3 Questions You Should Ask When Planning!

When your planning isn't going smoothly and you have been staring at a screen for hours, sometimes it is good take a step back. by asking yourself 3 simple questions, it can help you refocus on what matters in your lessons. Here are our three planning questions.

What do I want the children to be able to do by the end of the lesson?

Having a clear focus on what you want the end goal to be ensures that all activities lead towards the same end point. If you can’t identify this, the chances are your lesson will not focused and clear to the kids. If you want a child to develop their understanding of a new addition method, all activities should be focused on engaging with, discovering, practicing, applying or reviewing that method.

Why am I asking the children to complete each activity?

Asking this question ensures that each activity has a purpose and ensures you are not wasting valuable learning time to a task with no direction. If you can’t describe the purpose, it probably isn’t worth doing. Like-wise, while the children are completing the tasks, ask the question again. It may be that after 10 minutes, it is time to move on. Keep things fresh and focused!

​​How will I react if the kids can already do it?

Having an extra trick – or lesson cog – up your sleeve is important. There is always that one child who surprises you and can already do what your trying to teach them. Having extra challenging activities on hand will ensure all children are challenged and don’t be afraid of adding extra activities or changing your plan.