Planning on a great lesson? ten top tips to get it right
Photo by: Jurek d’s photos
Planning - are you ready for action?
Effective lesson planning takes a bit of thought at first but, once you’ve done a couple of hundred lessons and got some routines and patter down, you will not need to go through this process. By that time it should be on automatic pilot. As I said before, while talking about stress, good planning can go along way to preventing lots of problems in the class.
1 First steps
Effective planning starts well before the lesson. Once you’ve consulted the Schemes of Work and you know what subject it’s about, it’s time to start planning.
Work out the objective or learning outcomes for your lesson. I like to make this into a sentence that I can later put on the board to keep me and the kids focused on our goal. For example, ‘By the end of the lesson you should know……………..’.
Get the level of the work right for the class. ie If the work is too hard, a lower ability will struggle and become frustrated.
2 Structure
Once this has been established you can think about the structure of the lesson. Most lessons will follow a set routine:
The start, the middle and the end.
Within this frame you need to fit in:
Some sort of starter or introduction
Some learning activities
A summary or plenary activities.
In practice, I like to be quite fluid with this framework because sometimes you need to be flexible with the clientele! Some of my lower ability groups (below GCSE) are not going to settle with a starter, and respond more to the routine of “Come in, sit down, be quiet while I take the register”. Like I said, I make up my own rules which are governed by what works for me and my individual classes. You might like to experiment with your own strategies.
3 Have some routines in place
If you have a good set of classroom management routines in place, you will find kids respond better than if you let them go free form. For instance, I like to get my classes lined up outside the room, in silence, listening to me as I remind them of the routine for coming into the room. This sounds a bit old fashioned or dictatorial but, 9 times out of 10, my lessons get off to a much better start following this routine. The kids know where they stand. Literally! This structure can be really important, particularly with behaviorally challenged pupils. I have seen some kids go into classes like a group of monkeys on acid. Their teachers then need to work really hard for their money.
Check out new class, first lesson September for a full routine.
Take it or leave it. Come up with your own!
4 Pace yourself
On thing that works well is keeping up the pace. A bit like putting some urgecny in the lesson. If the parts of your lesson move swiftly from on the other, the lesson flows and everyone gets dragged along in the momentum. There is no time for anyone to get off task or start misbehaving.Keep the pace up.
5 Learning activities
What are the kids going to do in the lesson?
How is this going to help them learn?
How are you going to know what learning has taken place?
A) provide some stimulating learning activities that engage the pupils into having to think and actually take part and do something.
B) choose activities that directly illustate your learning object and outcome for the lesson.
C) Ask individuals questions, true or false test, hangman, have kids report back to others about what they have found out from the lesson,quiz,blockbuster game, checking books etc,
6 Get some solid behaviour management routines in place.
If you have a plan what to do, its more likely the lesson will go smoothly.If things kick off, you will be in a good position to handle any situation confidently. Check out Ten top tips for behaviour management.
7 Try to have some fun
The kids like lessons to be fun. What learning activities can you and the kids do that are fun? Remember your competing with the tv and games consoles for their attention. No pressure.
8 Watch the time
Good use of time can be really useful.If kids know how long they have got for an activity,it keeps them on task and the pace up. Make sure you give the pupils enough thinking time to solve problems and answer questions.It makes for a better quality of learning.
9. Make the lesson user friendly
Make sure your lesson is fully differentiated. Provided appropriate worksheets and learning activities to cover SEN and gifted and talented pupils.
A range of activities that cater for visual, kinesthetic and auditory learners will go down
10 Use stories.
Kids love an entertaining story or anecdote. The ones with blood, guts and death usually go down well.This provides great opportunities for cross curricular activities.
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