120 hr. TEFL Course Module 8-Lesson Planning (Pt.2 Standards and Objectives)

8.1 Standards and objectives

Every time you create a lesson plan you need to create an objective and make sure that it is aligned with a standard. We will first take some time to discuss standards, since they should be the basis for all of your lesson plans.

8.1.1 Standards

Standards are a set of skills that students need to have by the time they leave your classroom. These standards are not set by the teacher but rather accessed by the teacher for use in their lesson plans. Depending on where you are teaching your students, the skills that the standards require them to meet are going to be different. For the sake of this module, we will focus on the general idea of standards and how they should inform instruction. Let’s first look at the general skills that standards usually focus on.

Reading literature: Reading literature standards cover all of the skills that are required to effectively read a piece of literature, including poetry, short stories, novels, and plays. These standards typically focus on literary analysis skills, since reading comprehension skills are covered in the next standard.

Reading for information: Reading for information standards cover reading comprehension skills that a student would need to read a piece of nonfiction, such as an article, a biography, or an academic journal.


Writing: Writing standards cover all of the skills involved in writing, including narrative writing, expository writing, persuasive writing, and informative writing. Many of the standards within this category will likely focus on a student’s ability to make a claim, support his or her claim, and explain himself or herself thoroughly.

Speaking and listening: Speaking and listening standards focus on all of the skills that students will need to present new ideas and attain information from spoken sources. These standards are especially important during student presentations, class discussions, and Socratic seminars.

Language: Language standards focus on the skills that students will need to develop their understanding of language. As a TESOL teacher, these standards will be extremely important, but they are also relevant to mainstream classes. These standards focus on diction, grammar, usage, and other aspects of understanding a lesson.