John can
deliver training
or offer consultancy
in your school either in the UK or overseas at competitive prices.
Why send a teacher on a course when the trainer can
come to you?
John
can source INSET trainers and consultants for your school at very competitive prices. Get in touch: jmedlicott@hotmail.com
As an INSET trainer I get asked this
question all the time. When teachers attend courses or are observed by me as
part of my consultancy work in schools they quite rightly want to take away
more than ideas, they want strategies and resources and the “outstanding lesson
plan” is like the Golden Fleece in that regard.
Lessons of course should we well
planned. Inspectors and other observers are looking to see that teachers have
used assessment to understand exactly where their pupils are and that this has
informed their planning, after all this is what any mentor would teach a PGCE,
GTP or NQT, but can this be judged by the plan?
Outstanding lessons feature activities that are fit
for purpose. Under previous frameworks teaching was the prime focus not
learning and so teachers were expected to perform like circus acts. OFSTED
still expects the lesson to be engaging, but the activities must be relevant. Unless
an activity has a good chance of leading accurately and quickly to what needs
to be learned then there is little point in doing it.
So where can you find outstanding
lesson plans to share with your department? There are plenty of publications
out there that claim to fit the bill, as well as resources on the TES kindly
provided by colleagues who are keen to share best practice; if you were to
teach one of these would the observer be likely to judge you as outstanding? In
a word – no! They may give you a few ideas, but there is no such thing as a
standard format for a grade 1 lesson, teachers are judged on the quality of the
decisions they make.