1) The document discusses the importance and benefits of lesson planning for teachers, especially novice teachers. It notes that lesson planning helps teachers stay organized, focused on student needs and outcomes, and anticipate and address potential issues. 2) Lesson planning is defined as a structured process that considers factors like student background and needs, classroom materials, timing of activities, and potential problems. It allows teachers to design effective learning environments. 3) Novice teachers especially benefit from lesson planning as it provides guidance and helps them gain experience addressing issues in the classroom. Planning helps teachers reflect on their teaching and look for ways to improve.

1. Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción Facultad de Educación
Argumentative Essay
“Planning Lessons and Methodology”
Students: María Lagos Lagos
Rocío Muñoz Jara
Subject: English as a Foreign Language Methodology
Teacher: Gabriela Sanhueza Jara.

2. Some teachers have the belief that planning lessons is unnecessary and they are only based
upon their experience. On the other hand, some teachers believe that it is useful to plan
because of their lack of experience or for having a successful class as a result. Moreover,
planning lessons is the evidence that teachers have to prove that they have been prepared
before doing the class. This demonstrates the level of professionalism and commitment
from the part of the teacher. Moreover, by doing the lesson plan teachers follow all the
stages until the end of the class in order to achieve that main objective or purpose. Finally,
Methodology takes an important role when teachers plan a lesson, in the sense that
approaches or techniques can be used for planning activities that will ensure effective
learning.
Methodology has been defined by Tamura (2006) as a set of procedures that reinforce the
teacher’s duty. These procedures have to deal with some teaching-learning process
interrogatives, to name but a few, what to teach, how to teach and what the aims for the
class are. The main purpose of methodology is to make the teaching-learning process
easier, taking into account all the factors that are going to be involved in this process, that is
to say, the teacher should enhance students’ abilities to study, create and promote habits to
do. In addition to that, Celce-Murcia (2001) has also defined methodology as a system
which concisely illustrates how to teach. What is more, she made a relation between an
approach, which is the broader concept, methodology, which could be more or less
compatible with other approaches, and a technique, which is a specific sort of learning
activity that could be used in one or more methods. The purpose for methodology is to
accomplish the effectiveness of the teaching-learning process, taking into account the
possible problems that may affect the process to solve them.
Scrivener (2005) defined lesson plans not as an obligation for every teacher, but as a tool
that provides opportunities. In other words, if the teacher has a lesson plan he/she will be
clear about what to teach or what activity comes next, so that the teacher will have more
time to focus on students’ reactions during the class. Nevertheless, these lesson plans
should not be followed so rigorously because teachers will lose the attention of what is
really happening in the classroom. Despite this inconvenient that some teachers may suffer
when they put their plans into practice, lesson plans are really useful, especially for novice
teachers. Owing to the fact that lesson plans provide the teacher with important information
about the class such as the students’ background, the aims for the class, the activities and
procedures, the materials that will be used, the time, the teacher and students’ challenge
among others aspects. In addition to this, Jensen (2001) stated that novice teachers should
have a lesson plan as a guidance tool, because they do not have enough teaching
experience. Besides, Jensen (2001) also mentioned that novice teachers are going to be able
to recognize possible problems that may occur during the class that is way the planning
process is really important. Thus, teachers are going to anticipate difficulties in terms of
vocabulary, misunderstandings and doubts that students may have. Furthermore, the lesson

