Brainstorm with the other teachers in your grade and come up with lesson plans together. Ask the older teachers in your school, or teachers from other local schools if you can look at their lesson plans. By taking the best ideas from each plan you can create a single plan that you can adapt for any situation and you will have more than enough options if one method is not working.
Include examples from pop culture and the news. Kids are more connected than ever and use the references of television, music, and the Internet in order to make sense of their world. Connecting a pop culture figure, can not only keep your students interested but also get you more feedback because they will be able to process your lesson better through their understanding of a pop culture icon or mass media event.
Present movies, songs, pictures, slide shows or other multimedia. Show your class a prepared video, and then spend time after that answering questions or explaining specific points from the video. Save videos or songs as a reward for the end of your class to keep the kids' attention throughout the lesson.