Planning, staging, warmers and closings, mixed-level design, and materials (coursebooks, video, AI-made resources).
Where the sources disagree
- Plan vs emergence: Dogme and Shepherd say plan for emergence; Simkesyan and CELTA staging say plan the sequence. Most sources converge on Flexibility within a planned framework. (Claude)
Staging
- Elicit before you present - context, one-answer questions, wait time
- Guided-discovery grammar sequence - meaning, noticing, controlled to free
- Close lessons deliberately - a menu of closing routines
- Flexibility within a planned framework
Mixed levels
- Mixed-level classes - one goal, differentiated response depth
- One-to-one-in-a-group - stop rubberstamping answers
Materials
- Ambient language - exploit coursebook exercises beyond the targets
- Film lessons in five stages - from expectation to expression
- Lesson planning with AI - you outline, the model drafts options
- Low-prep image warmers - mystery objects, doodles, story icons
- Activity repertoire - texts, mingles and dice
More notes (by source)
Book - 100 Teaching Tips (Penny Ur)
- Open-ended exercises - allow many right answers
Book - How to Teach English (Jeremy Harmer) - Learning styles are preferences, not a basis for matching
Book - Learning Teaching (Jim Scrivener) - What does a teacher add - self-study, immersion and classroom work
Book - The Power of Moments (Chip & Dan Heath) - Design peak moments in a course
Book - To Children I Give My Heart (Sukhomlynsky) - Know your learners before you plan
Book - You the Super Teacher (UzbTutors) - Present orally and visually - dual coding
Carol Read (ABC of Teaching Children) - Multiple intelligences as a variety checklist, with four provisos
- The C-Wheel - eight conditions for children’s learning
My ELT Rambles (Joanna Malefaki) - Moving a course online - audit platform and materials first
Scott Thornbury (An A-Z of ELT) - PPP - a novice scaffold, not a production line
Steve Smith (Language Teacher Toolkit) - Smith and Conti’s ten principles of language teaching
That ELT Blog (Sanchia) - Authentic audience writing - letters to real readers
From my books (highlights)
- Source - Book - 100 Teaching Tips (Penny Ur)
- Source - Book - How to Teach English (Jeremy Harmer)
- Source - Book - The Power of Moments (Chip & Dan Heath)
Key terms (DELTA M1)
stage aims · PPP / TTT / ESA / TBL frameworks · differentiation (by task, by outcome, by support) · lesson shape · warmer / lead-in · closing / round-up · materials adaptation (adding, deleting, modifying, simplifying, reordering)