1. Read the three teachers' quotes again. Whose planning style is most like your own – Deniz's, Paolo's, Erika's or none of these? Why?
Well, I´d say that my planning style is similar to Deniz Style, I work in a secondary school too and as a public school teacher I have to plan according to the syllabus, sometimes I don´t agree with it but I have to work like that.
2. Which qualities do you think are most important in planning a unit of work? Give your reasons. Choose from this list, and add others if necessary:
Variety; so the students won´t get bored and you can focus on different learning styles
Logic, because you need to follow a sequence, you can´t have students to write a song (for example) and then teach them how to use personal pronouns
Relevance, if you can show your students that they can use English or the different topics you want to teach in their daily life, they will be more interested about it.
Balance, you can´t focus only on grammar activities, or the listening ones, as teachers we have to practice more than one abilities
Flow, when we spend a lot of time with only one exercise students wil get bored or if you choose a difficult activity, students wil feel frustrated and that will affect your class.
3. When you plan a lesson, do you...
I plan a series of lessons atarting with the aims. I don´t use the coursebooks because it´s not appropriate for my students needs. I don´t really like to plan in grea detail because every group is different and I don´t know how they will react to some activities, I like to plan in general terms and then adapt the class to my students needs always keeping in mind how to "fit" my class.
4. What advice would you give a new teacher who says, "I spend hours and hours planning a scheme of work: I seem to go round and round, not getting anywhere"?
I would say: "Stop doing that!", every group is different and their mood could change everyday, maybe today you will work as a champion, tomorrow... who knows. Focus on what you have to teach and what they need. Students are human beings, not machines.