Interview help!

[thereluctantteacher]

Hi guys,

Long time reader of this forum, new poster (newly registered too!)

I have been working on a long-term supply contract since January 2021 to try and get myself confident enough to return to teaching since graduating in 2016. I returned to my sports coaching role straight after university after a rough third placement.

I have landed an interview at the school I am at and really want to land this job!

The learning activity is as follows:
Sharing a book or an extract to stimulate an English lesson. The candidate can select an objective from the Year 4 English curriculum and deliver a short session that will enthuse learners.

Any ideas that are easy to make fun and engaging? The delivery side of it I know will be fine, it's just backing up my content whilst I haven't had a huge amount of access to different texts etc.

Many thanks in advance! You guys are amazing.

I thiiiink coming up with the idea yourself is part of the interview. Surelyv if you got the job, you wouldn't expect to come here every week to get ideas for your lessons?

Without wanting to seem negative, I'm always wary of requests for interview lesson ideas as they should really come from the candidates. I'm of the view that if a candidate doesn't know where to start with a fairly generic interview task, that's a substantial area for development, and one that is best addressed through their own research.

When approaching task, my advice would be:

1. Think about your strengths in the Year 4 curriculum. Think about which of those can be done clearly in a short time frame or whole lesson, depending on the time given.

For example, at Key Stage 3 a candidate might want to cover social and historical context of a text, but that's probably a much riskier interview lesson than a solid activity analysing the language in an extract.

1. Think about age appropriate texts that will engage students. There's lots online to guide. Whichever text you choose, be familiar with it as one of the interview or reflection questions os likely to be about your text choice.
2. Once you have chosen your text, select an extract that you think best fits your chosen objective.
3. Decide what your desired outcomes would be first and then consider what sort of activities lead the students to those outcomes.

Interviewers are more interested in strong teaching and a candidate who shows they're planning with progress in mind than someone who delivers a fun entertainment style input.

To get ideas for texts could you go on the school website and look at the year 4 class pages? It might narrow your search options down a little.