lesson structure

[snowmummy]

I've just returned to teaching after a very, very long time and so I'm rather out of date with what's considered exemplary and what's not.

I'm trying to structure a 80 min literacy lesson. My tendency would to be break the lesson down with changes of activites/tasks/teacher talk. Is that ok these days or are extended tasks more in favour, or is it ok to mix it up lesson to lesson.

Tia

Anyone? Advice would be nice ...

Age? I'm assuming not primary if it's 80 mins long.

I am primary. I personally think that sometimes there is a need for extended writing once the planning stages have been gone through and the children are prepared. My class recently enjoyed listening to a 'calm classroom' CD while writing a story over 2 lessons.

Otherwise, it's all about chunking the time and doing valuable things. (Warm ups, main teaching points, stopping the class for mini-plenaries and a final plenary/game to finish and round everything off too.) Both to maximise the learning and keep them motivated. We play word games, experiment with sentences and compare results, use talk a lot and role play for planning and various planning formats too.

Thanks 2kids that's very useful. It is primary Y6.

Remember you should be looking for no more than 10% teacher talk...

I'll return once I've put little people to bed!

If you're looking for a basic structure I'd go:

Starter / recap

New information

Construct - do something with that info

Demonstrate understanding

Review / recap

Chunk time - remember ofsted say you need to show progress over time, over the lesson and in 20 minute pieces of that lesson so bung in mini plenaries. What do you know / what do you still needs to find out is key.

How can you teach an 80 minutes lesson with 8 minutes of teacher talk? I normally talk at least 20 mins in a 60 minutes lessons :-s

If you're talking though the pupils aren't doing - 20 minutes talk in a 60 mins lesson means (in the eyes of mighty ofsted) that they're not learning for a third of the time.

I got told I talked too much by ofsted last week. They timed me (stopwatch on stopwatch off thingy) at 10ins and 15 seconds in a 60 min lesson. They downgraded me to good as I dictated the learning too much!

Is it just me that thins the statement 'if you are walking they aren't learning' is offensive and wrong?

It gives me the OFSTED rage

Walking??? Talking obv.

agree with what the others hav said re: teacher talk, you should just be there to facilitate learning, so really any talking should be instructions. chunk the lesson down, make sure u hav a starter and plenary. have different activities, eg paired work and or individual, not all same thing.

apologies for spellings etc, im on my phone!

'Is it just me that thins the statement 'if you are talking they aren't learning' is offensive and wrong?

Well, I think that it is, but then I'm really old and taught a lot of children before the New And Shiny were born to tell me it was all wrong.
You know, back in the day when you knew stuff and you taught them it and they listened and then they applied it, then hey told you what they knew now. It's surprising how much they remembered really I suppose.
I intend on living to be a hundred and fifty years old, so I can see this generation of teachers being patronised by the next generation of educational theorists and practitioners.
And cackle.

I am, however, watching this thread so that I remember how to twinkle along with the best.

I didn't say if you are talking they aren't learning - I said if you are talking they aren't doing.

I wasn't trying to patronise anyone but the op asked for advice because she'd been out of teaching for a while. I gave her advice based on the best of my understanding of good practice and, because we do teach in a world of ofsted, observations and accountability based on those observations, regardless of your view of that, advice based on what people are looking for today.

the big thing is showing progress

in my last lesson my starter was getting them to write down what they knew about x, and then the showed me thumbs up/down/sideways to gauge how confident they felt about applying x to make a fantastic y

the lesson then involved a variety of activities designed todevelop their understanding and skills,at the end i had them do the thumbs up etc again to show confidence levels and had them annotate in a different colour what they now knew about x.

their homework was to make a fantastic y.

(not trying tobe cryptic, just don't want to out myself!)

i teach in secondary and my lesson was judged outstanding

the current Big Thing in our authority is a couple of mini plenaries - seeing what you've found out and where everyone's up to. A quick 2 min share session if that makes sense. refocus and move on.

Been offline for the weekend. Thanks for the replies - you've kind of confirmed what I thought and I like the idea of mini plenaries.

Oh Pottering, I wasn't getting at you. I know as well as you do what the current guidance is. It's just that the current guidance is so bloody stupid.

picture that I agree with!

I don't think i care what the current guidelines were even if they didn't change every 5 minutes...

I've been reviewing my key stage 3 curriculum today because if we return to o-levels (in effect) then what I do for year 7 and 8 is not fit for purpose any more. But if I teach something different and the new GCSE's don't come in, then what I've done will be wrong. The phrase rock and hard place comes to mind.

It's a good job I love it :)

Good luck, just remember- you can't win.