3. plan not only helps teachers to have control of the contents, but also to control their time
devoting the appropriate time for each part of the lesson (engaging students’ attention, topic
introduction, activities, checking, and so on). Otherwise, teachers could spend more time in
one activity that they expect; as a consequence, the class could finish without having the
appropriate closing, or on the other hand, the teacher could go from one activity to the other
too fast ending the class with plenty of time and without more activities prepared to do.
Planning lessons will help teachers to understand the students` needs, designing meaningful
activities which will adjust to those needs; furthermore, it will ensure the students` learning
processes and the effectiveness of teaching. Pregent (1994, as cited in Shrawder, J. 2006)
observes that “professors who have carefully prepared lesson plans save an enormous
amount of time when you teach a course again; you have a written record of everything you
have done”. When it comes to plan, the determinant point to reach successful learning
outcomes lies on the way in which teachers are going to teach to their students and what
they want their students to do. In other words, teaching requires an amount of time and the
correct implementation to get the best environment for learning. Lessons help students to
achieve objectives and information about activities in order to help them to learn.
Regarding to themes of the units, they should be focused on topics that be interesting for
students. That is to say, the aim is to arise students` curiosity and ensuring to have designed
the correct learning environment. Gagné, (2004, as cited in Shrawder, J. 2006) developed
the "events of instruction" to assist in developing effective teaching/learning environments.
This model includes nine important events: gaining attention, informing learner of the
objective, stimulating recall of prerequisite learning, presenting stimulus material,
providing learning guidance, eliciting the performance, providing feedback about
performance correctness, assessing the performance, enhancing retention and transfer.
The manner that teachers plan a lesson will depend on their teaching style and the
experience that as teachers have. Lesson planning is based upon the idea of designing the
best environment for learning and an effective communication between teachers- students.
On the other hand, there is a wide range of teaching methods, which are representations of
ideas and concepts that will be useful to promote new learning for the student. To ensure
successful learning, the lesson plan should have the following characteristics to be put into
consideration: relevant, meaningful, purposeful and respectful. Furthermore, teachers
should have in mind these elements: the class, age, grade level, general characteristics,
individual differences, multicultural issues, diversity issues and entry skills of their
students. When teachers are going to create an activity, they have to be careful about these
elements; students must also be taken into account. Moreover, teachers need to know the
content and technology skills that students currently possess.
When it comes to creating a plan, the teacher has to consider how to reach and organize
goals and objectives which have been established for the course. Depending on the ability
to design and implement the necessary tools, the teacher will promote correct learning in

4. the classroom. The great importance of the process of planning lessons is to reflect about
what you want to achieve in each class and look for ways to improve your teaching. In
terms of time, planning will help teachers to analyze their time appropriately and use it as
productively as possible. Richard (1998) establishes the relevance of lesson planning for an
English language teacher: the success will depend on the effectiveness in which the lesson
was planned. The lesson plan will help teachers to think about the progress of the class, to
resolve difficulties and problems; it is like a map for the teacher to follow and provide
guidance in what objectives need to be followed.
McCutcheon (1980, as cited in Lamb 2006) states that there are external and internal
reasons for planning lessons. Teachers plan for internal reasons in order to have a more
solid basis of the subject matter, to feel more confident, to anticipate problems before they
happen and to enable lessons to run more smoothly. Teachers plan for external reasons in
order to satisfy the expectation of the supervisor or principal and to guide a substitute
teacher in the case that the class needs one.
In brief, it can be stated that lesson plans have an important role in methodology, mainly for
novice teachers. First of all, the use of different methodologies in the classroom have
increased during the last decades. As a result of this, a wide variety of methodologies have
been implemented in the EFL/ESL classrooms, focusing on different skills or students’
needs. Another important point is, as it has been mentioned before, that methodologies pay
attention to all the factors that are involved in the teaching – learning process, for instance,
class materials, time devoting to activities, contents, students’ background, possible
problems related to the topic and so on. Besides, planning lessons is a structured process
which is fundamental for the teaching process. Teachers not only think about planning a
lesson, but also think about their students, they should take into account their needs,
feelings and interests. They can show concern about all the important points that will
happen in the classroom, they need to predict everything and have control of certain
problems. Therefore, planning lesson is essential for teachers in order to achieve what they
have proposed for their classes and look for their own shortcomings with the purpose of
improving every day their teaching process.

5. References
Celce-Murcia, M. (2001) (Ed.), Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (3rd
Edition). Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
Farrell, T. (2002). Lesson planning. In Richards, J. (Ed.) Methodology in Language
Teaching an Anthology of Current Practice. (pp. 30-39). Cambridge University Press.
Jensen, L. (2001). Planning lessons. In Celce-Murcia, M. (Ed.), Teaching English as a
Second or Foreign Language (3rd Edition) (pp. 403-413). Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
Lamb, A. (2006). Chapter 1 - Developing Learning Environments: Planning Effective
Lessons. In: Building Treehouses for Learning: Technology in Today's Classrooms. (4th
Edition). (pp.5-72).Vision to Action, Inc.
Richards, J. C. (1998). What’s the use of lesson plans? In J. C. Richards (Ed.), Beyond
training (pp. 103–121). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Scrivener, J. (2005) Learning Teaching: A guidebook for English language teachers. (2nd
Edition). Britain: Macmillan.
Shrawder, J. (2006). Planning a Successful Lesson: A Teaching for Success Focalite. (1st
Edition). South Lake Tahoe: Pentronics Publishing.
Tamura, E. (2006). Concepts on the Methodology of Teaching English. The Economic
Journal of Takasaki City University of Economics, Vol. 48, (pp. 169-188).