Lesson plans and pacing ideas
Appropriately structured classroom lessons include a series of clear steps and smooth transitions between them. Effective teachers know how to structure a well-paced lesson and scaffold learning to build students’ knowledge and skills. Are you looking for help to structure your lesson plans? Thousands of ClickView videos come with teaching resource packs to help you plan and structure your lessons, as well as pacing ideas for class.
Why lesson structure is so important
A lesson structure maps out the teaching and learning that will occur in class
A clearly thought out lesson has set steps that need to be achieved, with parts in between to be filled with more knowledge through scaffolding. Engaging with students about expectations, content and outcomes also helps to boost student confidence in the current subject or topic.
3 Benefits of effective pacing in the classroom
1. Maximise class time
Take the time to plan out individual lessons and lesson sequences for the best outcomes. Effective lesson pacing optimises the time spent on each task and maintains an engaged class through the use of smooth transitions.
2. Maintain engagement
Planned sequencing of a variety of teaching and learning activities also helps to stimulate and maintain engagement by creating links between lesson and unit learning. It helps minimise disruptions and facilitates a logical order and flow.
3. Achieve outcomes
With a clear structure in mind for the lessons in your classroom or lecture theatre, it’s more likely that you and your students will meet goals and achieve desired outcome.
Interactive video ideas for teachers
Using video as an interactive activity is an important feature of effective lesson pacing. ClickView’s interactive video feature can help you plan and pace lessons to work towards specific learning outcomes. You can test student understanding, clarify tasks or tailor videos for individual student difference. Build your playlists in advance to help with seamless classroom activity transitions.
Four ways ClickView can help with lesson structure and pacing
1. Gather data with interactive videos
- Use interactive questions to gather formative assessment data about the knowledge level of your students. Plan and pace your lessons accordingly with the immediate feedback.
- Use interactives to clarify learning outcomes or to test student understanding before scaffolding the learning process.
2. Support to plan lessons
- You can tailor interactive videos for different levels of understanding, meeting the needs of all students. Offer further support by adapting your question content.
- Use the suggested lesson plans and other ClickView educational resources, such as worksheets and activities, to help structure your lessons and save you time.
3. Promote student engagement
- Introduce new topics or learning areas with a video ‘hook’ from a relevant library video or a recent program from Movies + TV.
- It only takes moments for students to lose focus. You can build your playlists ahead of time for lessons that run seamlessly and keep students on topic.
4. Reinforce content understanding
- Use video regularly to reinforce topic content for students and stimulate engagement. The clipping tool helps scaffold this engagement, allowing you to create just the right length of clip for your particular class.
- The ability to re-watch video at home can reinforce content for students who may not understand concepts in class, without holding other students back.
Four teacher tips for structuring a lesson
- Get organised
By getting your teaching materials ready, you can keep the flow of a lesson going. Have any handouts prepared or uploaded onto your LMS for students to access quickly. Alternatively, project your screen for students to watch or read from. Any other materials, particularly for younger students, such as glue, scissors and sticky notes should be readily available in a central location. These strategies will all help with effective classroom management. - Use visual cues
To help keep students in your lesson or lecture on track, present your instructions visually. Save yourself the energy and time of having to repeat instructions throughout your time together. Remember that oral directions don’t suit every learning style. Virtual learning is an ideal medium for visual cues as you can share your screen while delivering lesson content or use interactive videos. Explore educational resources to help with structuring a lesson. - Consider teaching styles and strategies
Choose the most effective teaching strategy or style for your particular topic or lesson. Consider, how will my students understand this information best? Is this idea suited to collaborative or individual work? Instructional or experiential? Don’t be afraid to mix it up and switch the delivery method during the lesson. This will also help to differentiate your content for different types of learners. Discover more helpful teaching strategies for your classes. - Keep students engaged in learning with timing cues
Create a sense of urgency with a consistent, diligent pace. You can use a timer for ‘on the clock’ motivation while moving steadily through a task. Don’t race ahead when extra thinking time may be needed but do keep your eye on the time. Miniclips are designed to be short and sweet for primary school lessons across a range of subjects from primary English to primary Science. Browse our videos for a clip of just the right length.
Achieve learning outcomes with effective lesson structure and pacing
A ClickView subscription gives you full access to 1000s of curriculum-aligned videos, including all supporting educational resources. Our dedicated training channel offers training on a range of popular topics, such as Library Editor and interactive videos. You can also watch a webinar or attend an event to develop your skills and confidence with ClickView. We’re here to help you plan lessons to achieve optimum learning outcomes for all students.
