Planning the lesson
Teaching an engaging and impactful class takes preparation and practice. While the specifics may vary based on your unique teaching style and type of class, every class has common stages requiring careful planning.
In this chapter, we’ll cover the various types of classes you may lead as a TA, their purpose, and provide instructional techniques[1] and a sample lesson plan for you to reuse and adapt.
General teaching tips
- Establish tips for success – this includes clarifying how students will be graded and assessed, and what participation means in your section: keep in mind varying levels of comfort with public speaking as you build the classroom culture.
- Greet your students as they arrive
- Share an agenda of the class’s activities on the board
- Maintain eye contact when speaking, make sure to scan the room with your eyes.
- Speak clearly and project your voice[2] – some rooms come with a microphone if needed.
- Move around the room, especially when students are working on their own or in groups. Don’t forget about those sitting in the back!
- Check for understanding, Ask students if they have any questions or challenges – they may not speak up at first. You can also try answering questions strategically so as to not provide the answer right away.
Tutorials
Tutorials are generally meant as a space for students to diver deeper into content presented earlier by the instructor and practice concepts. This is a great opportunity for formative feedback from peers and the TA to better understand the material and correct any faulty thinking. Although tutorials will run differently depending on your discipline, the most common tutorial types are: discussion-based, problem-solving, review and Q&A, and practice or studio tutorials.
Discussion-based tutorials
These tutorials focus on a deeper exploration of course content through discussions and debates.
A sample lesson plan for discussion-based tutorials
This lesson plan works for a class size of about 30-50 students, for class time of about 90 minutes.
| Activity | Duration | Description | Configuration |
| Welcome & admin | 5 mins | Welcome students, share announcements, review class agenda including learning outcomes, and introduce or refresh the topic | Whole class |
| Pre-assessment | 5 minutes | Use the 3-2-1 technique to check students’ understanding of the instructor’s lecture. In pairs, students name three things learned from the instructor’s lecture, two things you found interesting, and one question you still have.
Post each pair’s answers in a shared document. |
Pairs, can be formed by proximity |
| Review | 15 minutes | Review the 3-2-1 activity responses together. Answer questions or provide clarifications as needed. | Whole class |
| Activity Part 1 | 30 minutes | Using the Jigsaw method, TA proposes five topics for groups to form as ‘experts’. These topics can come from the frequent questions in the 3-2-1 activity. Students take 20 minutes to review their topic and prepare for teaching it for five minutes | Groups of seven students |
| Activity Part 2 | 25 minutes | Continuation of Jigsaw method. Groups reconfigure to have one representative from each ‘expert’ group. Students take turns teaching each other, presenting for about five minutes with time for a few questions. | Groups of five students |
| Post-assessment | Remaining time | ‘One-minute paper’ – reflection question. Use Microsoft Forms. This can be used to inform the following lecture or tutorial. Introduce, give students time to set up, then set a timer for one minute for responses | Individual |
Download the sample discussion-based lesson plan as a Word document.
Preparation needed
Shared document for 3-2-1 activity responses, Microsoft Form for One-minute paper
Other instructional activities
You can replace the Jigsaw activity in the lesson plan above with other instructional activities such as:
- Support a statement
- Analytic teams
- Send a problem (use this for scenarios and arguments)
Problem-solving tutorials
These tutorials are common in math, science, business, and engineering and focus on problem-solving processes and quantitative/qualitative reasoning.
A sample lesson plan for problem-solving tutorials
This particular lesson is recommended for case studies and scenarios where multiple approaches to the problem are feasible.
| Activity | Duration | Description | Configuration |
| Welcome and admin | 5 minutes | Welcome students, share announcements, review class agenda including learning outcomes, introduce or refresh the topic. | Whole class |
| Activity 1 – Structured Problem Solving | 20 minutes | Present a problem that requires students to follow a sophisticated problem-solving process because it is complex. Outline the steps for the students to follow. Wood’s problem-solving model is a good framework. In a shared document, groups post their solutions to each outlined step. | Groups of 4-6 |
| Review | 15 minutes | Review the Structured Problem-Solving responses together. Answer questions or make clarifications if needed. | Whole class |
| Activity 2 – Send a Problem | 30 minutes | Each group receives a different problem, discusses it, generates possible solutions referring to the problem-solving process introduced in Activity 1, and records their best solution. Pass onto next group to attempt a solution. Each group gets 10 minutes to solve. For the remaining 5 minutes, the group receives their original problem with all solutions. They analyze, evaluate and record the information. | Groups of 4-6 |
| Post-assessment | Remaining time | Groups take turns reporting back to the whole class. | Whole class |
Download the sample problem-solving lesson plan as a Word document.
