Example Lesson Plan Outline

Lesson Plan Outline: Introducing New Grammar

Greeting, Day, Date, and Weather

• Say good morning/afternoon and ask them how are you—individually if possible, or surveying the class
• Ask them the day, date, and weather and write it on the board

Warm-up

• Choose a game that has a lot of students ask or answer questions
• Can practice writing, review generally (i.e. vocabulary or various grammar from the year before) or review specific points (i.e. the grammar they most recently learned).
• Example activities
  • Criss Cross (For smaller classes allow them to choose one person to sit down instead of a direction)
  • Hot Potato
  • Memory Writing

Explain the Grammar

• A lot of teachers use different colored chalk for subjects, verbs, and articles to help clarify sentence structure
• Depending on their level, ask if anyone can read it and figure out the meaning

Practice Speaking

• It can be boring but have them repeat it a few times to practice pronunciation, then insert words to practice it as a whole (i.e. 「do you like」, then 「do you like apples」)
• After they can pronounce it, ask them questions individually or they make examples with a partner

Introductory Activities

• For the first lesson it can be good to do listening-based activities, including the ones in the textbooks
• To reinforce the new material, do an activity or two that takes little explanation and focuses more on saying/hearing the words and less on the meaning of them
• Vocabulary activities:
  • Keyword Game
  • Telephone
  • Duck Duck Goose
• Grammar Activities:
  • Battleship
  • Guess Who
  • Board Games (put vocabulary on each square and have them make sentences)

Closing

• Ask them to put their desks back, clean up, and return reusable materials to you (e.g. cards or board games)
• Say thank you and goodbye/see you

Lesson Plan Outline: Reviewing Grammar

Greeting, Day, Date, and Weather

• Say good morning/afternoon and ask them how are you—individually if possible, or surveying the class
• Ask them the day, date, and weather and write it on the board

Warm-up

• Choose a game that has a lot of students ask or answer questions
• Can practice writing, review generally (i.e. vocabulary or various grammar from the year before) or review specific points (i.e. the grammar they most recently learned).
• Example activities
  • Criss Cross (For smaller classes allow them to choose one person to sit down instead of a direction)
  • Hot Potato
  • Memory Writing

Review the Grammar

• Ask students if they remember how to say it, then write it on the board
• Again use different colored chalk for subjects, verbs, and articles to help clarify sentence structure
• After they have remembered it, ask them questions individually or have them make examples with a partner

Review Activities

• Comprehensive games that cover some combination of speaking, listening, reading, and writing and have students associate meaning with words (vocabulary lessons) or produce their own sentences/answers (grammar lessons)
• Choose and adapt the game to the type and needs of each class (e.g. size, loudness, genki-ness, interest, how well they understand the grammar, and what they’ve done before)
• Vocabulary activities:
  • Karuta
  • Memory
  • Janken Game
  • Run and Touch Telephone
  • Bakudan Game
  • Bingo
  • Fruits Basket
  • Missing Game
  • Gesture Game
  • Pictionary

Closing

• Ask them to put their desks back, clean up, and return reusable materials to you (e.g. cards or board games)
• Say thank you and goodbye/see you

See Also

• Teaching Resources
• Elementary School Lessons
• Detailed Example Lesson Plan