Lesson Planning

Here are some of the things I learned and found immensely useful in developing my personal pedagogy while I was a teacher in Japan.

Whilst the school structure was quite strict and had clear demands and expectations of the class and teaching staff, I was somewhat rebellious and claimed for myself a number of liberties to essentially go “off-piste”. The test results of my classes were no better or worse than others, but I sensed that the lessons were far more fulfilling for both my students and myself, than they otherwise would have been. What follows are sort of guiding principles and attitudes I adopted over time rather than immediately actionable advice on teaching.

I would love to hear feedback on these.

1) “What are we doing here?”

While in general I believe it is a healthy attitude to see yourself and the class as a single community collaborating towards a shared outcome, of course there are times when it is necessary to see yourself as separate from the class. When planning, it helps to ask yourself, what are my goals or intentions for a given lesson / series of lessons, and what would the students’ desired outcomes be? Are different students likely to want or expect different things from the lesson?

It is ultimately up to each teacher to decide on the appropriate balance or synthesis between these different needs and expectations, and to decide how to go about achieving that balance, but keeping in mind a clear focus about why you are all in a room together is necessary. Are you all there to make sure the work-books are filled and the tests completed? Are you there to explore an idea together? Are you there to communicate and express ideas, or work together to build or create something?

What is really the point of thelessons, both moment to moment and in general over the course of the year? Having a lesson objective clearly communicated to learners is one way to approach this, to give both them and yourself focus, but it is not the only way.

2) “What are they doing, what am I doing?”

You should at all times have at least some idea of what everybody in the class would ideally be doing at any given moment. Not only should you have an idea of what is being done, but as per above, you should also have some idea of why. Do you intend to do some work on the board? What specifically will you be writing and why are you writing it? Will you be talking as you write? Will you turn your back on the class as you do so, or write awkwardly to the side but face the class. What will they be doing while you write? Do you expect them to be totally silent and watch, will that be beneficial to your aims or theirs, and is it reasonable to expect that from them at that specific moment?

Really any answer to these questions can be okay and it’s alright to be wrong, but as long as the answers are the result of intentional choices that were made as part of the planning process, and not ad-hoc rationalisations for choices you didn’t even realise you were making. It is impossible to reflect on the outcomes of a choice you never made. Make firm decisions about your lessons, and then reflect on them after.

3) Centre the needs of the learners

There will be a temptation to do activities or assign tasks that seem like they will be bringing the students along on the journey that has been prescribed for them by the department scheme of work. However, rather than constantly looking to where the students “ought” to be, it is more helpful to look at where they are and plan forwards from there to where they need to be, not where you think they should be.

For example, let’s say that the class are rehearsing for a stage performance. If the class are still struggling to perform scenes together without pausing, giggling, forgetting their lines etc, then of what use is it to anybody to move on to scene transitions in the next session? Instead, plan activities that meet the learners where they are. This might first be asking them to evaluate and think about their own abilities, they may be more aware of what they need to work on than you think, and this may be useful for determining how the class can work past the blockades to progress.

This may set back the production schedule, but if they aren’t ready to move on, then those long term goals won’t be met anyway. If the original goals are not going to be met, it is instead better to refocus on what goals can be achieved. The group might not be ready for a full production by the end of the time frame for rehearsals, but look instead at what they can do. Maybe they can just perform the songs with some key scenes acted out by more confident members of the group? Do the class have any thoughts about editing or modifying the script?

Really there are infinitely many ways to display their achievements, and infinitely many ways for them to succeed. In the maths classroom, parts of the syllabus may have to be missed out due to time constraints or difficulties, but rather than lament what is lost, look at how it is possible to build on what has been achieved already. It is better to know a few things very well than many things not at all.

4) Assess achievement not failure

When planning or conducting assessment, it is important that what you are doing is providing learners a chance to show you what they are capable of. While some learners may be quite happy to show how well they can jump through a series of pre-determined hoops, others may struggle to perform to your expectations for reasons entirely different than a lack of ability. Make sure that each learner is given an opportunity to show you what they can do, what they understand well, what they enjoy or think about a lot. We aren’t looking to catch out learners who have failed to meet success criteria, we are looking for all learners to be able to demonstrate what successes they have had. This does not mean planning individual assessment for each learners that is tailored to them specifically, but it does mean providing space and freedom in your assessment structures for everybody to explore and display their own achievements.

We could accomplish this through something as simple as asking small groups to explain their thoughts on a topic or problem, or giving learners a choice of what exercises/tasks they work on. That latter approach can be scary, but having faith that learners will want to show you their best work and challenge themselves is important. You must have faith that your students are willing and able to challenge themselves and develop their skills, but it can also be important to respect their limitations. Learners should be encouraged but not pressured into pushing themselves. Pressure, in my experience rarely produces good outcomes, academically or personally. Learners may not initially choose to challenge themselves, but having faith in them as capable agents is part of what creates the whole class culture that will eventually have them surprising you with what they are capable of and what challenges they set themselves.

5) Make sure they work harder than you

You have your qualifications. You passed your exams. You have your certificates. You aren’t in the class to work hard for anything really. You are there to facilitate the learners in their endeavours. Teaching is hard work, but learning new things is harder. If you find yourself sweating while the class is bored or unchallenged, something has gone wrong.

When you create or adapt activities, make sure that at each step it is the learners and not you who is doing the majority of the thinking, the creating, the expressing and the solving. You don’t want to find yourself telling them how to put one foot in front of the other, that’s exhausting and ineffective. You want to be helping them decide where they are going and how to get there. If they hit obstacles along that journey, you are there to help them overcome it. But it is they who must overcome it.