Chapter 2: Lesson Planning and Classroom Management

I really liked reading about these two topics because classroom management can be intimidating and lesson planning in a TESOL class is a bit foreign to me (no pun intended).  For lesson planning, Harmer has set elements in a lesson plan.  On page 27 they are listed as the description of the class, recent work, objectives, contents, and additional possibilities.  I don't really think anything is left out here.  The objectives part is something I think should be emphasized because a teacher could create a very engaging lesson that students will enjoy just because it's engaging, grabs their attention, or fun for them.  However, with this, the lesson can be lost and overlooked by students because the objective of the lesson, what they were intended to get out of it, wasn't emphasized.  The description of the class was interesting to me but not new.  I really liked how it was described as adapting, in the case where a lesson was already planned, because it goes along the lines of how to be creative and make something personal; your own.  I am not someone who enjoys planning out things too ahead of time, but from reading this I realize how important planning is in creating an effective lesson for students; one where they will leave the lesson with the intended objective.  The three classroom management aspects pointed out, motivation, constraints, and teacher's role, were also helpful.  I haven't read about it being broken down into those three aspects before but the descriptions for each really clicked.  The effective use of these strategies will help students "make the most of the opportunities for learning and practicing language" (28).  I hope I can do this in my future classroom.