Prompts for Planning a Lesson

Prompts for Planning a Lesson

• Better lessons will:

o be well planned

o have a clear start, middle and end

o engage all learners in active learning throughout the lesson

o have pace

o challenge and stretch all learners – all learners working hard

• Topic and Aims – should link clearly to scheme of work where topic is a significant chunk of curriculum eg 5 weeks and the Aims represent what can be achieved in a single session

• Aims should indicate the purpose of a session

• Outcomes – these state very clearly what learners will be able to do to show that successful learning is taking place. All outcomes should be SMART - assessable and measurable by both learner and the teacher.

• Outcomes and Bloom's taxonomy – because outcomes describe what learners can do (and this must be observable) it's important to choose the right verbs eg verbs such as know or understand are not useful because they can't be observed whereas verbs such as list, explain, discuss, produce, compare etc are observable and assessable. Bloom's taxonomy is a helpful source of such descriptors

• Structure of a lesson – all lessons should have:

- a brisk and clear start

• Link to last session – refer to scheme of work

• May have starter activity to fully engage all learners

• Introduce the current session and share aims and outcomes with learners (display and refer to these throughout the session )

- a well structured middle

• Planned episodes of differentiated learning supported by learner activity and participation

• Regular checking of individual learning – recap before moving on and link with outcomes

• Differentiated assessment that ensures that all learners are achieving

• Pace, stretch and challenge

- clear and effective end

• Summary and recap

• Reflection and evaluation by learners – have outcomes been achieved? - have learners enjoyed the session?

• Link to next session – refer to scheme of work

• Homework/directed learning for the next session

• Using a class profile: All teachers should have a profile of their learners eg results from initial screening and diagnostic tests, information on specific individual needs (including any assessed support needs), target Key Skills or Basic Skills levels, learning style preferences etc to help prepare differentiated lessons.

• Differentiation: This means that teaching, learning and assessment are customised to meet the needs of individual learners in a group. Differentiation can be