董海琴

Preparing for a lesson before teaching is the starting point of the whole teaching procedure. Its the precondition and guarantee of a good lesson. Without comprehensive consideration and an all-sided design， we will never get effective instructions and teaching in the class. Speaking of preparing for a lesson， teachers may mistake it for writing teaching plan. As a matter of fact， lesson plan is far from enough to prepare a lesson. Preparing for a lesson indicates that teachers should prepare themselves and get a deep understanding of the textbook， the structure of the knowledge system， the emotional education and some philosophy behind the teaching context. Meanwhile， teachers should combine the different characteristics and needs of students in order to employ more suitable teaching skills.

Being aware of how to prepare before teaching is very important.

Preparing the textbook

Preparing the textbook is one aspect of preparing for a lesson. Here the textbook means all of the teaching materials related to teaching， including curriculum， teachers book， textbook， exercise book and extracurricular exercises.

Firstly， before teaching， teachers need to do a good research of the entire series of the textbooks to have an overall understanding， to get a general idea of the inner connection of each unit or chapter， finally to master the whole knowledge system of the subject.

Secondly， teachers need to read and analyze the teaching materials which will be taught as carefully as possible in order to get the answers of the following questions：

What are the teaching objectives of the lesson？

What basic knowledge will students learn from the lesson？

What skills should students master during the lesson？

Whats the relationship between the lesson and other lessons？

What are the important teaching points and difficult teaching points？

What breakthrough should students get after the lesson？

Whats the function of examples and exercises？

How can we make different contexts mix with each other？

With all of the answers in mind， then comes the next step. Teachers need to adapt and reorganize teaching materials according to different teaching contents， teaching objectives and different requirements of students.

The last equally important thing is referring to various references or relevant information. Regularlly accumulating teaching resources can serve as the supplement to textbooks. To some degree， all of the teachers life experience can be useful when it comes to preparing a lesson.

Preparing learners

Apart from preparing the textbook， preparing learners should be another important aspect of preparing before teaching.

What comes first is getting a good knowledge of learners needs. That is， what kind of lesson do they want？

Actually， the happiest thing in class， as for students， is communicating. From their perspective， communicating means being open. It reflects students various personalities and releases their fascinating creativity. Only when they are placed in a learning atmosphere full of communication can their own experience be facilitated and enhanced.

Besides， the learning method students like most is student-centered method. They all long for some kind of freedom. They are to some degree willing and fond of dealing with problems in their own different ways. That means the class is in fact students themselves. Therefore， what they need is what we should focus on.

Lastly， students are eager to participate in a kind of diversified class， which means that they want to give a touch to a mixture of information technology and the learning context. Words， pictures， diagrams， videos， audios and all kinds of useful online information can be added to a teaching class. In this way， students interest and creativity in learning can be kept and promoted to the largest extent.

On the base of learners different requirments， what they lack should also be considered carefully. It is very important to get to know about students weak points. Teachers can try lots of way to evaluate students ability in different aspects， judging from experience， grading homework， testing or questioning in class. Another effective way is to let them have self assessment. According to a given standard or aspect， students can find out their weakest point by themselves. Then what the teachers need to do is choose proper teaching context and to design suitable class activities that can be applied to different student levels. This kind of hierarchical teaching can not only add more enjoyment to the lesson， but also reach students requirements to the fullest.