Langevin Blog

No matter how well you plan, “stuff” happens. So, even though you have every intention of following your lesson plan to the letter, you always have to be prepared for the fact that sometimes even the best-planned lesson may go astray.

I have always been diligent about following the lesson plans created by the designers. After all, lesson plans are there to ensure I cover all the necessary content and in the right amount of time. And of course, this all needs to be done while meeting the needs of the learners. Right? Therefore, I must follow the lesson plan, without deviating from it in any way whatsoever. Or so I thought.

When I found myself in the middle of a particularly noisy and somewhat exuberant training class, where the learners were participating and sharing a great deal of information, all of a sudden I began to panic. As the clock ticked away and the learners continued to interact, I became more and more anxious. The reason? I was getting further and further behind on the lesson plan and if I didn’t do something quickly there was no way I was going to catch up.

As the learners were happily chatting and exchanging information, I took another look at the clock and abruptly said, “Okay, that’s enough. It’s time to get back on track. Turn to page 95 in your manuals.”

You could have heard a pin drop. Just like that I had completely altered the atmosphere of the room and, at the same time, turned a group of happy, interactive participants into a room full of sullen prisoners.

There were no difficult participants in this workshop, in fact as I mentioned before, this was a class full of highly interactive, eager-to-learn participants. There was only one difficult person in that training class that day, and that person was me.

With my newly subdued group of learners quietly paying attention, I managed to get the workshop back on track. We covered all the material and we were able to finish on time. I did not deviate from the plan.

But at what expense? Yes, I covered everything in the lesson plan. And yes, the learners got everything they needed. But was this a successful workshop? Absolutely not.

I had become so obsessed with following the lesson plan and presenting the content exactly the way I was supposed to, that I didn’t even consider some of the things I could have been doing to keep this group happy and interactive while still managing to stick to the agenda, and ultimately, the lesson plan.

In retrospect, I realized there were a lot of options available to me. If I had allowed myself to be a little more flexible and in-tune with the learners’ needs, I would have taken the opportunity to build on the interaction and provided different methods to present the content. Yes, it might have meant deviating a little from the lesson plan, but as long as the content was covered and there was value for the learners, I could have made the class much more successful.

So, the next time I have a class full of excited and eager learners, I will tap into that energy and use more interactive methods, such as brainstorming, peer-teaching, role-plays, or any other method that encourages interaction while still presenting content.  And if you want more useful tips for managing class time and the value of lesson plans, take a look at these other blog posts.

Ron

Tags: Difficult Participants, lesson plans, tips-for-trainers

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