Writing a Lesson Plan
Two People Can Teach

Most lesson plan advice assumes one teacher. Yours has to work for two, and the second one will probably read it for the first time about ninety seconds before the bell. That single constraint changes almost everything about how the page should look.

多數關於教案的建議都預設只有一位老師。你的教案要讓兩個人都用得起來， 而第二個人很可能是在上課鐘響前九十秒才第一次看到它。光是這一個限制，就幾乎改變了整張紙該長什麼樣。

Section 01Your plan is not for you

You already know what you are going to do — it is in your head. The plan exists to tell somebody else. And as the co-teaching pack set out, the reason most pairs never plan together is not unwillingness; it is that no time was ever scheduled for it. Which means the document has to carry the conversation you did not get to have.

你早就知道自己要做什麼——那在你腦子裡。教案存在的目的是告訴別人。 而正如協同教學那一包所說， 多數搭檔沒有共同備課不是因為不願意，而是因為根本沒有排時間。 這代表這份文件必須承載那場你沒機會進行的對話。

The test for a co-taught lesson plan is brutally simple: if your co-teacher has to ask you what it means, it has failed. Not "it is a bit unclear" — failed, because the asking is exactly what there was no time for.

判斷一份協同教案好不好的標準非常簡單：如果協同老師得問你這是什麼意思，它就失敗了。 不是「有一點不清楚」，是失敗——因為「問你」正是那件沒有時間做的事。

Section 02Two columns, not one

Almost every plan a foreign teacher writes has a single column: what happens. A co-taught plan needs the split made explicit, because the alternative is that the division of labor gets decided live, in front of the class, by whoever moves first — which is how you end up in One Teach, One Assist by accident.

幾乎每一份外師寫的教案都只有一欄：會發生什麼事。協同教案必須把分工寫明， 否則分工就會在課堂上、當著全班的面，由先動的那個人決定——這正是你怎麼會意外掉進「一人教、一人協助」的原因。

That third row is the one people skip and the one that matters most. "During this eight minutes I am not speaking; the students only hear you" is a real instruction, and writing it down is far easier than saying it out loud to a colleague. A plan lets you negotiate roles without it ever feeling like a negotiation.

第三列是大家會跳過、卻最重要的一列。「這八分鐘我不說話，學生只聽你的」 是一句真正的指示，而把它寫下來，比當面對同事說出口容易太多。 教案讓你在完全不像談判的情況下談好角色分工。

Section 03Objectives you can actually see

"Students will understand the past tense" is not an objective; it is a hope. Nobody in the room can see understanding. Write what you would be able to watch happen:

「學生將理解過去式」不是目標，是願望。教室裡沒有人看得見「理解」。 要寫的是你能看著它發生的東西：

• ❌ Students will understand how to ask for directions. 學生將理解如何問路。
• ✅ Each student asks a partner for directions to three places and writes down what the partner says. 每個學生向同伴問三個地點的路，並寫下同伴的回答。

The second version tells your co-teacher what to look for, tells you whether the lesson worked, and tells both of you when to stop. It also gives you the observable sign that the co-teaching pack said to agree on in advance.

第二種寫法告訴協同老師該看什麼、告訴你這堂課有沒有效、也告訴你們兩人什麼時候該收。 它同時就是協同教學那一包說的「事先講好的、看得見的判準」。

Section 04Timing: the part everyone gets wrong

Foreign teachers routinely plan forty minutes of content into a forty-minute period, and routinely run out of time. Three realities to budget for:

外師常常把四十分鐘的內容排進四十分鐘的課，然後常常來不及。有三件現實必須先算進去：

1. Instructions in a second language take about three times as long as you think. What is one sentence to you is a listening comprehension task to them. 用第二語言講指令，花的時間大約是你以為的三倍。對你來說是一句話，對他們是一項聽力理解任務。
2. Every transition costs about two minutes. Moving desks, forming pairs, handing out paper. Four transitions is eight minutes of your lesson gone. 每一次轉換大約吃掉兩分鐘。移桌子、分組、發紙。四次轉換就是八分鐘不見了。
3. Something will interrupt. An announcement, a late class, a fire drill, a child who is unwell. Plan for thirty-two usable minutes, not forty. 一定會有事情打斷。廣播、上一節拖堂、消防演練、身體不舒服的孩子。要照三十二分鐘可用來排，不是四十分鐘。

Then add the two lines that make a plan survive contact with a real classroom:

然後補上讓教案能在真實教室裡活下來的那兩行：

• If we are short of time, cut this: ______ 如果時間不夠，砍這個：______
• If we finish early, do this: ______ 如果提早結束，做這個：______

These two lines are worth more than any other refinement on the page, because they are decisions made calmly in advance rather than improvised at minute thirty-five with two teachers silently disagreeing about what to drop.

這兩行比這張紙上任何其他修飾都有價值，因為它們是事先冷靜做好的決定， 而不是在第三十五分鐘、兩個老師心裡各自不同意該砍什麼的時候臨時決定的。

Section 05One page, sent before

• One page. A two-page plan will not be read ninety seconds before the bell, and ninety seconds before the bell is when it will be read. 一頁。兩頁的教案在鐘響前九十秒不會被讀完，而那正是它會被讀的時間點。
• Send it the day before, not the morning of. Your co-teacher may want to prepare something, and cannot do that at 7:50 a.m. 前一天送出，不要當天早上。協同老師可能想準備點東西，而早上七點五十做不到。
• Send the same plan every time, in the same shape. Familiar format means they can find the row they care about in five seconds. Changing your template every week costs them attention you need for the lesson. 每次都用同一份、同一個格式。格式熟悉，他們五秒就能找到自己在意的那一列。每週換一種版型，等於在消耗你上課時需要的那份注意力。
• Write it in English and Chinese if you can — even just the role column. Research on these partnerships repeatedly names English proficiency as a difficulty local teachers report. A bilingual role column removes that friction without anyone having to mention it. 有辦法的話中英雙語寫——至少分工那一欄。相關研究反覆指出，本國老師會提到英語能力是困難之一。分工欄雙語化，可以在誰都不必開口提的情況下移除這個摩擦。

Section 06Three sentences to take into next week

1. The plan is the conversation you never got time to have. If it needs explaining, it has failed. 教案就是那場你沒時間進行的對話。如果它需要解釋，它就失敗了。
2. Write what your co-teacher is doing, including the silences. Otherwise the roles get decided live, by whoever moves first. 把協同老師在做什麼寫下來，包括他不出聲的那幾分鐘。否則角色就會在課堂上由先動的人決定。
3. Budget thirty-two minutes, and decide in advance what gets cut. 照三十二分鐘可用來排，並且事先決定好要砍什麼。