• Blog of the month

    Classroomtm is the blog of the month. It is run by Stephen Lockyer, who is a Deputy Head in Kent. You can follow him on twitter @MrLockyer. The site holds a collection of educational ideas and concepts including books, articles and Drop boxes. Within the Dropbox section there is access to a wealth of resources and ideas, separated into whole school and subject specific.

  • Resource of the month

    Ski Slope Learning allows for people to get to the same end result from different starting points. If you think about ski slopes there are several different degrees of difficulty, with green being the easiest and black being the hardest, however no matter which route you take you always get to the bottom. This method allows pupils to work at their own individual paces and has differentiated routes to ensure all pupils achieve the learning objective. The ski slope method also provides the opportunity for pupils to work independently and allows for rapid progressions.

  • How to share

    Do you have a great resource, idea or article about teaching and learning? If so please email a short explanation, any documents and any images about the resource to northfieldtl@northfieldssc.org.

  • Up and coming events

    Teachmeets are an opportunity for teachers to share ideas with other teachers. In a busy day, you rarely have time to have in depth conversations with other colleagues, let alone share resources. Volunteers are welcome to present their ideas in slots ranging from three minutes to seven. Come along and share good practice. All school teachers are welcome, please follow the link to sign up.

Monday 14 October 2013

The 5 minute lesson plan


The Five Minute Lesson Plan
As we near the last couple of days of term, I am confident that thoughts of lesson planning for September have been replaced for the minute, by thoughts of some far away beach and the promise of a much more relaxed pace of life for six weeks. However the next academic year will surely arrive and our thoughts will once again turn to lesson planning.
Now love it or hate it, it has to be done, but is there a more efficient way of doing it? A way that allows us to plan outstanding lessons, while still giving us the time to produce outstanding resources.
Ross Morrison McGill who designed ‘The Five Minute Lesson Plan’ comments on his website ‘Teacher Toolkit’ that ‘You may or may not be aware, that Ofsted inspectors do not expect to see a lesson plan – they never have(!) and it is one of the greatest myths of the teaching profession here in England and Wales – but, just wait a moment! Ofsted do expect to see evidence of a planned lesson!’
The Five Minute lesson plan focuses on what the students will learn, how they will learn it and what successful learning will look like. It would be a mistake to think that outstanding lessons only take five minutes of planning; it clearly takes much more thought however writing it down should only take just that. The time previously spent writing onerous lesson plans surely is more wisely spent creating resources to hook, engage and enthuse our students.
The Five Minute Lesson Plan is currently available in nine languages, used in over one hundred and thirty-seven countries across the world, has been downloaded 159,367 times and is already being successfully used by numerous staff at Northfield.


So what does each section mean?

- The big picture: How does the lesson fit into your scheme of work / topic? What knowledge are students coming to the lesson with already? What links have you made / can you make? Describe the lesson in 30 seconds!

- Objectives: Your objectives for the current lesson. The arrow is just a visual reminder that your lesson is building on what’s gone before. Try to incorporate at least two different leveled objectives.

- Engagement: What’s the hook? How will you gain student attention at the start and throughout the lesson that is exciting and meaningful?

- ‘Stickability’ : What will stick in students’ minds as they leave your lesson? What key point(s) do you want them to remember and bring back to the next lesson?

- AfL: How will you assess where your learners are at during the lesson, so as to know how to take them where you want to go? What AfL strategies are you going to use? What key questions will help you to lure students into learning? Plan for various (AfL) Assessment for Learning strategies to allow students to see progress. Use a Targeted-Question grid to help frame higher-order questions.

- Key words: Pick out keywords in the objectives and explore their meanings. Use techniques to break down the phonics of each word and encourage visual recognition to reinforce. Plan what key word you want students to learn. This promotes high levels of literacy which is an Ofsted focus. YOU COULD ALSO ADD NUMERACY TO THIS SECTION. Every lesson should involve some mathematical reference of link.

- Differentiation / Groupings: Plan – at a glance – what activities you will provide for key targeted groups. What sort of groupings are needed, what are they doing and when? Do you have this mapped to a seating plan with current levels of progress?

- Learning episodes: What is going to happen in the lesson from start to finish? Identify as many opportunities for student-led learning as possible. The four boxes do not denote a four-part lesson. Just fill them up with what needs to happen.
(Taken and adapted from Teacher Toolkit)

So as the term ends, spend five minutes think about your planning for next year. Is writing your lessons in minute detail beneficial to the students and is it a useful workable tool for yourself? In a profession where time certainly has to be used wisely, it is about working smarter in order to allow students to achieve their potential with extremely well planned lessons, but also with the time to produce outstanding resources.


Mandy Garside

Posted by Unknown at 10:15

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