My planning of a lesson generally resembles Paolo’s. I am teaching a Business English course for a class of adults and so, when I plan a unit, the most important factor I take into consideration is relevance, namely how useful is for the students what I teach. If I have to arrange these qualities in a certain order, this would be:
1. relevance
2. balance
3. logic
4. cohesion
5. variety
6. flow
As I said, not only relevance is important, but also balance. In this way, students do different activities and monotony is avoided. In order to achieve balance, I tend to combine or alternate language-focused lessons with skills-focuesd lessons.
Usually I start with the aims and I establish what I want the students to learn. I tend to divide the units in smaller parts, and like this I come up with a sequence of lessons. Afterwards I look for additional materials which could help me achieve my objectives. Finally, I arrange the activities so that they follow a logical order and I have a cohesive lesson.