Lesson Planning 1 Susie Fawcett

Why bother writing lesson plans? Discuss with a partner this question. Describe the key elements of good lesson plans

Why bother writing lesson plans? For new teachers without substantial experience the planning process can be difficult; To be successful in your teaching you need to spend time thinking about what you want pupils to learn; How you will help pupils achieve this; The very process of trying to write a plan will help you to develop planning skills (Emig 1977).

Key elements of good lesson plans Lesson objectives/outcomes which can be shared with the pupils; A clear structure for the lesson; Key questions; Teaching points; Specific activities; Organisation of space, equipment, pupils; Differentiation; Timing; Reference to relevant resources; Cross curricular issues e.g. literacy, ICT; Assessment criteria

Lesson Planning The starting point is deciding exactly what the pupils are to learn, then plan from there. The end point is deciding whether or not they have learnt what you planned; gained knowledge, skill and understanding.

How do we decide what pupils are going to learn? National Curriculum for Physical Education (the word curriculum means a set of ideas to be taught and developed) NCPE tells us what pupils need to learn by the end of each key stage Schemes of work -long term planning Unit of work -medium term planning Lesson plan -short term planning

Before you start lesson planning Ensure you are clear on what the pupils need to learn by the end of the unit and where they are starting from. Must be derived from the unit of work Produce a unit progression/map of how the unit can be broken down into individual lesson objectives (what you want pupils to learn each week) This will be guidance as classes of pupils will progress at differing rates A lesson plan is part of a sequence

Lesson Plan A lesson plan is what you work from and not to. It must be useful to you and allow an outside observer to understand what and how you have been teaching.

Learning Objectives;precise and assessable Without precision; pupils may struggle to understand what is being asked of them; teacher will find it harder to identify progress; does the teacher actually know what they are looking for?

Consider the importance of language within the following 3 lesson outcomes: Pupils will be able to perform a forward roll; Pupils will be able to perform a forward roll consistently; Pupils will be able to perform a forward roll consistently and with fluency

The key to precision is to focus on pupils’ learning needs-tracked to language in the Attainment Target levels Identify language used in Attainment Target Levels which aid precision and assess ability.

Knowledge, skill and understanding The attainment target for PE sets out the knowledge, skills and understanding that pupils are expected to have by the end of each key stage. External Examiner last year commented on the lack of focus in lessons, she observed, on developing pupils’ knowledge and understanding.

Knowledge, skills and understanding Knowledge: Pupils should be able to describe Skills: Pupils should be able to demonstrate/show Understanding: Pupils should be able to apply (how/why). Use of key, why, questions will help you and pupils to focus on understanding.

Writing knowledge and understanding objectives The forward roll example given earlier was a skill objective/ outcome; Can you write a knowledge and understanding objective linked to this?

Core Tasks Once the objectives/ outcomes are precise and assessable, the development of a core task for the lesson is more easily designed. E.g. pupils need to opportunity to learn a forward roll and then need several attempts to show they can perform it consistently with fluency. To show that they can analyse the forward roll technique and suggest ways to improve the fluency of the roll, the above needs to be carried out in pairs with the aid of task cards and/or ICT mechanisms.

Core Tasks QCA schemes of work: Provide examples of appropriate learning outcomes linked to Attainment Target language Examples of core tasks

Planning and preparation Features of good or excellent lessons that the HMI observed which produced pupil work of a high standard were; thoughtfully planned, in which the choice of content, range of resources, variety of activities and teaching approaches were carefully considered. The New Teacher in School (DES 1988)

Task Can you identify the good features of a lesson objective by evaluating the range of lesson objectives you have been given? Start by ranking the lesson objectives What criteria have you used to enable you to produce this rank?

Pedagogy What does this mean? How do we plan for this in our lessons?

Summary of key points of effective planning Builds on knowledge of pupils’ past experience; Clearly identifies what is to be learned; Progresses learning outcomes and activities; Teaching strategies by which this will be achieved; Show how pupils’ learning can be supported or extended (differentiation); Identifies the means and opportunities by which learning will be assessed.