Five-minute lesson plan: A teacher's guide
A teacher's guide to the five-minute lesson plan: save time whilst getting your class to do more learning.
What is a Five-Minute Lesson Plan?
A Five-Minute Lesson Plan is a rapid planning method that uses the universal thinking framework to create rigorous learning experiences in just five minutes. It transforms traditional time-consuming lesson planning into a creative design process by using specific learning actions organized in a taxonomy. This approach helps teachers build well-constructed lessons that promote independent student thinking.
The universal thinking framework was designed to help teachers create rigorous learning experiences. These educational journeys could be schemes of work, projects or individual lessons. Effective lessons facilitate good thinking and that's exactly what this taxonomy is all about. Using the learning actions that are organised in our taxonomy, teachers have been able to create a 5-minute lesson plan that gets everyone thinking for themselves. Using this lesson planning method, teaching staff have been able to create well-constructed classroom experiences and save valuable time. Lesson planning for too long has been a burden for teachers, the universal thinking framework transforms this process into a creative act of learning design.
Key Takeaways
- The Five-Minute Revolution: Transform weekend PowerPoint marathons into rapid lesson design that actually increases student thinking while reclaiming your personal time.
- Backwards Planning Breakthrough: Start with ambitious endpoints and reverse-engineer learning steps that boost student confidence and engagement through manageable chunks.
- Learning Actions That Work: Master specific verbs like 'identify', 'categorise', and 'rank' that give students clear directions and naturally lead to independent learning.
- Differentiation Without Doubling Workload: Adapt how pupils process content rather than creating multiple tasks: one framework that challenges high-flyers while scaffolding strugglers.
We encourage educators to think about an ambitious and goal, this usually explains what a student should be able to do with their new knowledge and skills. Using this as an end point, we then work backwards and think about the individual steps involved in reaching this destination. This exercise involves educators taking on a metacognitive mindset, and we have to imagine not knowing what we already know which in its self, it's quite a skill. Thinking about a piece of learning as a series of smaller steps provides us with a more manageable mindset of how to proceed through a task. This can have a positive impact on students engagement and confidence. An actual lesson plan will probably take longer than five minutes but nonetheless, you could certainly thrash out the skeleton of a lesson using a methodology such as the thinking framework.
How Do You Create an Effective Five-Minute Lesson Plan?
Start by identifying an ambitious end goal that explains what students should be able to do with their new knowledge and skills. Work backwards from this endpoint, breaking down the learning journey into manageable steps using specific action verbs like 'identify', 'categorise', and 'rank'. This reverse-engineering approach requires a metacognitive mindset where you imagine not knowing what you already know.
Often seen as a mandatory part of teaching practice, the lesson plan can cause headaches for teachers. We have taken a slightly different approach using this new set of planning tools. The key question we start with is 'How do you want them to think about the task?'. This metacognitive question requires a bit of reverse engineering. We are inviting the teacher to break down the lesson structure into bite-size chunks. These chunks or learning actions and explained individually in the universal thinking framework. Breaking a complex task into stages of lesson planning enables us, the educator to really think about what success looks like.
Traditional lesson plan templates can be cumbersome and ultimately become a burden for teachers. We like to think about the lesson planning process as being akin to giving someone a set of clear geographical directions. Having the process broken down into manageable chunks means that we can really think through how to get students from 'A' to 'B'. Creating a set of easy to follow instructions ultimately reduces lesson anxiety as your pupils will know exactly how to achieve their goals.
What Are the Steps to Design a Five-Minute Lesson Plan?
First, define your ambitious learning endpoint that describes what students will accomplish. Next, reverse-engineer the learning path by identifying specific learning actions students must complete to reach that goal. Finally, organize these actions in a logical sequence using the universal thinking framework's taxonomy of verbs.
Recently we created a challenge for a group of inexperienced teachers. Using the universal thinking framework, could they break down a complex science task into a series of smaller actions. Initially, they were not very happy with the allocated planning time but they all managed to produce quite brilliant five-minute lesson plans. Each member of staff then talk their way through their lesson structure. Learning actions provide teachers and students with a clear language for learning. This means that it becomes easier to direct students attention in the right direction. Each teacher then emphasised the learning verb in their plans, for example:
1. Can you identify the effects of...
2. Categorise those effects according to...
3. Rank the effects in terms of how serious they are...
4. Explain your reasoning to the other groups...
Ironically, this type of direct instruction leads to independent learning as the pupil begins to understand what these learning actions mean.
What Makes a Good Five-Minute Lesson Plan?
