The journal, Educational Research Review, has just published some findings that conclude that the best teachers think on their feet. Although, over decades, we have been harried and threatened to produce reams of lesson plans, with extensions for children of different abilities, expected learning outcomes, key vocabulary that will be used, searching questions that will be asked to check understanding etc etc, the truth of the matter is that although this can produce good outcomes, if you want to go for something more, something greater than the sum of the parts, then you need to be more flexible than this. You need to be prepared to sometimes ditch the plan ("but I spent an hour last night devising it" you may wail) and to improvise. This might be because the learners have difficulty in understanding what you are trying to teach, or it might be because some of them are ready to move on past where you thought you would end up. Why rein them in if they are in full throttle and eager to go further and faster that you have allowed for? Or it may be that something unexpected happens – it starts to snow, a child asks a better question than you had thought to ask, or the introductory story that you were reading throws up a possible line of enquiry that is so interesting that you would be a fool to ignore the opportunity to explore it further with the children.
However, there is a balance to be struck and some juggling may be required. Therefore, it is best to have some sort of plan because it might not start to snow/another avenue to explore might not open up, and then you will end up wasting valuable teaching time if you have not thought about what to do in advance. But you must be ready to tweak or even abandon the plan altogether if you see the opportunity for a better outcome by doing so. Thinking on your feet is demanded and no plan is ever wasted because the thought that went in to it should be accessible on another occasion. Furthermore, senior management love to see a neat file of plans. They like to check for progression and to re-assure themselves that the curriculum is being covered. They may ask to see your outline plans a half term in advance of you delivering the lesson. How does that work? How will I know where we will all be in 5 weeks?
If you keep going off-piste then you need to be subtle and not do so whilst being observed during a Performance Management lesson. Someone will be watching and carefully ticking off all the things that you said that you would do in the lesson. Did you introduce that new piece of vocabulary that you planned to introduce? Did child A do something different to child B as you intended? Did the learning outcome match the learning objective? If the answer to any of these questions is "no", you could find yourself marked down, even if you achieved something splendid, because your assessor is relying on a snapshot and is not aware of the myriad of other things going on in a classroom, one of which you might spot the perfect opportunity to address right in the middle of The Plan.
The key seems to be to reflect as you go along. How is this lesson going? Who is struggling/who is staring out of the window bored rigid/who is excited and wanting to take it further. Any mismatches between your expectations and the reality need to be addressed there and then if you want to be applauded as a great teacher, not merely a "good enough" one. And if any learner, despite paying attention and trying their best, leaves the lesson more confused than when they started, then something has gone wrong and really it is your fault, not the child's fault.
Of course, some may have wasted the opportunity and mucked about in which case you share a joint responsibility – Why were they not engaged? Was there a wobbly foundation that made it difficult for them to benefit from your lesson? What did they have for breakfast? How much sleep did they enjoy last night? Are they preoccupied about something else entirely?
Teaching is not simple, but that is why it can be so very rewarding. The delicious unpredictability is just one of the many rewards.
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