Many teachers assume that when they say something to their class, the students hear what was said. Unfortunately this is not always the case and can lead to misunderstandings such as “…but s/he never told us that!” Over the years, I have heard many cases where a student says something was on a test that wasn’t taught and the teacher says it was taught but the student could not have been paying attention.

Teachers…here is a reason why having a written lesson plan is to your advantage. In case of this kind of dispute, you can clearly demonstrate that a topic is in your lesson plan and that you did teach it.

Students are easily distracted – especially young learners and teenagers. Their minds may be on other things and thus not paying as much attention to the teacher as they should. This applies to all classes. Although hard to believe, I know, your lesson may not be uppermost in the minds of all of your students.

As a teacher, you cannot take for granted that what you say automatically registers with your students. The only way to be sure you are getting your message through to everyone in your class is by repetition, reinforcement and review. Even then, you may not reach all students but at least you have given it your best shot.

After teaching a topic, I usually give at least one exercise which acts as a reinforcement activity while the topic is fresh in students’ minds (hopefully). Then, at the start of the next lesson, I give another exercise, though perhaps in a different format, where I review the previous topic and test the students ability to recall and to transfer their learning before moving on to the new topic for the day. We go over the answers together as a class and that is when I ensure the information is firmly rooted. Then we move on.

By: Celia M. Constante | MT-I | Ipag Elem. School | Mariveles, Bataan