Prepare a lesson

You find yourself standing in front of a class of 30 Year 10’s. They’re ready and waiting for you to start the lesson. What are you going to do? What will engage them, get them talking and thinking, and ultimately learning? How can you communicate your Christian beliefs and faith?

A good lesson doesn’t happen by chance: it takes planning and preparation. This guide introduces ways in which you can begin to plan lessons that achieve these aims. Although it’s been written as if planning for a secondary school lesson, you can adapt the principles to apply for other age groups.

Starting points

Every time you teach will be different, however, there are key principles and techniques that you can bear in mind for any lesson. Schools workers are not expected to be professional teachers but should have a good knowledge of what is expected in the classroom, and able to perform appropriately in an educational setting. (This is not a youth group!). The challenge is to deliver lessons that not only present the Christian faith in a relevant and dynamic way, but also fit curriculum requirements and provide space for students to reflect and develop their own ideas and beliefs.

Experience counts!

One of the good things about working in schools is that most of us will have many years experience of being in one as a student. That means that you’ll have at least some sense of what to expect when it comes to teaching a lessons, and you ‘ll also be able to reflect about what you felt, as a pupil, made a good or a bad lesson. It’s worth thinking back to your school days: perhaps remembering specific teachers who were either brilliant or terrible, and thinking about what made them that way. You may even want to jot down a few do’s and don’ts based on those memories.

The other important point to make about teaching a lesson is that it’s very much a skill to be learned. In other words, good preparation, reflection and repeated practice will make all the difference. Good teaching, and in turn, good learning, will take some dedication and time. Don’t judge yourself too harshly at the beginning, but be prepared to work at the different skills needed to make a lesson really work.

If you’re an ex-teacher, as some schools workers are, then of course you have a huge head start. But youth workers also have plenty of experience that can be transferred to a classroom. Speaking in front of groups of 20 to 30 young people may be familiar to you from church youth groups, and basic public speaking skills may have already been mastered. Preparing material for sessions may also be a regular job. Now all you need to do is translate those skills to the different context of a classroom.

Although schools workers are often asked to take a whole lesson, with the normal teacher present but looking on, it’s possible to take a part of a lesson too. Sometimes RE curricula require students to interview someone who has a Christian faith, and you may be able to come into a lesson and take some time to answers their questions. Or there may be a particular exercise or segment of a lesson that an RE teacher would like some help presenting. These kinds of opportunities are a good way to familiarise yourself with what it’s like to teach and you won’t have to worry about developing a full lesson’s material or dealing with classroom control. If you feel unsure about taking a lesson, this is a good place to start gaining confidence.

Understanding the task

If you’ve been asked to take a whole lesson, it’s important to start by being clear about the context you’re going to find yourself in. You should talk with the teacher well before the lesson and learn as much as you can about the class and the content required.

What year group is the class?

A class of Year 7 students will react completely differently to you than a Year 9 class, as will a GCSE or A level group, and it is so important to be appropriate in the language you use and to have an understanding of the level of their abilities.

Is the class mixed ability or is it streamed in any way?

This will affect the kind of material you might include and the depth of questions you might ask.

What’s the class really like?

The teacher will be able to tell you if they’re a handful, good at group discussion, easily distracted, noisy, difficult to get involved, better in the mornings than afternoons or any other particular characteristics. This information is ‘gold dust’ when it comes to preparing a good lesson and developing material that will fit the group. It’s no good, for example, basing a whole lesson on a class discussion when the teacher would have told you the class doesn’t like discussions and tends not to participate!

Are there any students with special needs?

This might include students who do not have English as a first language, or students with learning difficulties. It’s important to know this in advance not only to ensure your lesson will cater for their needs, but also to avoid embarrassing them, and yourself, by demanding an answer to a question that they don’t understand.

Should you be aware of any sensitive students?

If your lesson includes any concepts or stories that might be distressing to some students, you should also check with the teacher whether this is appropriate. For example, if you are going to tell the story of your grandfather’s death, you will want to check that a student hasn’t been recently bereaved. This may not mean avoiding telling the story, but you may decide to frame it in a way that doesn’t make it too emotional.

What facilities does the classroom have?

Will there be audio or video? What is the seating plan and can it be adapted if required.

Where does the lesson you are teaching fit into the curriculum?

You will want to see the scheme of work the teacher is using and find out how many lessons the students have already had on the topic you’ve been given. Sometimes you’ll find that you are introducing a new topic and you have much more freedom in what you will do: at other times, students may have already had three or four lessons on a topic and you are simply providing a further lesson. Understanding where your lesson fits is crucial to preparing the right material and avoiding the embarrassing situation where students have already done a particular exercise. For example, balloon debates (different characters in a descending hot air balloon, one must be thrown out to save the others) are a common group discussion tool used by teachers. It can be difficult to find that the twenty minutes you had planned for a balloon debate on ‘the value of life’ won’t work because the class teacher conducted a similar debate a few weeks previously!

Does the teacher require homework to be set?

You may not be present to see the results, but it can be a great way of extending the impact of your lesson if you are able to set some follow on tasks for homework.

Should any written work be done in student’s books?

Many schools workers use handouts when they teach a lesson, but this can be difficult if a teacher prefers everything to be in the students workbook. Check beforehand what the teacher would like. If you do use handouts, agree with the teacher what will happen to them afterwards: they can be stuck in the back of students books, for example. There is nothing more discouraging than a lesson ending and finding students worksheets strewn around the classroom: it devalues their work and yours.

This list of questions might seem lengthy, but in reality all of them can be covered with a brief chat with the teacher well in advance of the lesson. Do your homework and you will be in a better position to deliver a great lesson.