Avoid these THREE mistakes in demonstration lessons

Demonstration lessons are part of being a teacher. In a previous post, I’ve put together a guide on how to create an A+ demo lesson. In this post, I’ll go through some common mistakes that teachers make in demo lessons.

Mistake #1: Too much complexity

Teachers are keen to impress during a demo lesson. You’ve got this narrow window to showcase your skills and abilities, so there may be a temptation to include a wide range of content. 

Problems can arise when teachers include too much content, in too much detail. In my experience, if a teacher’s included too much content, the following things can happen:

• the teacher speeds up — substantially — to try and fit all the content in. This can affect student engagement and understanding

• the teacher feels stressed and frustrated when it’s clear the content won’t fit into the lesson

• the teacher addresses some of this frustration and stress toward the students. This is never a good look.

Keep your lesson simple. Be clear on what students need to take away from the lesson and don’t vary widely from this focus. 

Also, make sure you teaching style is simple and concise. Avoid complexity. If there are definitions, give them to students, don’t make them try and guess them. Put the information on slides or written on the board and avoid extensive lecturing.

Mistake #2: Too much technology

Technology is a vital teaching tool. Teachers are expected to be comfortable with a range of technologies to assist with student engagement and understanding.

In a demonstration lesson, you should show a base level of competence with technology. But don’t go overboard.

If you have many technological elements, each interdependent and requiring things to unfold in a very specific way…you may be creating problems. For a demo lesson, keep the tech simple. Show you can use PowerPoint or Slides; that you can use videos (which have also been downloaded in case the internet goes down); and that you can use Word or Pages or Canva to create materials for students. 

It’s great that you can use Kahoot! or NearPod or Limnu. But is a high-pressure demo lesson the best time to deploy all these?

Keep it simple. And have print outs of your slides for your reference in case tech really fails you.

Mistake #3: The wrong type of activities

Choose your activities carefully. 

For example, if you read out a whole article together as a class, then ask students to complete related questions, this may not demonstrate a wide range of teaching skills. 

Likewise, is a cloze passage activity suitable for a senior class? And should you be asking true or false statements, multiple choice questions or more open-ended responses?

Go back to the purpose of the lesson and pick an activity that matches well to this. 

As a general plan, you could think about this kind of structure:

1. Introduce a stimulus to the class — it could be an image, quote, headline, video or excerpt from an article (only an excerpt — not the whole thing!)

2. Pose a question based on the stimulus. Ask students to think about this individually and write down their ideas

3. Get students to pair up with the person next to them and share their responses. Ask them to create a combined response

4. Come back together as a class. Make sure you, as teacher, connect the responses back to the content you discussed at the start.

Check out the video below for more detail on the mistakes to avoid in your demonstration lessons.

Do THIS to get your senior students involved in class

If you’ve got a senior class (Year 11 or 12), you know how important every single lesson is. 

But you also know that your senior students don’t always turn up ready to work. 

My favourite is when my Year 12 students, who have assessments in weeks and their major external examination in months, saunter into class pleading to “do something fun” this class.

I’m really sorry but we can’t play games. I apologise if you don’t see the required syllabus content as “fun” (let’s face it, I don’t either). But none of this means we can let a class slide.

So, what can you do? My suggestion is to centre the whole class around a past exam-style question.

Here’s the process

Let everyone come into class but don’t provide any preamble or explanation. Just put the question on the board. Or, even better, print out a copy for each student. I find that it helps with focus.

Then give the instruction: answer this question. Tell them if they can or can’t use notes (this is totally up to you). Give them a time limit too.

And then: remove yourself from the classroom. Not literally — you’ll encounter duty of care issues here. Just put your hands up and say, “I’m sorry, I can’t answer any of your questions. I’m not taking any questions right now.” Let them grumble and just move on.

Once the time is up, come back as a class and go through the question together. I suggest taking a board perspective and asking students follow-up questions such as (in no particular order):

• what are typical mistakes that students might make in a question like this?

• what syllabus dot points does this question relate to?

• what are some other ways of answering this question?

The key idea here is to put the students in the deep end. I’m not saying this is always guaranteed to work but it could be a useful strategy to try on those trying afternoons.

How to give an effective teaching demo lesson

When you’re going for a teaching job you may be asked to perform a demonstration lesson. This can be a tricky task.

You’re being asked to turn up in an unfamiliar classroom at an unknown school and teach. And not just teach! You want to turn up and shine and put yourself in the best position possible to get the job.

I’ve participated in demo lessons and I’ve observed demo lessons. I’ve seen successful and unsuccessful approaches. I thought about all this and distilled three keys to delivering a successful demo lesson.

