Programme / 5.2 Lesson Planning Fundamentals

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5.1 Understanding How Students Learn 5.2 Lesson Planning Fundamentals 5.3 Classroom Management 5.4 Student Engagement 5.5 Assessment Fundamentals 5.6 Differentiated Instruction 5.7 Communication with Students & Parents 5.8 Digital Teaching Fundamentals 5.9 AI Literacy for Teachers 5.10 Reflective Teaching Practice 6.1 Multilingual Classrooms: Uzbek, Russian & English Instruction 6.2 Teaching Large Classes Effectively 6.3 Early Literacy & Numeracy Foundations 6.4 Classroom Technology Basics 6.5 Working with Parents in a Multicultural Community 6.6 Wellbeing & Stress Management for New Teachers Programme (64) →

Session 4. Activities, Questions and Checks for Understanding

Objective. Choose an activity that matches one objective, write three key questions with wait time, plan one quick check for understanding, and predict the mistakes students will make.

Why this matters

You can plan a good activity and still not know whether students learned from it. In a class of 35, a few confident hands can hide the rest. This session helps you choose activities that practise the verb in your objective, plan questions before you stand at the board, and build small checks into the lesson so that you find out what is unclear in minute 20, not on the day of the test.

Key ideas

Match the activity to the verb

Look at the verb in your objective. 'Explain' needs students to explain, not to copy a paragraph.
Ask: after this activity, what will I see or hear that shows the objective was reached?
A busy class is not the same as a learning class. Cut an activity that keeps students busy but does not practise the verb.

Plan three key questions

Write them in advance, in your plan, in the words you will say. Good questions are rarely invented on the spot.
Mix levels: one recall question, one 'why' or 'how' question, one that asks students to apply an idea to a new case.
After you ask, wait 3 to 5 seconds before choosing a student. Say 'think first' so everyone knows to think.

Quick checks for understanding

Mini-whiteboards or paper: every student writes an answer and shows it at the same moment (30 seconds, 30 answers).
Exit ticket: one question on a scrap of paper in the last 3 minutes; sort the papers into 'got it', 'nearly', 'not yet' after class.
Hands-up poll with cards A, B, C, D on a multiple-choice question. Plan where in the lesson each check goes, not only at the end.

Plan for what students will get wrong

Before the lesson, write the one or two mistakes students are most likely to make. You know them from earlier years.
Write a question or example that would show the mistake, and what you will do if half the class makes it.
A wrong answer is information. Plan to thank it and ask 'what made you think that?'

The check-and-respond loop

1Askplanned question

2Wait3 to 5 seconds

3Everyone answerscard, paper or board

4Read the roomcount right and wrong

5Respondmove on or re-teach

Each check gives information you use in the very next minutes of the lesson.

Why one hand is not the class

When you ask a question and take the first answer, you learn what one student knows. The others may be thinking, copying the answer, or not following at all. A teacher cannot see this from the front of a crowded room, and nodding is easy to give without understanding.

A good check asks everyone to produce something at the same moment: a letter on a card, a number on a piece of paper, a sentence on a mini-whiteboard. You then see the whole room in under a minute. Decide in advance what a good answer looks like and what you will do if more than a third of the class shows a wrong one.

Questions need a plan and a pause

Questions that start a discussion rarely appear by chance. Write the main ones in your plan, in the words you will use, and decide who might be asked. A short recall question warms the class up; a why or how question makes students use the idea; a new case shows whether they can transfer it.

After the question, count silently to three or five before you choose a student. This wait time gives more students a chance to think, and the answers often become longer and more careful. Wait again after the answer, before you comment. If the answer is wrong, ask how the student reached it; the reasoning shows you where to teach.

Examples from the classroom

Cards in a Samarkand classroom

Scene. Aziz teaches Grade 7 algebra in Samarkand, 36 students. After explaining that 3x + 5 = 20, he asks which value of x is correct and gives four options on the board. Each student holds up a paper card marked A to D. He counts 20 answers for B, the correct one, and 12 for C. He pauses, asks a C student why, and re-teaches the subtraction step.

Insight. A simultaneous check shows the whole class in one minute. The wrong answers are teaching information.

Waiting for Dilnoza

Scene. Dilnoza teaches Grade 5 Uzbek language in Fergana. She used to call on the first hand. Now she asks, 'Why does this word take this ending?', says 'think first', and counts to five on her fingers. Seven hands rise instead of two. A quiet girl, Malika, gives a half answer. Dilnoza waits again and asks, 'What makes you think so?' The class hears a real explanation.

Insight. Wait time before and after an answer widens who takes part and improves the quality of thinking.

Exit tickets after Navruz

Scene. A Grade 3 Russian-medium teacher in Tashkent runs a lesson on the Navruz table and numbers to 100. In the last 3 minutes, 30 children write one sum, for example 45 + 20, on a scrap of paper. After school she sorts them into piles: 22 correct, 5 nearly, 3 not yet. Tomorrow she opens with the 5 and sits with the 3 for ten minutes.

Insight. An exit ticket costs three minutes and decides tomorrow's first ten minutes.

Common pitfalls

Asking 'Does everyone understand?' and treating nodding as evidence.
Choosing the activity first and the objective afterwards, so the task keeps students busy but does not practise the verb.
Accepting the first correct answer and moving on without hearing from anyone else.
Saving all checks for the last two minutes, when there is no time to respond.

Hands-on activity · ~50 min

Question Plan and Mistake Forecast

Take one objective from your own next lesson (or use the one in the 'Question Plan' sample in your Activity Kit). Write it at the top of the planner.
Review the sample Question Plan in pairs. Mark every place where the activity, a question or a check does not fit the objective or the 45 minutes.
On the planner for your own objective, choose one activity that practises the objective's verb and write three key questions at three levels, each with a planned wait time.
Choose one quick check (mini-whiteboards, exit ticket or card poll) and mark the minute where it goes in the lesson.
Fill in the Mistake Forecast: two likely mistakes, a question that would reveal each, and what you will do. Swap with a partner: can they name a third mistake?

Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.

Questions to discuss

Which question in your plan would get the most thinking from students, and why?
When will you know, during the lesson and not after it, that students have not understood?
Which mistake did your partner predict that you had not thought of?

Reflect

In your last lesson, how many students did you actually hear from before the end?
Which topic always produces the same mistake in your class? What question would reveal it early?
Which check can you run with only paper and pens in a class of 35?

Try it tomorrow

Write three questions in your plan for tomorrow, one recall, one why or how, one new case, and count to five after each.
Run one whole-class check with paper cards or mini-whiteboards in the middle of the lesson and note how many were wrong.
Before the lesson, write the one mistake you expect and the question that would show it.