PGCE planning - help please

[namechangedyetagain]

I'm trying to write a plan for a lesson next week, but we haven't been taken through actually how to plan yet by our tutors.

I have the bare bones of a lesson ie the Rome of women in wwII but i need to come up with activity that can be used for assessment and show progress?

So i was thinking of introducing with a photo, telling them a bit about the lady and her job. Then the typical jobs women did to take over from the men (Land army etc), how their role changed from a housewife etc. Then as an activity maybe draw a recruitment poster / advert for the type of job they choose? I'm dithering
. Bring back together to discuss what they'd choose and why, then finish by summing up what's changed today.

Help! I literally have no clue and it needs to be done before the weekend

What year group? Do you have an objective for the lesson?

I can't help on the subject, but can go through what I would advise my trainees to do.

1. Decide what key knowledge students will learn this lesson / decide what skills they need to develop
2. Decide how you will know where they are at at the end of the lesson. In your training year you will usually be required to have a plenary each lesson even though 'real' teaching is a bit more fluid.
3. Think about how you're going to communicate the new knowledge/skills.
4. Once you've established 1/2/3, design an activity that allows them to develop those skills or apply their knowledge.
5. Decide how you want to start the lesson. This might be a recap of prior learning, or a hook activity. I typically say to trainees to have a written starter until they know the group and can confidently manage a discussion one.

Then your lesson plan would look like this:
Starter - first settling task / hook to the lesson / recall activity
Teaching input - Introduce new knowledge and model to students what you want them to do
Application tasks - might be one long task or a couple of shorter ones
Plenary - task that shows you what they have achieved that lesson

The common mistakes I've seen trainees make are:

• focusing on the activities first at the expense of knowledge (for example, an English trainee might decide they want to throw a toy around for questions or set the room up as the set of a novel, but not thought about content)
• lack clarity in the lesson because they've not been clear in their heads what they're wanting students to learn
• try to fit too many activities into a lesson because they've misunderstood the idea of pace

So the objective is to learn the importance of women in the war. By the end i hope they'd be able to name the types of jobs, explain how womens role changed before during and after the war. It's y6.
Thank you @toomuchicecream and @LolaSmiles
I'm worried that I'm struggling and I'm only 2 weeks in

Two weeks in is quite early to be planning whole lessons. Will you be delivering the whole lesson?

Typically at this stage my trainees are observing colleagues, looking at schemes of work, and starting to plan and deliver starter activities.

I'm not a primary teacher so someone with that specialism may disagree, in which case listen to them, but I would probably do the teaching input on the jobs, possibly with an educational video clip. Then possible activities could be a match up exercise of jobs and what the jobs are, or a timeline of how women's jobs have changed.

Yes @LolaSmiles it should last an hour.

So if you want them to know how roles changed before, during and after then you need to make sure they know what women did before so they can see how different it was during - that’s 2 lesson parts.

After - didn’t many women lose their jobs to the returning men? You might want to leave out the after part??

So I might show a short film clip (if I could find one) of before, or do an activity where they had to say if women usually did it (true or false or card sort), whilst pointing out you arre making generalisations and not all women were housewives. Them you’ve set the scene for introducing the jobs the women did and they’ll be more able to appreciate why it was such a big change. Otherwise they’ll assume all women work like mums do now.

You might want to talk about life without washing machines or tumble dryers or dishwashers or microwaves or freezers or ready meals or takeaways (apart from fish and chips!). No Chinese or curry house or. Kebab shop. Depends on where the school is...

Yes the true or false thing would be a good starting point. What would i be able to put into books for assessment and to show progress? There are so many boxes to fill on the form. I have put the laptop away for tonight as I'm going round in circles. Will have to finish it tomorrow at some point. It may seem clearer in the morning. I'm just so tired and confused tonight and really not at all creative

Are you on placement or is this a planning a task exercise?

Placement, we've not looked at planning a task yet, just the curriculum and how things would fit into that.
I'm taking it in to my mentor and admitting defeat today. I really wanted to be able to manage, but i can't.

I think it's good that you are asking for help. That's what mentors are for. I hope it went okay. :)

It's got tomorrow. I've sent the lesson plan to my mentor and she's suggested a few changes so I'm really grateful.

Just so worried about messing it up. I will of course, but i worry for the children. I'm guessing if it goes tits up she'll step in.

Had my first cry yesterday and really thought I'm not cut out for it. Feeling a little overwhelmed I guess.

We all teach lessons that go tits up regularly... it is just something you need to learn how to cope with. The important thing is to realise where you went wrong and to avoid making the same mistake in the future. You’ll be fine!

I'm now at the stage of over thinking things and it's put me into a state of frozen panic.
I want to qualify so badly, I don't want to fail but I'm only 4 weeks in and already feel this way

PGCE students are a bit crap at lesson planning and teaching because it's a new skill that they are learning and that is the entire point of a PGCE. You're not expected to be able to do everything perfectly, you're expected to ask for help, and after each lesson you will reflect on what went well, and where improvements can be made, then implement those improvements next lesson.

If this lesson doesn't go very well, then they're not going to fail you, they're going to identify why it didn't go very well and help you do better next time.

It's a bit crap that they have asked you to plan a lesson without giving you guidance on how to plan that lesson - that's bad teaching, so don't do that in your lessons! E.g. if you ask them to draw a recruitment poster, make sure you show them some examples of what you are looking for and check for understanding.

Here's a basic and effective guide on how to teach: www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/Rosenshine.pdf

If your mentor has just suggested a few changes and not scrapped it completely then that is a really positive sign you are doing something right! Gosh I cried so much during my PGCE it's a tough year. Remember you're not expected to be amazing at planning straight away. Sometimes I still struggle now and that's why working as a team really helps because everyone brings ideas to the game!

Thank you all. I need to be a bit kinder to myself i think. I'm not a teacher (yet). I'm there to learn. I tell my class it's fine to make mistakes. Need to show them by example!

How did it go today?

Sorry I was in bed early. It was fine for a first lesson my mentor said. Some things to work on timing (rushed through the input as i was so nervous), modeling so that i get the standard of work, and to use the behaviour policy as they were quite bubbly - though they also were for her in the next lesson. Also to cold call so the same people aren't answering.
I did actually start crying at the end of the lesson which was v embarrassing. Just a mix of nerves and exhaustion.

I also need to work on my self belief. I'm so worried about failing the course

I think that sounds like fairly standard feedback for a PGCE student and if your mentor said it was fine then that's a positive! As long as next observation you show you've listened and worked on those targets I think you'll be fine. PGCE is hard don't forget that.