: Small Talk for Adults

18. Intermediate Lesson Plan 18: Small Talk for Younger and Teenage Learners

19. Intermediate Lesson Plan 19: Weather Collocations

20. Intermediate Lesson Plan 20: Giving Advice Via Modals

21. Intermediate Lesson Plan 21: Second Conditional

22. Intermediate Lesson Plan 22: Third Conditional

23. Intermediate Lesson Plan 23: Adjectives: Superlative Form

24. Intermediate Lesson Plan 24: Adverbs of Manner

25. Intermediate Lesson Plan 25: Countable and Uncountable Nouns

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How to Structure Online ESL Lesson Plans (+Sample!)

Krzl light nuñes.

• January 9, 2022

From using apps to engaging students sans physical interaction, teaching English online calls for a slightly different game plan than teaching in a traditional classroom. Nevertheless, you don’t have to jump through hoops to ensure that things run smoothly – all you need is a well-structured lesson plan! If you’re a freelance English teacher or a newbie to a virtual setup, here’s how to create effective online ESL lesson plans, as well as a sample lesson plan to inspire you!

Learn the skills you need to confidently teach in the virtual classroom with Specialized Certification in Teaching English Online.

How do I create an online ESL lesson?

Planning a virtual English lesson may require you to take other factors into account besides your learners’ age group and the topic you want to teach. For one, you have to consider that the class will be delivered in an online setting, so making your lessons interactive is key! Here are some tips to keep in mind as you go about planning your online ESL class structure:

• Set aside plenty of time for making your online lesson plans.
• Focus on students’ needs and goals for studying English.
• Make sure that the activities you incorporate into your lessons promote more student talking time (STT) .
• Take advantage of the digital tools and online resources you can use for games, worksheets, and other activities. You can also use realia , visual aids, or your teaching background to engage learners.
• Map out your lesson’s timing, and check that your lesson plan can be accomplished within the time you’ve set for the class.

Learn more about online teaching best practices.

Where can I find free online ESL lesson plans?

If you’re just getting off the ground in terms of writing your own online English lesson plans and the need for inspiration hits you, there are a plethora of web resources where you can get free online ESL lesson plans and class activity ideas.

From warm-up games to worksheets to assessment materials, you may find these websites useful for creating or enhancing your lesson plans:

• UsingEnglish.com

Need more ideas? Here’s a list of top sites for free ESL lesson plans.

How should I structure my online ESL class?

Be it for youngsters or adult learners, a well-designed online English class structure should be coherent, consistent, and organized. And, don’t be afraid to vary your activities or try out new teaching methods to help your students learn better!

The following are the most important elements and sections that an online English lesson plan should contain.

Every ESL online class lesson plan should have well-defined objectives, which are the measurable goals of your lesson and what your students need to achieve. Based on the target language you aim to teach, clearly identify what your learners will be able to do by the end of the class. These objectives will be your guide as you choose the content and activities for each lesson. At the end of the class, you can look back at your objectives to see if they’ve been met.

Learn more about using objectives in ESL lesson planning.

Make sure that you include an estimated time for each online activity. However, it’s not uncommon to run into tech glitches during an online class – you or your student may have connection issues, an app may stop loading, or someone’s computer may suddenly shut down!

In case this happens, consider adding a few extra minutes for troubleshooting or helping your students with tech-related problems. In addition, always keep filler activities in your back pocket in case a virtual activity doesn’t go as planned or you suddenly find yourself with some minutes to spare.

Get ideas for filler activities you can use for your online English classes.

An online English class may require more materials and tools than you think, although most of them are digital. Still, it’s important to include them in your lesson plan so you can prepare, download, or install them beforehand.

Props are useful not just for explaining concepts through visuals but also for keeping learners interested in class. Are you planning to use flashcards, finger puppets, a rewards board , and other objects for your online class? Make sure that they’re all listed on your lesson plan.

Digital tools

Teaching English Online could have you using more than one computer app, so it’s helpful to organize these in your lesson plan.

You will most likely need the following types of digital tools for teaching English virtually:

• Programs for presenting (PowerPoint, Google Slides, etc.)
• Apps for playing games ( Kahoot! or Quizlet )
• Software for adding special effects to videos ( ManyCam )
• Websites for online worksheets ( Liveworksheets or ISLCollective )

Learn more about the digital tools that you can use in your online ESL classroom.

Teaching method

Considering that most of your class interaction will happen onscreen, you may have to adapt your teaching techniques to a virtual environment or try new practices that could work with online learners. For instance, a popular approach for teaching young learners virtually is total physical response (TPR) , where the teacher makes use of body language and movements, such as gesturing and acting, in order to generate reactions or responses from the students. If you intend to use this teaching method or other techniques, specify how you plan to use them in your online class lesson plan.

Here are 5 popular ESL teaching methods you should know.

Introduction

Especially when teaching new students, it’s crucial to make them feel comfortable at the beginning of the class. Aside from welcoming or greeting them, the first few minutes of the lesson should be dedicated to letting them settle in and adjust to an English-speaking environment. For this reason, you can include the following in your lessons:

• Warm-up activities
• Icebreakers

Once your students are all warmed up, you can introduce the topic or, if necessary, review what they learned in the previous class.

