TM4T S&F
The S&F method is a variation of BBL, which means it is based on the idea of bread and butter lesson. This means the structure of lesson which you regularly teach. You may be a creative soul who believes 'every lesson I teach is different' but you are very likely to teach variations of a small number of basic lesson patterns. This doesn't mean that you couldn't, shouldn't or won't teach different types of lesson, but if you teach 25 one hour lesssons a week, then the odds are that 20 of your lessons fit into one of between-two-and four basic patterns. Note that these do not represent single, specific lessons - these are the kinds of lesson that the teacher is going to deliver in this particular course. These 'templates' can - and should - be identified at the start of a course, and then improved on as the year progresses. The three examples below represent basic bread and butter lessons - pretty dull, arguably not inspiring enough, and entirely routine. For most courses, 80% of the lessons should more-or-less fit one of the templates and follow one of the scripts.
For clarity, here are three examples of lesson patterns, or lesson scripts; each describes exactly what happens in the lesson.
Example 1: Theory lessons usually take place in one of the portakabins, and - because there is no shelter outside, students are allowed to go straight into the classroom. There is a seating plan, which also represents the register (I mark empty seats as 'absent'). We do a brief starter - usually a 3-minute YouTube video, and then a review of what we did in previous lessons. Then the learning objective is written on the board. Almost invariably, we take the content of the theory straight out of the text book, and I just talk through the key points, or ask students to read out passages. The students then do the activities in their exercise books, and I walk around checking their understanding as they work. Towards the end of the lesson we have a question and answer session before handing out the homework - there is always homework after a theory lesson. I then review - again - where this lesson fits in with the course as a whole, and prepare the students for next lesson, which will be a practical lesson.
Example 2: For games lessons, the students line up outside the changing rooms till the bell rings. Then, without any formalities, they are told to go in and find a place to hang their bags. There's no 'seating plan' but there's plenty of room for the whole class. I then go round collecting valuables from students and the rule is that as soon as I've collected their stuff they can start to get changed. When they're ready, with their clothes tidy, they stand for kit inspection (depending on what they've been told to wear). We then go to the lesson site (gymn, court, field, wherever) and do a warm-up. I explain the lesson objective and remind them of where it sits in the syllabus (eg 'this is the last of your practical basketball lessons this term'). The students stand in a horsehoe for demonstrations and explanations and safety advice, then are allocated into groups/teams for a practical activity (usually about 10 minutes). I supervise this, and offer technique advice. Then we break off and I ask questions and point out any common mistakes or improvements. I then set quantitative targets for the next practical session (eg 'three hoops' or 'two successful defences' each student). The next session is a bit longer and I monitor who is/isn't achieving their targets. Then we warm-down, get changed, and finish.
Example 3: Around once each half-term, there are competitive matches which occupy most of a lesson, in which the students demonstrate practical skills, In these lessons, the teacher acts as referee. Changing is done as quickly as possible to maximise playing time, and the feedback given to the students is brief. All students are given an assessment of their performance in the next lesson, with targets - some aspect that they should try to improve.
Now, let's be crystal clear: the examples above aren't intended to be a great lesson structures; there may be things missing, there may be things wrong. Some of the lessons may look dull. This is sometimes the case in the regular everyday lessons we teach. In S&F, we start with what we do; and we write it down without embellishment or improvement; as a script describing the sequence and structure of a typical lesson. We still need differentation, and variety, and challenge and excitement, but these are in addition to this basic regular, formula. It is possible that these lessons are very bread-and-butter indeed. They may represent not just 'standard lesson structures for this course' but 'standard lesson structures for this teacher'. In terms of efficiency, this is clearly a good thing: if you can develop a standard way of teaching which works, then apply it across the board.
This, then, represents the 'S' in S&F - a Script which describes what will happen during the lesson - the series of steps which will be followed. This is a cookbook-style recipe which doesn't deal with any pedagogic principles, or even consider the objectives of the lesson. It just defines the structure. The 'F' in S&F stands for Features. What constitutes a feature? Absolutely anything else that you feel to be of importance or interest in relation to planning the lesson. Absolutely anything, but with one exception: the lesson features always includes the Objective of the lesson; even if Objectives is one of the steps in the Script.
So... the 'Features' are aspects of the lesson which require planning, but they Features themselves need to be chosen first. In many cases, the features will represent the standard pedagogic buzzwords: differentation, learning styles, literacy - whatever might appear on a 'traditional' lesson plan; things that an Ofsted inspector might expect to see demonstrated. However, that is not how S&F works: you can include anything under 'Features'; anything that you feel need to be emphasized, that you need to focus on, that you need to remind yourself about, or that you just need to plan ahead. Here is an example...
One distinctive feature of the S&F method is this: you do NOT plan one lesson at a time. As far as possible, every lesson should form part of a cohesive set of lessons, which we call lesson-groups. The 'S' part of S&F should be developed for the whole lesson group at one planning session.
The Lesson Group
Of course, not every lesson needs to fit neatly into a scheme of work or dovetail with a national curriculum; however, as a rule - and the rule is 80:20 - the majority of what you teach should follow a logical progression. Unfortunately terminology differs between levels, courses, and subjects - one man's module is another man's unit and so on, but in TM4T we follow this pattern consistently:
- each year's lessons for a particular group of students is a Course - yes, that means GCSE Food Tech is two courses, Y10 and Y11. We take this approach so that there is always a clearly defined break-point between one Year and the next. Each course should have a Gardening Calendar, breaking down the course into Units.
- each Unit should last roughly a term, and as far as possible, it should map onto some externally defined component of study: an exam-board unit, a module, a section of a text book or a generally-understood topic name.
- each Unit should be broken down into lesson-groups; each between 3 and 6 lessons long; as far as possible each should deal with a single cohesive topic of study.
This means that you look at what you have to teach for a group of lessons, and decide what type of lessons are involved.
Of course, PE teachers face a particular lesson planning challenge: the weather. It isn't always possible to plan next week's lesson with confidence: we may want to play cricket but this is difficult if the heavens open and hailstones descend. A sensible lesson-group is therefore flexible: it might consist of three practical lessons and two theory lessons, but is not too rigid or particular about which occurs when. Here is an example of a lesson-group (recorded as part of a Scheme of Work)
At this stage in the planning, almost no detail has been filled in. It's clear what each lesson is going to deal with, and assessment has been specified, but the actual content is still to be determined. What is clear, though, is what kind of lessons these are: three of them will follow the 'Games Theory' template and three of them will follow the 'Games Activity' template.