Planning useful lessons takes time, diligence and some understanding of what your students' goals and capabilities are. The general purpose of a teacher, however, is to motivate students to learn the subject and to remember what you say as much as possible. Here are some ideas to conquer your class!
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Create the Basic Structure
Step 1. Decide on your goal
At the beginning of each lesson, write the goal first. It should be very simple. Something like "Students will need to be able to identify the different structures of animals' bodies that allow for feeding, breathing, movement and survival." Basically, it's about what students will be able to do when you're done! If you want to add more information, write how they could learn (thanks to videos, games, tickets, etc.).
If you are working with very young students, you may need to set simpler goals, such as "Improving reading and writing skills". These can be conceptual skills or skills that require skills. Read this article for more specific information
Step 2. Write an overview of the topic
Use broad strokes to describe the general idea to the class. For example, if you have to give a lesson on Shakespeare's "Hamlet", your guidelines should include an explanation of where "Hamlet" resides in the author's canon, how true the stories are. really happened and how the themes of desire and subterfuge could be compared to current events.
These explanations will depend on the length of the lesson. We will cover about 6 main steps from each lesson, which should always be included in your overview. You can add more though
Step 3. Plan your roadmap
If you have a lot to say in a limited amount of time, break the plan up into sections, which you can speed up or slow down to accommodate the current events. We will use a one hour lesson as an example.
- 1: 00-1: 10: Heating. Draws the attention of the class and summarizes the discussion of the previous lesson on the great tragedies, introducing the "Hamlet".
- 1: 10-1: 25: Presentation of information. Talk briefly about Shakespeare's life, focusing on the creative period of the two years prior to the play and the two following years.
- 1: 25-1: 40: Guided tutorial. Open a class discussion on the major themes of the work.
- 1: 40-1: 55: Free exercise. Students should write a paragraph talking about a current event in Shakespearean terms. Encourage the brightest pupils individually to write two paragraphs and help the slower ones.
- 1: 55-2: 00: Conclusions. Collect student work, assign homework and say hello to the class.
Step 4. Get to know your students
Clearly identify the people you will be educating. What is their learning style (visual, auditory, tactile or a combination of all of these?). What do they already know and what could they be lacking in? Your plan should fit evenly across all learners and, at a later stage, the necessary changes need to be made for pupils with disabilities, the most difficult, the unmotivated and the particularly gifted pupils.
- You will likely be dealing with some students who are extroverted and others who are introverts. Some will benefit more from working alone, while they will work better in pairs or groups. Understanding these differences will help you establish activities that take into account everyone's preferences.
- There will be students (unfortunately!) Who will know a subject as well as you do, and others who, although smart, will look at you as if you speak Arabic. If you know who these guys are, you will know how to pair and divide them (to conquer!).
Step 5. Use multiple approaches to students
Some students work best alone, others in pairs, and still others in groups of many people. If you can get them to interact and learn from each other, you will do your job. But since every student is different, try to give them the opportunity to experience all kinds of interactions. Your students (and class cohesion) will improve!
Any activity can be designed to be done alone, as a couple or in a group. If you already have ideas in mind, try reevaluating them to take this into consideration. Often it will be enough to find more pairs of scissors
Step 6. Consider the different learning styles
There will be some students who can't stand a 25-minute video and others who don't want to read even a two-page summary of a book. Neither of these examples is dumber than the other, so serve your students by offering a variety of different activities to stimulate all kinds of learning.
Each student learns differently. Some need to see the information, others to hear it, others have to literally touch it. If you have been talking for a long time, stop and let the students do the talking. If they have only read until now, find a manual activity where they can apply their knowledge. You will also avoid boredom
Method 2 of 3: Plan the Different Phases
Step 1. Warm up your students
At the beginning of each lesson, students' brains are not prepared for the content. If someone started explaining open heart surgery to you, you'd probably ask them to slow down and come back for the scalpel. Approach students gradually. The warm-up is for this - not only will it give you an assessment of their knowledge, but you will also help them get into the right rhythm.
The warm-up can be a simple game (perhaps on the lexicon of the topic, to check the current state of knowledge or what they remember from the previous week) or questions or images that you can use to start a conversation. Whatever you decide to do, get the students talking. Make them think about the topic (even if you don't have to explicitly say it)
Step 2. Present the information
This advice is very direct, right? Whichever format you choose, you will need to start with the information to submit. You can use a video, a song, a text or even a concept. This is the very core on which the whole lesson is based. Without this information, students will have nothing to work on.
- Depending on the level of your students, you may need to speak very simply. Think about how far you have to go back. The phrase "He put his coat on the hanger" makes no sense if you know what "coat" and "hanger" mean. Offer some very simple concepts and dedicate the next lesson (or two) to developing them.
- You may find it helpful to tell students directly what they will learn. That is "tell him your goal". You can't be clearer than that! That way, they will stand up knowing what they have learned.