1. Be super clear on the content you’re delivering

You want to know exactly what content you should be teaching in the demo lessons. You don’t want an approximate idea or a rough indication; you want the precise syllabus dot point, text book pages or concept.

During the recruitment process, I recommend you try and speak directly to the classroom teacher, whose class you’ll be teaching, to be really clear about what you should be teaching. This could be via email, or indirectly through the HR person running the recruitment process.

Once you’re “super clear”, don’t engage in major tangents. Once a class is yours, you can spend some time exploring related issues that link to the syllabus points. But, in a demo class, stay very constrained and focused on the correct content area.

2. Hook your audience with the intro

Spark interest with your intro. Try and avoid starting with, “Today, we’re going to be looking at [insert content area here].” Do something unexpected, to spark a sense of mystery and engagement among the students.

Some ideas for engaging intros include:

• quirky headlines taken from news articles

• interesting photos or videos whose meaning are not immediately obvious

• a short quote.

Unfamiliar items can lead to student engagement. Student engagement is a crucial factor in student learning. By creating this kind of intro, you’re demonstrating your skills in involving students in your lessons from the very start.

Check out my video below for how I’ve used a sneaker-related intro.

3. Use a mix of teacher- and student-led activities 

In your demo lesson, you want to demonstrate you can teach a specific concept AND have students independently work on tasks. This is tough balance to strike.

Here’s my suggestion. Use part of the lesson to clearly and concisely teach the content in question. Use some slides to help with this process. Incorporate definitions, formulas, some perspectives — that kind of thing. But keep it small and tightly focused.

Then make sure you include a student-led activity. This could be individual or pair work where you set a task and allow the students to work through it, using the content from the first part of the lesson as a basis.

Please: avoid group work. Pairs, and then combining two pairs would be the max. The problem with group work is that you don’t know the class dynamics and you could create groups that undermine your lesson.

Is this the best question to ask students?

Early in my teaching career I asked really poor questions of students. I also asked way too many. 

For example, I had this one lesson observation where the observing teacher counted the number of questions I asked. It averaged around 3 a minute, with most of these being closed questions. It was pretty frenetic, and not conducive to students having time to think.

So I reflected on my question answering technique and looked for ways to ask more open and useful questions. I use one technique in particular that has helped me move away from “yes/no” responses and towards having students articulate their thinking process.

This technique is the use of the question: “What makes you say that?”

Let’s say we’re looking at the causes of World War One. And I ask the students to answer the question: “In your opinion, what was the most important cause of World War One?”

Hands go up. One student — “The alliances between European nations”.

Me: “Okay, sure. But what makes you say that? Out of all the causes we’ve studied, why do you say this one is the most important?

Here, I’m asking the student to go a level deeper and to explain their thinking. What is the reasoning and evidence behind their answer? Or do they lack reasoning and evidence? (Also a great bit of feedback as a teacher.)

We’re going beyond ‘wrong versus right’ and ‘yes versus no’. We’re trying to peer into the students’ heads and witness their thinking processes.

This technique can used in all subjects across a broad range of contexts. I like to have students sometimes answer the “What makes you say that?” in written format too. 

A word of warning

Don’t overuse this technique. If every second question you ask is, “What makes you say that?”, students might start parodying your style. I know, students can be mean.

So — use the same type of question by change up the wording. Think about:

• Why would you answer the question this way?

• Why would you choose that response?

• Why wouldn’t you choose this response instead?

• What evidence could you use to support this idea?

Maybe you already use this question or you’re looking to adopt it. Let me know in the comments what you think of it and how it has worked with your students.

You should (consider) changing your multiple choice answers

I vividly remember teacher after teacher telling me DON’T change my multi choice answers.

“Your first answer is most likely the most correct,” I heard their collective voices say.

You may have heard some similar advice. But what if this piece of conventional advice is wrong? What if we should think again about changing our minds — with multis and life in general?

This is the premise of a book by Adam Grant, an organisational psychologist, a bit of a rock star academic, who has best selling books, popular TED talks and a large following.

Grant has written a book titled Think Again. The tag line: “Discover how rethinking can lead to excellence at work and wisdom in life.”

Another few choice quotes: 

• “Embrace the joy of being wrong”

• “You don’t have to believe everything you think”.

The reason the book stood out to me is because Grant has a section in the prologue focused on multiple choice questions. He discusses the conventional belief about not changing your first answers and then offers two contrary views.

First, he discusses that when a group of psychologists reviewed thirty‑three studies, “they found that in every one, the majority of answer revisions were from wrong to right”. 

Second, he talks about how psychologists counted eraser marks on the exams of more than 1,500 students in Illinois. Only a quarter of the changes were from right to wrong, while half were from wrong to right. 

