When the tail wags the dog

Sometimes, you plan your lesson backwards. You find something you really want to use in class and so you plan your lesson around it, even though it doesn't really fit in with where you're up to on the curriculum. Maybe it's a song. Maybe it's a great text. Maybe a video clip off the internet, or some new technological innovation.

In terms of your language teaching objectives, it's value is dubious, but you make it fit by sheer determination. You hammer it into place, like a square peg in a round hole. And sometimes, despite everything, it actually works. Your sheer enthusiasm transmits itself and your students enjoy the lesson and learn something useful.

But then again, plenty of times it doesn't work too. Confusion and embarrassment.

You've been warned!