Episode sponsor

This episode of the Mr Barton Maths Podcast is kindly supported by Oxford University Press’s new Key Stage 3 maths curriculum called Mosaic.

You can find out more by searching for Oxford Smart Mosaic or visiting here

Episode details

This time around I spoke to maths teacher, Craig Latimir. We discussed Craig’s process for planning a maths lesson.

I asked Craig the following questions, and plenty more besides:

1. What did your lesson planning process use to look like, and what problems did this lead to in the classroom?
2. What are your overall principles of planning now?
3. Do you plan in terms of individual lessons, a sequence of lessons, or a hybrid?

And then Craig takes us through the key phases of a lesson, describing how he plans them and exactly how they play out in the lesson, including

1. The Do Now
2. Exposition
3. Modelling
4. Checking for understanding
5. Responsive teaching 
6. Practice
7. End

I have entitled this episode how to plan a maths lesson, but I suspect the key principles could apply to other subjects. So please feel free to share with your non-maths colleagues if you think this is the case.

Resources from the episode:

•  The PowerPoint of Craig’s lesson
•  Craig’s departmental handbook

Useful time-stamps:

• Craig and I discuss our past lesson planning crimes (15:01)
• Craig shares his key principles for lesson planning (22:45)
• Craig tells us the first thing he thinks about when planning (52:18)
• Craig discusses how he plans and delivers the Do Now (57:18)
• Then the exposition (1:20:37)
• Then modelling (1:29:04)
• Then how he questions and checks for understanding (1:44:32)
• Then how he responds to those checks (1:59:56)
• Then the practice phase (2:08:00)
• And finally the end of the lesson (2:16:15)
• I begin my reflection on all I learned from Craig (2:55:36)

Videos

I have made videos of 10 key parts of our conversation. Feel free to share them with colleagues or use them in departmental meetings or CPD sessions:

Here are the direct links to all videos:

1. Lesson planning mistakes
2. Lesson planning principles
3. Lesson planning: the first thing to think about
4. Lesson planning: the Do Now
5. Lesson planning: exposition
6. Lesson planning: modelling
7. Lesson planning: check for understanding
8. Lesson planning: responsive teaching
9. Lesson planning: practice phase
10. Lesson planning: the end

For hundreds of other video tips, check out Tips for Teachers, and remember to subscribe to the Tips for Teachers YouTube channel so you never miss a video

On Twitter Craig is: @Teach_Solutions

My usual plugs:

• You can help support the podcast (and get an interactive transcript of this episode) via my Patreon page at patreon.com/mrbartonmaths
• If you are interested in sponsoring an episode of the show, then please visit this page
• You can sign up for my free Tips for Teachers newsletter and my free Eedi newsletter
• My online courses are here: craigbarton.podia.com
• My books are “Tips for Teachers“, “Reflect, Expect, Check, Explain” and “How I wish I’d taught maths”