In addition to a delivery calendar and scheme of learning, every lesson has a simple lesson plan in PowerPoint format that you can share with students on the board. There is no planning for you to do. Simply ensure our resources are on your school network or VLE, project the plan and let the lesson unfold.

LESSON STRUCTURE

Each lesson plan has the following slides:

1. Starter activity
2. Starter activity answer
3. Homework
4. Key question
5. Objectives
6. Theory activity
7. Practical activity
8. Objectives review

EASY TO FOLLOW

Our lesson plans are very straightforward for a reason. We want you to be able to follow them in the lesson with almost zero preparation. Therefore, they cannot be detailed with lots of information for you to remember!

A TYPICAL CRAIG’N’DAVE LESSON

We advocate the flipped classroom approach to teaching Computer Science because it removes the need for the teacher to lead endless slides of boring PowerPoint presentations from the front of the classroom. Instead, with very little teacher-talk, our students engage with activities from the very first minute of the lesson.

Students should watch one or more of our videos BEFORE the lesson for homework.

Starter

5 mins – every lesson has a starter activity that should be shown to the students on the board, so they are “engaged on entry”. These are throw-away activities that just get the students thinking about the topic before the lesson starts.

Set homework for next lesson

2 mins – students make a note of which video to watch for homework in their diaries, or whatever method your school uses.

Share the key question and objectives

1 min – objectives are shared with students, included in the plan.

Theory activities

20 mins – most lessons are split into two main parts: theory and programming activities. Using the notes that students took for homework, they complete pages in the PowerPoint format workbook. Instructions for students are written in the notes section of each slide but can also be introduced by the teacher. Use this time to question individual students more deeply about their understanding of the topic.

Where is the differentiation?

Our workbooks capture what ALL students need to know for examinations. Therefore, we do not differentiate these activities by task. We make them suitable for everyone. Differentiate in the interactions you have with students about the theory and work they are producing. The second half of the lesson with programming is differentiated by task.

Where is the challenge?

Challenge is not going beyond the specification, it is understanding links and having a deeper appreciation of the theory they need to know for their exam. Achieve that with your interactions with students by posing them open questions. More challenge is introduced in the second half of the lesson with programming.

Programming and practical activities

25 mins – students largely work independently on programming. We provide both learning tasks, and differentiated challenges in Python. The time is flexible. Some lessons will require more time for theory, others less. You may also want to have the occasional full lesson just working on programming.

Read more about our programming resources.

Plenary recap and questioning

7 mins – recap objectives at the end of the lesson. You can also use this time to have class discussions and question overall understanding of the objectives of the lesson.

TAKING A MORE TRADITIONAL APPROACH

Our resources can be used with any teaching style, we are showing you how we teach. If you would rather lead the learning by teaching the content from the front of the class before introducing activities that will work too. You will probably need to have distinct theory and programming lessons in order to have enough time. You will need to make sure your teaching covers the theory needed to complete the activities in the workbook. Our programming resources also work with all styles of teaching.