1. Students need to see the "Big Picture". Students need lessons that have direction, purpose, structure and lead to clear conclusions. Learning is much more difficult when students do not see where the instruction is headed.

Students want to know: "Why should I learn this?"

All of us relax and feel better about new information presented to us when we see the purpose or reason behind the learning. Imagine going on a car trip and the driver simply says, "Get in", and refuses to provide any further information no matter how many questions you ask. Would we enjoy the ride? Would we learn from the ride? Likely not. Most of us would quickly begin to resent the ride. We'd see it as a waste of time, or a theft of our time when we could be doing something else.

As teachers and subject professionals we know ( or should know) why we want the students to learn from our lesson. Too often, however, we do not share this with the students at all. They are the unwilling passengers on our car ride - which seriously limits their desire to learn from the ride.

Human memory is associative, meaning that new information is remembered better if it can be associated with previously acquired knowledge already firmly anchored in memory. When a student knows the bigger picture behind new learning, they can connect it to their existing experiences and memories. The brain connects the new learning to existing neural connections, making the new information easier to understand and remember. On the other hand, information that a person finds difficult to understand cannot be readily associated with already acquired knowledge, and so will usually be poorly remembered.

Always know where you are going with your curriculum, your unit of study and your lesson plan. Determine the "Essential Understandings" - information, concepts, skills - that the students need to acquire - for the entire course, for each unit of study, for each lesson. The "essential understandings" must be appropriate and suitable for the specific needs and abilities of your students. What's the key information you think the students should learn about this topic? Then find a way to make this come alive.

In our lessons we need to:

At the start of the course provide students with a "road map" of the planned course: key topics, concepts, themes, skills. Continually refer back to this during the term, showing what has already been achieved and what lies ahead.

Show the students how each lesson connects to past lessons and to future ones in terms of concepts, themes, skills.

Clearly explain what the purpose and expected outcomes of each lesson.

Explain and demonstrate connections between the skills, concepts, themes and content of this lesson with past lessons. Refer back and quickly review key points connected to past classes.

Create displays or Smartboard images that show student progress in the course, review key themes or skills.