Techniques to enhance the pace of lessons ’

Self review My class is often still working right to the bell We are often packed up waiting behind the desks 5 minutes before the bell My starter often lasts 20 minutes I find myself talking about slightly or totally unrelated subject matter during lessons. I normally wait until the class settles down at the start of the lesson, talk to them about the learning objective then have a Q and A about last lesson My main activity often lasts the majority of the lesson I find myself talking for more than 2-3 minutes at a time At the beginning of the lesson the first thing the students have to do after the aim and title is listen to me.

Mapping Pace Lesson Organisation Transitions Learning activities

Start as you mean to go on The students filter into my lesson. I hand the books out and make sure everyone has a sheet whilst most copy the LO. I then hurry round to make sure the more unfocused have remembered to copy the LO. By this time some have finished copying and are waiting and/or chatting. The students filter into my lesson. Two know that it is their role to distribute books/sheets. This leaves me free to greet the class at the door and intervene early with anyone who is slow. Everyone a self contained starter activity. This gives me continued time to push forward the learning and go around to the students asking questions about the learning.

Organisation to boost pace Practise the distribution of your resources. Time the sequence and repeat. Appoint monitors whose job it is to collect and distribute resources – worksheets, books, pens. Send students the message that every minute counts http://www.online-stopwatch.com/

Starter as recall – DO NOW True or false Label events in chronological order Spot the mistakes Add the labels to the correct position Fill in the gaps Explain the relevance of the pictures

Lesson Planning for pace and depth Tough balance between overly long activities and ‘surface skimming’. Blend of both short and longer learning sequences normal range of between 3-20 minutes If longer ask yourself to justify in terms of student learning Break task down and attach times to each component Clearly scaffold the learning episodes

Comparison Write a newspaper article in the tabloid style previewing the Olympic games 1. Plan your article by listing 5 techniques you will employ (5 minutes) Write your headline and opening paragraph (8 minutes) Finish the article and choose and appropriate image (1o minutes)

Analysing language and structure Wednesday 10th Oct To analyse the structure in ‘The Laboratory and the effect on the reader’ (B) To analyse the structural devices and language used to present stong emotions in ‘The Laboratory’ (A) Starter: Complete your venn diagrams. Use the pictures to aid your comparisons. 1. Relationship between men and women 2. Female Character 3. Male character

Starter What can you see in the room? What has the classroom been turned into today? What do you think your task is goi ng to be? Ext – Which Reading Afs have you had to use already?

Immediate Impact The Tempest Shipwreck CSI Crime Scene WW1 TRENCH Gothic World Macbeth Witches Cauldron

Transitions Successful transitions are the life blood of a great lesson Ineffective transitions enfeeble learning and exhaust teachers!

Pitfalls Overly long teacher talk that does not promote new knowledge skills and understanding Not ensuring 100% engagement, think differentiation and challenge Not checking for understanding

Instructions Ensure 100% engagement Repeat once Assess understanding Allow for any clarifications Incorporate into resources

Plenary - organise Refine my instructions Do It Now Room as a teaching resource Extension Tasks Non-verbal behaviour management Practise resource distribution Use of monitors