Author: Bethany Spencer
Posted: 21 Nov 2017
Estimated time to read: 3 mins
There isn’t one sure fire way to deliver the perfect lesson because there are, of course, extraneous variables that will mean each and every lesson you give is different. That being said, there are fundamental components that should be applied to each lesson you deliver which will help you give the perfect lesson.
Plan
In order to give the perfect lesson, you must first have the perfect lesson plan. Admin is a huge time constraint for teachers and because of this planning may slip. However, you needn’t spend hours creating individual plans for each class.
The perfect lesson template will help save you time and point you in the right direction acting as a checklist so you know that you have included everything an outstanding lesson plan needs to best help your students.
If you don’t already have a template, you can download ours here and find out what makes an outstanding lesson and help with any future lesson planning for Ofsted.
Keep learning centre stage
Whenever delivering lessons, there’s bound to be distractions and it may not go just as you envisioned, but having a well thought out lesson plan is one of the fundamental tools that helps you maintain control of your classroom.
Having an intricate lesson plan means you're able to allocate time slots in between tasks to ensure students don't get distracted, but also - having a solid lesson plan under your belt will give you confidence going into your lesson.
To further ensure learning remains the main event, when planning your lesson be sure to think about how students are going to react to the material you’re covering and pick activities you know they’re going to engage with. For example, quizzes are a great way to keep students engaged during the lesson. You can use free quiz building tools such as Neeto to save some time preparing them.
Question students
Questioning is going to help keep your students on track and engaged. When explaining a topic, before students get stuck into the task at hand be sure try to incorporate questions into your delivery.
This way, students are less likely to zone out, but it’s also a subtle way of differentiating the topic for students’ differing abilities - you can tailor the questions for the individual and use them as a way to gauge their knowledge on a certain subject.
Work the room
When students start working independently in class it’s important to utilise this time to observe what they’re doing and question them further. This not only allows you to keep students engaged with the task, it also gives you insight into which students are grasping the topic you’re covering, who may need extra help and whether any learning gaps are occurring which you need to address.
Give feedback
Feedback is a core part of any lesson, positive reinforcement helps students’ confidence, steers them in the right direction and let’s them know they’re on the right track. Similarly, class time is when you’re best placed to find out whether students are grasping the topic. Here, you can give them the extra help they need so they can apply this knowledge when it comes to home-learning.
To help you create the perfect lesson, every lesson, download our free lesson plan template which outlines the key qualities you should be including each time.
