Planning Class Activities

Both PWR 1 and PWR 2 meet for 110 minutes twice a week (or, occasionally, 75 minutes three times a week).  Even with these generous class times, careful sequencing of class activities is very important.

Some instructors type up lesson plans at the beginning of each week, making a few modifications over the course of the week; others jot down less formal ideas after class sessions so that class discussions almost entirely drive subsequent sessions.  No instructor should attempt to wing it. 

Here are some tips for planning each day’s class:

• Jot down the major things you want to accomplish during each class, focusing on what you want students to do.

• Decide what writing or speaking/presenting activities students will do during the class period.

• Make a list of announcements and reminders to give students, and decide whether you will do this at the beginning or the end of class.

• Plan an opening and closing to your class: you might open with a writing activity and end by asking a student to summarize the day’s work.

• Divide your class time into segments, estimating how many minutes to devote to announcements, activities, opening and closing.

• Try to vary the type of activity between different segments:  for example, individual writing, then small group discussion, then large-group synthesis of ideas.

• Take your notes to class and keep them near you.