Here are 10 great ESL warm-up activities to try with your students.

Topic presentation

Presenting different topics in an online English class may vary:

• If you’re teaching vocabulary words, you may opt to put up flashcards or show images onscreen.
• On the other hand, explaining grammar concepts may require you to use the virtual whiteboard or pre-made PowerPoint slides.
• If you’re teaching pronunciation, you can play audio tracks or videos in class.

On your lesson plan, arrange the topics you want to teach in order. Note how you will present each one and the materials you’ll use.

There are also various ways to make your students practice what they’ve learned. For instance, you can share online worksheets, set up role-plays, play games, or have students interview each other. Choosing the practice activities for your classes depends on the topic you’re teaching and which activities you think can help students reach the lesson objectives.

As you outline the games or exercises that you want to weave into your lessons, don’t forget to state the mechanics of each one. Do you need to split the class into teams? How will you assign roles to students performing a dialogue?

Have students without prior English experience? Get tips for teaching English online to beginners.

Evaluation/review

Finally, it’s essential to include a tool to assess your students’ learning. Measuring your students’ achievements can be done in several ways, whether it’s through quizzes, short presentations, or even just by asking them questions to check their comprehension of the lesson. If you think they need more practice, you can email them extra exercises as homework or give them a topic to talk about during the next class.

If you’re new to teaching, you’ll want to get initial training and qualification with a TEFL certificate . You can explore our online TEFL courses to get started!

Sample lesson plan for online teaching

Need some inspiration? Check out this sample lesson plan for an online English class!

Structuring your online English lessons gives your classes direction and, in the long run, will allow you to reflect on your teaching practice as well as how you can become a better teacher. By designing your lesson plan using the sections and tips above, you are already on your way towards giving your students a great online learning experience and helping them meet their needs in the best way possible!

Earn Specialized Certification in Teaching English Online to master lesson planning, learn about virtual teaching platforms, get ideas for online games and activities, and more.

Back in her hometown in the Philippines, Krzl worked as a writer at a TV station before moving to Chile. After she completed her TESOL certification, she worked for language institutes and then decided to become an independent English teacher to business professionals. When she’s not giving classes, she’s either surfing along Chile’s long stretch of coastline, traveling, or practicing photography by the beach.

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Having great resources and materials to hand is essential for any teacher, which is why we’ve developed a range of TEFL resource packs so you will never be stuck when it comes to lesson planning.

• Perfect for newly-qualified EFL teachers 
• Downloadable, so easy to travel with 
• Written and created by experienced teachers

Lesson plans suitable for online teaching

General english.

A PDF pack of 10 lesson plans suitable for individuals and small groups of online English language learners, from elementary to advanced level. Lesson plans include timings and required resources.

Young Learners

10 easy-to-follow lesson plans for beginner to intermediate level English language learners. Suitable for one-to-one and small groups of students under the age of 12.

Business English

10 lesson plans ranging from greetings and market vocabulary, to describing graphs and writing professional emails. This pack is suitable for Business English learners with a beginner to post-intermediate level of English.

Online Lesson Plans Bundle

Our General English, Young Learner and Business English online lesson plan packs all in one great, money-saving bundle.

Lesson plans suitable for in-class teaching

Tefl games & warmers (pdf).

If you are looking to inject some fun into your lesson or introduce a new topic, this pack of TEFL games and warmers is for you! The PDF pack includes a total of 51 activities so there is a variety of TEFL games and warmers to suit all ages and levels of ability.

Lesson Plans Pack Volume 1 (PDF)

Perfect for new and inexperienced teachers going into their first TEFL job. These 10 tried-and-tested plans are suitable for elementary, pre-intermediate and intermediate level learners. Plans are designed so you can and slot in different themes and/or activities to adapt your needs.

Lesson Plans Pack Volume 2 (PDF)

What's included in the pack?

• A total of 30 TEFL lesson plans for elementary to advanced level learners
• Teachers' notes
• Student hand-outs

Lesson Plans Pack Volume 3 (PDF)

An ideal addition to your collection of lesson plans, this volume includes an incredible 40 brand new lesson plans.

What's inside the pack?

• 40 lesson plans
• Suitable for beginner to intermediate level learners

Business English PDF Lesson Plans Pack

An ideal resource if you are interested in getting into teaching Business English. This 81-page pack covers a range of lessons suitable for elementary to intermediate level learners.

• A total of 16 lesson plans
• Teachers' notes with detailed information about learning outcomes and timings
• Student handouts, including flashcards

Young Learners PDF Lesson Plans Pack

A must-have pack for kindergarten and elementary school EFL teachers!

• 15 lesson plans
• Teachers' notes with learning objectives, warmers and lead-ins for each lesson
• Worksheets and handouts for your students

The TEFL Book (PDF) by Mark Durnford

A 200-page manual taking you through the best ways to manage your classroom, lesson structures, teaching grammar and phonology.

TEFL RESOURCES

Lesson plans.

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I have just started the course and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I like the method chosen to be used in this course and the way that it is presented. The videos are a bonus. It seems to be designed to allow everyone to succeed. I would recommend this course.

Here’s an example of how a lesson plan can look. […]