Planning

Lesson planning

Recently I have been asked a lot "what certain titles mean? "or " what type of things should we write in our  Sequence of Learning ".

You may now be asking what is a Sequence of Learning? This is what was introduced in my school last year. They are not actual full lesson plans but I would call them mini lesson plans - enough information for a teacher to be fully planned and know exactly what is happening in the lesson. As a teacher we are used to writing a note in a planner of what we are teaching and maybe some things we need to remember - well an SOL is more detailed than that; the benefit of these are  to ensure you are fully planned for your lesson, which in turn aids behaviour management and encourages deeper learning. Greater benefit for the school, staff and students if they help improve teaching and learning and move the school forward to help it on the road to outstanding.

Four Part Lesson and Sequence of Learning

The four part lesson has probably took on many forms and we have often used various different headings but the main aspects for this are:
  • Connect
  • Activate
  • Demonstrate
  • Consolidate
These are the headings used in our SOL and I believe this framework originally came from TEEP the Teacher Effectiveness Enhancement Program, you may want to have a look at their web site. They are also shown in may other areas and have been adapted over the years. So here goes.... my understanding....

CONNECT -  starter 
This part of the lesson is to connect with prior learning. A time for your students to remember what has been taught before, what can they remember? How does it fit in with today's objectives? It's also a chance for the students to get into the right frame mind for your lesson. I wouldn't spend too much time on this part of the lesson. We could use many different approaches to connect including questions, quizzes, homework review, memory games, etc. We can agree the big picture here and share or agree the leaning objectives.


ACTIVATE
I use this part of the lesson to motivate the students, generally get them to engage/think. We now have them in the right frame of mind so they can start progressing towards the new learning outcomes. We need to try to get the students actively talking/discussing here rather what would generally have been the teaching standing at the front and talking. It can take many forms and in some, a student will be more involved than others e.g. Demonstrating software, asking questions, can students discuss what to do next, do they need to make notes etc. This is generally where the new learning starts and we need to get them from surface learning to deep learning. Differentiation starts to come into play here also,  as we know learning  happens at different rates for different students and through feedback or discussions we are starting our learning checks - assessing what has been understood.

DEMONSTRATE
It is important to remember here that it is not the teacher demonstrating but the students demonstrating their learning. A time for the students to show they have understood and can progress by demonstrating their understanding. Also when we can see if the feedback we have given has worked or do we need to reshape learning and differentiate for certain students to help them progress. It is where the students start to activate the knowledge gained and develop deeper learning. Generally student should find it hard at first and then as deeper learning takes shape the students can demonstrate a deeper understanding.

CONSOLIDATE 
My view of this is where the students can apply what they learnt to another task. Reflect on what they have learnt. Time to reflect on the learning objectives and use their new learning to show they have met the learning outcomes. Can the students apply their knowledge elsewhere or to another task. Assessing that progress that has been made and a time to check who needs to revisit certain aspects of the lesson.

When we understand and plan these parts of the lesson then it is time to think about questioning and many other parts that go with a lesson but will maybe come back to that at a later date.

This is my thoughts on planning and "Sequence of Learning", probably not the same as everyone else's views but as always comments and feedback is welcome and encouraged.

Links below to further reading on the topic

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