Prepare a lesson

Preparing a lesson

Most schools work to a standard template when preparing a lesson called a lesson plan. A lesson plan is a framework for a lesson. If you imagine a lesson is like a journey, then the lesson plan is the map. It shows you where you start, where you finish and the route to take to get there. Essentially the lesson plan sets out what the teacher hopes to achieve over the course of the lesson and how he or she hopes to achieve it. Usually they are in written form but they don’t have to be.

As a visitor, you’re not obliged to submit a lesson plan to the school, and you won’t have to complete some of the detail that might be required of a teacher. But it’s a very effective way of making sure you prepare a lesson well and, perhaps more importantly, is something you can refer to if all goes blank in front of the class!

A good lesson plan often contains these ingredients:

Lesson Objective

What pupils should know / understand / be able to do / be aware of by the end of the lesson. This is something that you can share with students and even write up somewhere visible at the beginning of the lesson.

A lesson objective might start with this kind of phrase:

By the end of the lesson students will:

• Know that … (knowledge: factual information, for example names, places, symbols, formulae, events).
• Develop / be able to … (skills: using knowledge, applying techniques, analysing information, etc.).
• Understand how / why … (understanding: concepts, reasons, effects, principles, processes, etc.).
• Develop / be aware of … (attitudes and values: empathy, caring, sensitivity towards social issues, feelings, moral issues, etc.).

Learning Outcome

The evidence to show that students have achieved the learning objectives. A learning outcome might include:

• students can express their point of view
• students can identify key words from a list
• students can summarise a belief, the importance of a religious ceremony etc.

Learning outcomes are important because they show that pupils have actually learned something (!) not just that you have taken the lesson. It also provides you with important feedback as a schools worker: if students couldn’t complete the learning outcomes you set, perhaps the lesson wasn’t as successful as you may have thought. Learning outcomes remind you that a successful lesson isn’t just one where there is good classroom behaviour, attentive students, engaging group activities or vigorous discussion: it’s one where students learn!

Key Vocabulary

These are the words you are going to use that may need to be defined and explained to students. You may also have a list of them visible during the class to refer back to when needed. In RE, for example, a schools worker taking a lesson on Easter, might have ‘crucifixion’, ‘resurrection’ and ‘Passover’ as key vocabulary.

Differentiated learning

This term is often used in education to describe alternative learning activities that cater for students with different needs: either those who are particularly gifted and will want to more challenging tasks, or those with learning difficulties. This is also the section in which you would note how you would cater for any students who do not speak fluent English.

Lesson Outline

This is an overview of what you will do in the lesson itself, together with estimated timings. We will look at this in more detail in the next section.

Resources

A list of the materials and resources you need for the lesson.

How to develop a lesson outline

So you’ve been invited in to a school to take a Year 8 lesson on ‘prejudice’ from a Christian perspective. Where do you start?

• Let’s assume you have met the teacher and asked all the relevant questions. You’ve also set out a learning objective and some learning outcomes. Here’s an example:

  Learning Objective: By the end of the lesson the students will understand how Jesus dealt with prejudice and be aware of how Christians have battled and compromised on the issue of prejudice over the centuries.

  Learning Outcomes: Students will be able to describe an incident in the life of Jesus involving prejudice and be able to name a historical Christian figure who has battled against prejudice.

• A good lesson will involve the students saying and doing more than you. If you’re planning a 45 minute presentation, think again. Even if it’s highly entertaining and informative, it isn’t what a good lesson is there to achieve. In an hour long lesson, work on the principle that you should speak from the front for no more than 15 minutes. The only exceptions to this are activities like an interactive question and answer sessions with you at the front of the class.
• A good lesson often starts with something to catch students attention. As a visitor, you have an advantage of already being something out of the ordinary. A short, fun activity could set the tone and feel of the lesson to come and create the interest and expectation you need to engage everyone. As an example of this, how about being prejudiced yourself and handing out sweets to pupils but only to those with certain coloured eyes or hair. After you’ve done this, ask how students felt to be included or excluded, and what they thought of you too!
• A good lesson also starts with an opportunity for pupils to reflect on what they already know. So the beginning of a lesson on prejudice might include an activity designed to get students to reflect on when they’ve experienced prejudice themselves or with others. As this is the beginning of the lesson, it may be too early to get students into groups for an activity, but you could spend a few minutes asking students for their stories and ideas.
• Since it’s vital to the lesson for pupils to understand what the word ‘prejudice’ actually means, you could also ask how would they define ‘prejudice’… at this stage you might simply write their different answers up without commenting on whether they are right or wrong since this part of the lesson is about giving pupils the chance to think about what they already know.
• At this stage of the lesson, it would be easy to be tempted into giving a talk about Christians and prejudice losing the interest and engagement of pupils. Instead, how about getting them into some group work to discover what Christians think about prejudice. We’ll divide the class into groups of three or four and give each group a different sheet containing a brief story about a Christian who has fought prejudice in some way. The groups are set a series of tasks: they must summarise what they think the person’s view was of prejudice, how impressed they are by their actions (on a scale of 1 to 5) and what they imagine they would have done if they had been in the same situation as this person. They have some time to complete this task and must then choose one person from the group to report back to the class. During this feedback would be a good time to admit that Christians have not always been so consistently good at fighting prejudice, and continue to fail miserably in some cases!
• As the lesson moves into it’s final section, it’s often helpful to introduce some more reflective work that stretches students a little more. In this case, this might involve presenting one of the more well known stories told by Jesus: the parable of the Good Samaritan, a story not only about the kindness of the samaritan but also the prejudice of those who passed by the injured man. There are lots of possible ways to present the parable using video, drama, dramatic readings or whatever style best suits your skills. Following this it may be appropriate to set an individual task to engage pupils with the story. For example, you could ask them to re-imagine the parable in the present day in their town or school. Students could be given the opportunity to either draw or write their version. Finishing the task could be a possible option if any homework needs to be set.
• You will also need to consider how you are going to introduce some of the key vocabulary that will be used during the lesson. Will you explain words like ‘Samaritan’ yourself, have definitions written up for students to refer to, or have some other way of making sure everyone understands the meaning of key words?
• A good lesson will end with time to summarise what’s happened, allow for any questions and perhaps ask a few questions to the class to check that they’ve understood everything. It might also, in this case, include briefly returning the students’ initial definitions of prejudice and deciding as a class which comes closest to what they now understand ‘prejudice’ to mean. Perhaps a reflection would work well with music and slides, asking students to make a personal response to the lesson’s theme. Make sure you stick to time and leave space for students to finish a reflection before a bell sounds.