Preparation needed
10 problems with solutions, and explanations, diagrams, etc. to help support them. Shared document (print or digital) to record student solutions.
Other instructional activities
You can replace the Structured problem-solving or Send a problem activities with other instructional activities such as:
A sample lesson plan for problem-solving in math
This lesson plan is suitable for a problem-solving tutorial with mathematical equations for about 10-50 students for class time of 90 minutes. Please note that the time needed to solve different kinds of problems may vary and certain types of problems might require more practice and others. The lesson plan below gives approximate times, but you should adjust the times according to the problem type and the level of support needed by students. This lesson follows the I do, we do, you do model of teaching.
| Activity | Duration | Description | Configuration |
| Welcome and admin | 5 mins | Welcome students, share announcements, review class agenda including learning outcomes, review the problem type and its importance or relevance in the field (i.e., why and when they will need to use it, including subsequent courses and future jobs). | Whole class |
| TA demonstrates how to solve problem | 10 mins | Work through a problem on the board or screen. As you do this, talk through each step and decision you make to solve the problem. | Whole class, instructor-focused |
| TA and students work together to solve a similar problem | 15 -30 minutes | Work through another similar problem, but this time, at each decision point of the problem, ask the students to identify the next step and share their rationale.
If students do not know, you could give them a choice, for example “Do we subtract or add X?” or ask a yes/no question: Do we subtract X?
Tip: If you notice students need a little more help and guidance, do another problem as a class before moving on to the next step. |
Whole class (participatory) |
| Students work together in pairs to solve a similar problem | 15- 30 minutes | Provide students with one or two similar problems and allow them to work in pairs or groups of three to solve the problems.
Before giving them any more problems, review the problems as a class.
Circulate and check in on students as they are working on the problems and provide guidance as necessary. |
Groups of 2-3 students |
| Students work on problems alone | Remaining time | Provide students with similar problems that they can work on in class and for homework.
Walk through the solutions as a group for the first solution after you have provided enough time.
Circulate and check in on students as they are working on these and provide individual guidance as necessary. |
Individual students |
Download the sample problem-solving math equations lesson plan as a Word document.
Preparation needed
5-10 similar problems with solutions.
Review and Q&A tutorials
In these tutorials, students ask questions about the course content and assignments, review key course content in preparation for tests or exams, and consolidate their learning in the guiding presence of their instructor or TA.
A sample lesson plan for review or Q&A tutorials
This lesson plan is for a class of about 30-50 students, class time of 90 minutes.
| Activity | Duration | Description | Configuration |
| Welcome and admin | 5 minutes | Welcome students, share announcements, review the class agenda including learning outcomes, introduce or refresh the topic | Whole class |
| Activity 1 – Note-taking Pairs | 20 minutes | Students bring their individual notes for each module to review in Note-taking pairs. Student 1 summarizes one section while Student 2 listens, corrects, and adds information if needed. Students alternate roles until complete. Students note areas needing clarification. | Groups of 2-3 |
| Review | 20 minutes | TA answers questions or makes clarifications from Note-taking Pairs activity. | Whole class |
| Activity 2 – Invent the Quiz | 30 minutes | Each group is assigned a section of the quiz and is responsible for creating several test questions and a corresponding answer sheet. Groups submit these to the TA. | Groups of 4-6 |
| Post-assessment | Remaining time | TA evaluates the questions submitted and make necessary corrections. After class, TA shares the practice quiz and answer sheet. | Whole class |
Download the sample review/Q&A lesson plan as a Word document
Preparation needed
List of topics needing review, common questions and errors throughout the term or from previous terms, some post-class work assembling the practice quiz
Other instructional activities
You can replace the Note-taking Pairs or Invent the Quiz activities with other instructional activities such as:
Practice tutorials/studios
These tutorials are common in the Arts and when students have time to work on practice work or assignments. TAs are generally responsible for providing demonstrations of technical skills, discussing conceptual projects and facilitating critiques.
