AIMS for your LESSON PLAN
Ruth Hamilton

A successful lesson is all about setting realistic aims that meet the students' needs and achieving them!
Here's a list of aims and sub-aims, by no means exhaustive:

1. Introducing and practising new vocabulary.
2. Revising previously taught vocabulary.
3. Introducing a new grammatical point.
4. Introducing new functional language.
5. Revising or reviewing one or more grammatical points.
6. Revising or reviewing functional exponents.
7. Giving controlled/less-controlled/freer practice of a language point.
8. Contrasting two (or more) grammatical points.
9. Contrasting two (or more) functional exponents.
10. "Warmers/icebreakers" - getting to know your students.
11. Raising awareness/ear training and/or practising aspects of phonology:
a) pronunciation of phonemes/individual sounds
b) word stress
c) sentence stress
d) intonation
e) features of connected speech
11. Error correction work (usually revising previously taught language)
12. Self-access work.
13. Learner training.
14. Developing reading skills - prediction/skimming/scanning/inferring, etc.
15. Developing listening skills - prediction/gist/for specific information/inference, etc.
16. Developing speaking skills - fluency/accuracy practice/ consolidating recently taught language.
17. Freer speaking (e.g. role play) for revision of previously taught language.
18. Developing writing sub-skills - paragraph-writing/focus on linking devices, etc.
19. Developing study skills - note-taking/summarizing.
20. Developing dictionary skills.
21. Promoting interest in the culture.
22. Using video to build awareness of non-verbal communication.
23. Integrating the four skills.
24. Simulations for revision of previously taught language / for fluency practice.
25. To create a relaxed, non-threatening atmosphere in the classroom.