Lesson Plan Template

This is my lesson plan template. I designed it myself with the school's lesson plan requirements in mind.

Lesson Objectives and Class Goals:

This is a section of my lesson plan where I summarize the lesson and explain what I plan to achieve. In this section I set specific goals and give a brief summary of the grammar rules I plan to teach that day. I also write notes for myself to refer to while teaching.

Materials, Resources, Technology:

In this section I write what resources and technology  I plan to use. I will also attach any print outs I plan on using when I go to turn the plan in. I make a list of the websites I plan to use and if I plan to show any videos this is where I will reference them.

Target Vocabulary:

In this section I record the vocabulary we will learn in the lesson.

Warm Up:

Each class starts with a warm up to get the students ready to learn.




I have divided the next section into four domains. Speaking, Reading, Writing, and Listening. For each of these domains we will have at least one activity. The X's and checks are there so I can keep track of if I want to have Instruction, Guided Practice, or Independent Practice for the domain.

Speaking Element:

Instruction: ✘✔
Guided Practice: ✔✘
Independent Practice: ✘✔


Reading Element:

Instruction: ✔✘
Guided Practice: ✔✘
Independent Practice: ✔✘


Writing /Spelling Element:

Instruction: ✔✘
Guided Practice: ✔✘
Independent Practice: ✔✘


Listening Element

Instruction: ✔✘
Guided Practice: ✔✘
Independent Practice: ✔✘




Activate Prior Knowledge (Review):

In this section I usually try to make connections between what I have taught and what is being taught in the core classes. I also review what we learned earlier in the week.

Technology in the Classroom

At Smith Farm each of the classrooms is equipped with Promethean ActivBoards these Smart boards are very useful and many of my lessons revolve around their touch display technology. I am able to use a variety of resources that would not be possible without these boards. Several of the sites I use which take advantage of this technology are ClassFlow and ESL Games +. With so many resources developed with the Smart board in mind it has become as vital to the classroom as the whiteboard.

Chromebooks are also provided to the school and my classroom is outfitted with enough chromebooks for each of my students. I will occasionally give assignments which utilize these but I usually prefer to teach using the Promethean. The Chromebooks are reserved for class projects. Students keep a pen-and-paper journal as well as a digital journal.

This is a Califone school turntable. I use this exact model in my classroom. This was not provided by the school I actually brought it in myself. There are many resources that have been lost in the digital age due to being out of print or unavailable online. I have been collecting records my entire life so I have a many educational records by Hap Palmer and others. Often my students have told me that that this technology is totally new to them!

Welcome to my blog!
For my first post on my new classroom blog I want to give some information about my job and how I go about teaching English as a Second Language.

I teach over 80 students from Kindergarten to 5th grade. My student's English language capabilities vary from true beginner to advanced English language skills. I structure my class around the needs of my EL (English Learner) students and have different lesson plans for each grade level.

I teach using the SIOP method which you can learn more about here. I have been teaching since November 2017 and have learned many important strategies since I started which I will discuss in future posts.

In my class there are a set of rules. Each student is expected to remain seated for the duration of the class unless there is an activity which the class is encouraged to move around the room such as a role playing activity or a flash card scramble. Talking is permitted in my classroom as long as it is relevant to the topic at hand. I also encourage students to ask questions about English in Spanish, their first language, and find myself explaining the more complex aspects of English grammar in Spanish so that the students fully understand. Many ESL teachers have an «English Only» policy and while I see the benefits of the policy I disagree with having such a rule. I believe that using the students first language to help solidify their understanding of English is important. Often times students will get fatigued during an assignment or not like the way certain information is presented. For these instances I always have a back up assignment which presents the information we are learning on a given day in a different manner. If a student does not want to participate in any given assignment I will give them the option to work on one of these back up assignments.

On a typical day I arrive at the school at 7:00 AM. At 7:30 I go to car duty and help the students out of their cars and into the school. My first class starts at 8:30 AM and I teach for the rest of the day with two breaks for planning and paperwork at 11:00 and 1:40. At 2:00 I have walker and car duty. For walker duty I walk with the students who live in the neighborhood next to the school and make sure they are safe crossing the road. Afternoon car duty is similar to morning car duty. I help the students into their cars and tell them to have a good afternoon.

I believe professional development is extremely important so I make an effort to attend all of the ESL team meetings. These meetings are held monthly and ESL teachers from all over the county attend them, During these meetings we discuss important information and exchange ideas on how to improve our classrooms.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog! There will be more posts about technology in the classroom and examples of some of my lesson plans in the near future.