Planning a good lesson isn't just about the sequencing it's about having a clear start and end point. I mean an explicitly clear start and end point. The start point is established and documented. Perhaps it's a pre learning task done independently, it could be a post it note discussion at the start of the session or it can be a dictated start point by circumstance, i.e. it is a brand new topic. The skill is to predict this start point. The challenge is to react and adapt when the start point is different to what you predicted!
Sometimes when I see trainee teachers teach, things don't go to plan at this start point. The students are further ahead than they expected, they can already answer the content that is planned for later in the session. Even worse is when the students can't even access the start point and have no chance of doing the rest of the lesson. Experience as a teacher tells you in both these situations you rip up the lesson plan and do a pen and paper lesson freestyle and adapt to the learners need. Trainee teachers don't have this experience, some experienced staff wouldn't feel able to abandon their beautiful lesson either. I often see across all staff a curriculum driven agenda of delivery. Not that this is wrong, if we don't cover the content in the curriculum the learner won't achieve the outcome of the course, I get it. But that curriculum can be delivered fast or slow, leaping forwards and skipping back to meet the needs of the learner. All too often we deliver a linear agenda of our curriculum content.
Misunderstanding starting points was almost fatal for me in a staff CPD session recently. I was told that the starting points were determined by circumstance as staff had no prior knowledge and to start at the beginning. I knew staff had seen similar training before and it couldn't be a zero base start point so I made a few tweaks and went in. I came out battered, bruised and exhausted!!! Some staff were below zero base and couldn't login to their devices as they had never used a trackpad before and refused to use it now as it didn't look and feel like a mouse. Some staff had listened to their first training session and refused to engage in my session as it was beneath them. Even worse, I inadvertently, by starting from a base point of zero gave them the false impression that they were now experts as they knew more than the taught content I delivered.
It was a car crash. I tried to adapt mid session and push forward for the more advanced ones but I didn't have a login for the next part of the system and it all went wrong! On reflection I hadn't planned how I was going to adapt. I had planned a great session. I knew the start point (!) And I knew where I wanted the end point to be. All the stuff in the middle was excellent, honest! I even had checkpoints built in. But I had no plan for what if they don't achieve this checkpoint? Or what if they exceed the required knowledge for the checkpoint? I hadn't planned that in. I tried to rely on experience and adapt but because I hadn't planned it I couldn't access the IT system I needed.
I had planned a linear delivery. I needed to have planned a skipping forwards and looping backwards delivery. So I changed the way that I plan. I am laughed at for being a Google Certified Trainer and still relying on paper so much but I do! I write (on paper) across the middle of the page the linear plan of the session. Start to finish a sequence of what will happen. I then scribble around it with arrows of if this bit bombs I can go back and do this bit. If this bit goes really well I can skip and do this bit. It looks a mess! But it's a beautiful mess reflecting the thought process and care that I have put into planning for my learners be them staff or students.
Starting points are tricky. If you set pre learning, give yourself enough time to review, reflect, and adapt you planning based on the pre task results. It's no good if the students have a deadline of Monday for your Tuesday session, realistically do you or would you be willing to scrap your beautiful lesson plan in that short period of time?
Do you have a back up plan in place for if your bell work or starter activity doesn't get students to the starting points that you had planned?
Have you checked that the circumstances you have been told about are correct? Will the stating point be zero? I wish I had checked mine! SJ
