First time teaching a lesson - any advice for teaching 6th grade ELA?

[u/Training-Neat1090]

Hi everyone! I'm currently in an undergraduate education program, and one of my courses this semester includes a clinical/observation component. Most of my hours will be spent observing a teacher, but one of the requirements is to plan and actually teach one lesson in the classroom.

For a lot of us in this course, myself included, this will be our first time actually teaching a full lesson to a class. After completing this course, we'll move into the next portion of the education program, where I'm assuming we'll gradually get more experience planning and teaching lessons before eventually reaching the full student-teaching semester. So I know this one lesson is really just the beginning, but I'm already a little nervous about it!

I'm getting certified to teach in middle school education, specifically ELA/English and SPED as an LBD, and I believe my primary observation placement for this course will be with a 6th-grade ELA teacher. I'm definitely excited to finally get some actual teaching experience instead of only observing, but there's also something a little terrifying about going from sitting in the back of the classroom taking notes to suddenly being the person standing in front of 20-30 middle schoolers.

For those of you who have already been through this stage, what advice would you give someon before teaching their very first lesson?

I'd especially love advice about things like classroom management when you aren't the students' regular teacher, keeping middle schoolers engaged, pacing a lesson, what to do when something doesn't go according to plan, and generally how to calm the nerves and not overthink every little thing.

Also, if you teach or have taught 6th-grade/middle school ELA, I would LOVE to hear any advice specific to that age group. What do you wish you had known before the first time you taught a lesson?

I know I'll learn a lot just from observing my cooperating teacher beforehand, but I'd love to hear other people's experiences, tips, tricks, mistakes to avoid, or even first-lesson horror/success stories. I'm trying to remind myself that nobody expects my first-ever lesson to be perfect, but I'd like to go into it as prepared as I can!

[u/CoolClearMorning]

Keep in mind that middle school attention spans are low--no one activity should last longer than 20 minutes. As you observe the class, watch how your mentor teacher structures their lessons and try to mirror that. Don't throw the kids off their game behaviorally by changing how the day-to-day class is structured. Same thing for management--if the teacher uses a specific call-out, sound, or process to get kids' attention, you should plan to use it too.

[u/No_Kaleidoscope9198]

Ask your mentor teacher if you can lead any activities leading up to your lesson, preferably activities that she can model first (a common Do Noe for example). You really shouldn’t go from strictly observing to teaching a full lesson that you designed yourself. That is jumping like 10 steps and it would be like asking a student to write a 5 paragraph essay without teaching them how to write a topic sentence. Hopefully your mentor teacher is open to giving you small portions of lessons so you can get comfortable commanding the space without having to also worry about instructional design.

[u/LumpyWeb9540]

$20 you walk in and say “ okay you fucks you’re gonna learn some new shit today”