Two-Page Lessons

With this being my first blog post, I am keen to preface it by saying that this is simply an opportunity for me to reflect on, record and hopefully clarify my own thoughts. I am not claiming to be an expert in anything (much less teaching, having only done it since September). 

Okay, disclaimer written. Now, to the matter at hand...

A few days ago, I tweeted an image of a resource I had made for a lesson on Act 1, Scene 2 (A1-S2) of Hamlet. The reaction it generated was far bigger than I anticipated and the comments I had were incredibly supportive, which provided quite the confidence boost. 

The image/resource in question was a two-page lesson intended for use with a top-set Year 9 group. I add that emboldened detail because I think it's important to note that the structure of the lesson which is depicted on the image I posted on Twitter is certainly not a one-size-fits-all approach. It would, along with the content of course, need to be adapted so that it is suitable for the topic and, crucially, the specific class.

As a bit of background, the two-page lesson is an idea I encountered whilst reading Jo Facer's brilliant book Simplicity Rules, which I would *highly* recommend, not only because it is full of practical ideas and sage advice but also because Jo is an extremely knowledgeable educator. 

Finally, I think it's worth saying that I will have two copies of the two-page lesson on me - one which I have annotated with questions I want to ask or small scripts I want to use and another which is blank, so that I can use it under the visualiser. 

Although reference is made above to A1-S2, in this post I will largely be discussing another two-page lesson which I made for use today where we looked at A1-S4 (hence the disparity between what I talk about here and what is depicted on the image I tweeted).

Here, then, is a brief overview of how I designed my two-page lesson and how I have used it:

Recap

We begin with a fairly quick, low-stakes quiz where the questions are based on the content of the previous lesson(s). 

At this point I will digress to say that it might not always be a quiz. For example, in today's lesson with the same group of Year 9s, we began with an 'Elaborate and Extend' task (an idea I took from the wonderful Kate Jones) where, using only the statement 'Hamlet is distressed' as a prompt, they had to recall as much information as they could about his soliloquy, why he was distressed and how he expresses that distress.

Whether it's a quiz or another retrieval-based activity, this is essentially my 'Do Now' task: there will be a visual cue on the board - usually a PPT slide - as students enter the room which informs them that this is the first thing they need to do. This slide will also make it clear that the precise details of the task are on the handout, a copy of which students will have on their desks already. I find this useful because I have noticed that students' eyes tend to veer towards the board on arrival and so if/when they do, they immediately see that that there is a task waiting for them. In the event they don't see what's on the board, I generally try to deal with this via a short, non-confrontational reminder: 'X, instructions are on the board. Make a start as quick as you can, thanks' or words to that effect. 

After 5 or so minutes, we will review the answers and I will typically select a few samples from students to live mark under the visualiser.

Vocabulary

Next, I provide students with a list of words which are either taken from, or connected to, the scene or passage we are looking at. There are a few ways of doing this but I will talk about what I did today. Year 9 looked at A1-S4 and A1-S5 of Hamlet so the words I gave them were:

1. Apparition
2. Revelry
3. Vengeance
4. Regicide
5. Revelation
6. Suspicion 

Students only have the definitions on their handout, which means they have to write the word in as I say it aloud. With today's class, I overcommunicated the fact that I wanted them to attempt it, at the very least. If they got it wrong, what's the worst that could happen? By doing this, I wanted to create a safe environment where errors or mistakes were embraced and not a reason for embarrassment or disengagement. 

After each word is read aloud and I can see that students have had a go, I will write the answer on my blank copy under the visualiser and they self-mark or self-correct.

The intention behind this part of the lesson is to introduce, and ultimately normalise, the use of sophisticated vocabulary. I wanted these words to pervade and underpin our discussions of the scene and to that end, the idea is for students to try and use them wherever possible. For example:  The apparition reveals that Claudius has committed regicide and so it asks Hamlet to seek vengeance. I think there are refinements I could make here and I'm working on that. In fact, having reflected, I think going forward I will write them on the board and use them as a reference point to encourage students to revise the answers they give to my verbal questions ('say it better'). 

Reading

After we are done with the vocabulary, we move on to a short passage of reading. Like all teachers, I want students to read and I want them to read good quality material. There is an part in Jo's book where she talks about a science teacher who was frustrated that their students were not writing 'like scientists', but this was because they were not reading science: they were reading information that had been distilled into bullet points for the benefit of a PowerPoint slide. In the absence of subject-specific reading, they could not absorb and then emulate the style of writing which their subject required. After seeing that, it was like a lightbulb switched on in my head. I realised that if I wanted students to write academically, or like a literary critic, it is incumbent on me as their English teacher to expose them to academic reading or something written by or in the style of a literary critic. At KS3, this is nothing too heavy but I do try to ensure that it is relevant to the focus of the lesson. Today, for example, it was an extract from an article I found on the British Library's website about ghosts in Shakespeare. Ordinarily, I will read a short section aloud so that they can listen to me as a fluent reader and then I will ask a student to take over for a few sentences, then another student, then another and so on. Today, however, I asked them to read in silence because I wanted them to absorb the information at their own pace. When they were finished, I had them reduce the information to three key bullet points. Before we moved on, I asked a few questions to check that students had actually read and understood the extract. 

By this point, we were - if I recall - just over halfway through the lesson and I wanted to get them reading the text. We covered A1-S3 (more for completeness, than anything else) and A1-S4 up to the point where Hamlet decides to follow the ghost. I think this sets me up nicely for tomorrow's lesson, where we can go back to look at his reaction to the ghost's appearance in more detail. 

I have tried to be thorough in this post but I suspect there may be things I have overlooked. Nevertheless, I hope this will be useful or interesting to someone out there in the ether but if not, it has helped me reflect on what I've done and also think about what I want to do in future.

Thanks for reading.

- Oli