In this section, you will find a number of articles, which have been written to help you develop your skills and knowledge as a teacher in the professional practice 'Planning lessons and courses'. From primary-aged students to adult learners of English, the articles you will find here are practical, insightful and full of ideas to support your planning for all kinds of classrooms. It also involves dividing lessons into coherent stages, planning board work, selecting and describing interaction patterns for different activities during the lesson, and planning for differentiated learning. 

Planning lessons and courses includes anticipating problems that may arise during the lesson, and planning how to respond to these, describing how learners’ understanding will be checked or assessed and describing when and how feedback will be provided. It is important to be able to describe how a lesson is linked to those before and after it, plan a broad outline for a sequence of lessons, including the recycling of learning content and reflect on the approach and effectiveness of lesson planning, incorporating learner feedback and other evidence.

Find useful articles

Course planning

Being able to plan an individual lesson, a scheme of work, or a course well, is one of the key skills that a teacher needs to have. 

Teenagers and grammar

Say the word ‘grammar’ to teenagers and you might be met by yawns or icy stares. But don’t be daunted – the experience can be positive, or even fun.

Lesson planning

When you are faced with planning whole lessons on your own for the first time it can seem like a daunting task.

Research and insight

Browse fascinating case studies, research papers, publications and books by researchers and ELT experts from around the world.

See our publications, research and insight