Latest / New Teacher Talk / Ep 227: How to Build Lessons Students Actually Care About

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Ep 227: How to Build Lessons Students Actually Care About · New Teacher Talk

Welcome back to New Teacher Talk.
I'm Beth Wilkins.
And I'm Anna Quinzio-Zafran.
Today's episode is one we hear about constantly from new
teachers, and it usually comes wrapped in a kind of guilt.
They'll say something like, "I know this lesson is boring,
but I have to get through the pacing guide."
And we want to push back on that framing right away.
Engagement and pacing are not actually opposites.
You can be tightly tied to a curriculum and still build
something students care about.
They only feel like they're in conflict when you're
exhausted and staring down tomorrow's plan.
So that's what we're talking about today,
how to modify lessons for real engagement without blowing
up your pacing guide or going rogue on your curriculum.
Let's start with why this feels so hard,
because it's not just in your head.
New teachers are handed a curriculum, a scope and sequence,
sometimes a scripted program,
and the message that comes with it often says,
"Stay on pace." That can feel like there's no room for
anything creative.
And to be fair, sometimes there genuinely isn't much room,
especially in a district with a tightly scripted program.
But here's what we'd say to that.
The curriculum tells you what to teach.
It almost never fully dictates how you get students to care
about it.
That distinction matters so much.
The content is fixed, but the on-ramp into that content,
the way you hook your students' attention,
the way you frame why it matters,
that's almost always still yours to shape.
Think about it this way.
A pacing guide might say you're teaching ratios this week.
It's not telling you whether you introduce ratios through a
worksheet of abstract numbers or through a question about
whether your recipe will actually feed everyone at a party.
Same standard, same time allotted,
very different level of investment from the room.
That's a great example.
So the choice new teachers think they're facing,
rigor versus engagement, isn't really the choice.
The real question is,
where in this lesson can I create a moment that connects to
something my students already care about?
This is the part we really want new teachers to hear,
because we're not asking you to rebuild your curriculum
from scratch.
You don't have time for that, and honestly,
you don't need to.
Right.
This is about modification, not replacement.
Small,
repeatable moves you can make inside the lesson you already
have to teach.
One of the simplest is changing the entry point.
Instead of starting with the textbook definition or the
objective on the board, start with a question, a scenario,
or a short real-world hook that the day's content will
answer.
You're not adding new material.
You're just resequencing what you already have so that
curiosity comes first.
Well said, Anna.
Another one is giving your students a choice somewhere in
the lesson, even a small one.
It doesn't have to be choosing the whole project.
It can be as small as choosing which of two examples to
work through first,
or choosing the order they tackle three practice problems.
Choice creates that sense of ownership without changing the
content you are required to cover.
And don't underestimate relevance framing.
Before you assign the practice set,
take 30 seconds to say why this skill shows up outside the
classroom or connect it to something happening in the
school or the community right now.
That's not extra time taken from the lesson.
That's context that makes the rest of the lesson land
differently.
Mm-hmm.
We'd also point to making space for student voice,
but in low-stake ways.
Here are some examples.
A quick turn and talk,
a one-question exit ticket asking what surprised them,
a moment where your students get to explain something to a
partner instead of just receiving it from you.
None of that requires touching your pacing guide.
It just changes who's doing the thinking in the room.
The common thread in all of these is that you're modifying
the experience of the content, not the content itself.
The pacing guide stays intact.
What changes is whether students are sitting through the
lesson or leaning into it.
We want to be honest about something here.
You cannot do this for every single lesson every single
day, especially in your first year.
That's just not sustainable,
and we don't want anyone listening to this and feeling like
they now have a new impossible standard to meet.
That's not what we mean.
Exactly.
Pick your moments.
Maybe it's the lesson that kicks off a new unit,
since that first impression sets the tone for everything
after it.
Maybe it's the lesson right before break or a big test,
when attention is hardest to hold anyway.
You don't need engagement strategies stacked on every
single lesson plan to make a real difference over the
course of a year.
I like that point.
You know, give yourself permission to reuse what works.
If a hook or a framing question lands well with one class,
you don't have to reinvent it for the next unit Build
yourself a small toolbox of go-to moves, the choice board,
the real world hook, the turn and talk,
and rotate through them rather than trying to invent
something new every day.
That's the really sustainable version of this.
It's not make every lesson exciting.
It's build a few reliable tools and use them where they'll
matter most.
That's why I like that phrase, have a toolbox.
So let's address the elephant in the room directly,
because we know that some of you are working in districts
with very scripted, very tightly monitored programs,
and you're probably wondering if any of this even applies
to you.
It does, just at a smaller scale.
Even in a scripted program, there's usually a moment,
the warmup, the closing,
a transition where you have some latitude.
Look for those seams.
You're not trying to override the program.
You're trying to find a few minutes where you still have a
say.
And if you actually have zero latitude anywhere,
the work shifts to your delivery.
How you introduce a required activity,
the energy and framing you bring to it still matters even
when the content and structure are fully scripted.
Your face and your voice are not part of the pacing guide.
One more thing worth naming.
If you're consistently feeling boxed out of any flexibility
at all,
that's worth raising with a mentor or department chair,
because curriculum fidelity and zero teacher judgment are
not the same expectation,
even though they sometimes get treated that way.
So if you're staring down a pacing guide tonight,
feeling like engagement is a luxury you don't have time
for,
we want you to walk away from this episode with a different
frame.
You don't need to abandon the curriculum to reach your
students.
You need to find the small seams, as Anna said,
where curiosity, choice,
and relevance can live inside the lesson you already have
to teach.
Start with one lesson this week.
Just one.
Pick a hook or a choice point or a relevance moment and try
it.
See what shifts in the room.
And if this episode helped,
subscribe to New Teacher Talk so you don't miss what's next
this season.
And if you've got a small modification that's worked for
you,
something simple that made a tightly paced lesson land better,
we'd love to hear about it and have you share it with our
community.
Take care of yourselves, and we'll see you next time.