I am a planner. I haven’t written a ton about it here, but lesson planning is a huge part of my teaching practice. And it’s probably one of my favorite aspects of teaching. I really enjoy all aspects of planning from assessment and curriculum alignment all the way down to detailed lesson plans.
But, sometimes things don’t go as planned. Or we don’t have quite as much time to prepare for teaching as we’d like. Or we’re asked to substitute for someone at the last minute. What do we do in these situations?
After a moment of anxiety, I usually get to work! With more teaching experience comes a reservoir of activities and even whole lessons that can be drawn upon in a pinch. You can recycle materials from other courses you’ve taught, or maybe even extend activities you’re already planning to do in class.
What if these teaching resources aren’t enough? Sometimes you need some ready-to-go activities and content to use with learners. In this post, I want to share three resources that I’ve used recently. All of these teaching resources have been valuable to me because they offer just about ready-made lessons that you can easily integrate into your lessons. They are also useful if you’re just looking for a little inspiration. Let’s get into it!
One Stop English
I was recently asked to substitute teach for two speaking and listening courses. The instructor didn’t have any lesson plans ready to go, so I had less than a day to whip something up. I thought about adapting some materials I had used with a slightly higher speaking and listening course, but it felt like it might be too difficult to implement well in the time I had to prepare. Thankfully, one of my colleagues recommended checking out One Stop English.
One Stop English is a resource for teachers published by Macmillan Education. And they offer a pretty wide range of resources on a variety of topics at a range of levels. They have full lesson plans, games, worksheets, audio, and video.
The website also allows users to filter their materials by type, level, age of learners, and some other potentially relevant criteria. In the video below, you can see how the filtering works. When you find material you’re interested in, you can then download the content directly from the website. Users get a limited amount of downloads without being logged in, but creating an account is easy and straight-forward.
The only downside to this website that I’ve found is that you can’t really preview the content before you download it. It would be useful to be able to get a sense of what the activities and materials are like before committing to a full download.
I like that this resource has materials from whole lessons to individual games and activities. It’s pretty easy to quickly find something relevant to use in my classes when I’m short on time. Of course, all the materials can be adapted and used as you see fit with your learners.
ACCESS
The next resource is the English Access Scholarship Program (ACCESS). This resource is sponsored by the US Department of State, and they offer lessons and materials related to the theme of global citizenship. I came across this resource as a part of the onboarding I’m doing with the English Language Programs. I’ll write more about that soon!
On the surface, the ACCESS lesson plans seem to be kind of limited, but when you dig into them a bit, they have quite a lot to offer as quick, ready-made resources. There are currently only three themes available, but when you click into one, there are multiple lessons available related to each theme.
Each lesson includes relevant images, vocabulary, discussion questions, and texts (written and audio) related to the theme. They also have relevant themes and learning outcomes. When you download the actual lesson materials, it includes all of these things in addition to a detailed lesson plan with teaching notes. Overall, each lesson seems quite robust, and you could probably easily integrate pieces of the lessons into your class as needed.
The major limitation to this resource is the lack of content. As previously mentioned, there are only three themes available in the free lessons resource. But, the free lessons that are there are quite robust.
TED Ed
Alright, the last resource I want to look at today is TED Ed. This resource has been around a while now, and I’ve used it in the past. But I’ve recently explored it again, and it’s still pretty great as a resource for ready-to-go teaching materials when you’re short on time.
I think one of the benefits of this resource is how many resources are available. There are literally thousands of lessons and resources available that use TED Talks. If you’re looking for video content, this is a really great resource. The amount of content might also be a challenge, though. It can be daunting to wade through all the content.
Adapting lessons
However, it’s pretty easy to use the lessons as they are or adapt them for your learners once you find something you like. Each lesson in this teaching resource includes a video and corresponding questions and content. Since users create the content, the quality and format of the resources vary. Most of the lessons, though, include comprehension questions (multiple choice), open-ended questions, and additional resources so learners can dig into the topic further.
If you create your own account, you can adapt the lessons. You can add discussion threads in the “Discuss” section, and you can ask learners to post in a thread. If that’s all too much for your needs, you can skip that part of the lesson and just use some of the content.
I think one aspect of this resource I really like is that you can use it online and ask learners to log in and participate. If you use the resource regularly, learners would be able to engage with the content quite easily once they become accustomed to the features. And if you don’t want to require learners to access the content online on their own, you could watch the video together and kind of work through the comprehension questions as a group.
With all of these teaching resources, you’re able to use content as it is when you’re low on planning time. You can also easily pick specific parts of the materials to use on their own. It’s important to consider how the materials fit with your learning context. But the teaching resources here might be able to help supplement your planning when you’re in a pinch.
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