Minimal Preparation Activities: Time-Saving Teaching Techniques

Teachers are notoriously pushed for time. Somehow we have to plan and deliver classes, mark coursework, attend meetings, deal with emails, and make time for individual students and their parents. 

The good news is that there are lots of ways that we can reduce our prep time to make our workload more manageable. 

Exploit materials

When I did my diploma in TESOL, one of my tutors told me that the certificate in English language teaching is where you learn to plan and deliver lessons, whereas the diploma is where you learn to exploit every aspect of the classroom and adapt your lessons to your students’ needs.

This ability to see opportunities to exploit classroom activities and adapt to learner needs comes with experience. It also comes with trialing new techniques and noticing what your students need to practice. 

For example, a reading activity in class could be as simple as reading the text and answering comprehension questions. But you could extend and exploit it by having students do the following: 

1. Look closely at the style and format—discuss whether the text is formal or informal (and find examples), underline linking words and phrases, summarize paragraphs, identify and re-write topic sentences, create or re-write the title or heading. 
2. Identify new words—discuss their meaning, write definitions, create example sentences or questions, look for synonyms and antonyms. 
3. Explore phonics—underline interesting spelling rules or sounds, find other words with the same sounds, create tongue twisters or poems with these words. 
4. Look at parts of speech and gramma—blank out all the verbs, nouns, or adjectives and have students re-write the text with alternatives; draw attention to the usage of pronouns, prepositions determiners, or articles; discuss reasons for using certain grammar structures and look for alternatives.  
5. Perform or present—write a play and act it out, role-play a scene, write what happened before or after, do a presentation on a theme from the text. 

These are just some ideas. They are good to have on hand as extension options. They can also be used to give fast finishers a task as they wait for other learners to complete an activity. 

Graphic facilitation

As a graphic facilitation geek, I love having the ability to quickly draw an activity on the board at any point. Knowing a few simple visual tools can save a lot of preparation time. These can be used as a warmer, the main activity, or an extension task in a lesson.

For example, my Inner Troll Vs. Inner Angel activity involves drawing a devil and an angel on the board with a couple of thought bubbles. Students can then copy the depiction on a piece of paper and reflect on their negative and positive thought patterns. To end the activity, students rip up their common negative thoughts. This helps them consider how their brain plays a part in their confidence and can help or hinder them from completing their tasks or goals.

You can find more information about Graphic Facilitation here.

Dogme

A blog post about minimal preparation teaching wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Dogme. It is a communicative language teaching approach developed by Scott Thornbury and Luke Meddings. This method focuses on natural communication in the classroom rather than using published resources. It allows the teacher to find a topic that interests the students and create a lesson around that. 

Going into class without resources or a lesson plan might sound scary, but the Dogme approach follows a structure: 

1. Teachers and students decide on a topic. 
2. Learners participate in discussion or complete a task (e.g., read, watch a video, do a role-play) based on that topic. 
3. Students receive feedback on the task. Teacher draws attention to and provides practice of emergent language as well as feedback on language usage. 
4. Students engage in further classwork or homework allowing practice or emergent language or topic-related tasks. 

Language experience approach

The language experience approach is attributed to the work of Ashton Warner and Paulo Freire. I personally like to think of it as Dogme for the literacy classroom, as its aim is focused on providing reading and writing practice based on learner needs and interests. The approach is intended to start with a shared experience, such as a class trip or group craft activity, but I find it works just as well with shared knowledge of a topic.

Here are the stages:

1. Class shares an experience (e.g., visit the local library, create a vocabulary notebook). OR Class chooses a shared topic of interest (e.g., sports, gardening, cooking, childcare). 
2. The students describe the experience or suggest sentences to create a collaborative text about their topic of interest. The teacher writes these on the board. 
3. The teacher reads the full text to the class, pointing at the words on the board.
4. The class reads the text chorally as the teacher points at the words. 
5. Students copy the text to their notebooks. 
6. Students work in pairs to read the text aloud to each other. 

The text can then be exploited in many ways. For example, the teacher could: 

• Print it and cut out individual sentences or words. Students then put it back in order. 
• Invite students to circle interesting spellings or phonics rules and then practice them. For example, think of words with similar spellings, create a picture dictionary, and make sentences and short texts. 
• Erase certain words on the board. Students have to add the words back or add alternative words. 
• Have students write a similar text about them. The text could also be exploited using some of the activities I mentioned in the previous section above. 

Ellii resources

One of the best ways to save time as a teacher is to subscribe to Ellii. There are over 2,000 lessons on pretty much every topic and language point imaginable. Most can be printed or used as interactive online tasks. Students can develop their speaking, listening, reading, writing, pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. Many lessons are also focused on skills development such as employability, critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity. All you need to do is search for the perfect lesson, print it, and go to class! Here are some Sample lessons to get an idea of what you'll find on Ellii.

Here are a couple of blog posts with other ways to reduce your prep time: 

• 10 Zero-Prep Fillers
• How One Image Can Develop Literacy & Critical Thinking  
• 4 Ways to Use Videos Effectively in Class
• Engage Learners with Bell-Ringer Activities

These are just a few ideas that can reduce your preparation time. For more, you may want to check out the Teachers Talk Radio session I did with Graham Stanley on Minimal Preparation. 
 

How do you save time as a teacher? Have you tried any of these approaches? We’d love to know.