Approaching An Interview: The Observed Lesson

Whether it's your first teaching post, or an interview for headship, preparing for an interview day can be really nerve-wracking. This current series of interview themed posts will hopefully take some of the stress away, giving you some tips to help you breeze through the door full of confidence!

First things first, here's a gem of advice from a colleague of mine who has shortlisted and interviewed on numerous occasions: if you've been shortlisted, they already believe that you can do the job. Interviews are normally viewed as situations where we have to fight to prove ourselves, but really, they're actually more of an opportunity for your potential employer to meet you, work out whether you're the right fit for their school and to check that (like that Ronseal advert of old) you do what you say on the tin.

As a disclaimer, all interview processes are different. My most recent one for a subject-based post consisted of an observed lesson, a student panel, a school tour and a formal interview. For my last pastoral interview process, the observed lesson was replaced with an admin task and an additional 'informal meeting' with a member of SLT was added to the day. Both of them were very intense days! Over the next few posts, this blog will approach some of the most common parts of the interview process to help relieve some tension, the first of which is the bread and butter of a teacher's role and will definitely form part of the majority of interviews: teaching a lesson.

The big thing to remember here is that you cannot really obtain an accurate picture of a teacher through one observed lesson with a class they've never taught before. All interviewers and observers know this. Most often, the main purpose of an observed interview lesson is to look at how you've planned and resourced a lesson based on a set brief as well as seeing how you interact with and engage students that you don't really know.

Thinking about these things, here are my top tips:

The Brief

Read the brief and class description carefully. It is essential that you understand what you have to teach before you start to plan. For subjects like the sciences or Maths, it's more likely that you'll be given a very specific brief. However, for subjects like English, you're likely to have far more choice over lesson content and you can guarantee that, if you're given a free choice, your choice of stimulus text will be closely scrutinised (my advice here is to go big or go home - stick with literary canon and choose a heavy-hitter, even for Key Stage Three),

The Class

It is unlikely that you will be given a challenging class and often students will be on their best behaviour as a head of faculty or member of SLT will be observing you. However, if the description of the class is a bit vague, you could show some initiative and contact the school to ask whether there are any SEN or ESL students in the class or if you can have a class list. If you do choose to do this, do so with caution, as you must show consideration of any additional information in your lesson plan.

The Room

If you plan to use a PowerPoint or other technology and it's not mentioned in the brief, make sure that you have requested whether these are available. I tend to feel safer assuming that technology will not be provided, so I brought my own laptop, document camera and presentation remote to my last interview lesson. On an additional note, you might also want to query the layout of the classroom that you will be teaching in, especially if you've planned group work or a task where students will be moving around.

Planning Time on the Day

Double check what time of day you are teaching at and whether you will have planning or set-up time prior to that lesson. If you get planning time, this should not be used to finish planning your lesson or to ask for resources to be printed. I always print my own the night before and bring them with me, printing 5 spares for yourself and observers (don't assume there will only be one observer - I had three in my last interview lesson!) One thing that might really help the start of your lesson is to check to see if you can get into the room beforehand to set up, organise your resources, check that the technology works (if you're using it) and breathe before the class arrives.

Your Plan

You will be expected to write and submit a lesson plan for an observed lesson, but don't worry if you go off-piste have to adapt a little. You may be given a template by the school, if so, use it. If you're not given a template and are allowed to choose or design your own, think about the level of detail you want / need to include. The plan I used for my last observation was magpied from a colleague, mainly because I didn't think my go-to five minute lesson plan template quite cut it in terms of detail. I wanted to show everything that I had thought of, so I found a plan that let me:

• situate the lesson by noting prior and future learning (if this was my class)

• link the lesson to assessment criteria

• clearly outline the plan and timings for the lesson

• record planned differentiation strategies

• make a note of extension activities and possible homework tasks (if this was my class)

Your Lesson Content

Above all else, make sure you plan your own lesson and design your own resources. While we often magpie lesson plans and resources in teaching, an observed interview lesson is just not the place to copycat someone else's work and it will not go down well. For example, during an observation, a student teacher once taught exactly the same lesson that they observed me teaching two weeks previously (without me knowing). The class were lovely and did everything that they were asked to do, but when speaking to the observer afterwards, they did let slip that they'd already done that lesson and that it was not the student's work. Worryingly, this isn't even a lone situation, I've heard and read numerous horror stories from colleagues around the globe where interview candidates have put themselves out of the running by copying someone else's lesson or resources and trying to pass them off as their own.

My second piece of advice is to make the students work and keep it simple. Don't stand there and lecture for a lesson, but do try to work in multiple activities that include independent and paired or group work. An observed lesson is also not time to try something completely new and off-the-wall; if you haven't done it before or had time to trial it with a similar class, it's probably not a good idea. You don't want to be like one of those people on cooking competition shows, who get too adventurous and try to make something they've never made before. Whilst the resulting chaos tends to make for good television, it does not make for a good observed lesson.

If you need a bit of inspiration, or if the brief you've been given is a little out of your comfort zone, don't hesitate to ask a trusted colleague for some feedback on what you've planned. Running my ideas and resources past one of my colleagues, we identified some areas that didn't link together as well as they could have and we found a typo on my student resources. I am so glad we noticed this before I had printed everything and given it out in the class itself!

If you're still a bit confused, there are numerous lesson planning resources out there to help, such as this TES blog post, this Guardian article or this book on creating the perfect Ofsted lesson.

Discussing Your Lesson at Interview

One final thing to remember, is that you will probably be asked about your lesson in the main interview. Don't be afraid to be reflective and be honest about how it went, but one key is to also outline how you would improve anything that went wrong in the lesson. Anyone can point out what went well and what didn't go so well, but a good practitioner will also be able to consider how they could improve that lesson.

Hopefully this will be of some help to you. In the next post I'll discuss some tips for approaching other aspects of the process such as the interview itself, approaching student panels and getting the most out of a school tour.

Until the next time,

E.E.