The Process of Lesson Design

The process of lesson design

The process of lesson design is summarised below. The flowchart emphasises that lesson design can be viewed as a series of decisions, each leading to and providing a foundation for the next, building a planned series of episodes.

Locate the lesson or sequence of lessons in the context of

• the scheme of work;
• pupils’ prior knowledge;
• your knowledge about the class & individuals in it

Structure the lesson as a series of episodes by separating the learning into distinct stages or steps, each of which has a specific outcome, by selecting

• the best pedagogic approach to meet the learning objectives;
• the most appropriate teaching and learning strategies and techniques;
• the most effective organisation for each episode.

Ensure coherence by providing

• a stimulating start to the lesson that relates to the objective(s);
• transitions between episodes which recapitulate and launch new episodes;
• a final plenary that reviews learning.

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• This resource is part of the DfES resource "Pedagogy and practice: Teaching and learning in secondary schools" (ref: 0423-2004G) which can be downloaded from the National Archives http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110809101133/nsonline.org.uk/node/97131 The whole resource (512 pages) can be downloaded as a pdf File:Pedagogy and Practice DfES.pdf
• The resource booklets, and many 'harvested' documents are available to download, generally in editable formats from the ORBIT resources http://orbit.educ.cam.ac.uk/wiki/Category:DfE
• The videos from the accompanying DVDs are available http://orbit.educ.cam.ac.uk/wiki/DfES_DVD