Lesson Plan: ESA

 Lesson Plan: ESA

_Ashok Chavan ( State Academic Resource Person, DIET, Nashik)

Planning  lessons is very important for teachers. Before teaching any text, lesson, new vocabulary, grammar or teaching items, planning and preparing is necessary. It gives detailed information to teachers about the following questions:

• What are you going to teach?

• How will you conduct a lesson?

• How will you engage your learners?

• Which  resources  are you going to use?

• How will you use a board? 

• How  will you assess your learners?

• What interaction patterns are you going to use in the lesson?

In the TAG Coordinators' training conducted by British Council and RAA, Aurangabad lesson plan has been introduced based on ESA stages.

Let's see what ESA is.

1. Engage:

Students learn better when some interesting things are done in the classroom while conducting lessons. Generally, students like pictures, stories, games, activities according to their age and level. If they are valued and appreciated, they learn better. Therefore, as a teacher, we should always think about learners' interest, their likes and dislikes, while planning lessons. 

In this regard, engaging learners in the classroom is highly recommended. If teachers speak all the time, it'll be a traditional way of teaching. It'll make students passive. They will only listen to the teachers. But they will be passive learners. On the other hand, if they are engaged and involved through various interesting activities, they can participate actively.

It is rightly said: Engage 'This means getting the students interested in the class. Engaging students is important for the learning process'  (British council website)

This stage can occur at the beginning of the lesson. Before introducing any text, teaching point, grammar points, new content or new vocabulary, teachers should create interest among learners. They should check their previous knowledge. In the 'Engage' stage students use vocabulary, sentences or information which is already taught. They can also answer the questions from the previous lesson.

Read how teachers engage learners.

• Mrs Sneha is a primary teacher and teaches grade 3. She shows a picture and asks students to guess what the lesson is about.

• Mr Yogesh teaches English to 5th class. Yesterday he started a lesson with gap fill activity based on a previous lesson.

 Think how you'll engage learners in your lessons.

2. Study:

In this stage new vocabulary, grammar points, new text, a lesson, a poem or a story is taught. Teachers introduce new learning experiences using a textbook, pictures etc. They can also explain some challenging concepts by showing pictures or videos. Teachers can illustrate figures on the board so that students can understand better. Students construct new knowledge from the experiences taught in the 'Study' stage.

'A study stage could also cover revision and extension of previously taught material.' (British Council website)

Read how teachers use this stage.

• Mr Rajesh sir wrote some new words on the board and  explained the words.

• Mrs Pratiksha ma'am read a poem and wrote unfamiliar words on the board.

3. Activate:

As students are introduced to new topics,  vocabulary, grammar or other skills, they must have been given opportunities to produce what they've learnt. This helps them to consolidate their knowledge and skills. Teachers can also understand how they are successful in achieving learning outcomes. 'In an activate stage the students are given tasks which require them to use not only the language they are studying that day, but also other language that they have learnt.' (British Council website)

Therefore, some tasks must be provided to students after the  study stage to activate them.

• Learners practise new words taught in the lesson. 

• Learners make sentences or tell a story  using vocabulary, grammar points taught in the lesson.

• They can summarize what they've learnt.

Read, identify the lesson plan stages and tick off in appropriate boxes
Sr no	Activities	Engage	Study	Activate
1	Learners play a vocabulary game based on a previous lesson at the initial stage of the lesson.
2	Learners solve an exercise after a new topic is introduced.
3	Teacher slowly reveals a picture and asks the learners to guess what it is about.
4	Teacher reads some difficult words and the learners repeat after him.
5	Learners answer the questions asked by the teacher during the lesson.
6	Learners look at the pictures and predict what happens in the story.
7	Teacher asks the learners to read and  tell key ideas from the paragraph.
8	Learners work in pairs and share what they've learnt from the lesson.
9	Learners answer the questions using new vocabulary learnt in the lesson.
10	Teacher introduces simple present tense.

(Adapted this from British council material)

 Check your possible answers:( 1. Engage 2. Activate 3. Engage 4. Study 5. Study 6.Engage 7. Study 8. Activate 9. Activate 10. Study)

Hopefully you may find this activity useful to deepen your understanding about lesson plan: ESA.

DIET Nashik demonstrated a lesson using these ESA stages. See annexure 1 for the video. If you want to explore more about these stages, visit the British Council website. Link is given below references. 

Thanks!

Regards

Ashok Chavan

SARP, DIET Nashik

Reference

1. https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/planning-1 (For more details, explore above site)

Annexure:

1. A lesson conducted using ESA: Engage Study and Activate https://youtu.be/QSgtytvTWP0

2. Lesson plan template (taken from TAG resource book year 2)