For new English tutors, or those new to online English tutoring, creating a first lesson plan can be a daunting task. After all, you have to turn a blank Google Doc into a 30, 45 or 60-minute lesson full of useful content, examples, exercises and multimedia assets.
In fact, creating a lesson plan for that first online lesson can be one of the most common concerns new teachers have when starting out with Tutoria.
In this post, we’ll cover an easy 4-step process you can use to create online lesson plans for not just your first lesson, but for each subsequent tutoring session.
Get Your Student First
As tempting as it may be to create a generic lesson plan right from the start, hold off until you are matched with your first student.
Take a moment before your first lesson to get to know your new student. Ask them “Why do you want to learn English and how do you plan on using it?” or “How much English do you speak today?”
These are great questions, the answers to which will tell you exactly where your online lesson should focus in terms of objectives and exercises.
Every student’s needs are different and no two people are starting from the same English proficiency level. Some will have a better grasp of grammar or vocabulary while other students will have better pronunciation.
Create an Outline
Once you know where you need to start and what focus your English tutoring lesson plans should have, you can create an outline to help you build your lesson.
A good online lesson plan typically has some or all of the following elements:
- Objective: Each lesson should have a main objective for the student that specifies what they will be able to do after completing the lesson. Write the objective from the first person point of view of the student so, for example, the objective of your first lesson could be “I can introduce myself and say where I am from and how old I am.”
- Vocabulary: Write the key words and/or phrases the student will learn in the lesson. This is the vocabulary the student should know the meaning of, be able to spell and pronounce, and use properly in a sentence.
- Sentence frames: Sentences can be structured in many different ways to convey the same idea. Think active vs. passive voice. When applicable, specify the different types of sentences the student should be able to understand and use by the end of the lesson.
- Online materials: A good online lesson plan includes a variety of different teaching elements such as audio clips, videos and images to go along with your own instruction. Teaching English online makes it quick and easy to add these elements into your lesson and access them during your tutoring session.
- Plenty of talking time: Since most online language classes will be one-on-one lessons, they will typically involve a lot of conversation time. Some of this will be formal, structured practice as well as an informal back and forth. In fact, most English language students will expect a fair amount of speaking practice in their online lessons. Be sure to build this practice time into your lesson plans.
Choose Tools and Technologies
Teaching the English language online opens up a whole host of opportunities for tutors to incorporate different tools and technologies into their lesson plans.
Typical tools for online tutoring include:
- Video conferencing platforms such as Zoom, Google Meetings or Skype.
- Presentation tools such as Google Slides, Prezi or Slideshare.
- Audio/visual platforms such as YouTube, Spotify or Canva.
- Survey or assessment tools such as Google Forms or Survey Monkey.
The technology available to online English tutors has made it easier than ever to make use of a variety of media and teaching styles to appeal to specific students. So be sure to make use of all the tools at your disposal to create a unique lesson for each of your students.
Create Your Content
Once you’ve built an outline for your online lesson plan and picked the right tools for your student, creating the actual lesson content will be much easier and faster. It can even be as simple as filling in the blanks, smoothing out the rough edges of your outline notes or embedding your multimedia content.
However, there are some important key points to remember when creating your online tutoring lesson content:
- Your content will take up about 85% of the student’s field of vision, sometimes more depending on your video conferencing platform. Online lesson content has to be bright, engaging and you should highlight key takeaways to draw the student’s attention.
- Whether you want them to or not, many online tutoring students will be accessing your lessons via their phones or other mobile devices. Don’t try to fit too many words, ideas or concepts into one page. When in doubt, err on the side of less text, fewer images and more slides in your lesson. Plus, keeping your slides simple and uncluttered will allow for more back and forth with your students and minimize the amount of lecture/teacher talking time.
- Most presentation tools include a notes section that you can use to add detail and supplementary information for each slide. Make use of these to help keep your lesson content more focused and readable. You can also keep notes from class discussions to share with your students after the lesson (which you should be doing anyway)
Start Teaching English with Tutoria
Ready to create your first online lesson plan and teach English online? Sign up as a tutor with Tutoria and match with your first students to start putting your first lessons to good use. Visit Tutoria to access more lesson planning resources and volunteer as an English language tutor today.
