Teaching Tips - How to Write a Memorable Lesson

By:Darrell Causey

If you are tired of the boring lessons that come with your curriculum then start writing your own lessons. It's not that difficult and your students will appreciate the change.

The first thing you must do in order to design effective lessons is change the way you think about your lessons. You need to stop lecturing and begin preparing presentations. If you begin scripting your lessons and rehearsing what you plan to say you will catch the attention, interest and participation of your students.

Think of your lesson as consisting of the following:
the theme
the opening
the points
the closing

Now for writing a memorable lesson.

Determine Your Message
Your lesson should have a main topic or theme that will help your students focus on the information that you want to present to them. A theme will make the information easier to retain, remember and recall in the future.
Your main topic should be clear, concise and in ten words or less. You want your message to be obvious and memorable. So take your time to work with your message and carefully choose your words. You want to use words that will make your message memorable.

Create Your Opening
Your opening should catch your students attention, introduce your theme and create a desire to know more. You might try opening with a quote, a piece of trivia or a startling fact. This shows you know your material and have knowledge of the subject.

Choose three points
It is important that you don't overwhelm your students with information. Too much information will make it hard to remember any of your message. You need to break your lesson into three workable points and expound on them. Remember to make each point reinforce the main topic.

Determine the Vocabulary
You need to include any new terms in your points. So make a list of all the important vocabulary words and use them in your presentation. Using these words will do more to familiarize your students with vocabulary than anything else.

Develop Questions
If you want to check your students progress during the presentation ask them questions. But don't ad lib it, prepare your questions ahead of time and be ready to use them.

Determine your closing
Your closing is the most important part of your lesson. It should bring your points together and bring closure to your message. Practice your closing and be prepared for questions that your students might have.

Make your lesson memorable
You are the teacher, it is your job to make the material interesting and memorable. You can do this by using stories and humor. You can use stories to help illustrate your points. People like stories and will be much more attentive if you take the time to entertain them as well as educate them. People also like to laugh, so work some humor into your lesson.

Taken from: http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/lessons/index.pl?read=2711