So, what should you take from this? 

Let’s start with something you should avoid: don’t second guess yourself as you go through the multis in an exam. Annotate the questions, eliminate the least likely and go for the most correct response (based on the key words of the question).

Here’s something you can apply from Grant’s work. When you are reviewing your multi choice answers, consider changing your response. Consider the fact that you may have another look, ‘think again’, and discover a more correct response. This is an acceptable strategy and, as the research shows, it can be an effective one.

Also, I suggest reading the whole book. It’s a really interesting read with lots of great real-world examples. Adam Grant’s book always make me feel wicked smart. Also, check out my video on the topic below.

Advice for those trying to land a teaching job

For a new teacher, it can be hard to land that first job. 

What advice would I give people trying to crack into teaching and be hired without having extensive experience in the classroom?

I say: start a YouTube channel.

Teaching can feel like being stuck in an experience loop. You can’t get the job until you’ve got more experience; you can’t get more experience until you’ve got the job. This can be enormously frustrating.

Part of proving your worth as a teacher is showing (not just telling!) that you have the skills necessary for effective teaching. That you have a positive and engaging presence. That you can clearly and concisely explain complex concepts. 

YouTube can be the perfect channel to demonstrate this. Let’s say you want to teach Economics but you don’t have an Economics teaching job. Start a YouTube channel focused on Eco content. No major investment required. Use your phone or laptop to record videos of you teaching Economics content, drawn specifically from HSC syllabus (or Biology or English content, or whatever subject you’re focused on).

In discussions with schools, share your YouTube channel. 

I’m giving this advice because my own YouTube channel helped me land my first job. My channel was much smaller then, only a few videos, but I had this video on automatic stabilisers (see below) that I put a lot of effort into. As part of my application process, I shared this video (see below), discussed why and how I made it, and how this would be part of my teaching approach.

The panel watched the video and told me that it was a positive factor in their decision-making process.

It can be tricky to make videos. It can be trickier to make videos that you’re happy with. But, as a starting point, you can use Zoom to make these videos. I’ve got an instructional video below you can check out.

The important point is that YouTube allows you to get experience in being a teacher without having to be employed, for now, as a teacher.

Linking this to COVID

Let’s say that remote learning, in some form, continues. You can demonstrate your ability to teach via a screen really well through a YouTube video. Just give it the same effort and energy that you would give an actual class.

This can be helpful if schools may not be able to bring you on to campus in the near future.

What’s the difference between debt and deficit?

Debt and deficit are not the same thing. Many students (and adults) struggle with this distinction.

I can see why. I mean, these two terms sound similar. And they're quite closely linked. But something I try and push in my classes is the need to be precise. This goes back to my journalism days where a colleague once told me that each line of writing needs to be clear and accurate, free from misunderstanding.

This takes us to debt and deficit. Let’s start with deficit. A deficit is when spending exceeds income. Basically, an individual is in deficit when their expenditure is greater than what they earn - - from jobs, investments, etc.

By spending more than they have, these people are in deficit. If we look at this from a government context, if government spending (G) exceeds taxation revenue (T, the main source of government income), then the government is in deficit. More specifically, the government runs a budget deficit.

OK - - this is deficit. And now debt?

As a government, if I'm running a deficit, my spending commitments are larger than my resources. And if I wish to follow through with my planned spending, I need to find the extra money. Most likely I need to borrow the amount of money to fill the gap between spending and revenue.

By borrowing money, the government will incur debt. In this way, a budget deficit will create the need for debt.

Theoreticallly, I could have a deficit but no debt. However, this means I cannot follow through on all my spending commitments. I don’t have sufficient funds. If I'm a business and I have deficits but don’t borrow to fund these deficits, I might have to shut down.

Hopefully this helps to clarify the difference between debt and deficit. They're similar but not the same.

SOLVED (sort of): Too many questions, too little time for answers

The answer to the following question is yes. Can students ask too many questions? 

As a teacher, I’m constantly striving for student engagement. When students are engaged, they are switched on and thinking. And when students are thinking, they have the opportunity to learn. As my former colleague Ryan Gill would tell me, “there is no learning without thinking”. 

Source: Project Zero (Harvard University). “Learning is a consequence of thinking.” Click on the image for more.

This year I have a class that is full of very switched on students...who are relentless with their questions. Yes, it would be much worse to contend with a room full of disengaged and disconnected students, kept company by your own gradually fading voice. The issue for me is that the questions are fired away which removes the space and time to think. 

The other issue is that when a student raises their hand, they’re focused on the question in their head and getting an immediate answer. They’re not following what’s going on in the class with the same level of attention. They can’t: their focus is too dissipated.

