Minutes 0–5: activate what the student already has
Open with a prompt the student can answer immediately. The purpose is diagnostic as much as conversational: you hear what vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation are already available before adding new material.
Avoid turning the warm-up into a second lesson. One visual, question or quick choice is enough. The warm-up should create a bridge to the target, not consume the target.
Minutes 5–15: introduce the target in context
Present the language inside a short situation, example set, dialogue, image sequence or listening segment. Give the student something to notice before giving a long explanation. Ask what changes, what repeats, what contrast they see, or what meaning each form seems to create.
Explanation should solve a problem the student has already seen. This makes grammar or vocabulary easier to attach to meaning and keeps teacher talk under control.
Minutes 15–30: move from supported to flexible practice
This middle block is where many lessons become worksheet-heavy. The correction is not necessarily fewer exercises, but more variation in what the learner must do with the language. Recognition can lead to completion, then to choice, then to production.
- First task: high support, narrow answer range.
- Second task: same target, but with a choice or information gap.
- Third task: student must personalize, justify or react.
Minutes 30–42: make the student perform
End the teaching sequence with a task that would be impossible to complete well without using the lesson target. It can be a role-play, decision, story, explanation, comparison or problem-solving task. The final task should feel like communication, not a disguised grammar test.
During this phase, collect errors selectively. Interrupt only when the error blocks meaning or when immediate correction is necessary for the target. Otherwise, note patterns and debrief afterward.
Minutes 42–45: retrieve and close
Ask the student to produce two or three examples without looking at the material, summarize the rule in their own words, or answer the opening prompt again with stronger language. The final minutes should show what changed during the class.
If you assign homework, keep it narrow. Repeated retrieval of the same target is usually more useful than sending a large mixed worksheet that the student may never complete.