A major factor in raising achievement and engaging pupils in your subject is effective lesson plans, and these should stem from coherent schemes of work. Try the following. First, give the pupils a simplified version of the scheme of work they are following and discuss it with them. Focus on the content as well as the target skills. This will give pupils a sense of purpose and help to put your lessons in context.
Plan lessons to allow pupils to see the “bigger picture” of their learning. Start lessons by recapping on the previous lesson’s work, then introduce the new content - most usefully as a question or a line of inquiry. Make sure the activities that follow address three general learning preferences: visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. At the end of the lesson, sum up on the board what has been learned. A mind map can be effective.
Finally, tell the class what they will study in the next lesson, and set homework to aid this if appropriate. If you use this procedure in your teaching, pupils will see their lessons within a wider context and make more connections across a series of lessons.
You can enhance the status of your subject and your lessons by giving the pupils a chance to plan and deliver parts of lessons. Involving pupils in planning also helps with discipline because it adds value to what you are doing from their point of view. Keeping a steady rhythm in your lessons - review, research, recap, look forward - will help pupils to remember more of the lesson and reinforce the key skills needed for success.
Roy Watson-Davis is an advanced skills teacher in the London borough of Bromley