So I want to encourage questioning and help students clarify concepts. I also want students to hold on to their questions a little more, give themselves some space and time to consider if they actually know the answer themselves or whether the question is actually worth asking.

There’s also the concern for my own sanity. The fusillade of questions saps my own energy and ability to focus. 

Serendipity struck. Amantha Imber is an organisational psychologist and has this great podcast called ‘How I Work’. On this particular episode, Amantha interviews Cal Newport, a computer science professor and bestselling author. Newport has written the popular books Deep Work and Digital Minimalism.

Imber’s podcast episode was centred around Newport’s latest book, A World Without Email. In their conversation, they discussed how emails disrupted the flow of work, robbing people of their ability to focus on particular tasks. And these emails would focus on issues that would then require follow-up emails, that would then need to be replied to, that would then also need to be replied to…

Newport has a solution: office hours. These involve set times when someone would be available for people to drop in with their list of questions and have them all answered in one go. Doing this in person allows for some back and forth, and generally much more efficient interactions than long, looping email chains. Freed of these emails, workers can spend less time on unscheduled communication and more time focusing on tasks.

Now, how does this apply in the classroom? I have started creating ‘office hours’ within the classroom. I use a tool, Padlet, and ask students to post their questions to the Padlet during class. Hands go up...and I tell them to come down. “Put it on the Padlet,” I say. Students list their questions and, hopefully, they might notice that other students have already put down the same questions. Students can also provide answers to someone else’s question. 

An example of a Padlet with student questions and my responses.

Then, at a time of my choosing, I turn to the Padlet and tackle the questions. I project the questions to the class and go through them methodically. I type or write the answers in the program so students can go back to the Q and A at a later stage to help consolidate their knowledge.

Look, it’s not a perfect solution. I have to remember to check the Padlet and sometimes I end up calling on students and break my own rules. But when I have been diligent, it’s given us all a bit more time and space. The ‘office hours’ have been a useful addition to giving students and teacher some more opportunities to think and hopefully learn. I’ll keep you posted on how this strategy develops.

My current annoyance with marks

In terms of, well, everything, marks are extremely frustrating to me. You hold an assessable task. Students crave the marks. Teachers obsess over the marks. Then...the marks disappear and the process starts again.

In an ideal world, the marks would disappear and the feedback would stick. In fact, in an ideal world, students would compare feedback with each other, rather than marks. They would take the time to carefully consider the feedback that teachers have carefully considered. 

I have lots of grudges against marks. But today’s issue is that marks are a snapshot of where students have been, rather than where they could be.

Students are fixated on a number that represents a point in time in the past. That’s the mark. Feedback, however, represents where students could be in the future. I think that’s more valuable. 

There’s this great documentary on Netflix called The Playbook that looks at different coaches and their approaches. The first ep is with NBA coach Doc Rivers. He makes this great point about how coaches aren’t focused on where a player is today but rather where they could be tomorrow. And this is the power of feedback. 

Good quality feedback is like the road map to future success. Marks are like looking in the rearview window. Students have the choice about where their focus lies. 

Also: I’d really love to see students compile a list of all teacher feedback they’ve received and look to apply it to all their future tasks. It’s something I’ve suggested, but no-one’s bit so far.

Help students add more detail

I recently marked Year 12 half-yearly exams and the two most comment bits of feedback I gave:

• Be specific

• Fully explain your points.

Generally, I find student responses meander. They don’t give concrete details and they only offer superficial explanations. This is frustrating — for students and teachers. For students, because they can’t access higher marks. For teachers, because students could do so much better if they only did some elaboration.

I try and help my students provide more detail and explanation through a particular activity. I’ve named this ‘What works, what doesn’t’.

I make it simple for myself. I take a past exam multiple choice question, such as the one I’ve included below. This comes from the 2017 NSW Economics HSC (Source: NESA).

Then, I paste this onto a doc and create a very simple table that sits below the multi question.

Students then complete the task. They must provide the explanation — the specifics, the details — to clearly articulate why the response is correct or why it is incorrect.

I make it clear to students: if you say, “because it’s the right answer” or “because it’s wrong answer”, that’s insufficient. You’ll be asked to try it again. 

As I circulate in the class, there’s a couple of prompts I’ll use to get students to add to their explanation:

• What makes you say that? (Thanks Project Zero!)

• Why is this the case? 

• What’s the error in logic that’s being made here?

An extra step is having students go through the process verbally. To have them provide their explanations in a conversation with you, rather than writing them down. This is time consuming and it’s not possible to interact with every student in this way. But, when you can do it, I find it very valuable in checking on student understanding and their ability to explain. In detail.