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Unit 1 - Session 2 - Designing interactive lesson plans

Eness3.jpg

Reflections from your own trial

Sharing your reflections through:

SNOWBALL: pairs talk then join another pair.

  • What was the objective of the new activity/lesson?
  • How have activities/lessons been interactive?
  • What lesson plans have you been creating?
  • How do you think the lesson went? In particular, how did learners respond?
  • What would you change if you taught this again?
Educator note

Encourage peer observation if possible, and teachers to suggest changes for themselves.

[SKIP THE NEXT ACTIVITY if you feel participants already have a good grasp of what interactive teaching is like]

Moving towards interactive teaching

Activity icon.png Small group activity (11 min).

We mentioned last time that interactive teaching involves moving from “telling” to “listening.” Discuss in a small group what other words you feel might describe the difference between traditional approaches and interactive teaching? What are the two kinds of classroom like? Can everyone come up and write a word or phrase for each approach?

Educator note

Some contrasts people might make (let them suggest their own terms):

  • passive - active
  • quiet - noisy
  • individual - collaborative

Note: these are not value judgments - they can be positive or negative in different circumstances!

Lesson planning

In Section 2 you planned an activity; now we will focus on planning a whole interactive lesson – a series of activities together.

How do you currently plan your lessons?

Educator note

Check variation, discuss value of recording lesson plans.

An interactive lesson plan in action

Look at the lesson plan template and the example of a completed one: this shows the plan for the lesson you have seen the clips from – Eness’s lesson on vertebrates.

Watch the following 4 clips to see how the activities in that lesson are sequenced. (A couple of these you have already seen, the other two are new).

Educator note

The clips are from Eness' lesson on vertebrates, clips 1 (part), 3, 5, 12 .mp4. They demonstrate:

  • 1 = start of lesson: brain storm with unique contributions, time to think first, no hands up technique too
  • 3 = Instructions to set up the task and initiate group work; group enjoying themselves
  • 5 = T gives detailed help to group: shows ICT use
  • 12 = whole class discussion of ‘is a bat a bird?’ + T sets unresolved problem as homework

Discuss these clips at the end; how did the teacher build up the sequence of activities? Look at her lesson plan again if you need to.

Notice how the teacher gave the children time to think before the brainstorm; she was very patient! This is called “wait time” and can be used any time when learners are asked a question or given a challenging task. Rather than jumping in to tell them an answer, it allows uncertainty and encourages deeper thinking.

Educator note

The lesson builds from (a) brainstorm to (b) groupwork using ICT and developing children’s own classifications, to (c) group presentations to the class, interspersed with (d) whole class discussion and follow-up homework.

Developing lesson plans using lesson plan "templates"

Activity icon.png Small group activity (11 min). Working in small groups, each participant should complete a whole lesson plan for a lesson they will teach shortly. Spend quite a lot of time on this.

Think about incorporating interactive elements in your lesson plans. Discuss ideas with your group. Plan the lesson in detail, so every activity is described in enough detail that someone else could teach from your plan.

However, allow for some flexibility according to learners’ responses. Remember at the end of Eness’s lesson (Clip 12), she set the learners a research task for homework because they had not come to a consensus view about whether a bat was a bird or not.

Including all learners. How can you ensure that everyone is participating actively?

For example, you saw how Eness (Clip 1) required every child to think of their own example of an animal. Are there other techniques you can use, especially if you have a large class where that might be too time consuming?

Are there any learners that may have difficulty with the tasks?

Differentiation. Think too about how you will cater for slower and faster learners – can the faster learners get further or get more work done than the slower ones? Do you need to have additional, more challenging work ready for them to do if they finish an activity before their peers?

Choose one or more new ideas to add to the one you already tried last time, e.g.

  • Brainstorm
  • Mini-blackboard use, with or without student presentations
  • A question-and-answer session with students as to what they might want to learn. (You would need to then take those requests seriously!)
  • Think of a general question, that has many answers (e.g. name mammals) rather than a single answer. Ask children to come to the board one-by-one, and write (e.g. a mammal) on the board.
  • A practical or outdoors activity

Homework

Teach the lesson you have planned. Then REFLECT on it as you did before when you trialled a new activity. Use your dictaphone to record your reflections. You may want to write down a few brief notes too, so you can remember the issues arising when you come to the next workshop session, as you will be asked to share your reflections with others then (focusing on how the lesson went, how learners responded, and what you would change if you taught it again).

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