Have you ever had a lesson fail tremendously in your classroom? Of course you have. We all do our absolute best, but every once in a while, we prepare a lesson that maybe wasn’t intriguing enough, was too complicated, or was sabotaged by lack of preparation because you spent too much time with your wine club (um, book club) the night before. *cough*
The point is, we’re all human. So, on rare occasions, there is going to be a lesson flop. I have come up with three handy ways to know if you are indeed teaching a lesson failure based on the majority of your students’ facial expressions. See if any of these look familiar.
- The Deer in Headlights—If your students are staring at you like you are a semi and they’re caught in the middle of the road, you might be teaching a lesson that they just aren’t getting.
- The Meteorologist—If your students are staring out the window, you might need to add a little zest to your plan to grab their attention.
- The Festive Failure—If your lesson was stellar yet students aren’t able to follow through with independent practice, it might be close to the holidays and nothing short of dancing on your desk dressed as a turkey will get their attention anyway. Even then, it’s iffy.
For more information on lesson plans that have been flops, check out this entertaining Edutopia article.
Tell me about your lessons that didn’t quite go as planned!
I have learned throught he years its easier to have a plan in place that you can jump to if you are failing.
Thank you for the post- I had a lesson flap while the assisstant sup. was in my classroom students were to video each other retelling the story the Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid Anything use props. This lesson has worked for 5 years but this year I had Festive Falure seeing the post made me feel better.