Planning lessons quickly with the Sandwi ...

Planning lessons quickly with the Sandwich Method

Mar 06, 2022

Lesson-planning, a script. Actually, three.

Ordinary-Oliver’s script: “Okok, I guess I have to get started preparing something for my tomorrow’s online lesson. I’ll have a look at the Internet. There must be a lesson plan I can just copy and paste”.
Two hours later. Still on Facebook, looking at a few puppy photos, occasionally saving interesting ideas for games and activities – to be read later, of course.
It’s soon dinner time. “Oh, well. I’ll show them that cool Youtube video, then a LOT of games here and there. They’ll like those!”

Maniacal-Maggie’s script: “All right, time for planning tomorrow’s lesson. I want to teach present perfect and past simple around the topic of holidays. Let’s see if I can find the best activities and platforms out there. I remember on page 23 of that book there, there was a nice controlled practice, and in chapter 5 of that other book there was a cool song I could use. I’ll set up a Kahoot game too to check understanding. Ah, let’s not forget about Quizlet for homework. What was that great video I’d found around present perfect? It’d make a great listening activity. Ok, I’ll create interactive questions on Genially too, they’re so cool, I’ll look so techy”.
5 hours later, she is still putting her material together while brainstorming for other ideas too (around the SAME lesson). She forgot it’s dinner time and will probably have only a bowl of cereal so she can make her lesson perfect by tomorrow afternoon.

Awesome-Annie’s script: “All right, time to roll up my sleeves and prepare all my week’s lessons.”
Two hours later. She’s done planning, all her material is nice and saved in her ‘Weekly’ folder, she knows exactly what to do with each of her groups for the whole week.

So. Here’s the thing. I don’t know about you – well, I kind of know actually – but I’d rather be Awesome-Annie. She’s so focused, it looks like she has a plan. She won’t be sucked into the Internet’s vortex. She might even have time for a call with friends and some yoga before dinner. I’m also confident that by the end of the lesson, her students will know they’ve learnt something – and, guess what, when their parents ask them “What have you done today during English class?”, they’ll actually have something to say other than “Nothing, really”. Oh yes, sounds good.

Annie’s secret? It’s an old recipe. A classic. Her lesson – I wanted to say is, but nope, sorry – looks like a grilled toast sandwich. Easy to make, the best thing to have when you’re hungry (hungry for knowledge guys – keep up with the metaphors here).

The recipe


Let’s go through the ingredients:

Bread

Filling

  • Salad/grilled vegetables, to keep you light

  • Cheese, to add a bit of strength

  • Tomatoes, for a pop of colour


Bread



In practice

So, her B2 lesson plan around environmental issues (for example) will look like this:

Bread = Warmer

show a photo of Greta Thunberg, elicit ideas of what the lesson’s topic might be, ask students what they know about her. Brainstorm/short matching task to introduce vocabulary related to environmental issues.

Salad = Light task

watch the first part of the video and collect more information about Greta.

Cheese = Fat task

in groups, think about questions you’d like to ask Greta during an interview. Watch the second part of the video and see if she answers any of your questions. Watch again, note down other questions you hear and the answers she gives.

Tomato= Fun task

pair role-play. One of you is Greta, the other one is a Journalist. Have funny/serious interviews.

Bread = Error correction

teacher monitored group tasks and wrote down some sentences which need correction, shows them to the class and they correct errors together.

 

Or here’s her lesson-plan around health, for A1 younger learners:

Bread = Warmer

drilling new vocab. Show a picture of a child asking an old man “What’s the matter?”, then show flashcards for earache, headache, cold, cough, temperature, stomach-ache etc. Play drilling games.

Salad = Light task

show a picture from this story and elicit ideas. Who are these people? Where do they live? What are they doing?


Cheese = Fat task

children watch the story and check their ideas. Then they put the events in order.


Tomato = Fun task

show them a poem about the jungle, ask if they’d like to live in the jungle and why. Read the poem together (one line girls, one line boys, associating movements).

Bread = Cool-down

Show 4 objects from the story (eg. Flowers, chair, leaf, mango). Students find the odd one out (chair – in case you’re wondering, it’s not a plant).

 

Ingredients = ?


Here’s a basic conversion chart:

Bread:

pre-teaching vocabulary which might be useful/necessary for the following activities, or a warmer to build interest in the lesson’s topic.

Filling:

  • A light task, for example predicting what’s going to happen in a story, then checking predictions.

  • A harder ‘fat’ task which requires more concentration (usually looking for details in a text/video/conversation), or more steps (e.g. Brainstorming-writing-checking; or Noticing language structures-analysing form-practising with the structure).

  • A fun task to put knowledge into practice and which gives students the opportunity to express themselves, like a free or guided-speaking activity.

Bread:

cool-down, either a short game or error correction.

 


To recap

In the first part of the article, we looked at three different approaches to lesson planning. We had Ordinary-Oliver, the cool guy. Too cool to think about his learners to actually prepare, too cool for fighting procrastination. His students probably enjoy his lessons, which is great, but learn very little, which is not so great.

Then there was Maniacal-Maggie, she LOVES planning, she definitely cares about her students but she’s trapped into the “do-it-all-and-well” mindset. She ends up wasting so much time looking for the best resources out there that she forgets she has a life. Her students like her activities but leave the lesson feeling a bit overwhelmed.

And finally, we looked at Awesome-Annie’s approach. She’s not perfect. In fact, she embraces the “Good enough is good enough” mantra. She spends time doing her research – but not too long. Once she finds some interesting material, she builds a no-frills lesson around it. She cares about her students and rather than entertaining them, she will spend a good part of her energy building a rapport with them, listening to what they have to say, and encouraging them to progress.

 

Reflection

Which profile best reflects your current practice? Maybe it’s one we haven’t considered.

Which steps do you currently follow in your lesson-planning process? How do you think you would benefit from the Sandwich Method? Leave your comments below!

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