What do I mean by planning?

The title of this book is Planning Lessons and Courses so I'd like to define right away what I mean by it. By ‘planning’, I mean what most working teachers do when they say they're planning their lessons and courses. Thus I take planning to include the following: considering the students, thinking of the content, materials and activities that could go into a course or lesson, jotting these down, having a quiet ponder, cutting things out of magazines and anything else that you feel will help you to teach well and the students to learn a lot, i.e. to ensure our lessons and courses are good. I do NOT mean the writing of pages of notes with headings such as ‘Aims’ and ‘Anticipated problems’ to be given in to an observer before they watch you teach.

I also take it as given that plans are just plans. They're not legally binding. We don't have to stick to them come hell or high water. They are to help us shape the space, time and learning we share with students. We can depart from them or stick to them as we, the students and the circumstances seem to need.

What do I mean by a ‘good’ lesson or course?

I've said above that planning is something we do to ensure our lessons and courses are good ones. But what is ‘good’?