A sample lesson plan for practice tutorials or studios
This lesson plan is for a class of about 30-50 students, class time of 90 minutes.
| Activity | Duration | Description | Configuration |
| Welcome and admin | 5 minutes | Welcome students, share announcements, review the class agenda including learning outcomes, introduce or refresh the topic | Whole class |
| Activity 1 – Concept Mapping | 10 minutes | Based on the lesson’s central concept, the class discusses and drafts a concept map. First, TA demonstrates how to concept map. Students then brainstorm related concepts based on what they learned, identify and diagram concept links to add to the conceptual map. | Whole class |
| Practice | 40 minutes | Students begin individual work. TA walks around giving guidance and demonstrations to individual students or small groups. | Individual |
| Critique | Remaining time | Group students for small group critique. TA shares the list of guiding questions to use for each student’s work and provides reminders on how to critique. Each student gets about five to seven minutes. TA walks around to help with critiques. [3] | Small groups, 4-6 students each |
Download the sample practice/studio lesson plan as a Word document.
Preparation needed
Physical or digital materials for concept mapping and demonstration.
Other instructional techniques
- Paper Seminar
- GradProSkills occasionally hosts workshops on facilitating critiques in the Arts
Laboratory classes
Laboratory classes (commonly known as labs) allow students to experience course concepts first-hand and provide an opportunity to test methods used in their discipline. Potential goals of lab classes include (from Committee, 1997):
- Apply concepts learned in class to new situations.
- Experience basic phenomena.
- Develop critical, quantitative thinking.
- Develop experimental and data analysis skills.
- Practice proper use of scientific apparatus.
- Practice estimating statistical errors and recognizing systematic errors.
- Develop reporting skills (written and oral).
- Practice collaborative problem-solving.
- Exercise curiosity and creativity by designing a procedure to test a hypothesis.
- Gain appreciation for the role of experimentation in science.
- Test important laws and rules.
A sample lesson plan for a lab class
This lesson plan is for a class of about 30-50 students, class time of 90 minutes.
Activity |
Duration |
Description |
Configuration |
| Welcome and admin | 5 minutes | Welcome students, share announcements, review the class agenda including learning outcomes, introduce or refresh the topic | Whole class |
| Pre-assessment – Think-Pair-Share | 5 minutes | TA provides a prompt for students to reflect on individually. After a few minutes, students share their response with a partner. Optionally, student pairs can share with the whole class after. | Pairs |
| Demonstration | 20 minutes | TA demonstration of the lesson’s topic, including any lab safety procedures and overview of the steps/tasks of the lab. | Whole class |
| Practice | 40 minutes | Students work in small groups. TA walks around and assists.
Students to take notes throughout the lab (can use a technique such as Guided Notes). TA gathers one to two small groups together to answer questions and provide further demonstrations if needed. |
Groups of 2-3 |
| Post-assessment | Remaining time | Students submit reports to TA. TA provides feedback to the whole class on frequent occurrences observed. | Whole class |
Download the sample laboratory lesson plan as a Word document
Preparation needed
Prompt question, guided notes template, lab materials & procedures
- For more instructional strategies, The K. Patricia Cross Teaching Academy has an extensive library of resources with video explanations and a downloadable guide that work across disciplines. You can filter by activity type to find one that suits your class the best. These activities can be adapted to better suit your discipline, context and students. ↵
- Public speaking is a skill that needs to be developed and practiced, so don’t worry if it doesn’t come naturally at first! For more guidance you can consult these tips from Student Success Centre for Delivering an oral presentation or some courses offered by GradProSkills on Public speaking. ↵
- Small group critique can be a great alternative to a full class critique, which can heighten anxiety and lower attention span. Another alternative critique format is anonymous critique. Click here to read more on how to facilitate effective, yet sensitive critiques. ↵
