Class Structure
At ZEnglish, we encourage teachers to bring their own style and personality to classes. So, please be flexible when using the slides. However, we do suggest a rough structure to classes to aid student learning.
The basic principle is to allow students to warm up with easier, teacher-led activities, then end with more complex, student-led activities. Notice that some activities are suitable for multiple parts of the class.
Use your wits, intelligence and discretion to make choices. Ask questions. Even better, get the students to ask you questions about the language - if they can express a problem they are having, it helps you diagnose and improves your ability to teach. We recommend reading through and prepping for a few minutes for each set of weekly slides you are scheduled to teach.
Be adaptable: No lesson plan survives first contact with the students. Look for teachable moments.
The timings are rough guidelines. A live class is always a little organic.
- Pre-Start Time - Ice breaker, Lead-in
- This is your chance to chat to the students about their lives, ask how they are, etc.
- Example questions: "How was your day?" "Have you done anything interesting lately?" "What are you up to next weekend?"
- 0-15 mins - Warm Up & Present the Topic
- Use Teacher-led activities in this part of the class: Earlier Slides are more suitable.
- This is a great place for you to introduce the topic of the week, share a story from your local area that relates.
- Suggested Slides: Warm Up Topic Question (Front Page); Picture Description; Tell A Story; Skit;
- Avoid: complex, student-led tasks like Debates, Role Plays or Scenarios in this early part of the class.
- 20-35 mins - Practice Tasks
- Use student-led activities or group work: anything that gives the students a chance to try things and make mistakes.
- This is also a great place in the class to make corrections and give tips to improve student accuracy.
- Suggested Slides: What do you think?; Think About It; Business Spotlight; Scenarios; Role Plays
- 35-45 mins - Production Tasks
- Try to use student-led activities, anything that maximises student talking time. Get the students to talk to each other most of all.
- This a great place to improve student confidence and fluency. Focus on allowing students to speak here, allow them to use their English, even if they do make a few errors. Save corrections until the end of the activity.
- Suggested Slides: What do you think?; Think About It; Business Spotlight; Scenarios; Role Plays; Debates; Agree Or Disagree?; Discussions
- Write Comments
- After the class, Write comments to the student giving them encouragement, tips and suggestions. Please complete them within 24-hours of completing the class.
- Remember: Writing comments is a crucial part of building your relationship with the students. It improves student outcomes and customer satisfaction. If you don't write comments before the payment cut-off, you won't be paid for that class.