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July 23, 2007
Surveys- Class Preparation Time
Hello Readers,
I recently received an email from a fairly new ESL teacher who felt like she was spending too much time preparing for her classes. She thought it would be interesting to find out how much time most teachers typically spend on preparing for a (one-hour) class...
... and so would I.
To place your vote, go to the ESL Employment forum here: http://www.esl-jobs-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=2725
Don't forget that you'll have to either register or log in before you can take part in the poll. (But don't worry, it's free!)
Question: How much time do you typically spend preparing for a one-hour class?
1) I don't usually prepare for my classes
2) Less than 15 minutes
3) 16-30 minutes
4) 31-45 minutes
5) 45- 60 minutes
Anything missing from the above choices? Feel free to share additional ideas by commenting below!
Carol Rueckert
Writer, ESL Lesson Plan
E-mail: crueckert@eslemployment.com
Blog: www.esl-lesson-plan.com
"I hear, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand." - Chinese Proverb
*Looking for other interesting surveys (and their resultes) about the ESL industry? Click HERE!
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About the author of this entry:
Carol, a native English-speaker who hails from the small town of St. Joseph in Minnesota, USA, worked in China for more than 7 years. During that time, she worked with students of all ages and levels. She worked at universities, private language schools, grade schools, international schools, and did private tutoring as well. Besides teaching, she also worked as a head teacher, an education manager, and a material development manager. In addition to working on this newsletter, she also writes a monthly column for Time Out Beijing. Carol is also currently working on her MA in TESOL at Oxford Brookes University in England. Look for her posts on the ESL-Jobs-Forum discussion boards!
Posted by crueckert at July 23, 2007 03:03 AM
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Comments
If I'm teaching a new course then I typically spend about 1 hour prepping for every hour of teaching. If it's a course that I've already done, then that drops to about 30 minutes for every hour as I review my lesson plans and make tweaks based on how I felt about it the previous time I taught the course.
Though I must admit that some lessons take up to 2 hours per class hour to plan. Those lessons are ones that I always share with others so that it's not a completely inefficient use of time. Typically these are lessons involving video. The latest would be my prison break lesson - three hours of class time, but only 18 minutes of the pilot actually shown in class.
Posted by: EFL Geek at July 23, 2007 08:37 AM
WHOA...2 hours to plan?!! That is crazy... the teacher must not work in public school and have WAY too many tasks to attend to besides planning. I try to spend at least 15 minutes planning a lesson...sometimes more, sometimes less. It all depends on what I'm doing.
Posted by: Shari at July 26, 2007 12:57 AM
How much time is needed to plan a lesson? Ideally the less time, the better. Sometimes I spend way too much time working on an hour's activity. Then it might be a great engaging lesson, but the student's might not actually learn more than if it had been more mundane. After ten years of teaching, it's disturbing.
If I have three sections of the same class, then I only need to prepare once. If the room and materials are supportive, then even less time. If it is a conversational skills class based on drills, I may not have to prepare at all. I just keep a few fun activities in reserve in case the hour becomes overly dull. If it's an advanced class with some unfamiliar material, then I better study it myself first.
Posted by: Kevin D. Subscriber at August 4, 2007 03:35 PM
