Teaching tips – Planning a Lesson: Set Lesson Goals

Lesson goals are most usefully stated in terms of what students will have done or accomplished at the end of the lesson.
To set lesson goals:
1. Identify a topic for the lesson. The topic is not a goal, but it will help you develop your goals.
2. Identify specific linguistic content, such as vocabulary and points of grammar or language use, to be introduced or reviewed.
3. Identify specific communication tasks to be completed by students. To be authentic, the tasks should allow, but not require, students to use the vocabulary, grammar, and strategies presented in the lesson. The focus of the tasks should be topical, not grammatical.
4. Identify specific learning strategies to be introduced or reviewed in connection with the lesson.
5. Create goal statements for the linguistic content, communication tasks, and learning strategies that state what you will do and what students will do during the lesson.