Outstanding Lessons

When we talk to colleagues about outstanding lessons and outstanding teaching there appears to be much debate on how to achieve the same, some of which has been argued is subjective which to a point I believe is true. We can all usually identify what is a 'good' lesson but what does it take to create the 'buzz' that is often craved for a lesson to be graded 'outstanding'? During my own recent mock OFSTED inspection I achieved a grade 1 and am sharing my ideas to enable you to achieve the same.

Naturally when planning my lesson I considered the activities that would be most appropriate for my learners, how would I engage them, and how I would I demonstrate progress, not only by the end of the lesson but throughout each activity? Not forgetting, stretch and challenge, differentiation, equality and diversity, social, moral, cultural and spiritual context as well as literacy and numeracy!

After completing civil courts I was moving onto ADR, the lesson for which I was observed and planned as follows:

From immediate entry to the classroom learners were presented with a speech mark asking what is ADR? This allowed learners to link to prior learning in relation to the Woolf Reforms, the necessity of it given the criticisms of the civil courts and allowed learners to engaged with the lesson from the outset. Some learners could even identify a method or two. Learners provided feedback to me which was added to the wipeboard. This represented the beginning of the learning journey.

Thereafter I provided a brief outline of two of the methods and my learners using differentiated textbooks completed a contrast and compare activity allowing them to access higher level thinking skills, this process was repeated with the latter two methods. I also provided prompts posed as questions to provide additional support to learners that needed it, and set a minimum points learners were to identify. This activity worked particularly well as learners were having to make reasoned judgements as to the material they were selecting and therefore developing deeper learning.

The above activity enabled learners to complete the next activity by applying the appropriate method to a given scenario in the form of a letter, learners were working as paralegals and giving legal advice with the opportunities for stretch and challenged provided through possible evaluation. Learners thoroughly enjoyed this activity as the scenarios were true to life but more so was the realistic aspect of the role of a paralegal that they were able to experience.

I ended this lesson with a 15 minute plenary allowing for good consolidation, learners chose from three differentiated activities, first related to key terms, second to describe and explain and the third to justification with peer assessment and numeracy. Each activity warranted different marks which rewarded depth. This created a visual representation of progress from which learners were able to provide their progress as a percentage and add the new learned information to the wipeboard demonstrating progress.

Throughout this lesson learners were questioned at least once each and Socratic questioning was used to demonstrate the depth of learner understanding.

As part of my role with tutor2u I am creating resources currently on the basis of outstanding teaching and learning and this resource is one of them titled Dispute? Resolve it! Shall be available soon, it comes with detailed teacher instructions, a choice of two starters, the compare and contrast activity, the letter writing activity complete with memo from Senior Partner in a fictitious law firm and letter headed paper for learners to write to clients on and a further consolidation activity in comparison with the courts. This is an activity that can be completed over two or three lessons. My learners thoroughly enjoy it, I hope yours do too!