What Should You Include to Create a Balanced Lesson?

As a teacher, you will likely have a certain amount of control over the lessons that you conduct, though you’ll obviously be guided and somewhat railroaded by the curriculum. However, it’s not necessarily enough to simply regurgitate the information from this curriculum back to the students; it needs to be transmitted in a way that makes it interesting and graspable,especially if you’re trying to make it more understandable and digestible to a younger audience.

So, you need to create a balanced lesson that is informative but also engaging and interesting enough, with an opportunity for this learning to be applied. It is easy in theory, but there are a number of ways that you can realize this in practice.

Digestible and Interesting

So, how do you avoid simply reciting the information? One route that you could take is to make the lesson more interactive. Think about finding ways to ask more questions and provoking discussion that can have the students asking you some questions in return. Asking them the right question can suggest gaps in their knowledge that give them some curiosity about what they can ask next, potentially building up an interest in a topic that they had none in beforehand. 

Breaking down more complex ideas can be difficult for this very reason, however. A basic science lesson, for example, could easily end up in a situation where a question being asked back at you veers into territory that is much more advanced, meaning that keeping things on track is also important.

Applying the Knowledge

Even involving the students in the discussion might not be enough to make the knowledge stick, however. In order for them to fully understand what they’ve learned and come to terms with it in a way that clicks for them, they need an opportunity to apply it. This is where worksheets or similar tasks come in. Of course, there are times when simply flooding the lesson with worksheets can reduce interest to nothing. Building up an atmosphere of intrigue and discussion beforehand, though, might work in your favor. 

It’s also important to pick the right worksheet, as some are going to fit your purpose much better than others. Perusing a variety of elementary school writing practice worksheets, for example, can make use of the format and lessons about language in general rather than just being a generalized task to fill time.

Co-operative Work

While there is always the risk that the lesson might fly out of hand and into chaos once everyone starts talking to each other, stifling this might prove just as dangerous. The students might be able to learn a lot from each other, and being able to work with their friends might lead to a greater enjoyment of the lesson. While you don’t want things to veer into a state of unrest, having fun and being enthusiastic about what’s being taught might be more instrumental to that knowledge being retained than you expect – not to mention that it gives you some downtime to prepare for the rest of the lesson by yourself.