Free Tips to Write an Effective Lesson Plan for the LOTE Spanish 613 Exam

Important Tips from ETS (but modified by Texas Teacher Today):

• Be sure your lesson plan is on topic and that it fully and appropriately addresses the prompt.

• Your lesson plan must include all the required information (vocabulary your lesson plan will use, materials the lesson will require, a detailed description of the activities and procedures that will be part of the lesson, at least one informal or formal assessment or evaluation of the students' learning).

• You should write a minimum of 200 words, but I would recommend at least 250 words.

• Review the rubric on the ETS manual.

Helpful Tips from Texas Teacher Today:

•  All lesson plans should be STUDENT-CENTERED or LEARNER-CENTERED.  That means the activities should have the students actively participating.  Education is no longer teacher-centered, where the teacher lectures for long periods of time.  Of course, a short lecture may be necessary, but students should have hands-on activities and the teacher should be the facilitator.
•   Plan at least three activities in order to address the needs of all types of learners (visual, kinesthetic, and auditory learners).  For visual learners, some pictures, posters, or a video are often effective.  For auditory learners, a catchy song, rhyme, or interesting verbal explanation are useful.  Kinesthetic learners learn by doing, so you need to use manipulatives and hands-on activities.   Some examples of manipulatives are counters to help students learning to add or subtract, or magnetic letters for students to practice spelling.  
• Always DIFFERENTIATE INSTRUCTION.    This means you plan your instruction and/or evaluation according to the different readiness levels, interests, and needs of students.  You can assign books or worksheets that are different levels of difficulty according to the students' different ability levels.  When assigning projects, you can give students three or four options to choose from.  When assessing students, use different methods to be sure to notice the different strengths of students.  For example, some students may not be confident at oral presentations, but their written speech may be very effective.  Of course, they should still be required to present, but teachers can count their written speech for part of the grade.  If other students are stronger at presenting, the teacher can focus more on that and less on the writing.  Teachers can find ways to help students capitalize on their strengths and work on their weaknesses.
•  If you don't know yet, you really need to learn where to put accent marks!  Correct spelling is also important.   Incorrect use of accent marks and spelling, or leaving off accent marks, will really cost you points.
•  You are only required to use one evaluation (formal or informal), but I recommend you include one of each.  If appropriate, explain how you can cater the evaluation to students who are struggling with certain concepts.  Formal assessments include tests, quizzes, and essays.  Informal assessments include projects, oral presentations, reading logs, portfolios, or even the teacher asking students questions and keeping track of their responses.  Both formal and informal assessments are important.  Some students do not perform well under the pressure they feel taking a formal assessment, and an informal assessment may give the teacher more information about what the student actually knows.  For more information, read this article about formal and informal assessments.
•  Be careful to use your time wisely.  You only have 35 minutes to writ the lesson plan and the opinion/position essay.
• Proofread your lesson plan and correct any mistakes.

For additional help on accent marks or to learn more about writing a lesson plan, please email me at courtneyschonefeld@hotmail.com to schedule a tutoring session.

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