The lesson plan help us to organise my work. I teach in a secondary school, the students have 2 English class a week and when I planning I start off by deciding in the aims of the lesson (the aims are determined by the National English Program in Basic Education) so my planning style is like Deniz's style. My lesson's aim fits with the standards for the grade level I use the course book and I like to include varied activities. Relevance is an important quality in the planning, The tasks have to be related with a topic interested to the students, something they are involved in their real life, so it will be easier to get their attention. All the activities have to be logical and have cohesion. I usually start off by explaining the language point, then students do a listening activity and at the end the speaking activity. I check the pronunciation. Previously I organized the students by pairs or in small groups,
My advice to a new teacher is to do a planning for one week at the time, with short activities, and based in a topic according with the real life of the students like: video games, applications for cellular phone, sports, famous singers, t.v. programs etc.
The objective of planning is organize the tasks in order to help the students to get the learnings in a determined time.