Lesson Plans
03 Feb 2007 17 Comments
The best lessons are varied and interesting. This means make your lessons different with a number of activities. Yes, this take a bit of planning, but sometimes, just gettin your students moving around the classroom helps keep them motivated. We will start with the four-part lesson plan.
The Four-Part lesson plan:
Starter: warm up activity; it does not have to be related to the main lesson, it could be a brain gym to get students warm, or a simple puzzle to engage the students.
Introduction: You can use this time in the lesson to introduce lesson objectives, the new task or even set the scene for what lies ahead. This part is actually more crucial than it sounds, because your students NEED to see a point behind what you are doing. (more on learning objectives later)
Development: This is where your students DO something. You must make sure they are not just merely copying notes from the board! The development stage of a lesson can be broken up into smaller tasks (I recommend it’s broken up) and the teacher needs to constantly be monitoring to make sure students are on task etc. One minute feedback sessions are a good way to break up a longer lesson.
Plenary: This is where you assess the learning! You check to make sure you have achieved what you set out to achieve. It could be in the form of Thumbs up/Thumbs down or each student showing a set of traffic lights to demonstrate they have understood. I like to vary my plenaries and have the students actually DEMONSTRATE thier learning. (more examples to follow)
FINAL TIP: It’s always good to check how much YOU are talking; the best way to do this is to write down TT (teach talk) on your lesson plan wherever you are talking. The key is NOT to talk AT your students; if you think it is not useful, don’t say it. This will combat the time you “lose” during lesson, which stops the students actaully DOING something! If you want sample lesson plans, or even blank lesson plans you can use for yourself, let me know!
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This is a basic overview of a four-part lesson, I will post up starter and plenary activities you can do with your students.
Watch this space and remember: the mark of a good teacher is to INSPIRE; even the most BORING topic is made interesting by a GOOD teacher.
Students are only as bored as their teachers make them!
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