Joseph Darton

I like to start off lessons with having a little chat about what’s currently going on in school and how the student feels about the topic they are currently studying. I’ll ask some general questions to gauge how much the students know and then base the content of the rest of the lesson on that. I’ll always put a diagram up so students have something visually stimulating to look at and will often play videos of diagrams to show how processes work. I ask questions often so the lessons are interactive and students become more comfortable answering questions.

Every few lessons I like to reassess how confident students feel in prior topics taught by using a traffic light system. When appropriate I will implement exam style questions at the end of lessons. These are not only to test knowledge but are a good way to practice exam technique and get familiar with the type of questions students will see in their exams.

In my experience, students learn best when they have some responsibility over their own learning. Discussions about why they may find a topic a little difficult are key to developing a good relationship with learning. If students struggle with memorization we will try to come up with mnemonics and phrases to remember things by. Likewise, if students struggle to write enough to get the most marks out of their answers we will try writing answers out in bullet point form to keep track of potential marks in each answer.