A good Five-Minute Lesson Plan includes clear learning actions with specific verbs that give students precise directions for independent work. It features backwards-planned steps that build student confidence through manageable chunks of learning. The plan should also incorporate differentiation through varied processing methods rather than creating multiple separate tasks.
In the UK, OFSTED the school Inspectorate, want to see an appropriate level of challenge in the lesson. The framework allows teachers to differentiate a task with ease. A learner who may struggle with a particular piece of content can have the learning scaffolded. Meanwhile, that group of learners who always finish first, we can have a task ready that's really going to 'stretch' them. This approach ensures that there is no ceiling on the learning and the lesson can go in different directions. The classroom teacher can adapt the way in which a pupil processes the content instead of creating a completely different task. This ensures educational equity for all members of your school community. Whether you are running sessions for trainee teachers or facilitating CPD for senior leaders, the planning resources provide a launchpad for a rich dialogue around learning. Primary teachers are also using the statements attached to the learning actions to create deeper assessments.
How Do Five-Minute Lesson Plans Reduce Teacher Workload?
Five-Minute Lesson Plans eliminate weekend PowerPoint marathons by providing a rapid framework for lesson design that takes just five minutes to complete. The universal thinking framework provides pre-organized learning actions, removing the need to create activities from scratch. This method also reduces differentiation workload by adapting how students process content rather than creating multiple versions of tasks.
The ultimate aim of the universal thinking framework was to create a toolkit that teachers could use to optimise learning processes. It quickly became apparent that it was saving teachers a lot of time. Every weekend thousands of teachers spend their free time creating powerpoints that will only be used once. With the right tools, this sort of teacher stress can be bypassed and as a profession, we can work smarter. As an organisation, we are working with student teachers to support them in adopting these time-saving approaches. We firmly believe that we can increase the amount of cognitive work that the pupils are doing and at the same time reduce the amount of teacher preparation time involved. Get your spare time back and get them really thinking!
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is a Five-Minute Lesson Plan and how does it differ from traditional lesson planning?
A Five-Minute Lesson Plan is a rapid planning method that uses a universal thinking framework to create rigorous learning experiences in just five minutes. It transforms traditional time-consuming lesson planning into a creative design process by using specific learning actions organised in a taxonomy, helping teachers build well-constructed lessons that promote independent student thinking.
How do you actually create a Five-Minute Lesson Plan step by step?
Start by identifying an ambitious end goal that explains what students should be able to do with their new knowledge and skills. Work backwards from this endpoint, breaking down the learning journey into manageable steps using specific action verbs like 'identify', 'categorise', and 'rank', then organise these actions in a logical sequence using the universal thinking framework's taxonomy.
What are the specific learning action verbs mentioned in the framework and how do they work?
The framework uses specific verbs like 'identify', 'categorise', 'rank', and 'explain' to give students clear directions for learning tasks. These learning actions provide teachers and students with a clear language for learning, making it easier to direct students' attention in the right direction and ultimately leading to independent learning as pupils understand what these actions mean.
How can Five-Minute Lesson Plans help with differentiation without increasing teacher workload?
The framework allows teachers to adapt how pupils process content rather than creating completely different tasks for different ability levels. Struggling learners can have the learning scaffolded, whilst high-achieving groups can be given tasks that 'stretch' them, ensuring there's no ceiling on learning and the lesson can go in different directions whilst maintaining educational equity.
What makes a Five-Minute Lesson Plan effective for promoting independent learning?
A good Five-Minute Lesson Plan includes clear learning actions with specific verbs that give students precise directions for independent work. The backwards-planned steps build student confidence through manageable chunks of learning, and the direct instruction paradoxically leads to independent learning as pupils begin to understand what the learning actions mean.
How much time do Five-Minute Lesson Plans actually save teachers in practice?
Five-Minute Lesson Plans eliminate weekend PowerPoint marathons by providing a rapid framework that takes just five minutes to complete the skeleton of a lesson. The universal thinking framework provides pre-organised learning actions, removing the need to create activities from scratch and significantly reducing the traditional burden of lesson planning on teachers' personal time.
Can Five-Minute Lesson Plans really work for inexperienced teachers or complex subjects like science?
Yes, the article describes a challenge where inexperienced teachers successfully used the universal thinking framework to break down complex science tasks into smaller actions within the allocated planning time. Each teacher was able to produce brilliant five-minute lesson plans and talk through their lesson structure using clear learning verbs, demonstrating the method's effectiveness across experience levels and subject areas.
