Planning lessons for English language learners (ELLs) requires careful reflection about each student. The following questions should be considered throughout the process of planning, instruction, and evaluation. Much of this reflection can occur in a natural, ongoing manner within the classroom.

Many educators find that, if they maintain a reflective awareness as they teach, they are able at the end of the day to analyze their reflections and proceed with planning, confident that their new lessons will better acknowledge the strengths and address the specific needs of their students.

Questions to Consider in Planning Lessons for the ESL Classroom

Expectations

What knowledge, skills and processes from this unit or lesson would I like each student to master?

Assessment

How will I know, at the end of the unit or lesson, if the targeted learning has occurred?

What form of evaluation will indicate whether or not learning has taken place?

Prior Knowledge

What do I know about each student that might help him or her connect with the content?

How can I discover what knowledge or experience each student possesses in a specific area?

Is there a theme that will help connect this --and additional --area content to students' interests or prior knowledge?

Culture

How can my students and I explore together our individual and shared cultures in a process of learning?

How can we integrate more than one language in classroom activities?

Bilingualism

For what types of tasks and interactions does a student use English? The native language?

What activities will promote the use of both languages?

What changes have I noticed lately in the student's use of English and the native language?

Is the student exhibiting an interest in, or readiness for, new language tasks or structures?

How can I minimize language-related difficulties in evaluating what the student has learned?

Literacy

What questions and activities will motivate reading and writing for each student?

In what types of writing do I want to engage students in this unit or lesson?

Content-Based Instruction

What strategies will help each student master the content l and participate fully in group oral activities and written projects?

How will each student use his or her new knowledge from this content?

Is there any way for me to know if this application actually happens?

In what types of activities does the student feel comfortable conversing with others?

About what topics related to this content do I want students to be able to talk?

How can I assess the student's ability to talk about different topics?