What a Ski Lesson Taught Me About Lesson Planning

A lot of what I learned about teaching comes from a varied sporting experience. Probably the best lesson I ever experienced was a ski lesson. The instructor led us through a series of movements/skills, such as step turns, stem christie turns, etc. And at the end of the lesson, Voila! I was skiing. My body had intuited from the progression of experiences to ‘get’ on it’s own what it needed to do to ski.
I have often reflected on that experience, and tried to apply what happened then to what I do in the classroom in the way of facilitating the ‘speak English’ activity for my students.
Lessons as a whole need to be structured carefully to best facilitate student success with your goal or objective.
At the end of one of my lessons, one the students was sitting at her desk looking confused while the other students were all up and talking together. ‘I can’t do this,’ she told me, her confidence popped like a balloon. I told her the fault was not hers, but mine, for not being able to prepare her for the final speaking task.