Step 3. Offer a guided tutorial
Now that the students have received the information, you will need to think of an activity that allows them to apply it. However, this is information you have just learned, so start with an activity with "the wheels". Try using worksheets, matches, or images. You shouldn't ask for a theme before you have proposed completion exercises!
If you have time for two activities, even better. It is a good idea to test students' knowledge on two levels - for example, writing and speaking (two very different skills). Try to integrate different activities for students who have different aptitudes
Step 4. Check their work and evaluate their progress
After the guided tutorial, rate your students. Do they seem to understand what has been presented up to this point? If so, great! You can move on, perhaps by adding more complex elements to the concept or practicing with more difficult skills. If they don't understand, go back to the information presented. What do you need to change in the presentation?
If you've been teaching the same group for some time, you probably know which students may have problems with certain concepts. In this case, pair them with better students to keep the whole class from slowing down. You don't want some students to be left behind, but you should also avoid the whole class getting stuck, waiting for all students to reach the same level
Step 5. Do a free tutorial
Now that students have learned the basics, allow them to practice their knowledge on their own. This does not mean that you will have to leave the room! It just means that they will be able to work on something more creative that allows them to really think independently about the information you presented. How can you make their minds blossom?
It all depends on the subject matter and the skills you want to practice. You can propose 20-minute puppet-making projects or a two-week discussion of soul transcendence
Step 6. Take time to ask questions
If you have a lesson that can easily fit into your time, set aside about ten minutes at the end for questions. This phase can start as a discussion and move on to more exploratory questions about the topic being discussed. Or you can reserve this section for clarification - in both cases you will help your students.
If you teach a group of kids who never raise their hand, turn them against each other. Give them one aspect of the topic to discuss and five minutes to present their theory. Then get the whole class to talk about what was said and start a group discussion. Interesting points will probably come up
Step 7. Conclude the lesson in a concrete way
In a sense, a lesson is like a conversation. If you interrupt it, you will have the impression that you have left it halfway. Not a problem, but it is a strange and unpleasant feeling. If time permits, summarize the day with the students. It is a good idea to "show" them that they have learned something!
Take five minutes to recap the day's topics. Ask students test questions (without introducing new concepts) to repeat what was done and learned during the lesson. This will close the circle
Method 3 of 3: Be Prepared
Step 1. If you are nervous, write the lesson
Beginner teachers can benefit a lot from this advice. While it will take a lot longer than it takes to prepare a lesson, if it helps, then do it. You'll be less nervous if you know exactly what questions to ask and where to lead the conversation.
With experience, do it less and less. Eventually, you will be able to enter the classroom without any notes. You shouldn't spend more time planning and writing than you do teaching! Use this method only during the early stages of your career
Step 2. Leave room for improvisation
You wrote your timetable accurate to the minute, right? Great - but remember this is for reference only. You don't have to say "Guys! It's been a quarter of an hour. STOP EVERYTHING YOU ARE DOING." Teaching doesn't work like that. While you should try to stick to your schedule within the limits of reasonableness, you will need to leave room for improvisation.
If you find that you don't have enough time, decide what you can overlook and what is too important not to talk about it. What do you need to say for the pupils to learn as much as possible? Which parts of the lesson are less important and only serve to pass the time? If, on the other hand, you have more time than you thought, don't be caught unprepared, but pull another activity out of your sleeve
Step 3. Always plan in excess
Knowing that you have a lot to do is a much easier problem to solve than the opposite. Even if you have a schedule, plan it by narrowing down the times. If something might take 20 minutes, give it 15 minutes. You never know when your students will go faster than you think!
The simplest thing to do is come up with a quick game or a concluding discussion. Get students to work together, and ask them to discuss their opinions or ask questions
Step 4. Prepare the lessons so that a substitute teacher can understand them
In case something happens and you can't teach, you need to have a plan that another person can understand. Also, if you write something in advance and forget it, it will be easier to remember if it is clear.
You can find many templates on the internet - or ask other teachers what formats they use
Step 5. Make a backup plan
In your teaching career, there will be days when students will quickly outgrow your plan and leave you with nothing to say. There will also be days when you won't be able to take a test because half of the class isn't there, or when you won't be able to take a video lesson because the player has broken. When any of these unfortunate eventualities arise, you will need to have a back-up plan.
Most experienced teachers have a few lessons ready that they can use at any time. If you've had particular success with a lesson on gene inheritance, save that material for the future. You can turn it into a different lesson with another class about evolution, natural selection or genes, depending on the level of the students
Advice
- After the lesson is over, consider whether the plan was followed and how it went. What would you do different?
- See new materials in advance with students and communicate your study goals a week or a fortnight in advance.
- Comply with state programs relating to your teaching subject.
- Be prepared to deviate the lesson from your plan. Plan how to get the attention of the class back when students seem to get distracted.
- If scheduled classes aren't your thing, consider the Dogme teaching method. It requires no textbooks and allows students to be in control.
- Warn students about question dates.
