ELT365 · Day 252 — Solutions — Planning for Problems
Idea For every anticipated problem, write a solution — not a worry. The plan is your back-up strategy. A problem without a solution is just an…
ReadIdea For every anticipated problem, write a solution — not a worry. The plan is your back-up strategy. A problem without a solution is just an…
ReadIdea Beyond language, plan for procedural problems: unclear task design, grouping that doesn’t work, or a text too long for the time available. Example ‘The reading…
ReadIdea Before teaching, predict where learners will struggle with the target language: meaning confusion, form errors, or pronunciation difficulty. Example For ‘used to’: learners may confuse…
ReadIdea Lesson plans should state what learners are expected to already know. This shapes your starting point and helps you avoid teaching what they already have.…
ReadIdea Target language is the specific item you are teaching: a structure, a set of lexical chunks, a functional exponent. Analyse it before you plan any…
ReadIdea A good lesson aim is learner-facing and observable: ‘By the end, learners will be better able to…’ Avoid teacher behaviour (‘I will teach…’) as the…
ReadIdea Every lesson needs one main aim — the primary thing learners will be better able to do by the end. Subsidiary aims are language or…
ReadIdea A written plan is a hypothesis; the lesson is the experiment. Experienced teachers deviate from plans when learners need something different — but only because…
ReadIdea A lesson plan is a tool for thinking — not a script. It forces you to articulate what you want learners to achieve and how…
ReadIdea Classroom management is a system of small, purposeful decisions: room layout, timing, instructions, monitoring, and feedback — all chosen to maximise learner engagement and language…
ReadMost of this site is reading. These two are writing — the only way to find out what your English actually does, and what your inner weather is actually like. Take one now, or skip and find them in the menu at any time.
A twenty-question encounter with how you actually think in English.
This is not a multiple-choice test. There are no gap-fills and no word banks. Those instruments measure recognition. This one measures production — the unruly, idiosyncratic act of putting thought into English under gentle pressure.
You will be asked about your dreams, your reading, your silences, your weather. Some prompts feel like journal entries. Some feel like riddles. Answer them as yourself — only as yourself.
Thirteen sideways questions about the architecture of your own experience.
“How are you?” produces “fine.” “What is wrong?” produces defence. So this asks neither. It asks about texture, temperature, containers, landscapes at 3 AM — sideways entry points that let you describe an inner state without having to expose a biography.
There is no timer and no right answer. The only thing measured is granularity: how finely you can name what is happening inside you. That skill is learnable, and it travels with you.